Government-funded privately-run schools - not only on the table in the US, but in UK too

Interesting how US/UK (& other countries) get the same ideas on "reform" at the same time.

Like they were colluding.




Britain to continue privately run school academies

As the new academic year approaches, the Brown Labour government plans to push ahead with its flagship privately run school academies. This is despite opposition to academies from parents, teachers and education specialists, as well as the underwhelming academic record of many of these corporate-backed schools...The government has recently announced it is committed to establishing at least 400 academies in total.

What are academies?

In 2000, the Labour government under Tony Blair announced the academy school programme. This was to enable companies, charities and religious organisations to take over and run certain schools. No prior educational experience or commitment was necessary, just the payment of around £2 million towards capital costs. The state was to provide the rest, sometimes in excess of £30 million.

Academy schools would be outside of the control of Local Education Authorities. They could pay only the most tenuous lip-service to the national curriculum — which has enabled some to introduce the teaching of religiously based theories such as Creationism — and could set their own conditions and pay for staff employed.

In his book, The Great City Academy Fraud, journalist and education writer Francis Beckett traces the New Labour initiative back to the City Technology Colleges (CTCs), launched in 1986 by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. The CTCs also appealed for corporate sponsors to take over and run formerly state schools.

Initially, Labour targeted schools deemed to be “failing” — i.e., those where less than 30 percent of pupils achieved five A to C grade GCSEs, including English and math. Over time, the academies programme has also encompassed some “successful” schools, where parents were told their children deserved better resources, which the new privately run schools promised to provide.

The end result has been the handing over to private companies of huge state resources and control over a significant portion of England’s schools system...

The onset of economic recession has exposed government claims that the private sector is better able to run major institutions and services efficiently and effectively. Tens of billions of pounds have been spent bailing out Britain’s failing banks at huge costs to the taxpayer. Still, the government continues to press ahead with the dismantling of public education.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/acad-a31.shtml

making a profit off our children's education is a win-win for corporations.