The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education

138 Pages·2016·0.923 MB·English

by  David W. Hursh

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THE END OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS
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e The End of Public Schools analyzes the effect of foundations, corporations, and
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non-governmental organizations on the rise of neoliberal principles in public edu-
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a cation. By fi rst contextualizing the privatization of education within the context
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a, of a larger educational crisis, and with particular emphasis on the Gates Founda-
i tion and infl uential state and national politicians, this book describes how specifi c
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or policies that limit public control are advanced across all levels. Informed by a
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li thorough understanding of issues such as standardized testing, teacher tenure, and
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C charter schools, David W. Hursh provides a political and pedagogical critique of
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o the current school reform movement, as well as details about the increasing resis-
y tance efforts on the part of parents, teachers, and the general public.
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v David W. Hursh is Professor of Teaching and Curriculum in the Graduate School
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U of Education and Human Development at the University of Rochester, NY, USA.
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The Critical Social Thought Series
Edited by Michael W. Apple
University of Wisconsin–Madison
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F Contradictions of Control Power and Method
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1 School Structure and School Political Activism and
7 Knowledge Educational Research
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8: Linda M. McNeil Andrew Gitlin, editor
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a Working Class without Work Critical Ethnography in
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o High School Students in a De- Educational Research
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e industrializing Society A Theoretical and
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Lois Weis Practical Guide
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a Phil Francis Carspecken
S Social Analysis of Education
a, After the New Sociology The Uses of Culture
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r Philip Wexler Education and the Limits
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lif Capitalist Schools of Ethnic Affi liation
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C Explanation and Ethics in Radical Cameron McCarthy
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y o Studies of Schooling Education, Power, and
it Daniel P. Liston Personal Biography
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er Getting Smart Dialogues with Critical
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ni Feminist Research and Pedagogy Educators
U Carlos Alberto Torres, editor
[ with/in the Postmodern
y Patti Lather
b Contradictions of School
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e Teacher Education and the Reform
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a Social Conditions of Schooling Educational Costs of Standardized
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nl Daniel P. Liston and Testing
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o Kenneth M. Zeichner Linda M. McNeil
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Race, Identity, and Act Your Age! A Cultural
Representation in Education Construction of Adolescence
Warren Crichlow and Nancy Lesko
Cameron McCarthy, editors
Tough Fronts
Public Schools that Work The Impact of Street Culture
Creating Community on Schooling
Gregory A. Smith, editor L. Janelle Dance
Political Spectacle and the Market Movements
Fate of American Schools African American Involvement in
Mary Lee Smith with Walter School Voucher Reform
Heinecke, Linda Miller-Kahn, Thomas C. Pedroni
and Patricia F. Jarvis
Rightist Multiculturalism
17 Rethinking Scientifi c Literacy Core Lessons on Neoconservative
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2 Wolff-Michael Roth and School Reform
ry Angela Calabrese Barton Kristen L. Buras
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r High Stakes Education
b Unequal by Design
e Inequality, Globalization,
F High-Stakes Testing and the
8 and Urban School Reform
1 Standardization of Inequality
7 Pauline Lipman Wayne Au
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8 Learning to Labor in
1 Black Literate Lives
t New Times
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] Nadine Dolby and Historical and Contemporary
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g Greg Dimitriadis, editors Perspectives
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i Maisha T. Fisher
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n Working Method
a Research and Social Justice Hidden Markets
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a, Lois Weis and Michelle Fine The New Education Privatization
ni Patricia Burch
r Class Reunion
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if The Remaking of the American Critical Perspectives on Bell Hooks
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C White Working Class Maria del Guadalupe Davidson and
of Lois Weis George Yancy, editors
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sit Race, Identity, and Representation Advocacy Leadership
ver in Education, Second Edition Toward a Post-Reform Agenda
i Cameron McCarthy, Warren
n in Education
U Crichlow, Greg Dimitriadis, and
[ Gary L. Anderson
y Nadine Dolby
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d Race, Whiteness, and Education
e Radical Possibilities
d Zeus Leonardo
a Public Policy, Urban Education,
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nl and a New Social Movement Controversy in the
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Jean Anyon
o Classroom
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Could It Be Otherwise? The Democratic Power of Discussion
Parents and the Inequities of Diana E. Hess
Public School Choice
The New Political Economy of
Lois André-Bechely
Urban Education
Reading and Writing the Neoliberalism, Race, and the Right to
World with Mathematics the City
Eric Gustein Pauline Lipman
Critical Curriculum Studies The Political Classroom
Education, Consciousness, Evidence and Ethics in
and the Politics of Knowing Democratic Education
Wayne Au Diana E. Hess
and Paula McAvoy
Learning to Liberate
7 Community-Based Solutions to the
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0 Crisis in Urban Education Mapping Corporate
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y Vajra Watson Education Reform
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a Power and Policy Networks
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br Critical Pedagogy and Social in the Neoliberal State
e Change
F Wayne Au and Joseph J. Ferrare
8 Critical Analysis on the Language of
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7 Possibility The End of Public
5 Seehwa Cho
8: Schools
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t Educating Activist Allies The Corporate Reform
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] Social Justice Pedagogy with the Agenda to Privatize
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g Suburban and Urban Elite Education
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Di Katy Swalwell David W. Hursh
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THE END OF PUBLIC
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e The Corporate Reform Agenda
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1 to Privatize Education
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a,
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or David W. Hursh
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First published 2016
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
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1 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
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2 © 2016 Taylor & Francis
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r The right of David W. Hursh to be identifi ed as author of this work has been
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u asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
br Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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F All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
8 utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
1 known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
7 any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
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: from the publishers.
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t Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
a trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without
o] intent to infringe.
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e Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
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D Hursh, David W., 1948–
n The end of public schools : the corporate reform agenda to privatize
a education / by David W. Hursh.
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a, Incplaugdeess cbmib. l—iog r(Caprhitiiccaall rseofecriaeln tcheos uagnhdt )index.
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n 1. Privatization in education. 2. Capitalism and
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o education. 3. Neoliberalism. I. Title.
if LB2806.36.H87 2015
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a 379.1—dc23
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2015019624
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y ISBN: 978-1-138-80448-7 (hbk)
t ISBN: 978-1-138-80449-4 (pbk)
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s ISBN: 978-1-315-75298-3 (ebk)
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v Typeset in Bembo
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CONTENTS
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e S eries Editor Introduction viii
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D M ICHAEL W. APPLE
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a, A cknowledgments xii
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f 1 The Demise of the Public in Public Schools 1
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f 2 Understanding the Rise of Neoliberal Policies 25
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i 3 Governor Cuomo and the Neoliberal Attack
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e on Public Schools, Teachers, and Unions 57
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[ 4 The Gates Foundation, Pearson, and Arne Duncan 86
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d 5 Manufactured and Real Crises: Rethinking
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a Education and Capitalism 104
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o Index 119
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SERIES EDITOR INTRODUCTION
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0 Michael W. Apple
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e The fi rst sentence of David Hursh’s book jumps out at you: “We may be witness-
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ing the end of public education in the United States.” This statement demands
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a our attention in a way that forces the reader to focus on a considerable number
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a, of forces that are challenging the very nature of our public school system and the
i policies and practices that underpin it.
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o Let me place this in its larger context, a context that T he End of Public Schools
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li critically analyses so well. In the United States, but not just here, dominant groups
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C have increasingly focused on education as the source of a large portion of our
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o society’s problems. They have attempted, often more than a little successfully, to
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t limit criticism, to control access to research that documents the negative effects
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r of their policies, and to deny the possibility of critically democratic alternatives.
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v They have pressed forward with an agenda in education—and in so much more—
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U that is claimed to simply guarantee effi ciency, effectiveness, and cost savings.
y [ For them, only these kinds of policies can deal with the crisis in education—even
b when they are demonstrably wrong.
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e These groups are not totally wrong in grounding their “reforms” in a sense of
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a crisis. Across the political spectrum, it is widely recognized that there is a crisis in
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nl education. Nearly everyone agrees that something must be done to make it more
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responsive and more effective. Of course, a key set of questions is: responsive to what
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answering these questions? These are among the most crucial questions one can ask
about education today. But as Hursh documents, these are exactly the questions that
are increasingly ignored in our rush toward neoliberal and “new managerial” policies.
But let us again be honest. The educational crisis is real—especially for the
poor and oppressed. Dominant groups have used such “crisis talk” to shift the
discussion onto their own terrain.
Series Editor Introduction ix
One of the major reasons for the continuation and growing infl uence of
dominant discourse and policies is that the very nature of our common sense
about education is constantly being altered. This is largely the result of the
power of particular groups that understand that if they can change the basic
ways we think about our society and its institutions—and especially our place in
7 these institutions—they can create a set of policies that will profoundly benefi t
1 them more than anyone else. In essence, they have actively engaged in a vast
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2 social/pedagogic process, one in which what counts as a good school, good
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r knowledge, good teaching, a good student, and good learning are being radi-
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r cally transformed.
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e Let me say more about this process. In a large number of countries, a com-
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8 plex alliance and power bloc has been formed that has increasing infl uence in
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7 education and all things social. This power bloc, what I have called c onserva-
5 tive modernization , is complicated, but its most powerful members are neolib-
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1 erals, including multiple factions of capital and political leaders and interest
at groups who are committed to marketized solutions to educational problems,
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o to reductive forms of accountability, and to shifting the blame for very serious
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e inequalities in schooling and the larger society onto teachers and other educa-
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tors (Apple, 2006).
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a For many within this alliance, private is necessarily good and public is neces-
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a, sarily bad. Democracy—a key word in how we think about our institutions
i and our place in them (Foner, 1998)—is reduced to consumption practices. The
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o world becomes a vast supermarket, one in which those with economic and cul-
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li tural capital are advantaged in nearly every sector of society. Choice in a market
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C replaces more collective and more socially responsive actions. T hin democracy
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o replaces t hick democracy. This demobilizes crucial progressive social movements
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t that have been the driving force behind nearly all of the democratic changes in
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rs this society and in our schools. And at the same time neoliberals also increasingly
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v see schools themselves as sites for the generation of profi ts (see, e.g., Burch, 2009;
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U Ball, 2007; Ball, 2012).
y [ In education, this position is grounded in the belief that the more we mar-
b ketize, the more we bring corporate models into education, the more we
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e can hold schools, administrators’, and teachers’ feet to the fi re of competition,
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a the better they will be. There actually is very little evidence to support this
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nl contention—and a good deal of evidence that it increases inequality (see
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Apple, 2006; Lipman, 2004; Lipman, 2011). But neoliberalism continues to
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evidence, even as the crisis that it has created in the economy and in commu-
nities constantly documents its failures in every moment of our collective and
individual lives.
Certain cities and states sit at the center of these reforms. To name just a few,
the list includes Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Chicago, and—the focus of atten-
tion of David Hursh’s fi ne book—New York City and New York State. In her