Response # 5

                               Education: Let's Allow Them to Take That From Us as Well

Because I had already read the article assigned, I found another one that echoes the concern about education in America. “Testing, Privatization, and the Future of Public Schooling” by “An Assessor” focuses on the issues that are currently plaguing the educational system, the article enlightens readers on the social segregation that is being placed upon economically unsound youths across the United States.

An Assessor writes about the damage standardized testing is causing in public school systems nationwide, “Standardized testing occupies a central place in the ongoing reorganization—or demolition—of public education in the United States.” The writer gives more details as to what affect this “testing” is having on the general population. “Tests were a useful mechanism for pressuring students—via grade promotion, graduation, and scholarships.” With pressures on the students that are already suffering through boring lectures from teachers to excel in order to find some sort of end reward, those who fall short are left wondering why they aren’t up to par with others in their class. This could go back to the theory by Ken Robinson, “people who are smart, just not academic feel inferior because of their difference in abilities.” This would add a huge amount of pressure to test taking, which ultimately could lead to failure.

The author also feels that test can be used as a means of control over the population, thus with the reward system in place those who are challenged or slow learners, would feel as if they have no option but to accept the end result. This would provide a control if you will over those that actually need help, yet are not getting it because they fall short of the “standards”. The author shows a better comparison than any I could think of to show the amount of control that is established by testing, “In the United States, tests have come to serve a function similar to money: they are both a measuring tool and a means of control.” I think we agree that money is certainly used to control people. Money plays a big role in why standardized test even exist. See, schools get money based on results from tests that are mandated by the government, if they fall short on the range of acceptable scores; they face serious “punishments”.

Those “punishments” include privatization, charters, and layoffs of staff. That certainly seems like standardized testing is in place to help right? If the government is going to remove staff from schools, and then privatize the entire institution, they are going to make serious changes to the curriculum. Those changes may or may not actually benefit students. Since schools are mostly in place to produce new workforces, then the curriculum may be sub-par in certain areas to provide said fodder for the work-machine. One way that they are doing this, is the use of funds available to public school districts. The author asserts that funding for public schools are very disproportionate, “Funding, however, remains unequally distributed, with three-to-one funding ratios between wealthy and poor districts common both within and across states.” When you think of public schools, you think of taxpayer’s money being distributed among all schools, not just those with more wealth associated to those that already attend or the general area in which the school is located. How does this help anyone? This question will continue to resurface until a viable answer is found.

The author believes that a racial issue is at play in the educational system, “so that lack of funds intertwines with racial isolation.” This could certainly be plausible because areas with high concentrations of different races are generally portrayed to have bad school systems, in the media and other mediums. One cannot certainly say that because an area has a different population than Middle America, that the school system suffers for any reason other than funds distribution.  I think that in order to combat the issue that funds should be evenly spread among all areas, just as most other people would think. Yet why isn’t this taking place?  For as long as there have been humans, social classes have been in play. One class rules another, which is just how it goes. American leaders would rather see rich people succeed than poor, (case in point distribution of funds in education). It is a sad thing that our leaders would rather watch us wallow in uneducated squalor than allocate funds to support the very essence required for rising from poverty.

The author feels that Neoliberalism is to blame. Neoliberalism is a label for the market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that stresses the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the political and economic priorities of the state.  Certainly, the punishment in place for schools that fall below standards echoes neoliberalism, in the sense that private owned companies support privatized schools. Since schools are part of the economy in the sense that they provide future workers, why should corporations have a hand in the “teaching” of those future workers? The author gives a statement as to how we are supposed to combat this “change” in educational standards concerning neoliberalism, “Neoliberalism can only be stopped by a major effort by educators, parents, and communities—that is, by different sectors of the broad working class (including the so-called middle class, which is fundamentally the strata of middle-to-better-paid workers) coming together. Without such a movement, there is no hope for the fundamental changes needed in U.S. education.”

I agree that there are issues that are sorely misjudged in America, and I agree that it is a travesty that education is facing such onslaught from the government. Yet little can we do about it without serious actions, we should be more proactive in our everyday lives. These “issues” may feel like they do not affect us because we are in college, and almost at the “reward point”, but think of your children. Think of the education they will receive in America if this continues. Will you all be rich? Will you all accept that your children be taught curriculum that is sub-par based on your geographic location? Say you live in East LA... Would you accept an education that your kids receive because of lack of funding? I hope not. Back to the authors statement “Americans need to come together”; we would have to have a terrorist attack to do so. It seems that for people to bond together something drastic and public has to happen. The war on terror brought millions of people together as the entity that is America, yet the war on education seems to separate the rich from the poor. Our lack of concern for each other, and our lack of concern for what policy makers are doing are astounding. These sad situations have driven us to this point.  We are at a point in history, when the very essence of creativity and knowledge can be swept away, all because big money corporations want a piece of the educational pie.

                                                                Works Cited

   Assessor, An. “Testing, Privatization, and the Future of Public Schooling” Monthly Review. Web. Published, 23 August 2011. Accessed, 5 September 2011.

Robinson, Ken. “Changing Education Paradigms,” lecture. rsAnimate.org Web. Accessed 5 September 2011.