Is Privatization of the public schools the way to empower marginalized people? Myron Orfield and others at the U of MN collected data on student background characteristics and outcomes such as test scores for public schools and charters (publicly funded private). Overall, charters did no better, or did a little worse than the public schools with similar student demographics. In recent years, charters have been getting about the same level of financial support as public schools, and some charters are better funded than public schools because of financial support from foundations and parents. Operating costs for charters and the less posh private schools are probably less than operating costs for a typical public school, in part because the non-public school employees are not unionized and earn a lot less money. Administrative costs as a percent of their budgets are higher for charters, in part because of highly compensated administrators. The for-profit charter operations also strive to make a profit, so that part of the public funding flows into the pockets of investors. Studies of the most heavily charter-ized states, e.g. California and school districts, like New Orleans show huge racial disparities in allocation of resources to the schools and in outcomes for students. Same results with the voucher programs in Milwaukee, WI and Cleveland. OH in the 1990s. The country of Chile privatized its K-12 school system in the 1970s and 80s, which accompanied greater disparities in access to education by family income. Based on results obtained from privatization and Charter-ization of public school systems, it is clear that privatizing the public school system doesnt lead to more equitable resource allocation and the elimination of systemic racial discrimination.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 14:15:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015