Corporate Charter Schools: The Movement to Privatize Americas Public

Schools

Corporate Charter Schools: The Movement to Privatize Americas Public

Schools.
Jennifer L. Baker
Western Oregon University

Corporate Charter Schools: The Movement to Privatize Americas Public

Schools

Abstract
The popularity of charter schools has been increasing in all U.S. States,
thanks in part to the supportive regulations found in the No Child Left
Behind (NCLB) (2001), Race To The Top (RTTT) (2008), and Every Student
Succeeds (ESSA) (2015) acts passed by the federal government. These acts
have allowed for non-religious, privately run charter schools to receive
federal and state funding and operate as non-profits with minimal
restrictions. The increased ability to receive funding has made the idea of
operating charter schools appeal to not just teachers and educators, but also
corporations and businesses. The heads of corporations are seeing charter
schools as opportunities to create schools that provide the type of education
that will educate their future employees as well as link them to public
funding and preferential financing. The supporters of these corporate backed
charter schools argue that the public school system is failing so parents
deserve a choice in where to send their children. They say that choice is the
key to improving schools. On the other hand, supporters of public schools
feel strongly that education must be open and equal for all students so its
imperative that we improve public schools and provide the amount of
funding needed to keep them operating.

Corporate Charter Schools: The Movement to Privatize Americas Public

Schools

Corporate Charter Schools: The Movement to Privatize Americas Public

Schools.

There have been many discussions in the media and amongst

parents and educators regarding the current state of education in America.
The passings of NCLB, RTTT, and ESSA, seem to have started an ongoing
debate about what is best for our schools. On one hand we have the
argument that the government should not be involved in the day- to-day
needs of the people, as the bureaucracy will complicate and interfere with
education. Those that feel this way believe that the public should have the
right to choose their school and that privately run schools deserve the same
funding and support as public schools. On the other hand, others are arguing
that public school is a vital and necessary need for all children in America,
and the right to free education must be preserved. They believe that the
oversight by the government is needed to protect that right, and that all
students should be entitled to the same level of education, regardless of
location, socio-economic standing, and ethnicity. With the increased
legislation we have seen the government adding provisions in education

Corporate Charter Schools: The Movement to Privatize Americas Public

Schools
legislation that opens the door for corporate interest in public schools, as
well as increasing standardized testing with the results used to determine
the level of the schools funding. These acts require that public schools be
ranked and scored, as well as requiring them to compete with other schools
for their funding. Low scoring schools, which are typically in low income and
high minority areas are at risk of decreased support or being closed.
(Ravitch, 2013) While the government and corporate interests increase their
interest in assessments and rankings, the backlash from the teachers,
students and parents is increasing.

In Diane Ravitchs book, Reign of Error (2013), she provides a

history of the development of charter schools and the metamorphosis from
teacher based to corporate backed entities. According to Ravitch, the original
idea behind charter schools can be traced back to the 1980s when two
educators, Albert Shanker and Ray Budde, separately discussed the idea of
teacher run schools. It was Shanker, who developed the idea and wrote
regular articles in the New York Times about his idea for reaching the
disengaged and/or disinterested students and dropouts: His idea was that a
group of six or eight teachers in a school might collaborate on designing a
new sort of school for these students (p. 156-157) The idea also included
these teachers being free to come up with their own ideas regarding how to
reach these students, collaborating with other teachers, and then sharing
what they learned in the process. While Shankers idea has been utilized by

Corporate Charter Schools: The Movement to Privatize Americas Public

Schools
many well-meaning educators and has led to increasing amounts of charters
schools being created that support and work closely with public schools,
unfortunately, the idea was also taken seriously by non-educators looking to
capitalize on the federal and state funding being made available. According
to Ravitch, by 1993 Shanker had seen the effect of corporate influence and
the emphasis on reducing costs and increasing efficiency in education, which
he felt was at the expense of student development. (Ravitch, 2013).
By 2001, corporate interest in charter schools had become so
strong, that when the NCLB act as passed it included a provision in Title 5
that secured state funding and support for the promotion of innovative
programs. 2009s Race To the Top program contained similar language in
section F (F)(2), which protected the increasing number of charter schools
and secured their rights to public funding equivalent to what public schools
are receiving. Its no surprise that the support for charter schools has
continued to increase to the point that the wording in the Every Student
Succeeds Act, Part C includes the requirement of states wanting to secure
federal funding to increase the amount of charter schools and support the
replication of the charter schools. It further protects the charter schools
rights to equal funding.
All 3 federal policies provide support for Charter Schools without
including specific standards or requirements such as those imposed on public
schools. The requirements vaguely include the need to ensure high
performance and equitable access, but at the same time allow for closed

Corporate Charter Schools: The Movement to Privatize Americas Public

Schools
boards and autonomy for the leadership of the schools. Thanks to the
protections afforded by these federal acts, and the access to funding and
financing, charter schools have become a lucrative business model for the
corporate-minded. However, as the education industry becomes more and
more profitable, it has led to questions about whether or not these charter
schools are good for the students they purport to serve.
The heads of many large corporations have become increasingly
public about their efforts to create an education system that will produce the
employees that their businesses need. Bill and Melinda Gates of Microsoft are
considered the strongest advocates of the Charter School movement, and
have in turn encouraged many other corporate foundations and business
people to follow suit.
In the 2010, Bill Gates sponsored documentary, Waiting for
Superman, the idea of charter schools is presented as the cure for what is
wrong with our schools. Images of inner-city children entering into lotteries to
win a coveted seat in a charter school that would mean to ability to get a
better education and secure a brighter future for them and their family. The
discussion also centers around how poorly public school teachers are doing,
and how difficult it is to monitor their work. The culprits, according to Bill
Gates, are the teachers unions. Anthony Cody, a teacher and blogger from
Oakland, has been challenging Bill and Melinda Gates ideas from the
beginning. He has pointed out that there are multiple areas to profit from the
running of a charter school, and the caveats that exist within the Gates

Corporate Charter Schools: The Movement to Privatize Americas Public

Schools
Foundations education grants, such as requirements to use specific testing
programs or curricula. Cody has carefully detailed and chronicled the
interviews and quotes made by the Gates during their promotion of Waiting
for Superman, and their support for charter schools. What should be an
argument for whats best for the students and teachers seems somehow to
consistently turn into one of measurements and evaluations, tracking and
reporting. The Gates Foundation is involved with creating the software used
for scoring the standardized testing as well as developing lesson plans and
materials to be used with the Common Core requirements, which allows
them to profit from the sales of those materials to the schools that they are
involved in running. (Cody, 2014).
After looking into the different accounts of how well these corporate
based charter schools are doing, the main theme seems to be how much
money they are making. These charter schools are public, in the sense that
any student can apply to go to their school, so they receive state and federal
funding. However, thanks to the effective political influence that the
corporations are able to offer, there are limited regulations regarding the
curriculum they offer, the performance standards, teacher education, or
student achievement. The schools are non-profits so they can use their
charitable foundation budgets to invest in the schools, but then thanks to the
legislation allowing them autonomy in administrative decisions, they are able
to hire their own employees as teachers. (Ravitch, 2013)

Corporate Charter Schools: The Movement to Privatize Americas Public

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There is a serious concern that most parents arent aware of when
they make the decision to transfer their students to a charter school. The
idea of public school is that all students in a geographical region are
expected to attend their local school. There are no entrance exams or tuition,
and the only requirements are district boundaries. When a charter school
opens near a local school the parents may believe that the same geographic
student enrollment applies, but the truth is that Charter Schools are not
required to enroll all students who apply, often choose students through
random lotteries, and can dismiss students from their school for any reason.
Charter schools have the luxury of creating entrance applications and
procedures, which support the enrollment of the types of students they want
and effectively limit those which they dont. When corporate interests are in
charge its not hard to envision the teachers, who are employees of the
corporation, being hired to develop that companys employees of tomorrow.
They may say they are promoting a fair, well developed curriculum, but with
less oversight and often closed boards making executive decisions, then the
parents may have no idea what is actually happening behind the scenes.
Another question that needs to be asked is who is lobbying the
politicians when it comes to education policies and regulations? Teachers
Unions have traditionally provided support for politicians who support
schools and education but unfortunately they are no match for the corporate
financing and lobbying machines. From NCLB, RTTT, and now ESSA, the
federal and local governments have been passing increasing amounts of

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requirements that are restricting what public schools can and cant do. They
are forced to subject their students to multiple standardized tests, must
report student and teacher scores, and are constantly facing the loss of
funding for arts, P.E., and other non-testable curricula. As the public
schools become more and more restricted then the same lobbyists who are
pushing for these regulations are also pushing for a parents option to
choose their own schools and other alternative education options. This has
made it easy for corporations to open their own charter schools and promote
their own curricula while ensuring that the public schools cant compete.
So, why arent these corporations just opening as private schools?
There is no reason why a corporation, such as Microsoft, couldnt open a
technology-based high school and attract the best and brightest technical
minds to attend. Based on the salaries that software engineers are making,
they could charge whatever tuition they wanted and freely and openly train
the next generation of Microsoft employees. Public schools could be left
alone to operate in the way thats best for the public that they serve, and
politicians can stay out of their way. There is still money to be made in
curriculum development, testing design and materials, tutoring, and
alternative schools, so there should be no reason why these corporations are
going after the public funding for schools. In my opinion they are looking for
ways to look like they are investing in community development and looking
out for all students. If these corporations were truly concerned about the well
being of the students, and children in low-income areas, then they would be

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Schools
investing in making public school better and working with the teachers to
find out what works best to help the most students. Instead, they are
attacking teachers and the teachers unions and showing them as
incompetent and ineffective.
Research has shown that the best kind of education is collaborative
and well rounded. Students do best when allowed to think creatively and
when they are allowed to be active participants in their education. Students
who have teachers that take an active interest in their education and well
being tend to do better and be more confident which improves their
retention. Based on recent state and federal government interactions with
public schools, the goals in modern public school are to limit students
interactions with both their teachers and other students. Preparing for
standardized testing means that students are expected to memorize facts
and data and learn that there is only one right answer to a problem. This
leads to parents looking for alternative education options. Parents are led to
believe that these specialized charter schools are the answer and will teach
their children how to get the high paying jobs of the future.
Thanks to the advances in technology and the availability of educational
resources online, this time in our schools should be a pivotal turning point in
public education. Teachers now have resources available to them that
theyve never had before, and the ability to connect with other teachers and
educators from all over the world. My courses that I took as part of my
Masters Degree program have shown me that the only limits to a teachers

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Schools
resources are their imagination, comfort level, and administrators
permissions. Students should be able to receive educational materials in the
manner that works best for them and be connected to the programs that
they need to succeed. These advancements are happening in some public
schools and school connected charter schools, and their successes have
been tracked and verified. One strong example of successful integration of
technology into an alternative school is Californias High Tech High
(http://www.hightechhigh.org). Reading the website tells the story of a group
of local business people and civic leaders who worked together to build a
strong, technology based school that would build students skills and prepare
them for college and graduate school. They describe their approach on their
website as: The design principles permeate every aspect of life at High Tech
High: the small size of the school, the openness of the facilities, the
personalization through advisory, the emphasis on integrated, project-based
learning and student exhibitions, the requirement that all students complete
internships in the community, and the provision of ample planning time for
teacher teams during the work day.
Conversely, the models being promoted by the corporate heads are
significantly different. For example, the school model that Bill Gates and
Mark Zuckerberg have created for schools in North Africa. Their model is
used in the United States, but is best described on their website for Bridge
International (http://www.bridgeinternationalacademics.com). In the
Philosophy section they state Teacher scripts are delivered through data-

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enabled tablets, which seamlessly sync with our headquarters, giving us the
ability to monitor lesson pacing in addition to providing the scripts
themselves, recording attendance, and tracking assessments in real-time.
We also create our own books, manipulatives, instructional songs, symbols
for enforcing positive behavioral management, and more, which we are able
to produce locally at an extremely low cost. The difference between the
community model and the corporate model clearly demonstrate the
differences in philosophy between student focused and profit based.

Conclusion

The corporate take-over of the United States education system is

something that should concern all Americans. The public school system
should be supported and sufficiently funded in order to make sure all
students, in all areas, and of all socio-economic backgrounds receive a wellrounded education. All students deserve a comprehensive, well-rounded
education, and should be allowed to become free and critical thinkers,
regardless of socio-economic standing, race, religion, or technical abilities.
(Ayers & Ayers, 2011) While the idea of charter schools may sound like
advancement the unfortunate reality is that the needs of the students and
the integrity of the teaching profession are not the priorities of the new

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education era. The priority of charter schools should be to support public
schools by offering specialized educational opportunities to students who can
benefit from the extra support not to make money and capitalize on the
redirecting of federal and state funding.

Resources
Ayers, R., & Ayers, W. (2011). Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination
in the Classroom. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Cody, A. (2014). The Educator And The Oligarch: A Teacher Challenges The
Gates
Foundation. New York, NY: Garn Press.
Ravitch, D. (2013). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement
and the
Danger to Americas Public Schools. New York, NY: Vintage
Press.
Ricci, C. (2012). The Willed Curriculum, Unschooling, and Self-Direction:
What Do Love, Trust, Respect, Care and Compassion Have To Do With
Learning. Ontario, Canada: Ricci Publishing.

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No Child Left Behind Text (2001). Retrieved from
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec /leg/esea02/index.html
Race To the Top Text (2009). Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/programs/
racetothetop/executive-summary.pdf
Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) Retrieved from
https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ pkg/BILLS-114s1177enr/pdf/BILLS114s1177enr.pdf