Privatization

Report From Chicago: Dyett Hunger Strike Ends

September 20, 2015 Michelle Strater Gunderson, www.livingindialogue.com Resist! Austerity, Education, Neoliberalism, Privatization

By Michelle Strater Gunderson for Living in Dialogue. Chicago, IL - September 19, 2015. The hunger strike for Dyett High School ended this morning on day 34. Once again I headed to the south side to be with my friends and fellow education fighters known as the Dyett Twelve. Education activists had been told that the hunger strikers would have an announcement this morning, and many of us converged at the Rainbow Push Coalition broadcast to be there in support. I sit in the pews behind Cathy Dale and Jeanette Taylor-Ramann – two women who I have come to love and respect through this struggle. After 34 days of fasting the hunger strikers have an other-worldly presence. They seem so strong and focused, yet vulnerable at the same time.

How The Billionaire Kingpins Of School Privatization Got Stopped

September 9, 2015 Kali Holloway, www.truth-out.org Resist! Charter Schools, Privatization, Public Education

By Kali Holloway in Truthout - The debate over public schools in Arkansas has been, for decades, ongoing and often fraught. In 1957, the Arkansas school year began with white mobs viciously attacking nine black teenagers as they attempted to desegregate Little Rock's Central High following Brown vs. Board of Education, shining a national spotlight on the state and forcing President Eisenhower to send in the 101st Airborne Division. This past January, nearly 60 years after Arkansas' first desegregation efforts, the state board of education dissolved Little Rock's democratically elected local school board, the most racially inclusive and representative of its majority-black constituency in nearly a decade. In making the decision, the state overruled widespread public outcry to take control of the largest school district in the state. Two months later, Walton Family Foundation-backed lobbyists launched a brazen legislative push to allow for broader privatization - or put bluntly, "charterization" - of schools across Arkansas. It was a move many believed revealed a carefully orchestrated effort, begun months prior, to undermine the state's public school system, destroy its teachers unions and turn public funds into private profits.

New State Law Will Lead To The Privatization Of Schools

September 8, 2015 Lisa Kaiser, www.shepherdexpress.com Educate! Education, Privatization, Voting

By Lisa Kaiser in Shepherd Express - Thanks to the just-passed state budget, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele will assume new powers shared by none of his peers in the state. He’ll be in charge of a new school district that is totally unaccountable to the voters but will be paid for by taxpayers. The new Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program (OSPP), which hands over public schools to Abele for privatization, may be an anomaly in Wisconsin, but it’s part of a growing trend of so-called turnaround districts around the country and another anti-democratic idea spawned by the national right-wing think tanks. These districts are launched by conservative state legislators and target underfunded urban school districts, where appointed leaders are allowed to convert public schools into privatized charter schools.

Washington Supreme Court: Charter Schools Are Unconstitutional

September 6, 2015 Staff, www.AP.org Resist! Charter Schools, Education, Privatization

By Staff for Associated Press - The Washington Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state's voter-approved charter-school law is unconstitutional, throwing the new school year into chaos for about 1,200 pupils enrolled in the system. In a 6-3 ruling, the high court said charter schools do not qualify as "common" schools under Washington's Constitution and cannot receive public funding intended for those traditional public schools. "The Supreme Court has affirmed what we've said all along - charter schools steal money from our existing classrooms, and voters have no say in how these charter schools spend taxpayer funding," Kim Mead, president of the Washington Education Association, said in a written statement. Paul Lawrence, an attorney for the coalition, said the ruling means the charter schools can't open unless they find another source of money.

Organizing, Not Activism: Dyett HS Hunger Strikers

August 31, 2015 Bruce A. Dixon, www.blackagendareport.com Organize! Chicago, Education, Hunger Strike, Privatization

By Bruce A. Dixon in Black Agenda Report - The years long struggle on the part of parents and students and community members around Dyett High school on Chicago's historic south side is a stellar example of long-term community building and organizing, which differs greatly from the mere activism some currently herald as “the movement.” Black Agenda Report's Bruce Dixon interviewed Jitu Brown, a member of the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High Schoolon August 26, 2015, the tenth day of a hunger strike staged by parents and community residents resisting the closing and privatization of their neighborhood high school and the intransigence of Chicago's City Hall apparently determined to disperse and destroy their community and rebuild it for someone else.

Don’t Trust The Media On Corporate Education Reform

August 25, 2015 Molly Knefel, www.fair.org Educate! Charter Schools, Education, Los Angeles, Media, Privatization

By Molly Knefel in FAIR - Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times (8/18/15) announced an initiative called Education Matters, “an ongoing, wide-ranging report card on K-12 education in Los Angeles, California and the nation.” The project will cover educational issues, including “the latest debate on curriculum or testing” and “how charter schools are changing public education.” The Times, owned by Tribune Publishing, will fund Education Matters with donations and grants from philanthropic organizations like the Baxter Family Foundation and the Broad Foundation. “These institutions, like the Times,” publisher and CEO Austin Beutner writes, “are dedicated to independent journalism that engages and informs its readers.”

Join The Fight To Save Dyett High School

August 24, 2015 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Petitions and Online Actions Classism, Education, Privatization, Racism

By Staff of Popular Resistance. Chicago, IL - The attack on Dyett is representative of what is happening to public education and school across the country. These resisters are on the front line of saving the human right to education. We hope you will take a moment to support them. 2 Parents, grandparents, community members and supporters from around the city started a hunger strike on August, 17th. Their demand is simple. Rahm Emanuel and his appointed school board needs to follow the community's wishes and use the now shuttered Dyett High School Building at 555E 51st St. for the innovative, academically excellent and culturally connected Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School.

Greece Is For Sale – And Everything Must Go

August 22, 2015 Nick Dearden, www.globaljustice.org.uk Educate! Austerity, Europe, Greece, Privatization

By Nick Dearden in Global Justice - I've just had sight of the latest privatisation plan for Greece. It's been issued by something called the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund – the vehicle supervised by the European institutions, which has been tasked with selling off an eye-watering €50 billion of Greece's ‘valuable assets’. The fund was a real sticking point because the European institutions wanted to move it to Luxembourg, where they could keep a better eye on it. Anyhow, it's still in Athens, and this document, dated 30 July, details the goodies on sale to international investors who fancy buying up some of the country. We've attached it to this blog to give a flavour of what’s up for grabs at the moment.

Germans To Run Greek Airports In Wave Of Bailout Privatisations

August 19, 2015 Associated Press, www.AP.org Educate! Austerity, Germany, Greece, Privatization

By Associated Press in The Guardian - Greece has agreed to sell to a German company the rights to operate 14 regional airports. The deal is the first in a wave of privatisations the government had until recently opposed but must make to qualify for bailout loans. The decision, published in the government gazette on Monday night would hand over the airports including several on popular tourist island destinations to Fraport AG, which runs Frankfurt Airport, among others across the world. The deal, worth €1.23bn euros (£0.9bn/$1.37bn), is the first privatisation decision taken by the government of Alexis Tsipras, who was elected prime minister in January on promises to repeal the conditions of Greece’s previous two bailouts. The government initially vowed to cancel the country’s privatisation programme but Tsipras caved in to win a deal on a third international bailout for Greece, worth €86bn.

World Bank Disguising Aid For Private, For-Profit Schools In Africa

August 4, 2015 Billy Briggs, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Africa, Education, Privatization, Schools, World Bank

By Billy Briggs in Mint Press News - “These schools save costs by hiring ill-trained teachers and running large classes in substandard school buildings,” Singh wrote, adding: “Such ‘edu-businesses’, as they have come to be known, are an unsatisfactory replacement for the good public education governments should be providing.” Despite these findings, DFiD has also invested in BIA, prompting criticism from Global Justice Now. A spokesperson for the social justice organization told MintPress News: “British taxpayers are forcing private education systems on countries like Uganda and Kenya through schemes like this backed by DfID and the World Bank.” Aid is being used as a tool, Global Justice Now added, to compel the majority of the world to undertake policies which help Western business while undermining public services in emerging nations.

Can The Movement For Free, Quality Public Education Win In Chile?

July 24, 2015 Javier Gárate, www.wagingnonviolence.org Create! Austerity, Chile, Education, Privatization, Student Activism

By Javier Gárate in Waging Nonviolence - The next few months are of critical importance to Chile’s long-running education movement. President Michelle Bachelet has said she plans to implement comprehensive education reform this year, which will guarantee quality education for everyone. To ensure this happens, the movement has increased pressure on the government with huge protests by teachers and students last month, including an indefinite strike by the National Teachers Union that began June 1. Over the years, the movement has learned to temper its expectations. In 2011 — when protests were last at a peak — many thought change was imminent, only to suffer frustration and loss of momentum in the years that followed.

Residents Fight Back Against Pittsburgh’s Privatized Water Authority

July 14, 2015 Aaron Miguel Cantú, www.truth-out.org Educate! Austerity, Human Rights, Pittsburgh, Privatization, Water

By Aaron Miguel Cantú in TruthOut - On June 24, dozens of Millvale residents have gathered in a community space to learn about a class-action lawsuit recently filed on their behalf against the PWSA, as well as the private water corporation Veolia Water North America, and the authority's collection agency, Jordan Tax Service. The group behind the lawsuit, Campaign to Reform PWSA, hopes to end what they see as the PWSA's coercive, slapdash attempts to shake down citizens for money. They also hope to alter the PWSA so that it is more transparent and responsive, because right now, they contend, the PWSA has become a smokescreen for France-based Veolia Environment, the largest private water company in the world.

Fifteen Years Of Community-Controlled Water In Bolivia

June 8, 2015 Marina Sitrin, www.roarmag.org Create! Bolivia, Community, Privatization, Water

By Marina Sitrin in Roar Mag - This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the victory of the communities of Bolivia over private water corporations. Not only did popular power reverse the plan to privatize the water, but the many hundreds of communities surrounding Cochabamba managed to keep their water as a common good, controlled and managed by the community directly and democratically. Other places around the world have also been successful in at least holding back privatizations and mining, such as in Thessaloniki, with the struggle to keep water public and in the Halkidiki region of Greece. In these examples, as in so many others, the struggles are grounded in a particular form of popular power. As with the experience in Cochabamba, it was regular people and communities organized in the streets (not parties, unions or other sectors) using direct action and directly democratic assemblies to make decisions.

Study: NYC Charters Leave 1000s Of Seats Unfilled Despite Demand

June 8, 2015 Emma Brown, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! Charter Schools, Education, New York City (NYC), Privatization

By Emma Brown in The Washington Post - New York City’s charter schools are leaving thousands of seats unfilled each year despite ballooning demand and long waiting lists, according to an analysis of public data to be released Friday. The decision not to fill seats that are left vacant by departing students deprives other deserving students of places in the schools, the report argues. It also means that charter schools can appear to be improving, according to proficiency rates on standardized tests, even as the absolute number of children scoring proficient declines each year, it says. The report, entitled “No Seat Left Behind” and issued by the Harlem-based parent advocacy group Democracy Builders, calls on charter schools to begin voluntarily “backfilling” their empty seats — or admitting new students to replace those who leave.

How Education Became A Business And Forgot The Students

June 1, 2015 Devon Douglas-Bowers, www.occupy.com Educate! Business, Capitalism, Education, Privatization

Devon Douglas-Bowers in Occupy - Students attend college to pursue their interests, broaden their intellectual horizons and make headway toward a career. While this is made difficult due to the amount of debt that many must saddle in order to earn a degree, there is also another, much stealthier problem as well: the college bureaucracy. University bureaucracies absorb large amounts of funding and undermine the alleged goal of college, which is to provide an education. But they also signal something more sinister: the neo-liberalization of education, now viewed as a business. The rise in college bureaucracy is nothing new, and has been noted for quite some time.

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