A police officer uses lethal force on an unarmed non-white citizen. One bystander sees police self-defense while another sees racially motivated police brutality. It is an all too common story. Prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers know that a range of race, class, and sociopolitical-influenced perceptions make eyewitness testimony highly variable and often reliable. However, what happened is not just a matter of perception. There is a reality to the dead person’s innocence and the bias that caused it.
Reports of corruption and abrupt closing of charter schools attended by predominantly non-white children have become a regular occurrence. For example, its study, Asleep at the Wheel, the Network for Public Education recently chronicled the plethora of problems with charter schools. They found that the U.S. government has wasted up to $1 billion on charter schools that never opened or opened and then closed because of mismanagement and other reasons. Reports of abusive rigid discipline and high suspension rates are also common.
Charter school advocates are unfazed by such information, while others are appalled. As with eyewitnesses to crimes in which race and class are elements, varying perspectives explain different perceptions. Nonetheless, the disruption to the lives of innocent children, the drained funds from public schools, and the bias that caused it are real.
In recent years, people associated with the hedge fund industry, technology titans such as the Gates, Zuckerberg, and Jobs families, and right-wing foundations have all invested financial and political capital to promote charter schools. Their predominant ideological lens– no matter their political party affiliation– is competition and associated risk. That is why the liberal Gates and the conservative Walton families find common cause on charter schools. Long- and short-term triumphs and failures are essential features of their entrepreneurial worldview. Through that lens "start-ups" come and go, IPOs rise and fall, businesses merge, and divisions divested. Lost jobs and careers are collateral damage–especially when the victims are poor and/or not White. That is their normal. It is the world in which they have triumphed. They look at the world through the lens of their personal success. The losers in the process are, well–just part of how things get done. They have wealth and power and seek to impose and extend their will and perspective on everything within their reach. The public sector–including schools–is in their way. Increasingly democracy, and with it, government regulation is in their way too. Hence, they favor private over elected school boards. They are a tiny minority, but their perspective has gained bipartisan political and mass-media traction.
Another lens is the common good and its explicit companion, cross-racial unity. It has no wealth and power to extend its reach. However, it has a distinct advantage. It represents the vast majority of Americans. The questions you ask frame the answers you get. Let's ask, "Do you favor single a democratically-governed, high-quality public education system for every child or two taxpayer-funded systems: One privately-governed and another democratically governed?" I haven't seen such a poll, nor have I seen any that ask: “Is it fair to drain money from public schools to fund charter schools?” or “Is it acceptable for schools to frequently open and close?” My best guess is that the stability, the common good, and racial unity will win hands down over the disruptive, market competition, and racially-divisive perspectives.
The coming 2020 state and federal elections will be an opportunity to change direction. However, I don’t expect the candidates who are running for office to shed their pro-charter school biases on their own. I don’t expect them to advocate for an unambiguous common good, racial unity agenda for public education. That will require determined political action.
We need to tell them what we want. As a start, here are a few suggestions.
- Increase the funding for all public schools to the level of well-resourced suburban schools. (Note: Charter schools are not public)
- Fund schools through an equitable tax on wealthy individuals and corporations instead of inequitable local real estate taxes.
- Reduce class size so that students can get the attention they need.
- Fully fund special education.
- Increase teachers’ salaries so that they are commensurate with similar professions.
- Provide teachers with paid time for professional growth and collaboration.
- Do away with punishment and humiliation by high-stakes test scores.
- Fund Medicare-for-All, so that every child arrives at school healthy.
- Fund the Green-New-Deal, so children and their families have a sustainable, equitable future.
School privatization advocates have money. Public school advocates have the majority–If we make demands and vote.
Arthur H. Camins is a lifelong educator. He works part-time with curriculum developers at UC Berkeley as an assessment specialist. He retired recently as Director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at Stevens Institute of Technology. He has taught and been an administrator in New York City, Massachusetts, and Louisville, Kentucky. The ideas expressed in this article are his alone.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/arthurcamins
Blog: http://www.arthurcamins.com/