The New Politics of Education: School Districts For Sale
American education is for sale. Last month, Hartford, Conn., became the first district in the nation to turn over control of its 32 public schools to a private corporation, Education Alternatives Inc. It is the most recent example of an alarmZg_rend--the abdication of responsibility by boards of education to publicly traded, profit-making companies whose bottom line is not education but the strength of their financial performance for their stockholders.
The fact that this transfer of authority from publicly elected officials to private business occurred in the shadow of Connecticut's state Capitol is even more disheartening. For it is in Hartford that elected officials and educational policymakers assume responsibility for providing all children in the state with public schools of the highest quality. The cynicism of the Hartford school board is communicated in an Oct. 4, 1994, New York Times article, which quotes a Hartford board member stating that the five-year contract with E.A.I. is both bulletproof and risk-proof from the board's perspective. Lost in this discussion are the risks for the 23,000 children, their parents, and the professional staff, 30 of whom were laid off in August when the teachers' union refused to negotiate contract concessions with the Hartford school board.
Why does the wealthy state of Connecticut, which gives the city of Hartford $100 million in education aid, permit its largest and most visible school district to be run by a corporation based in Minneapolis? If, as the Hartford school board avers, the system is "deeply troubled," then the public has the right to demand that the Governor, the legislature, and the Hartford city council be called to account for neglecting the problems that have now escalated into a major crisis. In its the state's? the public's? gc uncritical acceptance of this trend, the takeover of the Hartford schools is perceived by conservative critics as evidence of the failure of the school system's public bureaucracy. Those who support public education are appalled by what they see as an...
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