Privatization Alert!

 

 

 

The issue I am about to attempt to analyze is pressing and I call for all of you who wish to protect public education to please contact Yvette Felarca, National coordinator of the By Any Means Necessary coalition  at www.bamn.com, to oppose the privatization of Berkeley public schools and to resist the first step towards implementing this plan for privatization by the REALM charter school, scheduled to be approved on February 3, 2010 at the Berkeley Unified School District Meeting.

 

The REALM charter school, of which I write and that which is the subject of the Berkeley Unified School District’s upcoming decision, will be either approved or disapproved at the February 3, 2010 Berkeley School Board meeting.  This is an important opportunity for you, the citizens of Berkeley and beyond, to register your protestations over what, if approved, will steer the course towards the privatization of Berkeley public schools.  You can contact school board members and the Mayor of Berkeley by e-mail or phone:

Karen Hemphill, President (2010)
karenhemphill@comcast.net

Beatriz Leyva-Cutler, Vice President (2012)
Beatriz_Leyva-Cutler@berkeley.k12.ca.us

Nancy Riddle, Director (2010)
nancy_riddle@berkeley.k12.ca.us

John T. Selawsky, Director (2012)
john_selawsky@berkeley.k12.ca.us

Shirley Issel, Director (2010)
shirley_issel@berkeley.k12.ca.us

Valeria Gonzalez Student Director (2009–10)

Contact Information for the BUSD Board of Directors:
Individual email addresses above or
boardofed@berkeley.k12.ca.us will send your message to all of the Board.
Voicemail: 510-644-6550

Introduction

 

What follows is an attempted detailed analysis of the Berkeley public school devastation as it relates to the proposal to charterize the district by requesting authorization and public taxpayer support for the proposed REALM charter schools.  I understand this report is lengthy, detailed and involves conscious and critical reading and personal decision-making; however, to abstract public school and charter school education from larger economic and social concerns would not only be irresponsible and reckless, it would serve to turn the lights off on the public’s critical and complex understanding of charter schools, privatization efforts, and specifically the proposal for the REALM charter school, in Berkeley that faces the Berkeley Unified School District and the citizens of Berkeley.  I hope this essay adds even a tiny morsel to readers’ understanding of the multifaceted issues involved in education that have been left out of corporate controlled media.  The issue is moving so quickly, the public policies are changing so rapidly, that to now download the demise of public education in real time has become more of a duty than chore.  I offer you what follows.

 

Abandoning the Public Realm: REALM charter school proposed for Berkeley, California

How market fundamentalism and “choice through charter schools” litter the dialogue regarding building sustainable communities, equal quality, and a racially and diverse integrated universal public education for all children

 

Talk to any libertarian or free market proponents that push charter schools and you will hear the same mantra: public schools are failing, competition is good for kids, free markets provide the answer to social problems, ‘government schools’ are bad, teachers are lazy and larded from tenure and seniority, and unions are ruining education, with little regards for kids.  What charter school proponents have cleverly done and are currently doing, city by city, as I have documented in countless articles for dailycensored.com and as well in my new book, the second edition on Charter schools, is capitalize on the devastation that disaster economics have wrought on communities.  Knowing that public schools face the harsh challenge of doing more with less, a virtual impossibility within the current economic wreckage and slush created by greed on Wall Street, they have poised themselves as harbingers of the solution to what ails education and given the horrendous situation confronting public education, they are successfully beguiling parents who seek an equitable and just education for their children.

The charter charlatans argue that public schools have failed and that parents need a ‘choice’ where to send their kids to school and that charter schools provide this free-market, privatized choice.  As they pronounce their agenda of ‘choice’ through charterization, they mendaciously ignore the horrendous poverty rates and social service statistics that plague deteriorating cities and their citizens which impacts directly on public funding for working families and consequently achievement by their children in schools.  Instead, they prefer to pose the problem of education as isolated incidents of public school failure, never looking at the enormous slash and burn policies of the neo-liberal state in dismantling public education over the last thirty years through economic starvation and budgetary cuts.  Many parents who see no horizon or future for their children in the current educational malaise are falling into the trap set by the charter privatizers, who promote charter schools as a panacea for fixing public education.  This issue is now the controversy that presently is at the heart of the decision that must be made by the citizens of Berkeley and especially by the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) and their elected board; it is public education in Berkeley that now stares with terror into the cross hairs of a decision that could threaten the future of public education in this once progressive city.

 

REALM: a charter school proposal for Berkeley students

In light of all the arguments made by market fundamentalists and the current bankruptcy of states and cities, what is the plan for education for students in Berkeley?  The plan seems to be the unleashing of the chimera of privatized, non-profit charter schools to replace the public school system.  In an attempt to capitalize on the public, social and economic disaster wrought by late stage capitalist policies, a small group of heavily weighted faith-based religious congregational members in tandem with business prone administrators have proposed the start up of REALM charter middle school and high school.  The schools would serve six hundred Berkeley students from 6^th grade to 12^th grade (100 students per grade) and are promoted as a parental response to alleged failures in the public school system.  The REALM charter proponents, like many charter schools across the nation, want a corporate run school that is subsidized by public taxpayer funds but managed by a private non-profit board.

What REALM is offering Berkeley students and their parents

When I looked at the petition/proposal submitted for approval to the Berkeley Unified School District on December 26, 2009 by the REALM charter school proponents, I could not help but appreciate and agree with much of its stated conception of education, learning and teaching.  Take for example the following statement issued in the 80 page proposal for a REALM high school:

The mission of REALM High School is to cultivate resiliency, develop critical thinking skills, advance knowledge through rigorous studies, and equip students to serve our communities and the world in the 21st century. REALM High School will serve diverse urban students in grades 9-12 using a student-centered model that features project-based learning, an emphasis on technology, research and action on concerns in the community and activities that develop emotional resiliency.

Few educators would disagree with this mission statement and the student centered model of project based learning the school says it will promote.  Progressive educators for years have been advocating critical thinking and project based learning.

Looking at the core abilities the school spells out for its students, progressive educators would have little to argue with here as well.  Here are the core competencies REALM is looking to develop within the life of the classroom and student minds:

Intellectual openness:

Analysis:

Inquisitiveness:

Reasoning/Argumentation:

Interpretation: Problem solving:

Creativity and Innovation:

Critical Thinking:

Collaboration:

ICT Literacy (Information, Communications, and Technology):.

Information Literacy:

Media Literacy.

 

These are tremendously important critical thinking and creative thinking skills that must be fostered for any viable democracy for sustainable living.  The proposal mentions the work of John Dewey, the progressive educator of the 1920’s and 1930’s, who would have applauded such critical thinking instruction and student enhancement.

Core Competencies

The four core program elements of REALM are also appealing, especially to parents in urban Berkeley whose children attend public schools that are not able to offer specialized, individualized learning to their students:

REALM High School will offer an intensive college preparatory program integrating academics, technology, research, resiliency, and social action with site-based matriculation. REALM High School will increase academic achievement and social responsibility by creating authentic and challenging learning environments based on our four core program elements: (1) project-based learning, (2) immersive technologies, (3) Mindfulness in Education (Transformative Life Skills), and (4) participatory action research. We seek to develop in each student the ability and passion to work wisely and creatively in order to become life-long learners with the skills necessary to contribute to the betterment of humankind. This will be accomplished by immersing our teachers and students in authentic and virtual learning environments that require collaboration, inquiry, critical thinking, ingenuity, imagination, and active problem-solving.

Again, it is hard to argue with any of these statements.

 

Who will attend REALM schools?

In terms of student recruitment and who will attend REALM schools, the petition or proposal states that they will conduct outreach to recruit a diverse student body.  REALM says it seeks 26% African American students, 9% Asian American students, 14% Latino students and 34% white students.  They go on to state they will not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, ability, religion or sexual orientation.  Further, they indicate that:

Satisfying another stated aim of charter school law, REALM High School will especially seek to serve students who have been academically low-achieving, previously. REALM High School is strategically locating itself in order to serve students who have traditionally been underserved and underrepresented in college and other post-secondary opportunities. We anticipate locating near the Willard Middle School and Martin Luther King Middle School attendance areas to offer a high school alternative to this population.

The proposal goes on to iterate that in terms of admission to its proposed schools:

Revolutionary Education and Learning Movement Charter School has no requirement for admission and must admit any child that wishes to apply. We do, however, have a family-school agreement which all parents will be asked to sign and orientation meetings which parents will be asked to attend. A family cannot be turned away for refusing to sign this agreement or refusing to attend an orientation. In no instance will a student be refused admission nor subjected to any form of discipline for failure of a parent to sign or comply with the family school agreement.

Continuing, for those students who cannot find seats available at the schools, they will in turn be admitted by a lottery.  According to the REALM proposal:

This lottery will take place during the last week of March (the lottery for opening year 2011 will take place during the first week of May 2011). The lottery will be conducted with the following admissions preferences being given in the following order:

1) students currently attending the school;

2) siblings of students already attending the school;

3) children of teachers and founders. This preference will be applied to no more

than 10% of student slots. A founder is defined as any parent involved in the

founding of the school that volunteered 200 hours toward the creation of the

school. Families who have volunteered between 75 and 199 hours may qualify as founders if the available founder spots (as defined by the 10% figure) have not

been filled. In this case, we will admit, in descending order, those families who

have volunteered highest number of hours under 200;

4) students residing within the territorial jurisdiction of the BUSD (as required in

education code section 47605(d)(2)(b)); and

5) all others.

.  Admissions themselves will be done by recruitment at churches and community bulletin boards:

Because we seek a targeted student population whose families may not be reachable by traditional means, REALM plans to utilize direct outreach strategies such as direct mailing and community and home meetings targeted in specific communities in the Berkeley area. REALM also may use bus stop signage and church and community group bulletin boards in an effort to tailor outreach efforts to a diversity of students/families.

Of course the charter ‘choice’ or alternatives come at a cost to the thousands of students in the traditional public schools who will not be able to attend the REALM schools due to the lack of availability of seats.  Instead, they will see BUSD programs cut and budgets winnowed as public funds are transferred to REALM, as provided under state charter law.  This is how the de-funding of traditional public education is really designed to allow these traditional public schools to increasingly fail, as they receive less and less state and federal resources, and are thus subject to being put on the list of failing schools under no Child Left Behind and then targeted for charter conversion or outright closure.  This is how the venture philanthropists and venture fund privatizers get their hands on public schools.  Through the use of the government and regulations like No Child Left Behind, they reorganize the material conditions of public funding to favor their business plans, be they profit or non-profit.  This is the heart of neo-liberalism, using the government for private interests.

Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention of Highly Qualified Teachers

When it comes to hiring policies for teachers for the proposed REALM middle and high school, the proposal states:      

High student achievement is a direct function of teacher quality. REALM High School will use multiple strategies to attract and keep highly qualified teachers with subject area knowledge that is likely to enable high achievement for all students. Teacher job descriptions will identify desired skills that reflect the school’s educational approaches and an ability to serve all students effectively. The school’s development team will spread the word among its network of California-certified teachers to publicize positions. In addition, notices will be placed on education list-serves, websites, and teacher education programs, and education publications. In hiring, the school will evaluate how well candidates’ educational philosophy and skills align with REALM High School’s instructional approach. Teachers, parents, and school leadership will participate in the hiring process, which will be finalized by the school’s principal. REALM High School will attract and retain teachers by offering an appropriate compensation package, and by creating and maintaining an attractive work environment. This includes involving teachers in decision-making and providing regular opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and to participate in professional development that meets their needs. REALM High School will attract teachers who are excited about the school’s mission and vision. School leadership will strive to maintain respect and professionalism in the workplace.

What an ‘appropriate compensation plan’ entails is vaguely spelled out by the proponents this way:

Regarding salary levels, REALM does not anticipate adopting a formal salary schedule. Although REALM does not plan to use a formal salary schedule, REALM recognizes that many of our teachers and staff members might also be considering positions in surrounding school districts. REALM will therefore seek salary levels similar to the general salary levels being offered by these surrounding districts. Additional salary increases and bonus compensation may be provided to individual employees for their contribution to school and student success. We are also prepared to offer individual candidates higher compensation than they would receive from local districts if this is necessary to attract high quality candidates to our program. The Director, with approval from the REALM board, will have the authority to determine the salary and benefit levels, working conditions and work year characteristics (e.g., length of year and day, vacation policies, etc.) for all employees that will allow REALM to attract and retain the caliber of employees necessary for REALM’s success.

Thus the salary plan, which is not really indicated in any detail, will involve merit pay in the form of what REALM labels “higher compensation”.  The salary itself will be determined by the ‘Director’, or what in public school parlance would be called ‘the principal’.  Because REALM will be a charter school authorized by the BUSD, if approved, they will in essence become their own school district thus waiving any regulations including the “Berkeley voluntary School Desegregation” plan adopted by the district, teacher unions as well as any other mandated BUSD regulations.  In fact, the proposal goes so far as to stipulate:

Employees of REALM who were not previous employees of the Berkeley Unified School District will not become employees of the Berkeley Unified School District and will not have the right to employment within the district upon leaving the employment of the charter school.

This is odd, this seems to smacks of anti-competition clauses that are often used in corporate business contracts and that certainly is not keeping with the rhetoric of “innovating schools” through best practices; or does it?  What it looks like is a restriction on future employment by teachers that happen to find employment at REALM.

Personnel policies and procedures

In terms of personnel policies, procedures and decisions:

The charter school shall adopt comprehensive personnel policies and procedures, approved by the charter school board of directors that will be provided to each employee upon hire. These policies will set forth personnel obligations, rights, responsibilities, complaint procedures, discipline procedures, and other pertinent policies essential to preserving a safe and harmonious work environment. The charter school Director or Dean will resolve complaints and grievances and will administer any personnel discipline, with the assistance of the district when necessary, in accordance with these policies. Disputes over personnel discipline will not be covered by the charter school dispute resolution process, and instead, will be resolved through the personnel policies and procedures.

Yet the policy and procedures, just like the salary compensation, have not been spelled out and they have the propensity of being arbitrary and capricious with the Director making final decisions as to all grievances and complaints.  This is unlike public school grievance procedures that provide for due process, collective bargaining and arbitration.  Because REALM will essentially become its own school district, authorized by the BUSD. REALM, has mandated that:

The district shall not intervene in any such internal disputes without the consent of the Board of Directors of the charter school and shall refer any complaints or reports regarding such disputes to the chairperson of the Board of Directors or the Director of the charter school for resolution pursuant to the charter school’s policies. The district agrees not to intervene or become involved in the dispute unless the dispute has given the district reasonable cause to believe that a violation of this charter or related laws or agreements has occurred, or unless the Board of Directors of the charter school has requested the district to intervene in the dispute.

Other than taking taxpayer subsidies from the current Berkeley school budget, REALM will be an entirely separate and distinct entity with its own procedures and governance.

Employee retirement plans

As to retirement benefits for teachers and non-certified staff, the proposal is purposely ambiguous:

For retirement benefits, REALM currently anticipates that it will offer STRS to its certificated staff and Social Security for the rest of its non-certificated full-time staff. . Non-certificated staff at REALM will participate in the federal social security system and may have access to other school sponsored retirement plans according to policies developed by the board of directors and adopted as the school’s employee policies.

What this means is that teachers might get a STRS plan or some other retirement plan.  KIPP charter schools, for example, do not provide STRS for their employees and if charter schools begin to disinvest in STRS this will create hardships for workers who rely on STRS for retirement.  The decision as to what teacher retirement plan will be offered will be at the discretion of the interim board and it’s ‘Director’.  Classified staff will not have the benefits negotiated by their unions within the Berkeley Unified School District nor will they have the retirement benefits of CalPERS.  Instead, they will be thrown into the Social Security system that pays far less benefits than union negotiated retirement plans and offers much less security.  It also means that they will pay 7.5% payroll tax while REALM will then pay the other 7.5%.

Is REALM really a non-profit?  Contracting out services to corporations and private entities through the non-profit backdoor

Although non-profit charter schools like that proposed by REALM, like to appear to the public as non-profit making enterprises (for it gives the appearance of an entity that does not operate for profit), their practices almost always include contracting out classified staff positions, maintenance and security, administrative services and janitorial services.  What are now good paying union jobs at traditional public schools will be ‘outsourced’ to private companies who more often than not provide minimal wages and paltry benefits, if any.  For REALM, the situation will be no different they will be contracting essential employment services:

REALM anticipates outsourcing the business functions of the school to a specialized charter school-specific provider to perform most of the business operations of the school. We anticipate utilizing an experienced charter school provider to set up the school’s chart of accounts in an easy to use accounting software package (e.g., Quickbooks). This provider would then have ongoing responsibility for the school’s accounting. REALM further anticipates utilizing an

outside payroll vendor (e.g., Paychex or ADP) for generation of paychecks and tax withholdings. REALM will coordinate with the county to report pertinent STRS payroll data. The county may request a reasonable fee for coordinating this transfer of data. The school plans on obtaining its own health and benefits via small business plan type offerings from local vendors (e.g., Kaiser and Blue Cross).

Revolutionary Education and Learning Movement Charter School may contract with the district for business services or may contract with any agency experienced in school finance, as determined by REALM staff and/or it’s Board of Directors. The charter school anticipates hiring a charter school-specific business vendor with experience in charter school finance to run the bulk of the business needs of the school. The school may contract out for some specific services (e.g., payroll).

This is the privatization aspect of charter schools that non-profit organizations like REALM love to embrace but never disclose and one the media would prefer not to expose.

The reason this contracting out is so attractive to non-profits and for-profits is that the practice of outsourcing what were once decent paying union jobs with benefits keeps costs down; secondly, it is part of a larger plan to bust unions, reducing both income and benefits to educational workers as well as allowing corporations to run schools, adopt hiring practices, design work environments and conditions and set wages.  This is corporatization, and employees can expect to be at-will employees at REALM, subject to the hiring and disciplinary rules of the hosting corporation and with little or no job security.  Furthermore, by possibly requesting a reasonable fee from BUSD for reporting data (public funds), this too will mean a loss of revenue for the BUSD in general, leading as said to less services for students in traditional public schools as monies are transferred to REALM.

 

Where will REALM locate and who will pay for start-up costs?

 

Since REALM will not be a conversion charter, meaning a traditional public school that opts to convert to charter status, they will need facilities to house their educational enterprise.  They will need the costs of electricity, the cost of leasing land, insurance, and the host of start-up costs associated with starting anew business.  Their plans are set forth in their document the following way:

REALM plans to lease facilities in the south/west area of Berkeley. The founding group has begun the examination of a number of potential school sites. … REALM may apply and qualify for facilities financing assistance under the state’s Charter School Facilities Grant Program, and/or the state-administered Charter School Facilities Incentive Grants. These programs are designed to provide facilities assistance to charter schools serving high percentages of free and reduced-priced lunch students by paying a portion of a charter school’s monthly facilities costs.  If eligible, REALM could have up to seventy-five percent of its on-going facilities costs covered by these programs.

This all sounds fine but who will pay for the start-up costs involved in setting up the REALM learning systems, including the lease arrangement they propose to house the school?  Who will pay for insurance for the school, both liability and property insurance?  Who will pay for the set-up of the classrooms, the technology and the maintenance to put the whole plan together?  The answer can be found by looking at similar charters in California and others states throughout the nation.  Due to the fact REALM is not a deep pocket organization, they will appeal to taxpayers for start up funds, lease arrangements and the Charter School Facility Grant Program subsidized by taxpayers.  But with massive state and federal deficits this will hardly suffice.  As we will discuss, the hands of the billionaire philanthropists or America’s oligarchs will no doubt have a long reach in the operation, as they are doing in practically every area in the nation where start-up charters are conceived and realized and the privatization of schools has become an agenda item.  Charters must rely on billionaire oligarchs for they have the money, the public coffers are empty.

Just who conceived of and founded REALM?

One of the founders and shakers in the proposed charter school is Victor Diaz, a PhD candidate at the University of Berkeley and a principal at The Berkeley Technology Academy, a public continuation high school in the city of Berkeley.  The curious thing is that at the B-Tech school, as it is known, only 34 students were included in the 2009 API (which measures year to year improvement among students) and the school did not meet its growth target of 10 points in the year of 2009 and saw its 2008 API score decrease from 596 to 490 (The Berkeley Daily Planet, Riya Bhattacharjee

Thursday September 17, 2009 Berkeley Student Academic Performance Improves http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-09-17/article/33770?headline=Berkeley-Student-Academic-Performance-Improves).  This is hardly a metaphor for success and if Diaz is serious about the curriculum and results of the REALM ideology and practice, then how does he explain the failure of his students to excel at the school where he is currently a principal?

I spoke with Mr. Diaz about the REALM charter school on January 22^nd of this year.  As we spoke, during the school day when he was supposed to be working to increase the performance of the B-Tech Academy, I was astonished to find that he was working to disembowel the very public school system he was working for by promoting the REALM charter school on ‘company time’ while at the same time collecting taxpayer funds in the form of his salary as a principal.  All this as his students are documented to be doing worse.  This poses a grave conflict of interest and appearance of impropriety, with Diaz’s duties as a paid public employee and his personal work on the public clock to create a non-profit charter school that could serve to threaten the very school he works at.

Diaz indicated to me by phone that the REALM charter school would be a non-profit school with an interim board of nine members.  Currently, the original founders and interim board include Antonio Cediel, the former principal of Emory Secondary School.  Cediel has worked closely with the Chamber of Commerce and business interests in an attempt to partner with private entities.  He was also a charter school administrator in Oakland, California.

Then there is Tanya Henneman, Ph.D.  Ms. Henneman works with the City of Berkeley Division of Public Health and UC Berkeley’s Center for Health Research for Action on reducing health disparities in hypertension and diabetes. Dr. Henneman earned her B.S. in mathematics from Spellman College, a Master’s degree from the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, and a doctorate in biostatistics from UC Berkeley.

Christopher Knaus, Ph.D., is also on of the founding members of REALM.  According to the REALM website “`Dr. Knaus studies educational policy and develops urban schools that demand rigorous academic excellence while keeping African American and Latino students meaningfully engaged.”

Jabari Mahiri, Ph.D is identified by REALM as another original founder.  He is a member of the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), part of the Council of Chief State School Officers, an organization that undertakes projects to help state education agencies understand, devise, and execute policy; adopt initiatives to promote educational reform efforts; and engage in collaborative exchanges to share best practices and model solutions.

Then there is Pastor Michael McBride, M. Div., also a founder, spokesperson for REALM and a Senior Pastor at The Way Christian Center in Berkeley.  Pastor McBride McBride works for Diaz at the B-Tech Academy which heightens the level of conflict of interest as McBride too draws a public salary from BUSD and is supposed to be working to enhance public education, yet spends time fielding inquires about a charter school that threatens the prosperity of the traditional public schools.

Finally, REALM lists Nancy Williams as a founder and a parent advocate at Berkeley Technology Academy, where both Diaz and McBride work. Prior to serving as a full-time parent advocate, Ms. Williams supported her daughter through Berkeley Technology Academy, and volunteered to engage more local parent advocates.  It seems that the Berkeley Technology Academy is an organizing nest for many REALM founders, all troubling in terms of possible ethical malfeasance and appearances of propriety.

Collecting public funds in the form of salary and benefits to launch REALM schools undermines public education and is not only irresponsible, it could be ethically illegal and could and perhaps should be the subject of an Ethical Complaint filed with the City of Berkeley or the State of California.  Never mind; Diaz went on to explain to me that REALM charter school seeks authorization from the Berkeley Unified School District (they are being asked to be the authorizers of the project) to begin operations in 2011.  He also indicated that he expects to receive state and federal grants along with public and private loans to begin the school.  When I asked him if he would be seeking philanthropic funds, he acceded he would.  Some of the names mentioned were the usual suspects: the Walton Family Fund, the Gates Foundation, the Eli Broad Foundation and the Fisher Family (owners of the Gap), among others.  Finally, when asked what he would do if the BUSD rejected the REALM proposal, he indicated that he would go to the city of Alameda to request they become the authorizing agency.  He then suggested I speak with Pastor McBride, the spokesperson for the proposed charter school.  I called Pastor McBride the same day and he called me back shortly after leaving him a message.  I had some significant and relevant questions for McBride and although he was cordial and forthcoming, there were many troubling inconsistencies in his responses to my queries.

I called the pastor, and to begin with asked him if the REALM charter school would hire unionized teachers.  McBride excitedly responded that he had no problem if teachers at the new REALM charter school decided to unionize but he indicated the recruitment process for teachers would be an ‘open’ recruitment process, meaning an open hiring process as indicated in REALM’s proposal.  With future philanthropic backers like Gates, Walton, Broad and Fisher among others getting their tentacles in the city of Berkeley, chances for hiring unionized teachers will be slim if none.  For the philanthro-capitalists, as can be seen in Los Angeles, D.C., Chicago, New York, Houston and elsewhere, are working assiduously to destroy teacher unions by using non-unionized, often young Teach for America teachers as cheap surplus labor – another source of outsourcing.  They can give preference to the new ‘green’ hires for they can legally rationalize their hiring practices under their ‘expectations’ for teachers and this means they can wean out potential union organizers.  No charter school wants unions, they are an anathema to their business plans so creating a union free environment is done through new hires.

When I asked McBride about issues such as tenure for teachers or seniority rights he was coy, but again reiterated that he had no problem with a unionized work force. “How would teachers be evaluated”, I asked him.  His reply was their evaluations would not be based exclusively on standardized tests under No Child Left Behind but would also include competency evaluations, a notion never made clear in our conversation.  As to the curriculum, McBride told me that the curriculum would be tied to performance outcomes but teacher would have some liberty in designing lessons.  Just how much liberty and what performance outcomes?  McBride would not elaborate, but one thing is for sure: the curriculum will have to teach to the tests for under No Child Left Behind the testocracy operates as the measureable outcomes gatekeeper to both rate students, teachers and the charter school for purposes of renewal, expansion and continual federal and state funding.

.  And what about special needs children, how would they be designated and enrolled and cared for in the new REALM charter?  McBride was again vague, seemingly avoiding the specifics.  Yet consistently throughout our half hour discussion he told me that families of color have the right to pick the schools they wish their children to attend.  He repeatedly told me that the school was and is being promoted by thousands of parents in Berkeley that only wanted the best for their children.  “Why not work to fix the current public educational system”, I asked him.  The answer: this is what parents wish to do and they should be able to choose the best options for their children.  “Let parents make their own choices”, he told me.  This is all hauntingly similar to the rhetoric or talking points adopted by the venture capitalists, right wing think tanks and the pro-market advocates of corporate education.

 

Who endorses the REALM charter school?

The biggest backers are BOCA (Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action).  According to BOCA, which endorsed the REALM concept:

While we need to continue—and accelerate—our city-wide efforts to improve the quality of our existing schools, we believe that African-American and Latino families, as well as other families in Berkeley, need to have additional secondary schooling options for their children and REALM could be an excellent option for them (BOCA Supports REALM Public Charter School  http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-12-10/article/34259

In sum, we believe that the employment of public charter schools like REALM will add to the educational momentum of high achievement and pioneering reform Berkeley is known for. Given the depth of the achievement gap in Berkeley though, we believe it is critical and necessary to explore all academic options for our families who feel the full deleterious effects of that gap daily. We believe this to be a state of emergency for our parents; our parents believe this to be a state of emergency for their children; our children believe this to be a state of emergency for their futures. We can no longer wait (ibid).

Just what is BOCA?  BOCA is a faith-based group whose supporters of REALM include Rabbi Menachem; Creditor Pastor Kelly Woods; Rabbi Yoel Kahn; Congregation Netivot Shalom Covenant Worship Center; Congregation Beth-El; Pastor Sarah Isakson; Rev. Odette Lockwood-Stewart; Pastor Leslie White; Lutheran Church of the Cross; Epworth United Methodist Church; St. Paul AME Church; Rev. Michael Smith; Pastor Matt Crocker; Pastor Michael McBride; McGee Ave Baptist Church; Church Without Walls; The Way Christian Center; Pastor Kim Smith; Father Bernie Campbell; Trinity United Methodist Church; Holy Spirit/Newman Hall Catholic Parish. Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action (BOCA) represents 18 faith congregations in Berkeley and over 10,000 diverse families.

The ten thousand diverse families that BOCA refers to are BOCA congregational members or supporters.

 

Economic decline and the devastation of urban life: What is being left out of the debate over achievement gaps, racial integration and improving public schools and the lives of students and their families

Any cursory look at urban cities in the United States will paint a horrific picture of economic collapse and public decimation as public services and the social safety net have been slashed and burned by neo-liberal capitalist policies put in place for more than thirty years.  From Detroit to Los Angeles, Las Vegas to New York, Washington, D.C. to Chicago life for working class families and especially people of color has gone from bad to worse.  Families are being forced out of their homes due to record high foreclosures driving up the cost of rental units; businesses experience record bankruptcies, laying off millions and millions of workers; tax revenues decline as tax breaks for the rich grow in size; public services are under attack by insolvent state governments that refuse to raise taxes on wealthier Californians or transnational corporations like Exxon Mobil which last year posted record breaking profits.  All of these factors along with decades of deregulation and privatization have decimated social services and have especially hit public schools hard, with drastic cuts to programs and budgets.

These facts can be clearly seen in the reflection of these policies within the devastation in human lives, the growing homelessness, the unemployment, the increased incarceration rates, the reliance on Pay Day loans and predatory lending, and a deafening drop in employment and services for teens and those in their early twenties.

The grim economic statistics in America have been created by a ruthless class war being waged by transnational corporations and Wall Street against working people. Within the last thirty years, market fundamentalist policies of privatization have presented us with the following reality:

• Almost 1 in 13 children in the US live in poverty with 5.8 million living in extreme poverty;

• One in 6 children in America is poor.  Black and Latino children are  three times as likely to be poor as white children;

• 4.2 million children under the age of 5 live in poverty;

• 35.3 percent of black children, 28.0 percent of Latino children, and 10.8 percent of white, non-Latino children exist in poverty;

• There are 8.9 million uninsured children in America;

• One in 5 Latino children and 1 in 8 black children are uninsured compared to 1 in 13 white children;

• Only 11 percent of black, 15 percent of Latino, and 41 percent of white eighth graders perform at grade level in math;

• Each year 800,000 children spend time in foster care;

• On any given night, 200,000 children are homeless, one out of every four of the homeless population;

• Every 36 seconds, a child is abused or neglected, almost 900,000 children each year;

• Black males ages 15-19 are about eight times more likely to be gun homicide victims than white males;
• Although they represent 39 percent of the juvenile population, minority youth represent 60 percent of committed juveniles;

• A black boy born in 2001 has a one in three chance of going to prison in his lifetime; a Latino boy has a one in six chance;

• Black juveniles are about four times as likely as their white peers to be incarcerated.  Lack youths are almost five times as likely and Latino youths abut twice as likely to be incarcerated as white youths for drug offenses (Children Defense fund, 2008 annual report (Washington D.C. children’s Defense Fund, 2009: Online http://www.childrens-defense.org:/childresearch-data-publications/data/state-of-americas-children-2008-report.pdf)

These are stunning statistics that were generated in 2008, before the financial crash on Wall Street which robbed working people of their jobs and wages and in millions of cases threw them out of their homes and into the streets.  The reality is far worse now, with 13,000,000 million children currently living in poverty, a 2.5 million increase in the last ten years (National Center for child Poverty).  What we do know is that in California alone, in 2008:

Teens not attending school and not working is now 49 percent or more with the largest segment African American at 13 percent and Latino teens at 10 percent (Kids count, the Annie E. Casey foundation, http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Rankings.aspx?ind=36);

Persons age 18-24 not attending school, not working, and with no degree beyond high school, was 15 percent in California (ibid);

Teens who were high school dropouts in 2008 was 6 percent with 28 percent of those being African American, Latino and Native American (ibid);

In May 2009, a new report put out by First Focus, a child advocacy organization found that children who fall into poverty during a recession fare worse far into adulthood than their peers who avoided it altogether. Specifically, children who are forced into poverty earn less, achieve lower levels of education, and are less likely to be gainfully employed over their lifetimes than those who avoided poverty. In addition, these children are more likely to be in poor health as adults.

The report, entitled Turning Point: The Long Term Effects of Recession-Induced Child Poverty, followed children who lived through post-war recessions for up to 30 years, analyzing individuals’ income, employment, education, and health into adulthood. The report resoundingly concludes that those children who experience recession-created poverty fare far worse along these variables than do children who do not become poor, even though both groups of children start off in the same place.

It is estimated by First Focus that the damage is just beginning and that approximately three million more children will fall into poverty as a result of the current recession (First Focus, Economy will recover from recession, children will not. 5/12/2009.vhttp://www.firstfocus.net/pages/3598/Turning_Point.htm).

Any society that boasts brutal figures such as those cited above is not only in danger of collapse, but as the economic and social devastation proceeds it leaves a wake of deracinated and hopeless lives – a virulent form of social Darwinism.  All of this can be traced back to the market fundamentalist regime of what’s termed ‘neo-liberalism’ that found its expression in the 1970’s and then became known as ‘Reagan economics’.

Neo-liberalism is a simple concept, economically: it looks to deregulate and regulate laws so they are more favorable to capital accumulation by wealthy transnational corporations and individuals; it seeks to utilize government not to restrict the power of elites over the general population, thus assuring a safety net for those who fall into the widening crevice of inequality; on the contrary, the economic and social policies wrought by neo-liberalism employ the government by large banking and business interests to assure that profits are enhanced by creating legislation  favorable to capital: cutting back on worker’s rights, working conditions, livable wages, unions, environmental protection, worker safety allowing for ‘free trade’ agreements that outsource American jobs to cheap labor countries like China where the wage is 13 cents an hour, thereby leaving Americans with a country hollowed out and bereft of jobs and employment opportunities.  The neo-liberal state, acting like an insurance underwriter, writes laws favorable to the business elite at the behest of capital’s “unions”, such as the Business Roundtable, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association o Manufacturers and the myriad of right wing propaganda think thanks that have arisen as purveyors of lies and junk ‘science’ as a result of market fundamentalist organizing and funding.

The horror of social and economic life in Berkeley, California: How the policies of neo-liberal capitalist devastation plays out in the lives of citizens and students

 

It may be hard to believe that the once bucolic and progressive city of Berkeley, with its history of free speech movements, social unrest, radical politics, people’s parks and alternative lifestyles, now boasts economic and social statistics worse than those cited above by the Children’s Defense fund.  The figurers are staggering, yet true.  Take the following statement from the Daily Californian, online:

Although Berkeley has a reputation as a well-off, liberal enclave, 21 percent of Berkeley residents are living below the poverty line, compared with 17.6 percent in both Oakland and Richmond, according to the latest statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. Statewide, the poverty rate is 12.4 percent Brooks, amy, (Berkeley’s high poverty rate worries residents, November 18, 2008 http://www.dailycal.org/article/103611/berkeley_s_high_poverty_rate_worries_residents).

And this is just part of the story.

The lack of affordable housing

The horrific economic and social situation that is hitting Berkeley residents with increased intensity can be seen when even more detailed socio-economic factors of daily life are examined.  For example, the Daily Californian found that:

Home values may also be partially to blame for Berkeley’s poverty rate. The median home value in Berkeley is $755,300 compared with $595,000 in Oakland (ibid).

This means homeownership is not even in economic reach for most Berkeley residents and as noted by Jenny Chung, program manager at the Insight Center for Community Economic Development:

As foreclosures have gone up, demand for rental units has gone up because people are displaced, so rents go up. That automatically drives up the minimum amount of income the family needs. If their wages aren’t going up at the same rate, the gap grows and they’re falling even shorter than they would normally (ibid).

Finding adequate shelter is now a chore for Berkeley residents, a way of life, especially for those citizens of color.

Like cities across the United States, Berkeley is not able to maintain basic public housing units for its low-income residents.  A plan by the Berkeley Housing Authority to sell 75 public housing units to private developers is currently under review by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  If the department approves the plan, the housing authority will sell the units, which are located at 18 different sites around Berkeley, to private developers who will renovate them to meet “market standards”.

Depending upon financial eligibility, residents say they may not be able to return to their publicly built homes but more than likely they could be entangled in a long relocation process that threatens to leave them homeless.  Why the sell-off of needed low-income public housing built over decades in Berkeley by taxpayers?  Housing Authority Executive Director Tia Ingram said the authority decided to move forward with the plan because it does not have adequate funding to renovate the units.  In other words, the Housing Authority simply doesn’t have funds.  Between $4.5 million and $6 million is needed to repair the units, according to Ingram, adding that the agency is losing over $150,000 a year to operate them.   Why?  Easy, no money.  The city is broke, just like most others cities in America.

The privatization of public schools and the privatization of public housing, public services, and essential services are all now part of the game plan for cities who are cash strapped due to the trillion dollar theft by Wall Street banksters and the policies of deregulation, budget cuts, low taxes on the wealthy and a steady increase of wealth flowing to the top (Daily Californian, Baer, S., January 21, 2010. Local Housing authority plans to privatize units, http://www.dailycal.org/article/107902/local_housing_authority_plans_to_privatize_units).

Ingram said the committee will establish criteria to ensure the rental units remain affordable, such that residents will pay no more than 30 percent of their family’s income and if residents are not eligible for the renovated units, the housing authority will provide department funded Section 8 vouchers (ibid).  The problems is that  Section 8  vouchers have income ceilings, unlike public housing that has no such minimum income requirements and there is no guarantee under Obama’s spending freeze that they will even be available or how long the waiting lists will be.

These frightening realities are leading to an out of control and vicious spiraling poverty in the city of Berkeley and the creation of a surplus population and spiraling homelessness not seen since the first Great Depression of 1929.  But it gets worse.

A look at the lives of Berkeley students

In 2009 Berkeley public schools had 8,988 students of which 2,323 were African Americans, 1,495 were Latino, 2,744 were Caucasian or white, 46 were Native American/Pacific Islanders, 640 were Asian Americans and 58 were Filipino.  This means 25.8 percent of the student body were African Americans, 30.5 percent were White Caucasians and 16.6 percent were Latino.  The total population of Berkeley is 107,178.  English learners in the school system counted for 13 percent.  In the year 2000, there were 1,344 children and youth with disabilities, or 6 percent of the total student population, but this number is far greater now.  Special education enrollment for all Berkeley public schools accounted for 12 percent in 2009, a slight decrease from the prior four years.  However, students with autism climbed to 7.7 percent, greater than the previous four years (Kids Data: Berkeley Unified: All http://www.kidsdata.org/data/region/dashboard.aspx?loc=149&cat=a.).

Berkeley high school graduates completing college preparatory studies was a paltry 58.8 percent in 2008, down from 90.5 percent in 2007.  Although the high school drop-out rate has seen a slight decrease to 14.2 percent in 2008, only 25 percent of students in Berkeley public schools scored proficient or higher on the Algebra I assessment in 2009, but 80 percent of students passed the high school entrance exam, an increase over past years.  Employment among counselors, librarians, speech, language and hearing therapists stayed relatively stable, per pupil, yet the number of psychologists available to youth declined drastically, to just 899 in 2009, a whopping decrease from 1,791 in 2008.  Since 2005, data shows there have been no nurses or social workers available to Berkeley students, yet the amount of resource specialists in 2009 have climbed to 1,498, almost a forty or more percent increase over 2008.

Fifty percent of Berkeley students were reading at grade level or above in 2008.  Juvenile felony arrests were at 120 according to data gathered in 2007. Students enrolled in free or reduced price meal programs have remained steady with 2009 figures at 3,503; this is 39.7 percent slightly down from previous years.

As to aerobic fitness, 42.9 percent of African Americans in 7^th grade qualified in 2008, 76.4 percent of Asian Americans in seventh grade qualified, 49.1 percent of Latino seventh graders met aerobic standards for physical fitness as did 68.2 percent of white seventh graders met the aerobic physical fitness requirements.  In 2008 students meeting all fitness standards were a pitiful 28.9 percent for males and 32 percent for females.  Only 21.2 percent of African Americans in seventh grade met all fitness standards compared to 36.4 Asian Americans, 24.1 percent Latino and 36.4 percent Caucasian or white students (ibid).  Student physical health is deteriorating in Berkeley.

Bob Herbert, a journalist for the New York Times wrote in an op-ed piece in April of 2010 about the plight of children as a result of the Wall Street theft, tax benefits for the rich and consequent pillage of public funds:

there is little doubt that poverty and family homelessness are rising, that the quality of public education in many communities is deteriorating and that legions of children are losing access to health care as their parents join the vastly expanding ranks of the unemployed. This is a toxic mix for children, a demoralizing convergence of factors that have long been known to impede the ability of young people to flourish (Herbert, B, Children in peril, April 20, 2009, New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/opinion/21herbert.html?_r=2&th&emc=th).

Incarceration and poverty

The prevailing social commitments of a liberal democratic state in the past had to do with providing quality education, paid work, health care, and affordable housing.  This was done through regulations that lased the chimera know as the ‘free market’ that has now demonstrated its prowess in destroying people’s lives.  This now has all changed.  Now, youth are now increasingly seen through the lens of crime, terror, corruption, zero tolerance, social control, and disposability.  Where once youth represented the hope for future generations they are now ideologically conceived of often by the neo-liberal state, the corporate controlled media and the managers and politicians as a ‘problem’ to be reckoned with and the demonization of youth as predators goes on, unmitigated day by day.  Youth ‘killers’, the media howls; youth gangs, they bellow; youth crime they enunciate and youth incarceration they promote.  The message in America is very clear now:  youth have been transformed by the media and politicians into a suspect group to be feared and one that must be contained, managed and controlled.  The tragedy is that childhood wonderment has now been replaced with adult bewilderment.

This is especially true for people of color who increasingly walk the yellow line from the school house to the jail house.  Robert Defina and Lance Hannon, two researchers at the Social Science Research Network, found in their August 2009 study:

Using a panel design for North Carolina county data, 1995-2007, we use instrumental variable techniques to disentangle the effect of incarceration on poverty from the effect of poverty on incarceration. The results indicate that increases in incarceration are associated with increases in child poverty rates. The causal impact of incarceration on child poverty appears especially pronounced in counties with a high proportion of non-white residents (Defina, R. Hannon, L.., Incarceration and Child Poverty Rates: An Analysis of North Carolina County Data, 1995-2007. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1442523).

 

The problem with REALM and the charterization plan for Berkeley Schools

 

I.

 

REALM’s failure to understand education as an institution embedded in a failing socio-economic called capitalism

 

The main problem with the charter school idea, both in theory and exemplified in what is being proposed by REALM is not that there is no comprehension of the glaring inequalities that has gripped America, and in this specific case, Berkeley.  The problem is that in light of the knowledge revealed by the shocking statistics that plague Berkeley families, mostly those of color, the answer proposed to the problem of neo-liberal economics and market fundamentalism is to deal with the symptoms of the problem and not the cause.   This reflects a widespread misunderstanding of the economic and historical material and cultural conditions we live in as well as an unsystematic misunderstanding of the institutional problems facing public schools.  It has to be, right?  Either this is the explanation of there is another plan for Berkeley schools, one that accommodates all the tragedies of economic and social despair created by the economic and political policies of the last three decades – one that acquiesces to inequality and class and racial disparities.

Nowhere in the proposal for the REALM school and at no time during my conversations with either Diaz or McBride did they even mention the horror of the economic devastation wrought by over thirty years of deregulation and tax leniency for the rich, even though these policies are causes of the misery faced by Berkeley students and their parents.  Like many charter proponents who are often well intentioned, economic reality is somehow divorced in their minds from schooling and thus the real lives of students — the economic and social material conditions that keep them leashed to poverty, crime, gangs, drugs, incarceration and high drop out rates; all this remains hidden under a social rug of despair as the soaring rhetoric or the school drowns out the real issues.

This is hardly unusual, for many charter school proponents not only fail to tie systematic economic poverty and social malfunction with achievement gaps in education, they immorally propose privatized charter schools as the cure for the problem of a failing socio-economic system pockmarked by class disparities, racism and a broken and disappearing public realm.  So what we see consistently is that what charter school proponents propose is not the eradication of poverty, racism, sexism and class disparities within their cities and in their country, generally; rather their solution is to accept the high levels of economic and social devastation and class inequalities as inevitable and then offer a remedy in the form of elite enclaves of learning, or boutique charter schools in the case of REALM.  All o this is an attempt to carve out social spaces of privilege for a few lucky students or those well connected.  This can hardly serve to help all students, many of which come from impoverished families experiencing the morose reality exposed in the statistics above.  Nor can it serve to build a people’s movement to challenge the Wall Street interests and coin-operated politicians that represent them.

II.

If REALM is right, then why not work to offer this to all public students in Berkeley Public schools?

The REALM program of learning appears to be not only legitimate, but important for students, parents and society.  If this is true, then why are the REALM founders not offering to work collectively with residents throughout all of Berkeley’s public schools to assure there are adequate public resources for all students to be exposed to a dynamic and project based critical thinking curriculum?  The failure to advocate the REALM program within all Berkeley schools indicates that abdication of the belief in a universal public education for all students regardless of race, color or gender.  In this way, not only does REALM not offer the ability to mobilize large segments of the population of Berkeley to demand high-quality education for all students and an end to economic policies that punish their cities, but it does the exact opposite.  It serves to divide and demobilize parents and citizens around the application of a solution to a symptom of capitalism, by exacerbating the eventual collapse of public education through drawing down state and federal funds allocated for Berkeley schools.  This is called ‘choice’ by the neo-liberal backers of charter schools.

One can conclude that in reality, REALM charter schools threaten to exacerbate the same class and race inequalities that have driven them to found the entire notion of REALM and they do this by failing to fight for the right of all students to learn and the rights of all teachers to have decision making over their curriculums and their academic freedom. This fight for the civil rights of both teachers and students would be one that would demand funding for public education to offer the opportunities for all students to be exposed to a REALM-like curriculum and entail massive organizing against the economic policies that have led to a depraved social and economic system and a deracinated citizenry.  If REALM founders were truly wedded to an ethics of solidarity, diversity, the provision of equitable opportunities to all students, and a commitment to participation in power by working people within governing institutions, wouldn’t they be fighting for all public schools?  Or is their plan, like so many charter chains, to continue to expand their operations and thus inevitably help to tear down public schools in entirety?

Let’s face it, research shows that most charter school advocates have larger agendas that involve not only ‘growing their business’ by building or leasing more schools and expanding their retail charter chains, but many of the proponents or charter schools are little more than ‘Trojan’ horses looking to dismantle public education in favor of the privatization of education through non-profit or for-profit retail educational charter chains.  Over the years what was once a progressive idea, the small community school, has been captured by powerful entrepreneurial interests as I and others have written about extensively.  It is now a powerful business venture, the new Wall Street bubble, funded by billionaires, bankers and investment funds — the same elites who got us into the economic depression we are experiencing today.  Through their think tanks and ‘research papers’, along with their organizing efforts to secure dictatorial mayoral control and subservient school boards, these powerful interests have managed to implement their strategies in cities throughout the United States and their plan is clear: replace public education with corporate education under the guise of non-profits or simply for-profit educational maintenance organizations (EMOs).  The primary ‘providers’ of education will not longer be within the realm of the public sector, this sector will be reduced to the secondary provider while the burgeoning corporate sector will become the primary providers, subsidized by tax dollars.

If as Diaz and McBride told me is true, that they will be seeking philanthropic funds from such entities as the El Broad Foundation, the Walton Family Fund (Wal-Mart), the Fisher Family (the Gap) and the Gates Foundation (Microsoft), then these economic interests will have a large part to play in the decision-making at REALM schools.  They will have to for the state budget is busted and only the philanthropists have the funds that can provide the seed money for the start up costs we spoke of earlier.  There is little doubt that these so-called philanthropists will influence school governance and structure through their Superintendents Academies (Eli Broad) that promote principals as CEOs and a business model for education.  They will become the new paymasters for the practitioners at REALM, for they are the deep pockets that subsidize the charter movement nationally.  These well heeled philanthropists provide start-up funds in the millions and their agenda is clear: privatized education, the destruction of teacher unions, merit pay for teachers, curriculum controlled through Race to the Top, standardized testing based on No Child Left Behind, and a curriculum that is geared towards competitiveness, which they say is lacking and needed to compete in their new global economy.  They too accept the class inequalities and racism that exists in society, but for different reasons: they both serve their interests by keeping workers controlled through divide and conquer politics.

If indeed billionaire philanthropists will look to dip their wick into the charter school movement in Berkeley and operate to subsidize the development of new charter schools like REALM (for the public sector certainly cannot), then it is important to see them as they really are.  For though they pose as philanthropists, one must ask where and how they actually got the billions of dollars they have to donate.  Are they really philanthropists or can they best be described as ‘corporate pirates’ who have received their riches through exploitation and then use their ‘charitable giving’ to assure a society that is class based and continues to protect their interests – profit accumulation and control?

III.

 

Opening the door to the venture philanthropic-capitalists

 

Eli Broad

Outside entities that pour money into education tend to have a view of reform that favors charter schools and lauds privatization and Eli Broad is one of the most notorious.  He advocates stiffer curriculum standards, weakened teachers unions and more testing.  A large player in the national charter school movement and a leader in privatizing schools, Eli Broad is little more than a venture capitalist and according to Kenneth Saltman, a writer and researcher who watches the so-called philanthropist movement carefully:

Venture philanthropy in education whose leading proponents include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation departs radically from the age of “scientific” industrial philanthropy characterized by Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford. These traditional philanthropies, despite pursuing a largely conservative role of undermining radical social movements, nonetheless framed their projects in terms of the public good and sought to provide individuals with public information through schools, libraries, and museums.

Venture philanthropy treats schooling as a private consumable service and promotes business remedies, reforms, and assumptions with regard to public schooling. Some of the most significant projects involve promoting charter schools to inject market competition and “choice” into the public sector as well as using cash bonuses for teacher pay and to “incentivize” students.

VP treats giving to public schooling as a “social investment” that like venture capital, must begin with a business plan, must involve quantitative measurement of efficacy, must be replicable to be “brought to scale”, and ideally will “leverage” public spending in ways compatible with the strategic donor. In the parlance of venture philanthropy grants are referred to as “investments”, donors are called “investors”, impact is renamed “social return”, evaluation becomes “performance measurement”, grant reviewing turns into “due diligence”, the grant list is renamed an “investment portfolio,” charter networks are referred to as “franchises” — to name but some of the recasting of giving on investment. Within the view of venture philanthropy, donors are framed as both entrepreneurs and consumers while recipients are represented as investments. Does this terminology sound familiar in the school districts where you work or live? If so, you can be assured that the Broad infection has spread there (Saltman, K. Saltman on venture philanthropy and Eli Broad, http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/2009/11/saltman-on-venture-philanthropy-eli.html).

Eli Broad came by his fortune running a corporate homebuilding company, KB Homes and through ties to the discredited criminals at AIG that were bailed out by Bush’s Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson and Timothy Geitner of the New York Federal Reserve, currently an Obama economic advisor and former Goldman Sachs thug.  Although this paper cannot explore all the cookie crumb trail of the hideous privatization efforts by Broad, including the Broad Superintendents Academy and Broad’s placement of many of his ‘disciples’ in the Department of Education in both the states and the federal government, you can certainly read all about Broad at Kenneth Saltman’s website and discover for yourself how he is placing Broad followers and privatizers in key positions throughout the United States.

Broad is a ruthless corporatist who has, along with Gates, Walton and other venture capitalists, virtually taken over the Federal Department of Education.  His policies can be glimpsed in Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top proposal, which Broad is encouraging with his millions in philanthropy.  Broad’s corporate ties and Wall Street connections makes him a prime example of the piracy that is seeking to overturn two hundred years of public education in favor of a corporate business model.  Broad is not a philanthropist but little more than a white collar criminal.  Is this what Berkeley wishes to endorse and usher in by approving charter schools such as REALM?

 

 

 

The Walton Family Foundation

Perhaps the most appropriate place to begin is really with Wal-Mart, which has pledged millions through its owners and their Walton Family Foundation to charter school development and other educational privatization schemes.

Wal-Mart has been a target for human rights and worker rights groups for years.  On January 25^th, 2007 Wal-Mart settled with the Department of Labor over non-payment of overtime to employees.  The amount:  $33 million dollars in back wages stolen from workers.  The Wal-Mart business plan, as aptly explained by Kim Bobo in her new work, Wage theft in America, notes that Wal-Mart executives pressure managers at their stores to cut costs resulting in wage theft at local stores (Bobo, K. Wage Theft in America, 2009.  The New Press: New York).  As a result, workers, or ‘associates’, are treated as cattle in the Wal-Mart accumulation process.

On July 2, 2008, for example, A Minnesota judge ordered Wal-Mart Store, Inc. to pay 6.5 million in back pay to 56,000 Wal-Mart workers who were forced to work off the clock and through meal and rest breaks (ibid).    Judge King, who heard the case, wrote that:

Wal-Mart was on notice from numerous sources of the wage and hour violations at issue and failed to correct the problem (ibid),

The allegation against Wal-Mart involved more than 2 million violations and Wal-Mart could owe as much as 2 billion dollars from the pending civil suits.  The attorneys representing the workers alleged that Wal-Mart was under such staffing pressures and performance goals that they actually falsified time cards, forced employees to work of the clock, and failed to pay for staff training.  More than seventy other suits have been filed against Wal-Mart (ibid).

Then, of course, there is Wal-Mart’s notorious hatred of unions.  They have moved stores where union representation threatens them, fired workers who attempt to unionize, created propaganda demonizing unions which workers are forced to expose themselves to and funded organizations and think tanks that profess to destroy unions.

In light of all this documented wage theft and exploitation of workers civil and legal rights, is the Walton Family really the philanthropists they claim to be?  Or are they simply pirates, corporate criminals operating under the mask of charitable giving when in fact what they are giving is the stolen wages and benefits of their workers that they have been able to accumulate through intimidation, fear and ruthless business practices?

If they are indeed an unscrupulous corporation that exploits labor within the US and overseas then aren’t they part and parcel of what is wrong with America?  Don’t they contribute to the class inequalities, racism and exploitation of working people and the ghastly statistics cited above?  If the answer to any of this is yes, then why would Berkeley Unified School District and the founders of REALM wish to have them as paymasters or players in their charter plans?  Isn’t this simply aiding and abetting the looting of America and opening the door further to corporatization?  Can teachers be expected to be confronted with the same business practices of wage theft, overtime without pay and ‘associate’ status?  After all, the best way to cut costs is to reduce wages and benefits for workers, and Wal-Mart knows this; they are masters at it.

Thomas Kochan, the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the co-director of both the MIT workplace Center and the Institute for Work and Employment, explained the Wal-Mart business plan in his expert testimony in the 2006 case charging Wal-Mart with not paying its hourly ‘associates’.  According to testimony by Kochan:

Wal-Mart executives have established corporate policies that are ethical and appear to conform to legal requirements.  However, Wal-Mart has established financial and business objectives that managers find difficult to achieve without circumventing those rules.  Importantly, there are strong financial and career advancement incentives or store managers to meet Wal-Mart’s financial objectives, but there are essentially no financial or career advancement incentives to adhere to corporate policies that protect and/or benefit hourly employees (i.e. providing rest breaks and full compensation).  Store managers can also lose their jobs for failing to meet Wal-Mart’s profitability objectives.  The result is that managers ignore rules of this type to make their financial objectives (ibid).

Sure, this is the business plan along with exporting labor to third world countries; hardly philanthropy.  The BUSD should think long and hard about how REALM can and probably will provide a slippery slope to the Walmartization of education by opening the door for Wal-Mart corporate practices.  For once they are involved in education, as history has shown, they leverage their charitable gifts with specific demands and the demands are always the same: low wages and benefits, high profitability, lack of unionization and the resultant competition among employees.

The Fisher Family

Another major player in the philanthropy movement that has now taken over the charter school agenda is the Fisher family, through their Pisces Foundation.  The Fishers own the Gap, a highly profitable corporation.  So the question is; what is their track record when it comes to treating working people with dignity and equality?

In 2005 the Gap, Inc. settled with the Department of Labor over a dispute that alleged they had asked their employees to pay for the clothes needed to work at the stores.  The amount of the settlement was 1.8 million dollars.  As Kim Bobo rightly notes, this was a form of wage theft and part of the business plan to keep costs down and profits up.  Though it hardly reaches the magnitude of the theft engaged in by Wal-Mart, it certainly is testimony to corporate exploitation of working men and women who happen to work for the Gap.  One has to ask, as we have with Wal-Mart and the Walton Family Foundation: are these the kinds of unethical practices that Berkeley schools are willing to endorse if REALM is approved and the Fisher Family’s Pisces Foundation is ushered in?

Like the Walton family, the Fishers are staunch anti-public school constituents who use their largess to undermine unions, teachers and public education as they work assiduously to privatize education.  Are they pirates or philanthropists?

Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Without a doubt one of the largest players in the privatization of public education and the movement to promote Charter Management Organizations and retail charter chains is Bill Gates, owner of Microsoft.  It seems with the state and federal government broke and on its knees, Gates is everywhere, from education to health.  He is lauded for his ceaseless efforts to improve the lives of American citizens and even those abroad.  Yet a close examination of the practices of Microsoft, one of the largest transnational corporations in the world, reveals Gates’ disdain for regulations, tariffs, and equitable trade and international policies.  This essay cannot itemize the corporate crimes of Gates, for a full list of the litigation leveled at Microsoft for its violation of anti-trust laws at home and abroad on can visit Groklaw at http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=2005010107100653.

Gates is little more than a pirate who disdains regulations and works to maintain monopolistic control over his industry by engaging in illegal trade practices, violations of trade agreements, outsourcing work to third world countries and working to protect proprietary copyright laws by putting competitors out of business.  Gates is anything but a free market capitalist, preferring no competition in his industry while championing competition between kids and schools.  His record is insidious and his elevation to the level of philanthropist and the public acclaim lavished on him by the media and his political supplicants is a public relations coup he launched years ago to build his own image and legacy.

Does Bill Gates bring the kind of agenda and ethics to education that he embraces in business?  The answer is of course yes, and anyone who reads Tough Choices or Tough Times, a Gates’ funded publication will see the agenda Gates is pushing for schools.  It is the “compete with China or else” agenda where students are produced as workers to become underpaid competitors in the global capitalist enterprise Gates is building.  Gates will no doubt get his fingers into Berkeley as well, if REALM is approved.  Is this what Berkeley citizens want, pirate philanthropists setting the agenda for “best practices” and “reform” of education based on corporatist models of education that herald the same market fundamentalism that brought down the American economic system and pillages third world countries or cheap labor?

Any coupling of the billionaire oligarch’s agenda for education with a seemingly faith-based charter school, REALM, would cement ties between capital and religion and help move this country closer and closer to a partnership with theocracy.

IV.

Teacher salaries, benefits, working conditions and retirement

We looked at the proposed salaries, benefits and compensation plans that are being proposed by REALM.  They smack not only of Wal-Mart’s business plan, but they can hardly be seen as helping to build a dedicated teaching force capable of providing educational opportunities to kids.  From retirement to compensation for work, from long hours to benefits, teachers in the REALM scheme of things will be the dispensaries of knowledge.  They will be allowed to unionize under the Wagner Act, but it is obvious the plan by REALM is keeping with that of most other charter schools that look to scoop up young, unsuspecting teachers who will have little knowledge or experience with unions and will instead embrace the REALM compensation plan.  And although REALM speaks of a curriculum of critical thinking and project based learning teachers will find themselves tethered to increasing test scores for the new charter school; for this is the testocracy promoted by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the new philanthropists that will serve as the hallmark of the No Child Left Behind rating system that will be relied on to gain funding and expansion.

As to the working conditions of staff needed at the school, we spoke of the likely outsourcing of formerly public school union jobs to corporations who will handle the payroll and administrative and classified services necessary for the day to day operations of the school.  They will be generally low-paid workers with little or no opportunities for advancement as they will not be working for the school, but for a company which contracts with the school.  This means not only will they more than likely be at-will employees who labor under no contract, but they will generally be from immigrant populations and suffer the hardship of low wages, high turnover and little if any benefits.  If this is true, what will their buy-in to the REALM school be and how will they be part of the ‘community’ that REALM seeks to advance?

IV.

 

Resegregation

 

Will REALM schools lead to further class and racial divisions and stratification?  The answer can be found by looking at studies of charter schools and segregation.  According to Suzanne Eckes and Kelly Rapp, as indicated in their 2007 granular examination of segregation and the impact of charter schools, in a report entitled Dispelling the Myth of “White Flight”: An Examination of Minority Enrollment in Charter Schools, examined data of reported student body diversity in the 32 states that enroll more than 1,000 students in charter schools (as of 2002-2003).  They came up with the following finding

Segregation in charter schools is not unavoidable considering that they often can exercise more control of student body composition through recruitment measures. (Eckes, S. Rapp, K.. Policy, v21 n4 p615-661 2007  http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED430323&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&accno=EJ772715&_nfls=false&objectId=0900019b80189026).

The article details a disappointing set of findings regarding its central question — namely, that charter schools are largely more segregated than public schools and segregation is much worse for African American than for Latino students.  But this makes sense, first of all America is a segregated country and second of all, capital seeks customers and where can they find the most, large urban areas where disenfranchised youth sit idly in public schools that could be charterized.  According to the study, in some states white student isolation in charter schools is extrmeley hight and incredibly segregated.  Going on, the authors note:

The justification for segregated schools as places of opportunity is basically a “separate but equal” justification, an argument that there is something about the schools that can and does overcome the normal pattern of educational inequality that afflicts many of these schools. Charter school advocates continually assert such advantages and often point to the strong demand for the schools by minority parents in minority communities, including schools that are designed specifically to serve a minority population. It is certainly true that minority parents are actively seeking alternatives to segregated, concentrated poverty, and low-achieving public schools. White parents have also shown strong interest in educational alternatives as evidenced by the strong demand for magnet schools (ibid).

With REALM targeting mainly Latino and African American students, the propensity for further re-segregation will not only not ameliorate the problems with racial and class disparities in public schools, it promises to exacerbate them.  It offers no hope for meaningful social change, only a remedy for those privileged enough to ‘get a seat’ at REALM.

Voluntary Segregation from the Public Realm

Yet as Chungmei Lee and Erica Frankenberg argue, the high level of racial segregation in charter schools is really not a big surprise when viewed in light of the existing segregation in many aspects of American life.  Nor is their argument regarding re-segregation something to be taken lightly.  They go on to claim that those who think that charter schools are inherently likely to be free of racial inequality need to reflect on the racial consequences of other market based approaches to life operating in such areas as housing, employment, health care, the provision of public transportation, opportunity and availability of health care, climbing prison populations, percentage of foreclosures and home ownership and the list could go on. Here, it can be argued, as both Harvard professors do, that markets have worked more to perpetuate and spread racial inequality rather than to confront it and cure it.   From the authors’ point of view:

One could accurately say that the normal outcome of markets when applied to a racially stratified society is a perpetuation of racial stratification. This is why early educational choice programs were often found to produce white flight from integrated schools and to contribute to segregation in many school desegregation trials. Those experiences were apparently unknown or overlooked by designers and supporters of many charter school policies (ibid).

Many parents and their political constituencies, from home-schoolers preferring to segregate from the public forum altogether, to religious and ethnic advocates for charter schools there is a increased mobilization to use charter schools and charter school legislation as a means to actually voluntarily segregate from others in the public realm, either by gender, race, religion, cultural or ethnic focus.  REALM represents this problem.

Take for example, the passage of a bill in January of 2008 changing Delaware’s charter school law to allow single-gender schools.  The bill was passed in the state House, with legislators reaching a compromise to assure it provides equal protection and would not be vulnerable to constitutional challenge.  The bill sailed on through the legislature to eventually achieve passage in the senate, despite some opposition. Delaware Rep. Diana McWilliams, D-Fox Point, questioned:

“I am very concerned that this be a very slippery slope back to segregated schools” Policy, v21 n4 p615-661 2007  http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED430323&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&accno=EJ772715&_nfls=false&objectId=0900019b80189026).

She should be, for instead of working within multiracial coalitions that seek to struggle against racial segregation, charter schools like REALM, have been found to show that they actually further such dis-association and bolster re-segregation efforts.  This is a tragedy, not an opportunity.

V.

Parental decision-making

Parental decision-making and control is another problematic issue associated with all charter schools, and REALM will be no different, despite the fact that Pastor McBride continuously told me that parents should have a ‘choice’.  With an interim board of ‘founders’ and a future ‘elected’ board teachers, parents and students will find that they have little decision-making in the charter school.  This has been the experience of charter schools throughout the nation.  These non-profit boards are virtually private boards that are installed through campaigning and patronage, privilege and obedience without questioning.

As stated, non-profit status can operate to allow outsourcing or privatization through the backdoor and when this happens there is little control over the day to day operations of the schools.  These are run by the contractors, the vendors.  They are responsible for their employees, salaries and benefits not the charter school.  The ‘Director’ of the REALM school will make the decisions at the school, if it is approved, and directors have a great deal of power as the new CEO’s.  They can operate often in virtual secrecy, make day-to-day decisions without being held accountable and fail to provide timely and relevant information about the schools they run.  They also accumulate political capital through their relationships with big business and their political representatives and often never cede power; if they do, it is usually to cronies and patrons.

Unlike a traditional public school where the public can get information about how the school is run and the day to day operations, both financial and otherwise, non-profits are shielded from laws that require full disclosure and full transparency and one is left with little more than a false appearance of democratic decision-making.  No longer can one just amble down to the local school and get answers to questions.  Whether questions by concerned citizens are parents are answered falls within the providence of the laws surrounding non-profits and the Director’s discretion.

VI.

Student admissions

REALM indicates that it will admit students who do not get the first seats by lottery.  This admission policy by lottery is not only cruel, but has the propensity to lead to nepotism and preferential privileges in admission of students not granted to the average student.  One can surmise that the slots, or seats in the classroom, will be filled with REALM advocates, cronies, founders and organizers who will be rewarded with REALM admission for their children.  This is what has happened in New Orleans as one can read in my article at dissidentvoice.org.  This will all lead to what educators call “creaming” or giving preference to certain students over others.  This “creaming” threatens the ability of special needs children to get an education at the boutique REALM charter school and thus they will languish in the decimated public schools that will hemorrhage financially if charter schools are allowed to skim public funds for their operations.  All of this leads to student stratification and unequal opportunities for education.

Take the following scenario found in a New York Sun article and described by Jonathan Dolle, of Stanford University and Anne Newman, from Washington University.

In their 2008 study, Luck of the Draw:  On the Fariness of Charter school admission Policies, they describe a typical lottery scene from New York:

Would scholar Bobby Bowman come on up,” the head of the school, Eva  Moskowitz, boomed into a microphone after Bobby’s name was the first to be plucked from the box. A few parents did a little dance as they were handed a yellow piece of paper with instructions about how to officially enroll their child.

“It’s like ‘American Idol.’ I got my gold ticket to Hollywood,” Nigel White beamed after his daughter’s name was pulled from the box (Dolle and Newman 2009).

(http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/6/4/3/5/pages364353/p364353-2.php Dolle, J., Newman, A . Luck of the Draw:  On the Fariness of Charter school admission Policies. Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference, Chicago IL April 2, 2009

For a charter school to receive state and federal financial support, they are required by law to use an admissions lottery when the number of applicants exceeds available seats in the classroom.  The notion of utilizing lotteries has been argued to be effective for admissions as they these lotteries vitiate any ‘creaming’ potential on behalf of charter schools by not relying on market mechanisms or merit based testing to target their admission of students. At first blush the lottery admission system seems appropriate and fair; using lotteries, argue policy makers, is a provision to assure that admission to the schools not based on merit-based admissions and that it is necessary to give all students an equal chance to attend a charter school of their choice.  But does it?  Not according to the 2008 study conducted by Dolle and Newman.  They note:

a closer examination of charter admissions lotteries is warranted for three important reasons. First, charter schools often incorporate preferences into their lottery procedures, increasing the chances that certain types of students get admitted. The fairness of these preferences deserves closer examination. Second, because the outcomes of lotteries are random, the fairness of results cannot be checked in the same way market- or merit-based distributions can be checked. In the case of market distribution, fairness can be defended after the fact by gathering evidence that demonstrates an absence of coercion, truth in advertising, or other common legal requirements. In the case of merit- based admission, fairness can be defended after the fact on substantive grounds: does the distribution respect the relative strength of individuals’ claims? But lotteries have no ex post check on the fairness of outcomes. The only way to know a lottery was fair is to know a fair procedure was used—that is, one resulting in genuinely random outcomes.  We argue that confirming the fairness of a lottery procedure ex post is more difficult in the case of charter admissions than is typically understood.  A third reason admissions lotteries warrant more attention is because the integrity of findings about charter schools’ outcomes is contingent upon the integrity of their admissions processes.  This is especially true as a growing number of educational researchers use school admissions lotteries as proxies for random assignment: those admitted are the treatment group and those denied admission (presumably because they lost the admissions lottery), are the control group. If, as we argue, there are reasons to question the transparency and accountability of charter admissions lotteries, this may have implications for the trust we put in comparisons of charter schools and regular public schools (ibid).

The potential danger described by Dolle and Newman in their report is that charter school admission policies, such as the lottery mechanism, can actually serve to discriminate against specific families, students or groups that a charter school might not like while pursuing policies of nepotism; thus the concern with transparency and accountability on behalf of those constructing the lottery.  Finally, one cannot help from noticing just how insidious ‘public choice’ or competition can be when it operates to induce parents to compare their child’s admission in a charter school with a privileged contestant in a ‘game show’ or ‘winning’ in ‘American Idol’.  Of course for the disillusioned and frustrated parents that don’t succeed in ‘winning the lottery’ they become transformed into mere ‘spectators’ of the auctioning process.  The scarcity model offered by lotteries and the individualistic competition between parents for adequate public education for their children cannot, arguably, be healthy for building strong community ties and relationships built on collaboration and equity.  It certainly cannot be said to constitute a legitimate ‘public choice’.

 

What do parents and their children really want from their schools?

 

The answer to the question posed above is no mystery: parents and their children want access to a viable education where children can be exposed to a curriculum that will enhance children’s need for critical thinking, exposure to the arts and music; an environment of inquiry where they feel safe and can learn to work and learn collaboratively with others.  They want schools that offer services for their children, institutions where their children are valued for who they are regardless of race, class, gender or gender preference.  Parents want to know that when they drop their children off at school they will be safe, cared for by caring adults within a caring community based on fostering collaboration.  They also want to be assured that their children receive a quality education that will enhance their employment chances and advance their social mobility.

Children want a curriculum and learning experience that motivates them, connects them to the world through relevant opportunities to learn to reason about the world within which they live and an equal opportunity to develop their cognitive and emotional skills and intelligences.  Teachers want the same thing and thus they need an environment of civility and inquiry for their students where teachers, parents and students can make decisions about their curriculum and the day to day operations of the school itself.

Yet with more and more and more and more budget cuts, public sector deliquescence and a brutal slashing of educational programs, resources and teachers, neither parents, their children nor teachers are receiving the educational opportunities they deserve; certainly they are not receiving an education they will need to grapple with the myriad social and personal problems that have arisen under the decades old shift in social and economic policies that benefit the leisure class.  For many students and their parents, the dragnet has replaced the safety net as families face homelessness and lawlessness and as schools more and more lace their shallow curriculums to No Child Left Behind and the hideous uniform standardization of learning and teaching.

The problem is that the proposed REALM schools cannot provide families and their children with what they need and want.  The most vulnerable students, what I call the ‘sub prime kids’ – black, Latino, immigrant and poor kids who the REALM promises to serve will instead face intensified segregation, isolation and heightened inequality if the BUSD approves the REALM charter school scheme.  With special needs students left to languish in the hollowed out traditional public schools, left with little resources and reduced budgets due to transference of public funds to the new charters, and with parents losing control over the decision-making at charter schools by the implementation of non-profit ‘boards’ ‘directors’ and the eager hands of philanthopic venture funds, the majority of students both inside and outside of the proposed REALM school will be thrown to the wolves.  State by state, city by city, instead of ameliorating or closing the achievement gap, charter schools have exacerbated the gap and this can be seen in study after study (see dailycensored.com, Danny Weil).

For working families to assure that public education provides a quality education that is universal and free, the answer will not be found in voluntary segregation or charter schemes like REALM, it will be found through the mobilization of all working people to confront the horrors of neo-liberal economics and to see how education is an economic issue, not simply an issue of schooling.  Locking for individual solutions to social problems like education, will promise to prevent massive mobilization, solidarity and the fight for equity and an end to classcism and racism.  This, and only this, will assure that the concerns parents express will be addressed in any meaningful way.  What is needed now is societal change, economic equity and participation in power.

Conclusion

Charter schools like REALM will not only not solve problems of student performance, racial disparities, and class inequalities they will, or reasons indicated in this essay, exacerbate them.  They represent what is wrong with American education, not what can be done to solve the problems inherent in providing a decent affordable education for all students.  They are little more than an attempt to reduce the public school sector and all those who labor in it to the slave quarters of education.

The amazing part of this whole sordid mess is how a city, like Berkeley, long known for its progressive organizing and commitment to student rights, could even consider such a proposal?  The answer can be found in the fact that our cities and our schools are broke due to the practices of a few handful of rich corporations, bankers and individuals who see nothing on the horizon of education except profits to be made, students to be controlled, and unions to be decimated.  This and the fact the people who purport to represent us are either clueless or take their talking points from think tanks and ‘experts’ wedded to market based policies.

What is needed now is a movement hat can protect public schools by understanding why they have often failed in their mission and how this failure is connected to the devastating lives of the citizens who must attend them.  What we are facing in Berkeley and elsewhere is the need to build coalitions that throw out the corporatization of America, that stand for eliminate tracking in schools, that work to reduce class size through funding public education not elite enclaves of leaning divorced from reality, to teach critical thinking to all children and to repeal the awful managerial control and regimentation put in place by the testing regime of No Child Left Behind.  This will all take mobilization, debate, frank and open discussions and an understanding of how racism, classcism and the system that sanctions both in favor of an elite few who have brought down the economy of America works, who it benefits and why.

The answer now is not to pull out of the public realm by charterizing and other privatization schemes, but to enter into the public fray and begin to struggle for the rights to a universal public quality education, much like the struggle for a universal quality health care system.  The good news is that from Detroit to Berkeley these coalitions are being fostered and will grow in the future as the privatization panacea for education shows its insidious and bankrupt backside.  For the oligarchs that are building them and that are selling them to an unwitting public desperate for an educational system that works for their children, are not interested in education for all – they are interested in education for a few.

Will Berkeley, as Yvette Felarca, a national organizer for By Any Means Necessary asks (www.bamn.com):  “Do Berkeley residents want a Book T. Washington style segregation of their schools through privatized charters?  Or will they fight for the critical thinking vision imagined and fought for by W.E.B. Dubois – a society where all children have access to free, universal education based on principles of solidarity, an appreciation of diversity, equitable opportunities to learn and participation in their democracy and school sites their children attend.”

If the REALM charter school proposal goes through on February 3, 2009, it will mark the beginning of the end for universal public education in Berkeley and will contribute to the dismal economic crisis facing schools, such as in San Francisco where $113,000,000 in cuts proposed for San Francisco Schools (SF Chronicle, January 27, 2009), opening up the ‘market’ to the oligarchs and privatizers looking to make a buck off of our kids while creating a class and race based educational system.

The time now is to oppose this approach to ‘reforming’ education through charter school scams, and begin to get ready for the massive outpouring against the privatization of education on March 4, 2010.  Let’s make March 4 an historic turning point in the struggle against the cuts, layoffs, fee hikes, and the re-segregation of public education. (To endorse this call and to receive more information contact march4strikeanddayofaction@gmail.com and check out www.defendcapubliceducation.wordpress.com ).

You can see all my articles regarding privatization and charter schools at under writer posts at dailycensored.com or at dissidentvoice.org or at Counterpunc.com.

Also, my new book: Charter Schools, 2nd edition is out.  But it is only available through Grey House Publishing company.  It is close to one thousand pages long and might provide the reader with more ammo to see how privatiztaion is replacing public education.