Public education is the foundation of a democratic society’

The corporate takeover of public schools in the New Orleans Recovery District is now complete after the last public schools closed in 2014. The lives of 45,000 students and their families are now in the control of 40 different entities with no centralized oversight after closing their neighborhood schools. Parents have very little recourse because leaders of the private schools are not accountable to them as parents and taxpayers paying the bills.

It comes as no surprise that the governor of Wisconsin was the keynote speaker in New Orleans May 18 at the voucher school summit hosted by the American Federation for Children. The goal of the American Federation for Children is to privatize education and is funded by the DeVos family, the Kochs, and wealthy individuals. Walker and Republican legislators have received millions of dollars in contribution bribes by individuals who want schools privatized.

The mission to privatize all public schools in Wisconsin will be accomplished by the party in control in several ways.

1. Create a $2.2 billion deficit crisis precipitating drastic cuts to K-12 education, the UW System, and Wisconsin Public Broadcasting.

2. Continue to defund public schools — $890 million in 2011-13 and $127 million in 2015-17 budget.

3. Continue to devalue the accomplishments of children in public schools. Threaten to penalize and close their schools if children do not do well on rigorous, standardized tests.

4. Open the floodgates to the expansion of private/religious schools and divert our tax money to subsidize these schools. Wisconsin taxpayers will continue to subsidize these schools up to $1.9 billion a year.

5. Open the door to corporate control over the lives of our students and their families through the expansion of for-profit charter schools.

6. Maximize profits for these unaccountable schools by hiring unlicensed personnel with a “certificate” who leave in two or three years.

Our public schools are the heart and soul of our communities and serve all students and their families. Public education is the foundation of a democratic society. Previous generations made a moral commitment to us through their investments in public schools. Our generation must renew that moral commitment to our children by investing in their future and our representative democracy by funding our great public schools.

It is time for all citizens to contact their legislators and demand legislators stand up for our students in public schools.

View the original content and more from this author here: http://ift.tt/1AyMOYx

from democratic dojo http://ift.tt/1AyMM2Z
via IFTTT