The People Overcome the Privateers
Professor Cowen has substantiated the negative impact of school privateers on our communities. Cowen's book, The Privateers, unearthed the manufactured crisis in education. As exemplified by careful study, thoughtful analysis, and study of special interests, Cowen breaks the spell of hysteria.
Learning takes teamwork. Student, parent, guardian, teacher, staff, classmates, and community. As Dr. Brad Johnson explained, "Teachers, you will be the reason some students will want to become teachers...
...you will also be the reason many others will become successful in different fields, because you cared for them, believed in them and helped them...
...Culture is the sum of our everyday actions, both deliberate and incidental, that shape the environment, relationships, and outcomes within the school."
Anglican cleric John Donne noted, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”. (Meditation XVII, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions)
In other words, living in, supporting, and participating in community strengthens ourselves as well as the religious, business, judicial, educational, and political spheres within our world and much more. Successful communities, healthy communities, are dependent on a conscious and well-intentioned public.
"In The Privateers, Josh Cowen lays bare the surprising history of tax-funded school choice programs in the United States and warns of the dangers of education privatization. A former evaluator of state and local school voucher programs, Cowen demonstrates how, as such programs have expanded in the United States, so too has the evidence-informed case against them.
...Through deliberate policymaking, legislation, and litigation, Cowen reveals, an insular advocacy network has enacted a flawed system for education finance driven largely by dogma" (Harvard Education Press).
Professor Peter Rowe, in Civic Realism, analyzed the significance of civic engagement and the sustainability of cities. Rowe exalted a particular city in Italy as a model of strength that stood the test of time through conflicts and emergencies, “Siena and the Piazza del Campo stand out as a place where civic life, civic aspirations, and civic responsibilities have been inscribed indelibly” (Rowe).
In regard to our neighborhood schools, most people are appreciative and kind to their teachers and teachers of their children. The vast majority of parents support their public schools (Gallup). Our schools and neighborhoods are characterized by teamwork, yet some individuals insist on school privatization. Some elites in our society desire a bailout of subprime private and charter schools, despite the will of the people.
Listening to understand other perspectives is a great way to have meaningful conversations, to find common ground, and sharpen sensibilities.
"Josh Cowen, a professor at Michigan State University, has been a voucher researcher for two decades. The more he studied vouchers, the more he realized that they harm children" (Cowen).
For instance, Professor Josh Cowen observed the commodification of learning by elites and the donor class. In spite of this fact, the majority of parents, teachers, and students work together and value teamwork within their public schools.
Cowen, a former proponent of school vouchers, noted, "Betsy DeVos likes to say that schools shouldn’t be 'one size fits all.' She’s conceding more than she knows with that analogy because unlike clothing, or a car you can test drive down at the Ford dealer, there’s a real cost to trying a school on and having it fail to fit...
Study after study has shown how harmful school mobility is for kids, both those who actually move between schools and those whose classrooms are full of peers coming in and out...
...The bottom-line: most kids using vouchers didn’t need them to go to private school, and the few kids who actually did use vouchers to transfer sectors schools suffer average test score drops on par with what a once-in-a-generation pandemic did to test scores too" (Cowen).
Most American parents support their public schools (Gallup). As elections have proven, “[i]ncendiary rhetoric has fallen flat with voters" (Berkshire). Many candidates have been defeated because of their disingenuous claims about test scores, exaggerations about curriculum, and spread of online urban legends. Parents and voters know from their own experiences and the facts that school communities are working together, supporting student growth, and development, and there is great pride in our local schools as civic institutions.
Many students in our neighborhood schools work hard every day. Along with teachers and staff. Data show students are doing well, "[c]ontrary to what you may have heard, average student achievement has been increasing for half a century" (Shakeel and Peterson). Student learning and the experience of a neighborhood school is the result of teamwork, expertise, and hard work. American students are progressing, growing, and achieving great things, "[i]f we can resist the narrowing of education around flawed statistics and 'smart' researchers, we might be able to (re)prioritize the experience of teachers on the ground" (Education International).
Teaching is an art and a science. The path to teacher credentialing includes interdisciplinary education, studying the arts, humanities, sciences, child and human development, subject matter competency, pedagogy (study of how to teach), and (practice) student teaching. Overall, teaching takes great mastery as well as lifelong learning, endurance, and great support.
Student learning and progress is about teamwork in and outside the classroom. Good teachers make it look easy. Parents that volunteer in their local schools or that homeschool understand the challenges as well.
Unfortunately, elites within school districts, counties, state, and federal government work with the elites in corporations. The policies born from that political, bureaucratic, and commercial collaboration often divide citizens. Exemplified by School Privatization, Race to the Top, and Common Core.
Glen Sacks, teacher, explained the desire for school vouchers is "evidence of a student’s and a family’s commitment to education. Parents understand how important this is. A recent study of New York City’s public high-school system found parents were more concerned about the quality of a school’s students than the quality of the school itself” (Sacks).
Professor Cowen further cautions against school privatization, "[v]oucher activists pushing an entrepreneurial approach to education don’t talk enough about the consequences of failure. For example, in Milwaukee, 41% of private schools that ever took tax dollars eventually shut down" (Cowen).
What works. According to fact-based studies, parental aspirations for their children have a larger impact on student learning than feedback from teachers, study skills, homework, testing, and teacher education. Other important factors in school: instructional quality has an impact of 1.00, testing 0.30, teacher education 0.11. Student characteristics: prior cognitive ability 1.04 and disposition to learn 0.6. Home influences: parental aspirations for children’s educational achievement .80, home factors .67, home environment (socio-psychological) .57, parent involvement .46, transiency/mobility -0.34 (that is a negative). Social influences: peer .38 and television -.12 (that is a negative) (Hattie and Anderman, n.d.) Thus, educational achievement is complex, layered, and much more intricate than simply providing more “choice”.
Analyzing the credibility of claims is essential to decipher between policies designed by the elites and experts. It is an essential citizenship skill to determine if an author provided facts, opinions, highly emotional claims, or propaganda (Purdue).
Cowen's claims are supported by other experts. According to Joshua Katz, math teacher in Orange County Public Schools and Assistant Director of Student Involvement at the University of Central Florida, "Our Toxic Culture began with a classic Super Villain Archetype. Recall any Super Villain, I focus on Syndrome from The Incredibles. The villain’s plan is to unleash a doom onto the world, and the villain is the only one that can stop it. Thus gaining all the desired power.
We illogically attempt to compare education to business, we ignore the impact of poverty and hunger, we pay no attention to the non cognitive factors that are realistic predictors and measures of student success, and that way, we can place the blame on the teachers and schools. And because we have a Toxic Culture of Education, policies, teachers, and schools have accepted accountability for students, including all THOSE students. We take the blame for a student that has no moral compass. We take the blame for a student that cannot focus because he hasn’t eaten since yesterday’s lunch. We take the blame for a student that cannot stay awake in class because she spends her nights on a different couch, depending on which friend takes her in. When those students don’t “score well”, we get blamed. And we take it. We accept it. Because we love the kids. We are the only ones protecting them from this Toxic Culture of Education."
Imagine the best learning environment. Creating that environment is no easy task. As sociologist Sean F. Reardon explained, “It may seem counterintuitive, but schools don’t seem to produce much of the disparity in test scores between high- and low-income students. We know this because children from rich and poor families score very differently on school readiness tests when they enter kindergarten, and this gap grows by less than 10 percent between kindergarten and high school. There is some evidence that achievement gaps between high- and low-income students actually narrow during the nine-month school year, but they widen again in the summer months....
High-income families are increasingly focusing their resources — their money, time and knowledge of what it takes to be successful in school — on their children’s cognitive development and educational success. They are doing this because educational success is much more important than it used to be, even for the rich" (Reardon).
Education and improving aspects of our neighborhood schools is challenging with so many stakeholders and various agendas. Elites, the donor class, and politicians have their own agendas and preferences. Politicians utilize their networking skills to stay in office, relying upon close relationships with union bosses and educational corporations. These edu-corporations produce educational materials, textbooks, tests, and standards, and trainings. School board members are often caught between state and federal mandates, funding changes, and regulations.
Educator and speaker Harry Wong delineated, “The professional teacher recognizes that the classroom is a complex environment; the most successful teacher is one who is capable of making decisions and solving problems in that environment” (Wong).
Among the challenges are pop culture, media, drugs, divorce, violence, abuse, neglect, changes in population, learning the language, socio-economics, lack of materials, devices, large class sizes, work load, ever changing standards, unsupportive administrators, unhealthy parents, student behavior and attitude.
School communities are shaped by teamwork. As educator and speaker Stephen Covey promulgated, first listen to understand. We must manage our human habits to communicate and be good citizens. The topic of education is riddled with emotional complexities, such as who is responsible for student learning. Listening to, reading about, and discussing topics related to education is key to building strong communities and healthy learning environments.
Professor Cowen utilized his background as an evaluator of school voucher programs to demonstrate how school privateers negatively impact the teamwork of our public school communities. In The Privateers, Cowen traces the efforts of elite donors, libertarians, high-pressure groups, astroturf organizations, and radical individuals to manufacture a crisis.
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| Visit Amazon to purchase your copy of The Privateers by Josh Cowen. |
As Thomas Friedman also observed, "In recent years, we’ve been treated to reams of op-ed articles about how we need better teachers in our public schools and, if only the teachers’ unions would go away, our kids would score like Singapore’s on the big international tests. There’s no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student’s achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers. But here’s what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children’s education can also make a huge difference in a student’s achievement" (Friedman).
Selection of students is at the heart of privatized education. Private schools, voucher schools, charter schools choose students, choose parents, and choose who will stay enrolled. The admissions and interview process for privatized education can involve the consideration of a student's intelligence quotient (IQ), a student's reading level, the belief system of a student and/or family, family makeup, the sexuality of a student and/or parent, parental engagement, and more.
Public schools are significant to neighborhoods, students, and families. Although, the sanctity, harmony, and accountability of local schools is undermined by radical billionaires. As Professor David DeMatthews asserted, "money is more important than evidence when it comes to vouchers...Vouchers are an old policy with a tainted past...Vouchers discriminate...Vouchers fail to raise student achievement...Voucher programs are expensive...No amount of money can change the truth about vouchers--even if that money can buy elections" (DeMatthews).
Specifically, dark money funds the privatization of our schools. Some of the key players in the school privatization scheme are Eli Broad, Patrick Byrne, Jim Davis, Betsy DeVos, Dick DeVos, Ben Domenech, Robert W. Duggan, Trish Duggan, Bill Gates, David Harsanyi, Mark Hemingway, Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, Charles Koch, David Koch, Mitt Romney, Keith Rupert Murdoch, Elizabeth Uihlein, Richard Ellis Uihlein, the Walton Family Foundation, Curtis Yarvin, Bridget Ziegler, and Christian Ziegler (OpenSecrets).
Inclusion wins. Our public schools are for all students. "When it comes to students with disabilities, private schools have more leeway to turn students away. This is partly because students who choose to attend a private school — including through a voucher program — forfeit their right to a 'free appropriate public education' that they are otherwise guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" (Donheiser).
Additionally, the dignity of students in our public schools are protected by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The Department of Education "enforces civil rights laws to protect all students from unlawful discrimination and harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, and age" (U.S. Department of Education).
Many individuals have had a change of heart. As individuals listen to understand the issues, it is possible to climb to a mountain peak and see life with a fuller view. It is possible to move from mere personal preference, support for school privatization, culture war, and disengagement from society to supporting our public schools, promoting cultural unity, active citizenship, healthy parenting, neighborliness, and volunteerism.
For example, "When Courtney Gore ran for school board in a deep red Texas county, she pledged to root out indoctrination. But once she got into office, Gore could find no evidence of indoctrination happening in the local schools" (Have You Heard). Gore now advocates on a platform that consists of the following concepts and leadership beliefs: Partner with Parents, Community Involvement, Take Care of Teachers and Staff, Access to Quality Programs, Plan for Growth, and Transparency" (Gore).
To conserve American culture, nay to build American culture, there must be common ground to proceed as a unified nation. The majority of voters and parents support their public schools. Americans have a long tradition of placing a high value on their neighborhood schools. As Noah Webster, Father of American Scholarship and Education, argued, "In our American republics, where [government] is in the hands of the people, knowlege should be universally diffused by means of public schools. Of such consequence is it to society, that the people who make laws, should be well informed, that I conceive no Legislature can be justified in neglecting proper establishments for this purpose" (Webster).
Individual dedication and home-to-school partnership is a hallmark of a healthy community. As evidenced by empirical research, news reports, and personal anecdotes, the vast majority of parents support the schools in their neighborhoods. To boot, author Josh Cowen "reveals voucher programs as the faulty products of decades of work by wealthy patrons". We must encourage and support students, teachers, staff, parents, and guardians to get the results that benefit all of us. That includes being role models, reading with children, supervising media usage, having kitchen table dinner conversations, volunteering, and more. Ultimately, active citizenship, warm leadership, and a healthy distrust of the donor class will preserve our nation.
Credits
Amazon
Berkshire, Jennifer C. "Naught for Teacher."
Chenoweth, Karin. "Change of Heart." Have You Heard.
Cowen, Josh. The Privateers.
DeMatthews, David. "Commentary: Vouchers are the worst education policy money can buy."
Donheiser, Julia. "Chalkbeat explains: When can private schools discriminate against students?"
Donne, J., Donne, J. and Coffin, C., n.d. The Complete Poetry And Selected Prose Of John Donne.
Gore, Courtney. Facebook.
Gallup
Harvard Education Press
Johnson, Brad. X.
Komatsu, Hikaru and Rappleye, Jeremy. "Teachers, 'Smart People' and Flawed Statistics: What I want to tell my Dad about PISA Scores and Economic Growth."
Pexels.com, Olia Danilevich.
Ravitch, Diane. "What About the Kids Who Give Up Their Vouchers?"
Rowe, P., 1997. Civic Realism. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Shakeel, M. Danish and Peterson, Paul E. "A Half Century of Student Progress Nationwide."
U.S. Department of Education
Webster, Noah. On the Education of Youth in America.
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