The Profit Motive Behind "School Reform"

Once you understand how much money there is to be made from dismantling public education, filling schools with tests, and making neighborhoods ripe for gentrification by closing schools and opening charters, you will see why both political parties buy into and promote the School Reform Myth . Not only have the School Reform measures endorsed by both parties failed to reduce gaps in educational achievement and income by race and class, they have magnified those gaps. I defy any economist to show me evidence which shows that the US has become a more egalitarian society since the passage of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. Whether you look at child poverty, income distribution, or wealth gaps by race, the US has experienced the largest redistribution of wealth upward in modern history in the very years School Reform has been at its peak.

We have more children living in poverty, lower wages, and a higher percentage of national income controlled by the top 1 Percent than we did in 2001, or 2008. Yet our elected officials continue to push their toxic mix of National Testing, Charters, and Test Based Accountability as though it were some kind of anti-poverty program rather than a huge opportunity for profit by publishers, software manufacturers, real estate investors and "educational entrepreneurs."

It is time to pull the mask away and see the profound corruption that lies at the heart of dominant School Policies- whether they are pushed by Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Andrew Cuomo, Rahm Emmanuel, Michael Bloomberg or Barack Obama