The other name for school "reform" = Capitalism

When Karl Marx described the despotism of the modern workplace, he could have been describing schools in the era of education "reform...." EDUCATION HISTORIAN Diane Ravitch calls Gates, Broad and their ilk the "Billionaire Boys Club." Marx called them "the bourgeoisie."

Whereas the kings and queens of yesteryear lived and ruled on the basis of tradition, the bourgeoisie embodied a much more restless social system. "The need of a constantly expanding market for its products," wrote Marx in The Communist Manifesto, "chase the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere."

So we shouldn't be surprised to find this set drooling over the prospect of "nestling" in the public sector, particularly the K-12 education "market...." 'From the point of view of private profit, one of these analysts enthusiastically observes, "the K-12 market is the Big Enchilada."' It is precisely for the purpose of helping Rupert Murdoch to his bite of the education "enchilada" that Joel Klein slid easily from the chancellor's chair to his new role as CEO of News Corp.'s educational division.

But what of the teachers? Aren't they more "professional" than "proletarian"? "The bourgeoisie," Marx wrote in The Communist Manifesto, "has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honored and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage laborers..." "It's a sad thing when you turn teaching into just a 'job', but that's what they're making it," she told me. "They're taking the heart out of it..."

After 2010, we must add to the list of halo-stripped occupations: the teacher.

http://socialistworker.org/2011/02/02/another-name-for-school-reform

I was just saying this!

sad to see a growing number of those from the "left" as well.

from the article:

"All previous historical movements were movements of minorities," Marx argued, "or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority."

That's a simple idea, but a dangerous one. Teachers of the world, unite!

...is going to win much support in this country. In fact, I'd say that the opposite is true.

Far better to explain that capitalism cannot succeed without a well-educated population.

Never mention those scary Communists to an American. They'll run screaming off into the night.