A recent story on the Abramson Charter school scandal highlighted a fired state education official’s recommendations of better oversight of charters. I think it is safe to assume that the anti-democracy privatizers will spin this scandal into an argument for a special appointed board to oversee charters. We have to be anticipate and refute that argument before it takes hold.
If anything, the Abramson scandal demonstrates how appointed oversight officials are not effective and cannot ensure quality education and safe schools. Their credibility and position is dependent on presenting a public image of success and integrity for the pro-charter special interest groups. The “charter czar” concept has proved to be a failure in terms of transparency and oversight, and any appointed “privy council” will fail for the same reasons. Only locally elected officials are accountable to the public that pays for and uses public education. Unlike appointed officials and boards, elected officials can be recalled or replaced by the public. In New Orleans, the only solution to charter corruption and inequality is to return oversight to the Orleans Parish School Board which has already proven to be a self-correcting institution.
Democracy has produced it’s share of failures, but before Katrina, allegations like the ones against Abramson would have immediately been known to the parents and the board. The cure for democracy’s flaws is more democracy.
Failure is the only outcome of appointed officials charged with regulating privatized organizations that regard regulation as a violation of free market principles. That is why it has taken outside organizations like Southern Poverty Law Center, Research on Reforms, The American Independent, and other media to make public the abuses of the charter system. That these organizations did what the appointed officials would not do is the best argument for local board control.
Finally, we need to end the practice of charters firing teachers at-will (without cause). Without a union, teachers fear reporting charter mismanagement, corruption, abuses and even alleged rapes. Absent union protections, we need state laws to protect teachers from retaliatory firings for simply criticizing charter management and practices. The charters want to fire teacher at-will because they believe any government regulation encroaches on their market prerogatives. It is impossible to have transparency in public education if teachers don’t have the right to speak their minds and act according to their conscience without fear of reprisals.
The notion that the elected government, and only the elected government, has the common good as it’s responsibility and mission needs to be made crystal clear. Market–driven organizations, be they for-profit or non-profit, are guided by the bottom line and the financial survival instinct–not the welfare of our children or the desire for equitable education opportunities.
Guest Blog Post by:
Lance Hill, Ph.d.
Follow Dr. Hill on Twitter @LanceHill2011
I agree that appointing a special oversight board isn’t the fix, but the Orleans Parish School Board has a long history of not doing by the students and lax enforcement leading to scandal and abysmal performance. What good is accountability if we’re only able to vote people out AFTER the damage has been done?
E.J. an appointed board leaves the public absolutely no way to get rid of members who could be a problem. I agree with Dr. Hill, democracy is our only solution. The OPSB has had some issues, but having been involved before Katrina and now, I must say that at least there used to be some accountability. Now it’s more of a dictatorship and leaves the public without any options to hold anyone responsible. Let’s not forget that several board members changed just prior to Katrina. The one board member who ended up being convicted of accepting a bribe actually did not win her bid for the seat. Democracy works, dictatorship does not. It’s problematic that there is no way to affect all these charter boards. They don’t answer to anyone and can’t be voted off democratically. There is no way this is better . Worse yet, when you really investigate who is on some of these boards, you find that these people have little history of really being involved with public education. Many have connections to certain clicks of politically connected people. I’ll take democracy over what we have now any day.
[...] law. Can’t have that, now, can we? Bring on the oversight!But what form should it take? Lance Hill wants us to go back a bit:I think it is safe to assume that the anti-democracy privatizers will spin this scandal into an [...]
EJ, it’s also important not to fall into the sound-bite traps set by the privatization movement—that OPSB was _so_ corrupt and _so_horrible and _so_”harmful” that it had be gutted, or preferably eliminated, because _all_ those people were bad. That kind of absolutist thinking is attractive because it simplifies a very complex issue. It blames the OPSB and teachers for the difficulties their students had, and hides the fact that many of the factors that led kids to fail in those schools happened outside the classroom and school and were factors no one in the school or school board could effect or control or better on their own. Absolutist thinking also doesn’t tell a whole or partial truth. Yes, there was corruption. There’s also corruption in Baton Rouge but no one is advocating that the governorship be turned over to a private management company because the “free” market is excellent at supervising and policing itself. There’s corruption in the police department but all the officers haven’t been fired and half the precinct buildings torn down. We know that it is not true that the “free” market regulates itself. 2008 should’ve shown us that lie. And many in this state, and the metro region, believe firmly that nothing good can come out of NO. Ever.
Also keep on mind what this kind of name-calling reveals—OPSB was seen as “controlled” by “blacks” and many of those teachers fired after the floods were black women. Are schools better simply because there are whites on a board that is supposed to monitor the school it’s associated with? Is it true, can it be true, that every single adult in the old system, and every single school, was worthless or just aimed at hurting black children? [Ever heard of Students at the Center?] Where were these folks years ago when the schools were in need? Why is it that interest in “public” education only occurred when “free” market “principles” could be used to gain access to millions of dollars in federal and state funds? To assume that privatization is the answer to corruption is fundamentally flawed.