Welcome to Cashing in on Kids, a weekly email newsletter for people fed up with attacks on America’s public schools—produced by In the Public Interest.
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The racist history of “school choice.” Political historian Nancy MacLean writes about how the rhetoric of “choice” and “freedom” has long stood in stark contrast to the true goals of school choice advocates: to protect segregation and destroy public edcuation. The Washington Post
For more, here’s how school choice policies are resegregating America’s public schools today. In the Public Interest
How for-profit charter schools open the door for private investors to exploit public education. Journalist Jeff Bryant examined the relationship between Pansophic Learning, owner of the Accel Schools chain of for-profit charter schools, and Safanad Limited, a private equity firm, originating in the Middle East, with extensive investment holdings in K-12 education, senior living, and other public sector-related enterprises. What he found sheds light on how wealthy investors from overseas profit from charter schools. AlterNet
“Public school parasite.” Carl J. Peterson documents how the Los Angeles Unified School District used Covid-19 relief funds to pay a consultant over $281,000 to implement “student-centered funding,” a scheme many see as a set up for private school vouchers. Education Under Siege
How we’re fighting back
Community schools thrive in New Mexico. Journalist Miranda Cyr wrote about the success of New Mexico’s community schools during the pandemic, quoting MacArthur Elementary’s Community Schools Coordinator Tatiana del Toro-Frank: “The need and want to be a part of a school and socialize with other mothers or talk to one another, I think was really great. I wish we could have done this this whole time (during the pandemic). But you can really see your parents engaging.” Las Cruces Sun News
Cyr also talked to community school experts about how the model “aims to cover every basic need.” Las Cruces Sun News
The history of community schools. President and CEO of the Southern Education Foundation Raymond Pierce writes that community schools were “promoted by African American and Puerto Rican leaders in the 1970’s as vehicles for improving the quality of education, creating positive school-community relations, and establishing local control of schools.” Forbes
Community schools for rural America. Journalist Sarah Lahm tells of the story of community schools in rural Minnesota, concluding, “The model they’ve implemented could serve as an example of the community-changing potential of the full-service community schools in both urban and rural districts.” AlterNet
Photo by Image Editor.