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The Corporate Takeover of American Schools
The trend for appointing CEOs to the top jobs is symptomatic of a declining commitment to public education and social justice
Nov 16, 2010
The top positions in state education across the US - for example,
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, recent chancellors Joel Klein (New
York) and Michelle Rhee (Washington, DC), and incoming Chancellor
Cathleen P Black (New York) - reflect a trust in CEO-style leadership
for education management and reform. Along with these new leaders in
education, billionaire entrepreneurs have also assumed roles as
education saviours: Bill and Melinda Gates, and Geoffrey Canada.
Gates,
Canada, Duncan, Klein and Rhee have capitalised on their positions in
education to rise to the status of celebrities, as well - praised in the misleading documentary feature Waiting for Superman, on Oprah, and even on Bill Maher's Real Time.
What do all these professional managers and entrepreneurs have in common?
Little
or no experience or expertise in education. (Instead, they have degrees
in government and law, along with nontraditional entries into education
and strong ties to alternative certification, such as Teach for America).
Further, they all represent and promote a cultural faith in the power
of leadership above the importance of experience or expertise.
When Klein quit his post as chancellor in New York - soon after Michelle Rhee left DC - the fact that he was leaving for a senior position at News Corp and that his replacement would be a magazine executive
sent a strong message. The implication was that the American public
distrusts not only schools, but also teachers and education experts.
More
telling, however, is the appointment of Duncan as secretary of
education under President Obama. This appointment of a CEO-style leader
of schools in Chicago comes under a Democratic administration and,
ironically, a president once demonised as too friendly with the radical
left within the education community.
Like Obama, Secretary Duncan has led refrains against bad teachers,
while ignoring the growing impact of poverty on the lives of children
and on schools. One very visible effect of this trend for recruiting
CEO-style leaders and billionaire entrepreneurs is the new commitment to
corporate-sponsored charter schools - such as the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) among the most high profile.
The
messages coming from state education in the US, then, are that
government has failed and that only the private sector can save us. But
is that message accurate?
The corporate push to take over state
education is, in fact, masking the failures of corporate America. And,
in turn, this masks the fact that America has failed state education,
rather than state education failing America.
The standards,
testing and accountability movement is built on a claim that education
can change society. The corporate support for the accountability
movement and the "no excuses" charter school movement seeks to reinforce
that claim because, otherwise, corporate America and the politicians
supporting corporate America would have to admit that something is wrong
with our economic and political structures.
And the evidence isn't on the side of corporate America.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has shown
that only 14% of pupil achievement can be attributed to the quality of
the school; 86% of that achievement is driven by factors outside of
education. David Berliner has also established six out-of-school factors that overwhelm the effectiveness of education against poverty and expanding social inequities.
In the US, achievement gaps and failure in state schools reflect larger inequalities in society,
as well as dysfunction in corporate, consumer culture. The schools did
not cause those gaps or failures - although it is true that, far too
often, they perpetuate the social stratification. And the evidence shows
that schools alone will never be able to overcome powerful social
forces.
The real failure, which is the message being ignored
here, is that one of the wealthiest countries in the world refuses to
face the inequities of its economic system, a system that permits more than 20% of its children to live in poverty (pdf) and to languish in schools that America has clearly decided to abandon, along with its democratic principles.
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Paul Thomas
Paul Thomas is associate professor of education at Furman University in
Greenville, South Carolina. Paul publishes frequently on education,
focusing on the politics of education and the role of poverty in
schools. His most recent books include Parental Choice (2010) andChallenging Genres: Comics and Graphic Novels (2010). Paul blogs here about his scholarly and commentary work
The top positions in state education across the US - for example,
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, recent chancellors Joel Klein (New
York) and Michelle Rhee (Washington, DC), and incoming Chancellor
Cathleen P Black (New York) - reflect a trust in CEO-style leadership
for education management and reform. Along with these new leaders in
education, billionaire entrepreneurs have also assumed roles as
education saviours: Bill and Melinda Gates, and Geoffrey Canada.
Gates,
Canada, Duncan, Klein and Rhee have capitalised on their positions in
education to rise to the status of celebrities, as well - praised in the misleading documentary feature Waiting for Superman, on Oprah, and even on Bill Maher's Real Time.
What do all these professional managers and entrepreneurs have in common?
Little
or no experience or expertise in education. (Instead, they have degrees
in government and law, along with nontraditional entries into education
and strong ties to alternative certification, such as Teach for America).
Further, they all represent and promote a cultural faith in the power
of leadership above the importance of experience or expertise.
When Klein quit his post as chancellor in New York - soon after Michelle Rhee left DC - the fact that he was leaving for a senior position at News Corp and that his replacement would be a magazine executive
sent a strong message. The implication was that the American public
distrusts not only schools, but also teachers and education experts.
More
telling, however, is the appointment of Duncan as secretary of
education under President Obama. This appointment of a CEO-style leader
of schools in Chicago comes under a Democratic administration and,
ironically, a president once demonised as too friendly with the radical
left within the education community.
Like Obama, Secretary Duncan has led refrains against bad teachers,
while ignoring the growing impact of poverty on the lives of children
and on schools. One very visible effect of this trend for recruiting
CEO-style leaders and billionaire entrepreneurs is the new commitment to
corporate-sponsored charter schools - such as the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) among the most high profile.
The
messages coming from state education in the US, then, are that
government has failed and that only the private sector can save us. But
is that message accurate?
The corporate push to take over state
education is, in fact, masking the failures of corporate America. And,
in turn, this masks the fact that America has failed state education,
rather than state education failing America.
The standards,
testing and accountability movement is built on a claim that education
can change society. The corporate support for the accountability
movement and the "no excuses" charter school movement seeks to reinforce
that claim because, otherwise, corporate America and the politicians
supporting corporate America would have to admit that something is wrong
with our economic and political structures.
And the evidence isn't on the side of corporate America.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has shown
that only 14% of pupil achievement can be attributed to the quality of
the school; 86% of that achievement is driven by factors outside of
education. David Berliner has also established six out-of-school factors that overwhelm the effectiveness of education against poverty and expanding social inequities.
In the US, achievement gaps and failure in state schools reflect larger inequalities in society,
as well as dysfunction in corporate, consumer culture. The schools did
not cause those gaps or failures - although it is true that, far too
often, they perpetuate the social stratification. And the evidence shows
that schools alone will never be able to overcome powerful social
forces.
The real failure, which is the message being ignored
here, is that one of the wealthiest countries in the world refuses to
face the inequities of its economic system, a system that permits more than 20% of its children to live in poverty (pdf) and to languish in schools that America has clearly decided to abandon, along with its democratic principles.
Paul Thomas
Paul Thomas is associate professor of education at Furman University in
Greenville, South Carolina. Paul publishes frequently on education,
focusing on the politics of education and the role of poverty in
schools. His most recent books include Parental Choice (2010) andChallenging Genres: Comics and Graphic Novels (2010). Paul blogs here about his scholarly and commentary work
The top positions in state education across the US - for example,
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, recent chancellors Joel Klein (New
York) and Michelle Rhee (Washington, DC), and incoming Chancellor
Cathleen P Black (New York) - reflect a trust in CEO-style leadership
for education management and reform. Along with these new leaders in
education, billionaire entrepreneurs have also assumed roles as
education saviours: Bill and Melinda Gates, and Geoffrey Canada.
Gates,
Canada, Duncan, Klein and Rhee have capitalised on their positions in
education to rise to the status of celebrities, as well - praised in the misleading documentary feature Waiting for Superman, on Oprah, and even on Bill Maher's Real Time.
What do all these professional managers and entrepreneurs have in common?
Little
or no experience or expertise in education. (Instead, they have degrees
in government and law, along with nontraditional entries into education
and strong ties to alternative certification, such as Teach for America).
Further, they all represent and promote a cultural faith in the power
of leadership above the importance of experience or expertise.
When Klein quit his post as chancellor in New York - soon after Michelle Rhee left DC - the fact that he was leaving for a senior position at News Corp and that his replacement would be a magazine executive
sent a strong message. The implication was that the American public
distrusts not only schools, but also teachers and education experts.
More
telling, however, is the appointment of Duncan as secretary of
education under President Obama. This appointment of a CEO-style leader
of schools in Chicago comes under a Democratic administration and,
ironically, a president once demonised as too friendly with the radical
left within the education community.
Like Obama, Secretary Duncan has led refrains against bad teachers,
while ignoring the growing impact of poverty on the lives of children
and on schools. One very visible effect of this trend for recruiting
CEO-style leaders and billionaire entrepreneurs is the new commitment to
corporate-sponsored charter schools - such as the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) among the most high profile.
The
messages coming from state education in the US, then, are that
government has failed and that only the private sector can save us. But
is that message accurate?
The corporate push to take over state
education is, in fact, masking the failures of corporate America. And,
in turn, this masks the fact that America has failed state education,
rather than state education failing America.
The standards,
testing and accountability movement is built on a claim that education
can change society. The corporate support for the accountability
movement and the "no excuses" charter school movement seeks to reinforce
that claim because, otherwise, corporate America and the politicians
supporting corporate America would have to admit that something is wrong
with our economic and political structures.
And the evidence isn't on the side of corporate America.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has shown
that only 14% of pupil achievement can be attributed to the quality of
the school; 86% of that achievement is driven by factors outside of
education. David Berliner has also established six out-of-school factors that overwhelm the effectiveness of education against poverty and expanding social inequities.
In the US, achievement gaps and failure in state schools reflect larger inequalities in society,
as well as dysfunction in corporate, consumer culture. The schools did
not cause those gaps or failures - although it is true that, far too
often, they perpetuate the social stratification. And the evidence shows
that schools alone will never be able to overcome powerful social
forces.
The real failure, which is the message being ignored
here, is that one of the wealthiest countries in the world refuses to
face the inequities of its economic system, a system that permits more than 20% of its children to live in poverty (pdf) and to languish in schools that America has clearly decided to abandon, along with its democratic principles.
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