Schools Incorporated?: Occupy Department of Education

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Occupy Department of Education

From March 30th to April 2nd, 2012, United Opt Out National held the "Occupy the Department of Education" rally in front of the DOE building in Washington D.C. Although there were no people sleeping in tents and clashing with the police, the term "occupy" was fitting.

The 1 percent is controlling what is taught to the 99 percent and it is the same narrow set of neo-liberal, free-market ideas (i.e. deregulation and privatization) that screwed up our financial and health care systems that is now destroying public education. All of this is being done so charter and turnaround school executives, testing companies, and the privatized prison industry can make millions of dollars off the backs of mostly poor, minority children. It is also the same people who have profited from a system that purposely creates and sustains inequality who are now financing corporate school "reform" (Broads, Gates, Waltons, etc.).

I'll explain how all of this works in a later post, but wanted to get something on my blog about how incredible this event really was. People from as far away as California, Florida, and Massachusetts came together in solidarity to deliver a strong message to the DOE, Arne Duncan, President Obama, and the billionaire CEOs behind corporate school "reform".

After an amazing weekend of great speakers and people networking with one another, the occupation culminated with a march to the White House where a list of demands was read through a bullhorn.These included, but were not limited to, the audacious ideas that poverty be addressed instead of ignored, music, art, and physical education be put back into our public schools, standardized test scores stop being used to justify corporate "reforms", and that parents, teachers, and students should have a voice in the decisions that directly impact them and need to stop being demoralized and demonized for the failures of policymakers. Basically, they demanded a reversal of the status quo that began with No Child Left Behind (it really began with "A Nation at Risk" in 1983), which was amped up with Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants that make the receipt of badly needed education funding contingent upon privatization efforts.

Not that they are looking for it, but the United Opt Out organizers deserve a lot of credit for putting together this event with virtually no budget. I was so proud of them for giving people a voice through mic checks and actions, promoting awareness about the most important social justice issue of our generation, and mobilizing people to participate in what is left of our democracy.

You can view the entire event at www.livestream.com/califather.

"I have the audacity to believe that people's everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, EDUCATION and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits" Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Schools Inc.?

Description

Schools Incorporated? is a blog about how corporate interests are taking over our public education system at the expense of democracy, critical thinking, creativity, parents, teachers, and especially children. Schools Inc.? also provides strategies and resources, so people can join the growing resistance movement to corporate school reform.

Why This Is Important and Urgent

Our public education system is where the battle for a better future will be won or lost. Corporate school reformers know this and are spending millions of dollars lobbying and marketing to ensure they control the discourse now and for future generations.

Corporate interests are rapidly destroying our public education system. Lobbyist organizations like ALEC and Stand for Children (misnomer) are well-funded by corporations who are creating and controlling a new educational marketplace. This not only makes them profitable for generations, but also results in a society that is unable to recognize injustice.

The enforcement of research-refuted, high-stakes testing mandates eliminates what was left of critical thinking in public education. It makes sense that the foundations of corporations like Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and others would not want people making critical consumer and political choices. The last thing they want is for a bunch of consumers to consider the manner in which products are made and their global impact.

Unfortunately, this is one of the ways the private prison industry is involved. ALEC lobbies on their behalf for high-stakes testing and zero-tolerance discipline policies that create a school-to-prison pipeline. Why? Its because ALEC also lobbies on behalf of corporate interests that want to use cheap prison labor. Chinese sweatshop workers are expensive compared to slaves. The companies involved with ALEC certainly don't want consumers thinking about that sort of thing.

Despite the fact that there is an obvious relationship between the arts, creativity, and the type of ingenuity and innovation that makes companies grow, those who are controlling education policy are driving the arts out of schools. Basically, if its not on the test, its not in the schools. This ensures their children who attend private schools that do not have testing mandates and therefore have a well-rounded curriculum, will have an advantage over everyone else. Eliminating the arts for a vast majority of students also means the creation of a deskilled workforce that can only complete tasks similar to the rote memorization and bubble filling required for a standardized test. They're lovin' it!

Corporate school reforms create a self-feeding cycle as they turn parents into consumers. Millions of dollars are spent on misleading marketing materials promoting charter schools (of course they don't tell you about the students who get kicked out). Similar to the way Wal-Mart wipes out local businesses, charter school conglomerates will wipe out neighborhood schools, smaller charter organizations, and probably a lot of private schools. Once the homogenization of the marketplace occurs, a very small handful of people will be controlling pretty much everything that is taught in schools.

The presence of charter schools that draw students from across the city as opposed to schools that only serve children from the neighborhood is disproportionately destabilization low-income communities of color. Social capital is accumulated when generations of family members have attended the same school and when parents and students are from the same community. Destroying this makes it all the more difficult for people to come together when faced with injustices.

Unfortunately, it also means children being exposed to more violence as they travel farther and farther to and from school. Of course, that's assuming their parents can afford the transportation costs, which is one of the ways charters serve as a socio-economic filter (they also have the ability to expel students without the due process required of regular public schools).

With the media and politicians being owned by some of the same corporate interests that are driving education reform (Gates, Murdoch), public opinion is being influenced by a false narrative. Teachers and schools are being measured with faulty metrics while high level administrators continue to be unaccountable for massive failures. Considering the damage this is doing to communities, schools, and students and what is at stake in terms of the bigger picture, the time to fight back is now!

A Better Future

Fortunately, there is an alternative. In his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire outlines a different vision of what a public education system can be - empowering and equalizing through critical thinking. In order to reach this Freirian vision of education and society, we must understand how corporate school reforms are taking us in the opposite direction and how to fight back.

Fighting Back

Schools Inc.? also provides information, tips, and strategies for spreading the word about the corporate takeover of our public school system and how people can join the growing resistance movement.

A Look at Chicago

Because U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan launched a public school privatization plan (Renaissance 2010) while CEO of the school district eight years ago, Schools Inc.? will often examine what has happened and continues to happen in Chicago. Duncan has now taken Renaissance 2010 national with Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants that make the receipt of federal funding contingent upon privatization and high-stakes testing.

Search This Blog

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Occupy Department of Education

No comments:

Post a Comment