12-30-2016, 06:19 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-30-2016, 06:19 PM by Eric the Green.)
(12-30-2016, 05:45 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:(12-30-2016, 02:32 PM)TeacherinExile Wrote: The ideological support for privatization rests largely on the specious premise that the "market knows best." But we now have much evidence to the contrary when it comes to introducing a profit motive into the delivery of common goods: education, utilities, national defense, and so on. Think of the bankruptcies of not a few for-profit charter schools and universities; think of the tainted water (lead)scandal in Flint, MI.
That bad private schools go bankrupt rather than sticking around and miseducating more kids as bad public schools do is a good thing, not a bad thing, and illustrates exactly why education is an area where the market would work better. The Flint water supply was also publicly run; privatization couldn't have made things worse there, and might have made them better.
The reason the Flint water supply was bad, is that Michigan voters fell for neo-liberalism (as they did on Nov.8), and elected a Republican governor. The Republican Party is the neo-liberal party, which means that public services like water supply is not their priority, and so Snyder and co. made the wrong decisions.
Giving education to the market is to ensure that only rich people get educated. As George Carlin pointed out, that's just what the neo-liberal bosses want.
Public schools worked well when they were valued, before the neo-liberal era.