I think that the Education Reform Movement revealed in Chicago is very much related to the Japanese Education Reform Movement. In our national elections, former Financial Minister Heizo Takenaka said that Japanese public schools should be handed over to private operations. After the election, not only Osaka, but every city of Japan is changing the direction of education, somehow toward privatization.
There is some symbolic news in Osaka.
The Mayor of Osaka decided to surrender the principal post of public schools to the CEO or manager of private company who knows well about the efficiency and competition.
Eleven new ‘private principals’ were selected by Mayor Hashimoto, but one of them, from a stock company, resigned only 3 months after.
He said that the reason he quit was that “I want to teach English to kids to survive the global market . . .”
The ‘private principal’ also said “These public poor schools are not my place. I can’t show my business skills here.”
This is not a joke. Parents in Osaka are very worried about the policy of Mayor Hashimoto which is based on “Private education is better than Public.”
