- CARTOON/Andy Willis
“Twenty-five percent of these kids are never going to be anything . . . and I’m not going to throw money at them.” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has denied that he ever made this statement to Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis. But actions speak louder than words. He is closing 54 public schools in mostly African American and Latino neighborhoods, supposedly for budgetary reasons. If successful, this will be the largest demise of public schooling at one time in American history. The corporate spokesman mayor adds that “poorly performing schools” must be removed so Chicago school children can get “the world class education they deserve.” Similar statements have been made by mayors in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit and Oakland as school closings take place all over the country.
So what does a “world class education” really look like? Finland ranks first among all nations with a literacy rate of 100%. There are no charter schools and no national standardized tests. Class sizes are small and their system is completely run by educators, not business tycoons. Failing students are almost unheard of there. Cuba has the highest literacy rate in the western hemisphere at 99.8%, rated 5th in the world. Education there is completely free, including college, with a drop-out rate of zero. Cuba received the 2006 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Literacy Prize. Every child gets an equal quality education. Cuba has accomplished all this in spite of a 60-year trade embargo placed on it by the U.S.
The mayor’s so-called “world class education,” and quality education based on our working class needs, are two different things. In the past, when industrial manufacturing developed, the ruling class needed a work force disciplined and educated enough to operate the factories. A large government funded public school system grew to meet this need. Now that manufacturing has declined because of the electronic revolution, only a smaller, more technically trained work force is needed. Since the ruling class feels there is no need to educate the children of the unemployed and underemployed, they are dismantling that part of the school system.
They have used exhaustive standardized testing (No Child Left Behind) and national competition for local funding (Race To The Top) to choke the schools of money and resources. Communities that try to solve the problem through local control can’t because the problem requires a national solution, not a local one. There is no national equitable funding or guarantee of an equal education for all children. So banks, corporations and charter schools get the money, the school districts cry broke, and then your schools are closed.
But there is no shortage of money—it’s all being diverted to profit the rich. If our children are to get the quality education they deserve, there must be an end to “standards” that destroy public education. There must be national standards that guarantee equal funding and a high quality education for each and every child. Then there would no longer be such a thing as a poor school district. Every school district would be rich: every child would get the best possible education.
