Our discussion about chapter three had a tone of enlightenment and deep frustration and took us back to the first day of class where we were challenged to differentiate between politics, policy, and law as it relates to education. I will admit that this question stumped me. Through discussion on that first day we arrived at an explanation that compares the trio to the human psyche. Educational policy is casted as the “ego”, the rational aspects of education. Politics is the more primal and self-driven “id” and, in turn, politics has a direct and strong impact on policy. Law is casted as the idealistic “superego”. In the past, politics balanced interests and the way decisions were made. However, whose interests are being served when schools close down and reopen as charters?
As we read through chapter three we became more familiar with the “id” called politics. The neoliberal agenda pushes to bring education, along with other public sectors, in line with the promotion of self-interest and unrestricted capital accumulation (Lipman, 2011, p. 14). After navigating the chapter, I agree with Lipman (2011) in that dismantling public schools furthers the neoliberal agenda without consideration on the detrimental effects doing so has on the community and students served in that given area.
Setting the Stage
No Child Left Behind’s (2001) ranking schools process laid the groundwork for the national privatization agenda (Lipman, 2011, p. 52). Public schools are being phased-out and charters are springing up, even here in Miami-Dade County. I work at a middle school that is in the final year of being phased-out, next year it will be completely closed. Two years ago, when plans to phase out our school were announced, we were told that the...
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... overwhelmingly evident that dismantling public schools and displacing african american and latino/a communities is detrimental, then why do schools continue to be targeted for closure? School closings and overall privatization of public schools is part of the overall neoliberal policy for urban economic development and the gentrification of low-income communities of color. The city is being restructured for unrestricted capital accumulation while pushing out low-income communities of color. Closing schools is a way to push out the people who live in the community to be gentrified. Numerous closed public schools are refurbished as publicly funded yet privately run and profitable charter schools (Lipman 2011).
Works Cited
Lipman, Pauline. The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberalism, Race, and the Right to the City. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Chris Hedges, the author of the article “Why the United States is Destroying Its Education System” attempts to persuade his audience to agree with his argument through the use of rhetoric. In this text critique, I will thoroughly analyze the effectiveness of his article by highlighting important premises, tropes, ideographs, and narratives. He claims that the United States’ education system is on a downward spiral due to education reform and the influence of corporate power.
The second is the concern over segregation and the effect it has on society. Mr. Kozol provides his own socially conscious and very informative view of the issues facing the children and educators in this poverty ravaged neighborhood. Those forces controlling public schools, Kozol points out, are the same ones perpetuating inequity and suffering elsewhere; pedagogic styles and shapes may change, but the basic parameters and purposes remain the same: desensitization, selective information, predetermined "options," indoctrination. In theory, the decision should have meant the end of school segregation, but in fact its legacy has proven far more muddled. While the principle of affirmative action under the trendy code word ''diversity'' has brought unparalleled integration into higher education, the military and corporate America, the sort of local school districts that Brown supposedly addressed have rarely become meaningfully integrated. In some respects, the black poor are more hopelessly concentrated in failing urban schools than ever, cut off not only from whites but from the flourishing black middle class. Kozol describes schools run almost like factories or prisons in grim detail. According to Kozol, US Schools are quite quickly becoming functionally segregated. Kozol lists the demographics of a slew of public schools in the states, named after prominent civil rights activists, whose classrooms are upwards of 97% black and Hispanic — in some cases despite being in neighborhoods that are predominantly white. It has been over 50 years since Brown vs. Board of Education. It is sad to read about the state of things today.
“Brown vs. Board of Education” made it a federal crime to segregate children based on race in 1954. On the other hand, “Plessy vs. Ferguson” concluded that “separate but equal” was justified in America’s education system in 1896. Fifty years later after “Brown vs. Board of Education” according to author Jonathan Kozol, the school systems are run more like a separate but unequal system. Kozol states that today’s schools are just as segregated as they were before 1954 and funding is seriously inadequate for those in the urban areas where most attendee’s are African American and Hispanic. This inadequate funding has led to overcrowding, dilapidation of the schools, a decreasing number of on-site health officials, and lack of an enriching educational program. The effects of the funding situation has led to poor state standardized test scores, and an increasing number of students dropping out or taking more than four years to graduate. Today, strict military style programs hope to correct these poor outcomes. Are today’s schools being segregated to pay less for subordinate groups’ education, or is this just one person’s one-sided outtake on a matter that society has little control over? I aim to examine these accusations incorporating some firsthand experience from my dilapidating public school system.
The issue of equality in education is not a new problem. In 1787, our federal government required all territories petitioning for statehood to provide free education for all citizens. As part of this requirement, every state constitution included, “an education clause, which typically called for a “thorough and efficient” or “uniform” system of public schools” (School Funding 6). Despite this requirement, a “uniform” system of schools has yet to be achieved in this country for a variety of reasons, many of which I will discuss later on. During the early part of th...
One of the most pressing issues facing the United States today is its failing educational system. While many solutions have been proposed, the idea of charter schools has been both popular and controversial. The topic of charter schools is being debated in as many places as local school board meetings to state supreme courts. Though on the surface, charter schools seem like an exciting and promising step for the future of education in America, they are not the answer to this country’s ever-increasing educational problems. Charters will drain already scarce funding from regular public schools, and many of the supposed “positives” surrounding them are uncertain and unpredictable at best.
The purpose of this article is to convince Americans that the public school system is failing students nationwide and that it needs to be ended. O’Rourke boldly argues that there is no need to mend public schools, only end them. The public school system has been serving America for years, but O’Rourke clearly believes that it is time to put an end to them. O’Rourke argues that it the public school system’s time is up in this statement: “America’s public schools have served their purpose. Free and compulsory education was good for a somewhat unpromising young nation,”
The Brown v. Board of Education turned over the Plessy v. Ferguson case, as it was deemed unconstitutional. Unconstitutional, because separating children by race was fundamentally unequal and it violated the fourteenth amendment. This was a crucial historical event that made it possible for blacks and whites to attend school together and end segregation. At least that’s what was expected to happen. In the year of 2002-2003, Chicago was found that 87 percent of the public schools were black or Hispanic, and less than 10 percent were white (Kozol 405). In New York, 75 percent were either black or Hispanic. This indicated the opposite effect of what had been dealt with 30 years ago. Yet resegregation is still happening. It shows how deeply segregated minority students are in the poorest and most isolated areas of America. Furthermore, nothing has been done to alleviate it, because the major cities have no knowledge of this reality. In the past, it had been significant to the whole nation, but now it seems that they have turned a blind eye. On the other hand, there is a link between education, segregation and poverty. Minorities, compared to wealthy white Americans, cannot afford to send their children to private schools. They do not have access to higher education, such as college or an adult school, that the wealthy whites have. This puts a limitation on
In his argument, “Kenneth Cole Gets Schooled,” David Sirota’s thesis is that Kenneth Cole’s crusade against public schools, teachers, and unions is wrongheaded and ideologically extreme. Supposedly, Cole’s campaign portrays the debate of “Teacher’s Rights vs. Students’ Rights.” However, there are many flaws in the campaign. Sirota states, “[The campaign] is the mirror opposite of how things actually work. Without extending teachers’ rights … it would be difficult … for public schools to recruit the best teacher to the specific at-risk schools that need them the most,” (para. 11.).
Raymond, Margaret E. (2014, February 1). To no avail: A critical look at the charter school debate. Phi Delta Kappan, Vol.95 (5) pp.8-12. http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6aa05956-5bfe-43eb-9eec-b90be0fefa60%40sessionmgr113&vid=9&hid=125
The issue of desegregation has been a very controversial issue since it was first legally introduced by the Supreme Court in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS. Favoring or not favoring desegregation has not been the issue; almost everyone says they are for it on the surface. The controversy arises when it comes to how to implement desegregation. Immediately following the Brown decision, which advocated school assignment regardless of race, many school districts adopted a geographic school assignment policy. This plan, especially in the 1950's, did very little to do away with segregated schools even though it was a race-neutral policy for integration. From that rocky beginning to desegregation, to the current battles over how best to implement desegregation through mandatory (or voluntary) busing of minorities and whites, this issue has been in the forefront of discussions about race and education. This paper will attempt to give a brief history of desegregation in the United States, followed by a discussion of the current events which surround this issue (with balance given to the viewpoints of both sides), and then offer advice on solutions which most benefit everyone involved.
Wilson, Steven F., and Research American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy. Success At Scale In Charter Schooling. Education Outlook. No. 3. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 2009. ERIC. Web. 11 Nov. 2011.
As noted by the graph our standings in education is below average, especially with African Americans and Hispanic children compared to other states. If this is the outcome in elementary school what should we expect by grade 8. With all of the various reforms enacted throughout the 30 years the curriculum in public schools did not improve nor did our standing compared to the rest of the world. Even though in each presidency monitoring tool was developed to ascertain the level of learning based on the test. In states where students passing their test equated to more funding of the school as well as the school remains open, jobs for the educators. So oppose to teaching students the information needed educators taught to the test. This is due to politicians not addressing the core issues that prevent children in low social economic status of of color due to cultural biases. Then there is the political climate of education including ignorance towards the benefit of vocational schools and real world learning.
In this detailed and shocking book, Jonathan Kozol describes the horrific and unjust conditions in which many children in today’s society are forced to get their education. Kozol discusses three major reasons for the discrepancies in America’s schools today: disparities of property taxes, racism, and the conflict between state and local control. The first of these reasons is that of the differences of available property tax revenues. Kozol discusses the inconsistencies in property tax revenues and the problem that the poorer districts aren’t getting the same opportunities for education as the more affluent neighborhoods. He says the reason for this is that the poorer districts don’t receive as much money as the affluent districts because their property isn’t worth as much, therefore they get less money in return. Therefore, if they demand more money for the school systems, they end up taxing themselves more money. Kozol uses shocking statistics to get the reader’s attention. For instance, a classroom in Chicago “received approximately $90,000 less each year than would have been spent on them if they were pupils of a school such as New Trier High” (54). Kozol also discusses a solution for this problem, the Foundation Program, which is meant to set a standard of basic or minimum education for the less fortunate neighborhoods. Although this program seems to work on the surface, it makes a bigger gap between the rich and poor districts.
In the article “What Does It Mean to Educate the Whole Child?” Nel Noddings attempts to provide a deeper insight on what it means to educate the whole child. According to the article, public schools in the United States are currently facing a huge pressure to provide students with thorough and efficient education. In this connection, a program known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has endeavored to ensure that efficient education is provided to all minority children, especially the many who are in the inner-cities. Notwithstanding this endeavor, individuals from some quarters have criticized NCLB by claiming that it is an unfunded mandate since it comes up with costly demands without providing necessary resources to meet them. In effect, among
Reform movements in education today, specifically privatization of public schools, does not allow the stake holders have a voice. When it comes to education the major stake holders are the students, parents, and also the teachers. With the privatization of public schools their voice is not heard because other people are throwing money at ways to fix a problem that does not involve them. The documentary The Inconvenient Truth About Waiting for Superman bring light to the facts and what happens with the privatization of schools. Public schools in New York City are forced by the Department of Education (DOE) to share building with charter schools that are said to fix problems that education, but this just takes space and supports from the public