Understanding Public-Sector Privatization Strategies in the Age Of Trumpism

Understanding Public-Sector Privatization Strategies

"The Cartel has created a vast array of
think tanks and advocacy organizations
to distribute questionable and deeply flawed
research studies to confirm that corporate
and virtual charters, vouchers, and non-certified
teachers are the best approaches to
educating low-income students of color."

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Dr. Walter C. Farrell, Jr., PhD, MSPH, is a Fellow of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado-Boulder and has written widely on vouchers, charter schools, and public school privatization. He has served as Professor of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and as Professor of Educational Policy and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Contact Dr. Farrell. 

 Public sector stakeholders (teachers, unions, and ordinary citizens) are on the precipice of a public education Armageddon. On January 20, 2017, the nation’s system of public education is likely to begin descending into a public education free zone. President-Elect Donald J. Trump has stated that he will ramp up and facilitate the efforts of the corporate education reform Cartel to privatize public schools. To underscore his commitment to this endeavor, he has placed one of the Cartel’s most prominent and aggressive members, billionaire Betsy DeVos, at the helm of the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE).

She and the Cartel have also established and funded an interlocking network of majority and minority civic leaders, grassroots groups, corporate executives, professional athletes, entertainers, former and current school board members, superintendents, political bosses, governors, state and federal legislators, and every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan. DeVos’s approach has been bipartisan with deep tentacles among both Democrats and Republicans.

This reality is at the core of public education supporters’ conflicts as to how to combat this assault on K-12 public education. As noted in previous columns, they cannot decide whether cooperation or opposition is the best option to save public education and the public sector. As a result, teachers, unions, elected officials, and others have been unable to come up with a coherent and focused set of initiatives to win the battle for K-12 public schools.

While these difference of opinion persist among public education stakeholders, the corporate education reform Cartel has systematically employed a military-style offensive on the foundations of private- and public-sector unions: co-opting and/or developing Democratic legislators and leaders who traditionally sustained and advanced the public sector; legislative redistricting which facilitated Republican takeovers of state legislatures and the U.S. Congress; writing and passing state and federal legislation promoting public school privatization; dismantling collective bargaining agreements (CBAs); and forming sixty-five Cartel think tanks, from coast to coast, that produce a steady stream of questionable and exaggerated research findings to affirm the success of public school privatization.

Starting in the 1980s, the Cartel identified minority and majority politicians, clergy, and local leaders and contributed to their campaigns and 501c3 non-profits. Included in this group are former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke; South Carolina legislator, U.S. Congressman, and now U.S. Sen. Tim Scott; former Illinois state senator, U.S. Senator, and now two-term President Barack Obama; recently elected Philadelphia Congressman Dwight Evans; disgraced Bishop Eddie Long who paid off a $25 million lawsuit after being accused of sexually abusing under-age boys; Bishop T.D. Jakes, who has advised Republican and Democratic U.S. presidents for more than two decades; and numerous others throughout the nation.

The Cartel has developed its own pipeline, which it constantly replenishes, to carry out its school privatization agenda. In return for this largess, these proxies have provided credibility for the Cartel’s program in their respective ethnic and social class communities, similar to President-Elect Trump inviting former professional football players Jim Brown and Ray Lewis and entertainer Kanye West to confer with him this week at New York City’s Trump tower. (Confidential sources have stated that Trump plans to use them and others to promote his corporate education reform plan.)

The legislative redistricting after the 1990 census found Democrats asleep at the wheel. Republicans approached black communities in a number of states and got them to buy-in to packing African Americans into a few districts thereby increasing their numbers in state legislatures and in the U.S. House of Representatives. It was nearly two decades before blacks began to realize that this racial trade-off, in terms of major reductions in overall Democratic representation, were not in the overall best interests of African Americans, that blacks did not need eighty to ninety percent population density in order to win elections.

Coupled with the cultivation of their erstwhile Democratic opponents, the Cartel began proposing legislation to privatize public education (via vouchers and tuition tax credits) in 1981 as soon as Reagan was inaugurated as president and in state legislatures. These early trial balloons burst very quickly, but by 1990, Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, collaborated with the Cartel-sponsored Democratic chair of the legislature’s bicameral Joint Committee on Finance (Sen. Gary George), to pass the nation’s first publicly-funded private school voucher bill, since the era of Brown v. Board of Education, for Milwaukee, the state’s largest school system which was overwhelmingly populated by low-income African American and Hispanic students, despite the fact that Democrats controlled both legislative houses.

When the bill was challenged in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who was investigating the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, was recruited and paid by the Bradley Foundation to take a leave from his attempt to indict President Clinton to defend the voucher bill before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. (Wisconsin’s Democratic attorney general had the statutory responsibility to so, but Gov. Thompson did not trust him to be a strong advocate due to his party affiliation.) Starr prevailed in this instance although he would later fail in his prosecution of Bill Clinton. Using Milwaukee as a model, Ohio and Florida passed voucher bills by 1995, and the Ohio voucher case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled constitutional in 2002, opened vouchers to the nation if states could pass the legislation.

However, the Cartel’s coordinated efforts to eliminate collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and union check-off dues, which have provided public- and private-sector unions the financial resources to sustain their organizing campaigns and to elect politicians who support their interests, have taken a substantial hit in recent years. Beginning in 2010, when Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) passed Act 10 eliminating CBA for teachers and other public-sector unions, right-to-work bills are being advanced throughout the country.

Walker’s victory was quickly followed by Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (CTA) where a teacher, Rebecca Friedrichs, was suing to keep from paying agency dues for representation to CTA although she had refused to join the union. The case reached the Supreme Court and was defeated in a 4-4 tie in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s untimely death. Had he lived, unions’ ability to collect these dues would have been overturned. Moreover, since the November 2016 election, right-to-work bills are gaining traction in New Hampshire, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Kentucky as Republicans continue to increase their numbers in state legislatures. 

  Finally, the Cartel has created a vast array of think tanks and advocacy organizations to distribute questionable and deeply flawed research studies to confirm that corporate and virtual charters, vouchers, and non-certified teachers are the best approaches to educating low-income students of color. Although these results have been repeatedly proven to be false, this information is widely reported by the print (New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles times, etc.) and broadcast (MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, etc.) media as if they are accurate. The Cartel is becoming a major purveyor of “fake news.”

In addition, it has promoted parent satisfaction studies, finding that private, voucher, and charter parents have higher satisfaction levels than those in public schools. Just last Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal, Paul Peterson, professor of government at Harvard University, where he directs the Program on Education Policy and Governance, which has been underwritten by the Cartel for nearly three decades, reported on an online survey he conducted and other secondary analyses he reviewed that showed private and charter school parents are the most satisfied as if satisfaction, alone, translates into academic outcomes. Other Cartel-backed researchers at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Stanford University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have made similar claims about significant educational outcomes in voucher and charter schools using the flimsiest data sets.

Public education supporters will have to overcome the aforementioned challenges if they hope to forestall a public education Armageddon.

 links to all 20 parts of the opening series

Trumpism = Negative Impact Upon Free Quality Public Education

The Trump Effect: The Impact of The 2016 Presidential Election on Our Nation's Schools

 

November 28, 2016 | splcenter.org

In the first days after the 2016 presidential election, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project administered an online survey to K–12 educators from across the country. Over 10,000 teachers, counselors, administrators and others who work in schools have responded. The survey data indicate that the results of the election are having a profoundly negative impact on schools and students. Ninety percent of educators report that school climate has been negatively affected, and most of them believe it will have a long-lasting impact. A full 80 percent describe heightened anxiety and concern on the part of students worried about the impact of the election on themselves and their families.

Also on the upswing: verbal harassment, the use of slurs and derogatory language, and disturbing incidents involving swastikas, Nazi salutes and Confederate flags.

Teaching Tolerance conducted a previous survey in March, when we asked teachers how the primary campaign season was affecting our nation’s students. The 2,000 educators who responded reported that the primary season was producing anxiety among vulnerable students and emboldening others to new expressions of politicized bullying. Teachers overwhelming named the source of both the anxiety and the behavior as Donald Trump, then a leading contender for the Republican nomination.

Since Trump was elected, media have been awash in reports of hate incidents around the nation, including at schools. Some detractors have characterized the reports as isolated, exaggerated or even as hoaxes. This survey, which was distributed by several organizations (see About the Survey for a complete list), via email and social media, offers the richest source of information about the immediate impact of the election on our country. The findings show that teachers, principals and district leaders will have an oversized job this year as they work to heal the rifts within school communities.

The survey asked respondents a mix of easily quantifiable questions and also offered them a chance to describe what was happening in open-ended questions. There are over 25,000 responses, in the form of comments and stories, to the open-ended questions. It will take time to fully analyze and report on those comments. This report provides a high-level summary of the findings.

Here are the highlights:

• Nine out of 10 educators who responded have seen a negative impact on students’ mood and behavior following the election; most of them worry about the continuing impact for the remainder of the school year.
  
• Eight in 10 report heightened anxiety on the part of marginalized students, including immigrants, Muslims, African Americans and LGBT students.
  
• Four in 10 have heard derogatory language directed at students of color, Muslims, immigrants and people based on gender or sexual orientation.
  
• Half said that students were targeting each other based on which candidate they’d supported.
  
• Although two-thirds report that administrators have been “responsive,” four out of 10 don’t think their schools have action plans to respond to incidents of hate and bias.
  
• Over 2,500 educators described specific incidents of bigotry and harassment that can be directly traced to election rhetoric. These incidents include graffiti (including swastikas), assaults on students and teachers, property damage, fights and threats of violence.
  
• Because of the heightened emotion, half are hesitant to discuss the election in class. Some principals have told teachers to refrain from discussing or addressing the election in any way.
  

It is worth noting that many teachers took pains to point out that the incidents they were reporting represent a distinct uptick; these dynamics are new and can be traced directly to the results of the election.

In addition, many teachers who said they were not hearing anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim sentiment or derogatory language pointed out that their students belong exclusively to targeted groups. The dynamics in their schools reflect fear and anxiety about the future (and of the larger community) rather than aggressions between students or groups of students.

The dynamics and incidents these educators reported are nothing short of a crisis and should be treated as such. We end the report with a series of recommendations that school leaders and administrators should take immediately. These include making public statements that set expectations, establishing protocols to identify students who are being targeted or whose emotional needs have changed, doubling down on anti-bullying strategies and being alert to signs of a hostile environment. Most importantly, every school should have a crisis plan to respond to hate and bias incidents.

These are only the initial steps. What new steps will be needed depends entirely on how the rapidly changing political environment (and new federal policies) affect fragile school cultures. At minimum, all schools will need to work to rebuild community; many will need to deal with even more serious threats. The kinds of disruption we describe in this report have long-lasting impacts; school leaders must be ready to respond.

Schools In The Aftermath: Targeting, Trauma, and Tension

The election of Donald Trump is having a major impact on American schools, but how students are affected — and how educators are addressing the impact — depends largely on demographics. American schools are increasingly segregated along racial, ethnic and economic lines. Although individual experiences will vary, looking at the proportion of students who are African American, Hispanic and white is a generally dependable indicator of what each school is experiencing, regardless of whether it is located in a red or a blue state. We found that how a school reacted ultimately depended on whether it is a white-majority school, a "minority-majority" school, or a diverse school with no single group in the majority. This is a generalization, of course, and there are exceptions, which we discuss later.
Overall, our public schools serve mainly low-income students of color. But students are not evenly distributed among schools. Here are a few important facts:

• Total number of public schools: 98,454
  
• Percentage of students who are from low-income families: 51
  
• Percentage of students who are Hispanic: 25
  
• Percentage of students who are African American: 16
  
• Percentage of students who are students of color: 50
  
• Percentage of schools that are 70% or more minority: 26
  
• Percentage of schools that are 70% or more white: 42
  
• Percentage of schools with less than 70% of one racial group: 32
  

TARGETING AND RACIAL BIAS
The increase in targeting and harassment that began in the spring has, according to the teachers we surveyed, skyrocketed. It was most frequently reported by educators in schools with a majority of white students.

The behavior is directed against immigrants, Muslims, girls, LGBT students, kids with disabilities and anyone who was on the “wrong” side of the election. It ranges from frightening displays of white power to remarks that are passed off as “jokes.”

Here’s a small sampling of the thousands of stories teachers told us that illustrate post-election targeting.

“A group of white students held up a Confederate flag during the pledge of allegiance at a school-wide assembly.” — HIGH SCHOOL COUNSELOR, ARIZONA

“Since the election, every single secondary school in our district has had issues with racist, xenophobic or misogynistic comments cropping up. In the week since the election, I have personally had to deal with the following issues: 1) Boys inappropriately grabbing and touching girls, even after they said no (this never happened until after the election); 2) White students telling their friends who are Hispanic or of color that their parents are going to be deported and that they would be thrown out of school; 3) White students going up to students of color who are total strangers and hurling racial remarks at them, such as, ‘Trump is going [to] throw you back over the wall, you know?’ or ‘We can’t wait until you and the other brownies are gone’; 4) The use of the n-word by white students in my class and in the hallway. Never directed towards a student of color (that I’ve been told yet), but still being casually used in conversation.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, INDIANA

“The slurs have been written on assignments. ‘Send the Muslims back because they are responsible for 9/11.’” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, MINNESOTA

“’I hate Muslims.’ (Student blurted this while the class was learning about major religions.)” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, WASHINGTON

“I’ve had a lot of students repeat the phrase ‘Trump that bitch’ in my class, and make jokes about Hispanic students ‘going back to Mexico.’” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, GEORGIA

“A proud proclamation of racism was made by a student after the election: ‘Bet those black people are really scared now.’” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, MICHIGAN

“White males have been overheard saying, ‘screw women’s rights, fag lover liberal, build the wall, lock her up.’ The rebel flag is draped on the truck of a popular student, and the p-word has been used very casually, citing Trump as the excuse.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, MICHIGAN

“Kids saying, ‘Trump won, you’re going back to Mexico!’ Boys grabbing girls, cornering girls against lockers. Kids yelling, ‘Trump won, so [there will] be less people here soon.’” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, KANSAS

“Today I photographed vandalism in the boy’s bathroom that mentioned a specific black student (1 of 7 in a school of 200). It repeatedly mentioned the KKK, used the n-word and joining Jews. A student drew a swastika on my board a few days ago. A black female ran out of a room crying after being racially harassed by multiple students during two different classes. One student … reported asking two different Latina students if they were ready to move back to Mexico now that Trump is president. I have witnessed an increase in racist and sexist jokes by students who support Trump. I personally spent most of the day putting out fires related to these issues, including documenting and reporting them. Multiple white males also expressed anger over the school wanting to post signs stating we are a sanctuary school.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, OREGON

“’Kill the n*****s’ etched in school bathroom. Paper with n-word left in my classroom. Neither incident was investigated. Students have told me they no longer need Spanish (the subject I teach) since Trump is sending all the Mexicans back. A black student was blocked from entering his classroom by two white students chanting, ‘Trump, Trump.’” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, TENNESSEE

“Kids did a ‘mock’ election where they got to vote for president and two of 32 kids voted for Trump (this was all before the actual election). One of the students who voted for Trump expressed that he felt kids were judging him for his choice and the teacher defended his position and right to have his own vote. He then said to the class, ‘I just want him to win so he can get rid of all the Mexicans.’ He himself is an immigrant from Bosnia.”— ELEMENTARY TEACHER, COLORADO

“The day after the election I had a group of Hispanic girls in my homeroom targeted by a boy who told them Trump was going to deport their families.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, NEW JERSEY

“Seventh-grade white boys yelling, ‘Heil Trump!’ Many stories about bigotry have happened outside of school.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, COLORADO

“Someone anonymously put a swastika with the Trump tag line ‘Make America Great Again’ on the desk of a Spanish teacher.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, CALIFORNIA

“The day after the election, white students in my school walked down the halls harassing their students of color. One student went around asking, ‘Are you legal?’ to each student he passed. Another student told his black classmate to ‘Go back to Haiti because this is our country now.’” — MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT TEACHER, MASSACHUSETTS

“These incidents involve students that I teach in 6^th grade: 1) A white student waited outside the boys restroom to target an African-American student, attempting to provoke a fight and calling him ‘n----r.’ The white student had been a vocal Trump supporter; 2) A white male student asked an Asian female student why her eyes looked so funny. The same male student repeatedly asked another male student of Middle Eastern background if he was Muslim and [said] that he ‘hated Muslims.’ Both of these occurred last week following the election.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, VIRGINIA

“In over 15 years of teaching high school this is the first year that swastikas are appearing all over school furniture. The day after the election I overheard a student in the hall chanting, ‘White power.’ I’m appalled! I live in one of the bluest states!” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, WASHINGTON STATE

THE NEW MAJORITY: TRAUMA AND FEAR
Speaking broadly, the survey results indicate that schools with significant numbers of African-American and Hispanic students and immigrant students of color are experiencing what many teachers named as trauma, with all its attendant consequences. A Minnesota high school teacher wrote, “Our school is all immigrant, mostly students in upper teen years (14–21, most are over 16). The levels of anxiety have been through the roof since summer break. It’s very hard for them to think. Their brains can literally handle a fraction of what students could learn in these same classes in the previous 16 years I have taught them. They escaped trauma recently and now are facing it ahead of them (and around them right now).”

These schools with large populations of students of color, many of them also high-poverty schools, report relatively few instances of bigotry in the form of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim or racist sentiment or language. That’s not, however, a sign that all is well. As several teachers noted, theirs are the students whose identities were disparaged during the election. A California high school teacher reported, “[Our] students have not perpetuated incidents of election-related bigotry or harassment. They perceive themselves to be victims of this throughout their lives, not just because of the election.”

A school social worker in Washington State observed that her school had no incidents of harassment. “On the contrary,” she wrote, “since the vast majority of our students are members of targeted groups, I have seen nothing but a shared sense of fear about what will happen to them and their families.”

The fear comes in many forms: worries about deportation, family separation and general anxiety and hopelessness about the future. Teachers observed that children who are fearful and anxious are unable to concentrate and have a harder time keeping up at school.

The biggest fear of all comes from immigrants; nearly 1,000 teachers specifically named “deportation” or family separation as a concern among students. Given Trump’s promises to deport millions of people here illegally and the uncertainty about what actual policies may ensue, teachers are ill-equipped to address these fears.

Here is a sampling of what fear looks like in schools.

“I teach in a university lab school. The kids come from very diverse cultures, but definitely from middle class, educated families, and STILL they feel threatened. One Muslim girl clung to her kindergarten teacher on November 9 and asked, ‘Are they going to do anything to me? Am I safe?’” — EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER, TENNESSEE

“In a 24-hour period, I completed two suicide assessments and two threat of violence assessments for middle school students. This was last week, one week after the election... students were threatening violence against African Americans. Students were suicidal and without hope. Fights, disrespect have increased as well.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL COUNSELOR, FLORIDA

“A kindergartener asked me ‘Why did the bully win?’ Other kids who have been awarded student of the month and considered great examples for our school hid in a classroom after school and drew pokemon fireballs attacking the man. This is a serious issue that we have not clearly addressed. We need help and we must claim our districts and other districts ‘sanctuary districts.’” — ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER, ARIZONA

“We have over 20 percent Muslim students and 96 percent students of color. Before the election night, in my role in the building as the principal, I was already dealing with children calling Muslims terrorists, boys objectifying girls by calling out obscenities about their private parts, and racial tensions between Latino and Black students. We have had one incident the election night, but our students are really worried about being deported, some Muslim girls are coming to school without their hijabs, and kids have told me they are afraid that a war is going to happen. One child asked me, ‘How are we going to get our freedom back?’” — ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL, MICHIGAN

“I teach at a charter school in [an inner city]. The student makeup is 99 percent black and Latino children, with the majority qualifying for free or reduced price lunch. The climate in the school itself has been fine, because almost all of the students are people of color. However students have been emotionally distraught, especially the day after the election. Many came to school sobbing, fearing for their future and their families, worried about their relatives being deported. Many expressed sadness that they didn’t realize how messed up the country was until that day, and that they either hated America or now understood why their friends said they hated America.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, NEW JERSEY

“Many of my students feel fear, particularly my students of color, my Latino students, LGBTQ students and so on. They worry about their future and their rights. While we’ve had few episodes of hate, we have had many students (mostly white) tell others to get over it, shake it off and so on. It’s a difficult climate.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, WASHINGTON STATE

“Most of students come from Hispanic backgrounds. Many of their parents came to the states illegally. We also have some Muslim students. Many of them were crying and so scared the day after Trump won. They are thinking of future plans just in case. My Muslim students wondered why America didn’t like them. It’s been tough and emotionally exhausting.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, PENNSYLVANIA

“Immigrant students reported that the bus on November 9th was full of ‘Terrorist’ or ‘Pack your bags!’ or ‘Go back to where you came from.’ Another student who is Jewish reported, ‘We’ll burn you.’” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, ILLINOIS

“Multi-racial children were telling Hispanic children they were going back to Mexico and their parents were first. Fifth-grade boys were fighting in the bathroom because they found out who voted for Trump in the mock election at school. A lesbian student’s mother was telling her that life as we knew it was over, and she was quite distraught about her mother. Children are very worried about being deported or killed.” — ELEMENTARY COUNSELOR, ILLINOIS

The trauma students are experiencing is putting a strain on school counseling and social work resources and leading teachers to spend more time away from instruction so they can provide emotional support. For some, student distrust of a majority-white teaching force may loom as a new issue. More than one educator commented that her “students believe that white teachers voted for Trump.” It’s impossible to know how long added support will be needed or when trust will be restored.

INCREASED TENSION, LESS COMMUNITY
Finally, in any school that is diverse, especially those with no group in the majority, teachers report that students are tense, have lost trust in each other and are struggling to get along. The divisions opened by the election run deep in these schools.

Here are some stories that show the division, tension and loss of trust.

“We have a mixture of high-income white families and low-income Latino students. The divide has always existed, but with the election over the last year, it’s been WAY worse.” — ELEMENTARY TEACHER, ILLINOIS

“The day after the election, I broke up a fight in the locker room because of differing opinions around each student’s choice for president.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, ILLINOIS
“’You voted for Trump. I hate you,’ said one third-grader to another.” —ELEMENTARY TEACHER, WASHINGTON

“Half of the students are white with frontier mindset (working in primary industries and a dislike for authority). One-third of the students are Native [American]. One-third of the students are newly arrived first-generation and second-generation immigrants from Central America. The students have grown up together in a small town. The white students wear red ball caps and say terrible things about immigrants, while sitting next to their immigrant friends. The white students are loud about their views. The others are quiet and afraid.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, OREGON

“I teach in a primarily white, upper middle-class school that largely supports Trump. Unfortunately, there have been divisions between students since Trump’s win. My African-American students are refusing to work with the white students who supported Trump. Students are no longer looking at each other as people, but are looking at them as who their parents supported. It is no longer about issues, but about hate and fear and disagreement and all the things we work our tails off to teach our students to be careful and wary of. My heart is breaking. And it was especially broken when the 12-year-old white male student saw an x on another white male student's paper and said to him, ‘Here, let me help you,’ and proceeded to draw a swastika on his paper. And our admin is telling us NOT to talk about it.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, GEORGIA

“There is a lack of trust in the school right now. Many students are unclear as to how to talk to each other.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, WASHINGTON

“The day after the election a line of students (mainly Hispanic) was formed at lunch. A student (African American) told one of them to ‘Go back to Mexico.’ A fight almost resulted from his comment.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, NORTH CAROLINA

“We had a race-related fight at a school function in September. My Mexican-American students have been catching comments from kids at school and in the community about being deported, etc. We also had one student post a pro-Trump/anti-black meme that went to 600 other kids’ Instagram feeds. (The words he used are not printable here.)” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, NEW YORK

“We have had many students fighting, especially between the Latino and African-American population, as well as many more boys feeling superior to girls. I have had one male student grab a female student’s crotch and tell her that it’s legal for him to do that to her now. We have not had as many hate crimes in our school as others, but that is likely because we have a VERY small white population. One of my students from last year who is Muslim has not worn her hijab since the election. She is one of three Muslim students in our school.” — ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER, MINNESOTA

Some Exceptions

A very small minority of teachers reported little impact of the election on their schools. These schools tended to fall into two broad groups.

The first group includes school that are overwhelmingly white, especially in areas with few immigrants or African Americans. These students are isolated, with little exposure to students who are frightened by the election results, and few opportunities to see the world from their perspective. Teachers at these schools report that their students have accepted (or welcomed) the results and have moved on.

Here are some examples of the schools that fall into this category.

“Truly, it hasn’t had a huge impact. Because I talk about these things in class, I have been able to see what little impact there is. Colleagues haven’t seen anything.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, UTAH

“Students stated, regardless of who won, we are still in this country together and we will make the most of it. They really did not see that whoever won would make a difference in their lives.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, ALABAMA

“If we stop trying to find problems and focus on the future, our country would be a better, more tolerant place to live. I explained to my students how lucky we are to live in the greatest country in the world, a place where we can have a peaceful transition of power; and if you do not agree with the results, we get to do it again in four years.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, FLORIDA

“I teach current events and the students did a very good job on breaking down how to actually do a true protest that will actually bring change vs. a mass temper tantrum. They also looked into how our democracy works.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, WASHINGTON STATE

“They reacted, but they moved on faster than the adults are.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, IDAHO

“I don’t think the election has had a big impact on our school climate. It is a 6–8 middle school in a wealthy suburb. We have mostly white students with a decent size Asian population. It seems that there was support for both sides in our community, but the students seem to be taking the results fairly.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, OHIO

“Absolutely nothing; if anything, this survey is creating more hatred than the election results.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, RHODE ISLAND

“Our school has a unique demographic and, as a result, the emotions of the election were very mixed. Many of our students are white, middle-to-upper-class and conservative. Many of them were happy with the outcome of the election, much to most teachers’ chagrin. There were, of course, a fair amount of students who were visibly upset as well. A week later, though, and I (sadly) don’t really see much remnants of the election.” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, NEW MEXICO

The second group includes schools that have worked hard at establishing inclusive welcoming communities, have response programs in place, and nurtured qualities of empathy and compassion among students. Many of them report that students are affected, but that they have the language and practices — talking circles, student- led groups, leadership clubs, character programs and proactive staff — that have helped them avoid conflict. “We are keeping a careful, careful watch as teachers and administrators,” noted a North Carolina educator. “We are in solidarity as we seek to see that every child in our school knows his/her value and importance in our community.” A high school teacher in California reported, “The students were devastated by the election results, as were most of our faculty and staff members. However, the darkness of the election brought us all closer together and in a positive and proactive way!”

Other schools are feeling the pressure, though. A Maryland high school teacher said, “We have worked really hard over the last 10 years to change our climate. The last year has nearly undone all of that work. It is disheartening.”

The Ugliness Is New

Many teachers made a point of saying that what is happening now is something new. It’s not, they explained, a different response to an election result, but an unleashing of a spirit of hatred they had not seen before.

Here are some of their comments.

“I have seen open racism, spoken, for the first time in 23 years of teaching.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, MICHIGAN

“I have never directly encountered race-related harassment in our school until after the election this year.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, WISCONSIN

“There have been more fights in the first 10 weeks of this year than in the first 10 years of my career (this is my 11th year teaching).” — SECONDARY TEACHER, NEW YORK

“Words that I have not heard in the past — racist, bigot, pussy, slut — are now used by my fourth-graders.” — ELEMENTARY TEACHER, MINNESOTA

“This is my 21st year of teaching. This is the first time I’ve had a student call another student the ‘n’ word. This incident occurred the day after a conference with the offender’s mother. During the conference, the mother made her support of Trump known and expressed her hope that ‘the blacks’ would soon ‘know their place again.’” — ELEMENTARY TEACHER, GEORGIA

Clearly, this election is having an effect on students, but teachers are affected as well.
“Teachers are struggling. We are facing division like we’ve never seen before. People are rethinking relationships and opinions of colleagues. Personally, I am wondering if teaching Arthur Miller’s The Crucible might bring me grief. I’ve never even considered such a thought in 20+ years of teaching!” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, IOWA

“An administrator told female and minority teachers that fear was ‘silly’ and ‘ridiculous.’” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER, CALIFORNIA

“The day after the election, I sat in my car for 30 minutes before school dreading going in to the middle school and seeing the faces of the disappointed students and trying to think of what I was going to say to them. I tried to be encouraging and say they would be safe in the school that no one would be coming to get them in school.” — MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER IN A SCHOOL WITH 65 PERCENT STUDENTS OF COLOR, INCLUDING IMMIGRANTS, WISCONSIN

“The day after the election, white male students were seen running through the halls, wearing American flag shorts and socks, Confederate flag shirts and carrying large American flags. The students were told to put their flags away, but they argued that it was freedom of speech. They continued to run through the halls periodically throughout that day. The symbol of our flag was changed for me that day. When I attended a Veteran’s Day service on Thursday, some of those same students were in the ROTC group here. I saw a distinct parallel to Hitler Youth. I am no longer able to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I am compelled to turn away when it comes on over the loud speaker and am repulsed by ‘liberty and justice for all.’” — HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER, VIRGINIA

Recommendations

A few days before the election, we posted advice to help teachers navigate the day after Election Day. We knew that, no matter the result, some kids would be crushed and others would be jubilant. We also knew that, after a campaign as ugly as this one, teachers would be like medics on the front lines.

A week later, we saw that school leaders around the country were confronting increasingly volatile school environments. From managing anxiety and fear to responding to derogatory language and acts of bias, principals, superintendents and other district and building leaders have a tremendous challenge ahead.

With this understanding in mind, we offer these suggestions to school administrators.

• SET THE TONE. We’re aware that many superintendents and principals around the country have sent letters to staff and families. If your administration hasn’t, consider doing it now. This one, from Boston’s school superintendent Tommy Chang, is a great model. Your message should affirm your school’s values, set expectations about inclusion and respect, and explain your vision for the school community.

• TAKE CARE OF THE WOUNDED. Many students — especially immigrant, LGBT, Muslim and African-American students — are profoundly upset and worried by the election results. Their anxiety is warranted; many have been targeted in and out of school by individuals who think Trump’s election has licensed hatred and bigotry. Let your school community know that you have a plan — and the necessary resources — to provide for the needs of specific students. Some of them are experiencing trauma. Are your teachers ready?

• DOUBLE DOWN ON ANTI-BULLYING STRATEGIES. Encourage everyone in the school community to be aware of bullying, harassment and bias in all their forms. Remind them of the school’s written policies, and set the expectation that your staff be ready to act. Not everyone has to be a superhero, but everyone can be an ally and an upstander.

• ENCOURAGE COURAGE. It’s especially important to let staff and students know that you expect them to speak up when they see or hear something that denigrates any member of the school community. When students interrupt biased language, calmly ask questions, correct misinformation and echo others who do the same, they send their peers a clear message: This kind of language doesn’t fly here.

• BE READY FOR A CRISIS. The news and social media are awash in posts about ugly bias incidents — and even hate crimes — in our communities and our schools. When an incident happens, you will not have time to learn how to manage it: You need to be prepared. If something happens, we have guidance for managing the crisis and keeping students safe.

Download “Responding to Hate and Bias” now and share it with others.

Teaching Tolerance will further analyze the survey results and continue to use the data to shape our resources and offerings to K–12 teachers and others who work in schools. Visit tolerance.org/voting-elections to view a package of materials currently available to help educators navigate this crisis.

About The Survey

The discussion in this report summarizes responses to questions posed by Teaching Tolerance via an informal online survey launched on November 14, 2016; the data reported here is based on the responses as of November 23. A link to the survey was sent to educators who subscribe to the Teaching Tolerance newsletter and was also shared on Teaching Tolerance’s social media sites. It was open to any educator who wanted to participate. Several other groups, including Facing History and Ourselves, Teaching for Change, Not in Our Schools, the American

Federation of Teachers and Rethinking Schools, also shared the survey link with their audiences.

The survey questions can be found here and are included as an appendix to this report.

In the course of just over a week, over 10,000 people responded to the survey. Collectively, they submitted over 25,000 comments. Nearly all respondents identified themselves by name, email address, grade level and state. More than 1,500 signified a willingness to go on record by giving permission for Teaching Tolerance to share their contact information with the media.

The results of this survey are not scientific. The respondents were not selected in a manner to ensure a representative sample; those who responded may have been more likely to perceive problems than those who did not. But it is the largest collection of educator responses that has been collected; the tremendous number of responses as well as the overwhelming confirmation of what has been anecdotally reported in the media cannot be ignored or dismissed.

SURVEY QUESTIONS
1. How would you describe the impact of the election results on your school’s climate?
• VERY NEGATIVE • SOMEWHAT NEGATIVE • SOMEWHAT POSITIVE • VERY POSITIVE
2. How concerned are you about your school climate for the remainder * of the year?
• NOT AT ALL CONCERNED • SOMEWHAT CONCERNED • VERY CONCERNED • EXTREMELY CONCERNED
3. Is there anything you’d like to tell us about your school and the students you serve?
4. How has the election affected the mood and behavior of students at your school?

Since the election:
My students have expressed concern about what might happen to them or their families.
• Strongly disagree • Somewhat disagree • Somewhat agree • Strongly agree
There has been anti-immigrant sentiment at my school.
• Strongly disagree • Somewhat disagree • Somewhat agree • Strongly agree
There has been anti-Muslim sentiment at my school.
• Strongly disagree • Somewhat disagree • Somewhat agree • Strongly agree
I have heard derogatory language or slurs about students of color.
• Strongly disagree • Somewhat disagree • Somewhat agree • Strongly agree
I have heard derogatory language or slurs about white students.
• Strongly disagree • Somewhat disagree • Somewhat agree • Strongly agree
I have heard derogatory language or slurs based on gender or sexual orientation.
• Strongly disagree • Somewhat disagree • Somewhat agree • Strongly agree
Students are targeting other students based on who they supported in the election.
• Strongly disagree • Somewhat disagree • Somewhat agree • Strongly agree
5. If specific incidents of election-related bigotry or harassment have occurred in your school, please describe them. You may include a link.
6. Please describe any examples of hope or inclusion that have occurred in your school following the election.
7. How are you, other educators and administration responding?
• My administration is being responsive to the post-election climate.
• My school has an action plan for when incidents of hate or bias occur.
• I am hesitant to teach about the election results and post-election season.
• Teachers or administrators are being harassed for standing up for children.
Please provide details about any of the above statements.
8. Use this space for comments or additional information you'd like to share.
9. What resources or support do you and your school need?
10. What resources, programs or interventions are you currently using?

Please let us know about yourself. We need your name and will not share it without your permission. This is necessary so we can verify the data. Reports of harassment at school are being dismissed as "hoaxes," and we know that some social media anecdotes have been found to be pranks. We need solid data from educators. 

We're depending on you.
11. At what school level do you work?
• Early childhood to pre-K
• Elementary education K-5
• Middle school 6-8
• High school 9-12
• Higher ed
• Other (please specify)
12. What is your main job role?
• Teacher
• Counselor
• Building administrator
• District administrator
• Librarian
• Professor
• Other (please specify)
13. What is your name? (We will not share it without your permission.)
14. Please provide your email address. (We will never share your email address without your permission.)
15. In what state or U.S. territory do you work?
16. What city?
17. The report we wrote after our last survey drew the media's attention to classrooms. We expect this to happen again. If you would like the opportunity to tell your story or the story of your students, answer YES. It gives us permission to give your email address to a journalist.
• YES, you may share my email address.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to our survey.

Endnotes

1. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Facts: Education Institutions, accessed November 27, 2016, https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=84
2. Southern Education Foundation, A New Majority Research Bulletin: Low Income Students Now a Majority in the Nation's Public Schools, accessed November 27, 2016, http://www.southerneducation.org/ Our-Strategies/Research-and-Publications/New-Majority-Diverse-Majority-Report-Series/A-NewMajority-2015-Update-Low-Income-Students-Now
3. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core Data: State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary and Secondary Education, accessed November 27, 2016, https://nces.ed.gov/ ccd/stnfis.asp U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education: Racial/Ethnic Enrollment in Public Schools, accessed November 27, 2016, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/ indicator_cge.asp
4. Ibid.
5. Leslie A. Maxwell, “U.S. school enrollment hits majority-minority milestone,” Education Week, August 19, 2014, accessed November 27, 2016, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/08/20/01demographics.h34. html
6. Market Data Research school data, accessed via subscription November 27, 2016.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid

Acknowledgments

This report was written by Maureen B. Costello and edited by Richard Cohen and Adrienne van der Valk. Russell Estes designed the layout.
SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER
CO-FOUNDERS Morris Dees, Joseph J. Levin Jr.
PRESIDENT & CEO J. Richard Cohen
INTELLIGENCE PROJECT DIRECTOR Heidi Beirich
OUTREACH DIRECTOR Lecia Brooks
LEGAL DIRECTOR Rhonda Brownstein
CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS & DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Wendy Via
TEACHING TOLERANCE
DIRECTOR Maureen B. Costello
DEPUTY DIRECTOR Adrienne van der Valk
MANAGER, TEACHING AND LEARNING Hoyt J. Phillips III
TEACHING AND LEARNING SPECIALISTS Jarah Botello, Lauryn Mascareñaz
SENIOR EDITOR Monita K. Bell
WRITER/ASSOCIATE EDITOR Maya Lindberg
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Margaret Sasser
TECHNICAL LEAD D. Scott McDaniel
NEW MEDIA SPECIALIST Tiffany Gibert
PROGRAM COORDINATOR Steffany Moyer
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Cecile Jones
INTERN Alexis Ofe
DESIGN
DESIGN DIRECTOR Russell Estes
SENIOR DESIGNER Valerie Downes
DESIGNERS Michelle Leland, Sunny Paulk, Scott Phillips, Kristina Turner
DESIGN ASSOCIATE Shannon Anderson

Growth of Charter Schools Has Increased Inequality in Education

Exploring the negative consequences of

charter school expansion in U.S. cities

 

In a new EPI report (see PDF below), Rutgers University professor Bruce Baker finds that charter school expansion has exacerbated inequities in education. In his study of 11 city school systems, Baker finds, in most cases, the non-charter public schools have received fewer resources due to charter school expansion. Also, he finds that many leading charter operators have been charged with conflicts-of-interest and financial malfeasance.  

Baker recommends communities hold charter operators publicly accountable and consider the cost and benefits to the community and to the greater public good.

 

The Opt Out Revolt-- Democracy and Education

The Opt Out Revolt

Democracy and Education

by John Bellamy Foster

minthlyreview.org

In the United States today, the age of monopoly-finance capital and neoliberal politics, all aspects of social life are being financialized at breakneck speed, while the economy as a whole and employment remain lackluster. Financial flows of whatever kind are converted into “securitized” assets to be leveraged by Wall Street speculators. The data of private communications are mined. Health care is converted into a realm of super profits. Public water and electric facilities are sold to the highest bidder. The political system is turned into an open-air auction. Even pollution is treated as a market.

At the center of this juggernaut is elementary and secondary education, which receives over $550 billion in annual public spending, equal to the GDP of Belgium, ranked twenty-fifth worldwide in national income.1 The new copyrighted Common Core State Standards, and the accompanying standardized tests run by two multi-state consortia in conjunction with testing companies, are “high stakes” not merely for schools, teachers, and students, but also for the vested interests of capital. The latter seek by these means to: (1) form a labor force of cheerful robots; (2) eliminate critical thinking from schools; (3) generate immense profits for the education industry and information firms; (4) end teacher tenure, seize control of classrooms from professional educators, and break teachers’ unions; (5) privatize public education through charter schools and other means; (6) facilitate private profits and financial speculation through control of government education funding; (7) merge education for large sections of the poor and racial minorities with the military and penal systems; (8) decrease the role of democracy in education while increasing the corporate role; (9) create databases with detailed biometrics on almost everyone, to be exploited by corporations; and (10) manage the population in what is a potentially fractious society divided by race and class.

Such unstated systemic aims—even more than the stated goals of closing the achievement gap associated with racial and ethnic inequality, or increasing international competitiveness—serve to explain the vast restructuring of U.S. education pushed forward during the last decade and a half, from the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act to the Obama administration’s Race to the Top.

The entire educational reform movement, as it is called, has been spearheaded by a number of big “venture philanthropic” or “philanthrocapitalist” foundations, including the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Walton Foundation, and others, which have sought to promote the Common Core State Standards, high-stakes standardized tests, and charter schools. These foundations have poured billions into educational restructuring, with the cooperation of large corporations and the government at every level.2

However, what could be called the national command center of this corporate-based education reform movement is located in the quasi-governmental agencies of the Council of Chief State Officers (CCSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA), both consisting of governmental officials but functioning outside political jurisdictions as private, non-governmental organizations, unaccountable to the populace. The CCSO and the NGA have copyrighted the Common Core State Standards, which were paid for primarily by the Gates Foundation and designed in conjunction with educational services companies like Pearson and McGraw-Hill—and without the significant involvement of teachers. As a result neither the federal government nor the states nor the teaching profession itself have control of the Common Core, which is nonetheless imposed on states and local school districts, forming the foundation of the entire system of high-stakes standardized testing.3 The performance of students on the high-stakes standardized tests is currently being used in thirty-five states to evaluate teachers, in many cases firing those educators whose students do not provide sufficient evidence of teacher “value added.”4

There is no doubt that the U.S. public education system is full of inefficiencies and inequities. Huge inequalities exist in the funding of schools in different states, in different school districts within the same state, and even among schools within the same district. At Mission High School in San Francisco, $9,780 is spent on each student, while at schools in Palo Alto, a wealthy enclave home to Stanford, located just 30 miles away, the amount spent per student is $14,995.5

A national survey of fourteen large school districts discovered that students from third through eighth grade took ten standardized tests each year on average, with some taking as many as twenty tests in a year. From third to fifth grades, students in urban communities spend 80 percent more time on test-taking than their suburban counterparts; from sixth to eighth grades 73 percent more; and from ninth to twelfth grades 266 percent more. In contrast, European students, whose educational performance is generally higher, are very rarely exposed at this stage to multiple-choice based standardized tests in their national assessments, and instead write essays evaluated by educators.6

There is no evidence that the new system of high-stakes standardized tests has served to lessen chronic inequalities. In the 1970s to early 1980s the white-black and white-Latino achievement gaps narrowed sharply, with black and Latino students gaining relative to their white student peers. However, this closing of the gap has since slowed dramatically, especially in the decade and a half since No Child Left Behind was introduced. At the same time, the income-achievement gap has grown so that it is now 40 percent higher than it was several decades ago.7

Indeed, all indicators point to a strong correlation today between educational achievement and class or socioeconomic status. To put this in proper perspective, though, it is first crucial to recognize that since in the United States minorities are disproportionately working class and poor, lower socioeconomic status overlaps significantly with racial and ethnic inequality, increasing the likelihood that a low-income child will come from a negatively stereotyped and culturally oppressed group, thereby placing further barriers in the way of educational achievement. The central problem confronting the school system is therefore the basic conditions of life endured by students attending public schools, a reflection of the larger capitalist society and its class and racial oppressions.

In 2013, for the first time in recent history, a majority of the students in U.S. public schools came from families designated as in poverty or “near-poverty.” As recently as 1989, the share of low-income students in public schools was less than 32 percent. It has climbed ever since, to 38 percent in 2000, 48 percent in 2011, and 51 percent in 2013. In Mississippi the portion of low-income students in public elementary and secondary schools is 71 percent, and in New Mexico 68 percent, while in New York it is 48 percent, and in a largely white state with a sizeable rural population like Oregon, 49 percent. In 40 of the 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, more than 40 percent of the public school students are classified as low-income. This means that not only are Pre-Kindergarten to twelfth grade (PK–12) students in U.S. public schools mainly working class, by any measure, but they also come predominantly from the working and non-working poor. (A key element in the class structure of U.S. education is that almost a quarter of all PK-12 schools in the United States are private schools [here private does not include charter schools which are publically funded but privately managed], serving over five million mostly wealthier, primarily white students. Enrollees in private PK-12 schools in the United States represent about 10 percent of the total national elementary and secondary school population.)8

Rather than seeking to address these deepening class and race inequalities—and the nature of U.S. society itself—the supposed answer to the crisis of education advanced by the new corporate-education juggernaut has been the privatization of the entire system. The result is an educational system increasingly controlled by firms at the apex of monopoly-finance capital, promoting high profits and a packaged curriculum designed to habituate future workers to the firms’ own needs. Such a model can only exacerbate economic and social inequality. Those students who seem less integrated into the system, primarily the most underprivileged minority students, are to be shunted off to the military and penal systems—a reality already apparent in some large urban centers.9 Schools across the country deemed “failures” due to low standardized test scores, mostly in poor and minority communities, are being closed, their teachers fired, and the educational system in those areas increasingly given over to charter schools. The main victims of this educational restructuring have of course been those most vulnerable.

For all of its deficiencies, including a long history of racial segregation, the U.S. education system has been the site periodically of populist and progressive movements driven by teachers, parents, and communities—a struggle memorialized by John Dewey’s Democracy and Education, W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Education of Black People, and Grace Lee Boggs’s “Education: The Great Obsession.”10 At various points in the twentieth century, attempts by vested interests to bring the school system under the regime of scientific management and monopoly capital were beaten back, by mass popular resistance aimed at defending a degree of local and parental control of schools.11 Public schools have generally been viewed as central to communities, and constitute one of the few places where the inequities of society can be addressed and partially ameliorated, given dedicated, critical teachers and adequate funding—although it is impossible for the schools themselves to transcend the broader societal contradictions and their effects on children.]

The latest establishment attempt to use the Common Core and high-stakes standardized tests as a means of breaking down and restructuring the entire education system has once again met with a massive popular revolt—a vast fire burning in the opposite direction, in the form of a rapidly growing Opt Out movement in school districts and states across the country. In New York State in 2015, over 200,000 students—a full 20 percent of designated test takers—were opted out by their parents from standardized testing in English or math or both, quadruple the number from the previous year. Opting out was substantial in some of those districts in New York with preponderantly black and Latino populations, contradicting the notion that the movement was simply based in the white upper middle class. At the predominantly black Garfield High School in Seattle in 2013, the staff refused to administer the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test, and were supported by parents and students in a mass Opt Out revolt. All across the country, the Opt Out movement has taken the form of a populist groundswell—on both the left and right—as more than a million parents have had their children opted out from the standardized tests. In December 2015, the U.S. Department of Education sent letters to twelve states warning them that they were violating federal law with their low test participation rates. Fighting back, Oregon passed a law requiring that school districts notify parents of their right to opt their students out of the standardized testing for any reason.12

Although there have been attempts in the media to portray Opt Out as a movement primarily of privileged, white suburban families, the class and race demographics of the schools largely belie this image. If black and Latino communities are more likely to be struggling over actual school closures—with their community schools designated “failures” because of weak test scores—rather than organizing around opting out from the standardized tests themselves, it simply means that they are facing conditions that are considerably worse, and the struggle is consequently taking a different form. Moreover, there are now signs of a wide class and race alliance emerging against high-stakes standardized tests and the privatization of education, in which communities of color are playing larger roles. As Gerald Hankerson, president of the Seattle-King County NAACP, declared last year, “The Opt Out movement is a vital component of the Black Lives Matter movement and other struggles for social justice in our region. Using standardized tests to label Black people and immigrants ‘lesser,’ while systematically under-funding their schools has a long and ugly history in this country.”13 In early January 2016, a BK Nation Forum on Testing and the Opt Out movement was held in Manhattan.14 Of those attending, around 70 percent were people of color, and the majority were African American. Over half were under 40 years of age. As Fordham professor of African American Studies and education activist Mark Naison, one of the founders of the Badass Teachers organization, wrote, the gathering represented a “powerful challenge to education policy makers who claim testing is a civil rights issue and that the Opt Out movement is strictly a white middle class initiative.” He continued,

Parent after parent, teacher after teacher, administrator after administrator spoke eloquently about how excessive testing and culturally insensitive curricula were making students in their communities hate school. Equally harrowing were stories about how excessive scripting and humiliating visits [to classrooms] were making the best teachers in high poverty communities leave their jobs. What came across loud and clear was that a climate of fear emanating from city, state and federal policies, especially school closings and receivership, was creating a toxic atmosphere in Black and Latino Communities.15

In December 2015 the federal government, faced with increasing criticism and a national Opt Out movement that threatened to emerge as a tidal wave in 2016, rid the country of No Child Left Behind and replaced it with the 1,061-page Every Student Succeeds Act. The new law’s main change was the federal government’s move to turn over more authority for running high-stakes assessments to the states. Nevertheless, it mandates as before that such tests be imposed annually on all students from grades three through eight, requiring 95 percent student participation in the testing. Moreover, the Every Student Succeeds Act clearly presumes that real control of the Common Core State Standards, and hence the standardized tests themselves, will remain primarily in private hands: the Council of Chief State Officials, the National Governors’ Association, educational service companies such as Pearson and McGraw-Hill, and the big venture capitalist foundations that provide funding and direction. All of this means that the Opt Out struggle will continue, but will be fought out in shifting terrains from state to state.16

Meanwhile, teachers in many parts of the country are struggling to protect a viable education, their students’ futures, and their own jobs. On January 25, 2016, Detroit teachers closed 64 out of around a hundred public schools in the city with a massive “sick-out.” Their demands in a nutshell: Democracy and Education.

Notes

1. “Pre-K–12 Financing Overview,” Atlas, New America Foundation, June 29, 2015, http://atlas.newamerica.org/school-finance.
2. Diane Ravitch,The Death and Life of the Great American School System (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 199–200;Reign of Error (New York: Vintage, 2014), 19-31; Mercedes K. Schneider,A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who in American Public Education (Charlotte, NC: Information Age, 2014): 369–85; John Bellamy Foster, “Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital: The U.S. Case,”Monthly Review 63, no. 3 (July-August 2011): 17–27.
3. Mercedes K. Schneider,The Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools? (New York: Teachers’ College Press, 2015), 128–39.
4. Kristin Rizga, “Sorry, I’m Not Taking This Test,”Mother Jones, August 2015, http://motherjones.com.
5. Rizga, “Sorry, I’m Not Taking This Test“; Eduardo Porter, “In Public Education, Edge Still Goes to Rich,”New York Times, November 5, 2013.
6. Rizga, “Sorry, I’m Not Taking This Test“; Melissa Lazarin, “Testing Overload in America’s Schools,” Center for American Progress, October 2014, http://americanprogress.org.
7. “Racial and Ethnic Achievement Gaps,” Stanford Educational Opportunity Monitoring Project, http://cepa.stanford.edu; Rizga, “Sorry, I’m Not Taking This Test,”; Sean F. Reardon, “The Widening Income Achievement Gap,”Educational Leadership 70, no. 8 (2013): 10–16, http://ascd.org; Ravitch,Rein of Error, 55–62.
8. Southern Education Foundation, “A New Majority: Low Income Students Now a Majority in the Nation’s Schools,” January 2015, http://southerneducation.org; National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, Table 205.20, Enrollment and Percentage Distribution of Students Enrolled in Private Elementary and Secondary Schools, http://nces.ed.gov; Council for American Private Education, “Facts and Studies,” http://capenet.org; U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, “Projection of Education Statistics for 2021,” January 2013, 3, http://nces.ed.gov.
9. See Erica R. Meiners and Therese Quinn, “Militarism and Education Normal,”Monthly Review 63, no. 3 (July-August 2011): 77–86.
10. John Dewey,Democracy and Education (New York: Free Press, 1916); W.E.B. Du Bois, The Education of Black People(New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973); Grace Lee Boggs, “Education: The Great Obsession,”Monthly Review 22, no. 4 (September 1970): 18–39.
11. See Foster, “Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital,” 9–17.
12. Elizabeth A. Harris, “20% of New York State Students Opted Out of Standardized Tests This Year,”New York Times, August 12, 2015; Valerie Strauss, “Why the Movement to Opt Out of Common Core Tests Is a Big Deal,” Answer Sheet blog,Washington Post, May 3, 2015; David Casalaspi, “Reflections on the Opt-Out Movement’s Future,” Green and Write blog, Michigan State University, January 19, 2016, http://edwp.educ.msu.edu/green-and-write; Jesse Hagopian, “Seattle’s Garfield High School Opt Out Movement Scores Huge Victory Over ‘Smarter Balanced’ Common Core Testing,” I Am an Educator blog, April 7, 2015, http://iamaneducator.com. The Oregon Department of Education, responsible for instituting the state’s new law ensuring the right of parents to opt their children out of standardized tests, has already undermined the clear intent of the law by inserting on the opt-out form the following misleading statement in larger, boldface letters, designed to frighten the parents from opting out their kids: “I understand that by signing this form I may lose valuable information about how well my child is progressing in English Language Arts and Math. In addition, opting out may impact my school districts efforts to equitably distribute resources and support student learning” (Oregon Department of Education, 2015–2016 Opt-Out Form).
13. Hankerson, quoted in Jesse Hagopian, “‘Opt out now’: The Seattle NAACP Revives the Legacy W.E.B Du Bois, Demands an End to Common Core Testing,” I Am an Educator blog, April 10, 2015.
14. “BK” stands for “Building Knowledge.” BK Nation is a relatively new national organization based in New York City: http://bknation.org.
15. Mark Naison, “BK Nation Forum Defuses Stereotypes About Opt Out as a ‘White Movement’,” With a Brooklyn Accent blog, January 7, 2016, http://withabrooklynaccent.blogspot.com.
16. Emma Brown, “How Schools Would Be Judged Under ‘Every Student Succeeds,’ the New No Child Left Behind,”Washington Post, November 30, 2015.