#  Evidence: Public Beats Private in Education

     Details    Paul Buchheit   ![logo](https://www.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         January 29 2015       [ARCHIVE](https://www.citywatchla.com/archive)   - [  Previous Article **Let’s Recall the Sore Losers** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8343:let-s-recall-the-sore-losers&catid=16)
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> ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Jan-2015/09z1.png)EDUCATION POLITICS-The evidence for national improvement is staring us in the face, but the people in charge are ignoring facts and experience and turning instead to the corporate profit-seekers.
>
> In fact, except for the debilitating effects of poverty, our public school system may be the best in the world.
>
>  The most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reveal that the U.S. ranked high, relative to other OECD countries, in [reading](http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pirls/pirls2011.asp), [math](http://nces.ed.gov/timss/results11_math11.asp), and [science](http://nces.ed.gov/timss/results11_science11.asp) (especially in reading, and in all areas better in 4th grade than in 8th grade). Some U.S. private schools were included, but a separate evaluation was done for Florida, in public schools only, and their results were [higher than the U.S. average](http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pirls/pirls2011.asp).
>
>  Perhaps most significant in the NCES [reading](http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013010rev.pdf) results is that schools with less than 25% free-lunch eligibility scored higher than the average in ALL OTHER COUNTRIES.
>
>  **The Obvious: Reduce Poverty and Improve Education**-What should be obvious to our legislators is apparently not. [K-12](http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2013/05/26/18448956-recessions-fallout-spending-per-student-falls-for-first-time-ever?lite=) funding declined in 2011 for the first time since the [Census Bureau](http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-95.html) began keeping records. A 2014 [study](http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=4011) by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that "States' new budgets are providing less per-pupil funding for kindergarten through 12th grade than they did six years ago — often far less."
>
>  It gets worse. [Numerous studies](http://www.nieer.org/news-events/news-releases/nieer-statement-president-obama%E2%80%99s-pre-k-proposal) have shown that pre-school helps all children to achieve more and earn more through adulthood, with the most disadvantaged benefiting the most. But the U.S. [ranks](http://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/CN%20-%20United%20States.pdf) near the bottom of the developed world in the percentage of 4-year-olds in early childhood education. And yet Head Start was recently hit with the [worst cutbacks](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/19/stateline-head-start/2671309/) in its history.
>
>  The evidence for national improvement is staring us in the face, but the people in charge are ignoring facts and experience and turning instead to the corporate profit-seekers.
>
>  **How Education Funding is Put in the Hands of the Super-Rich** -Tax money that should be used for education is either deferred or simply not paid, by both corporations and individuals. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, for example, has [deferred $44 billion](http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/the-20-richest-americans-takers-not-makers/18440-the-20-richest-americans-takers-not-makers) in recent years, and Boeing, Caterpillar, and Verizon are a few of the leading [non-payers](http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/01/05/cheating-school-kids-corporations-dont-pay-state-taxes-either/) of state taxes, some of which would go toward public education.
>
>  Wealthy individuals, who took much of the [nearly $5 trillion](http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/01/20/another-shocking-wealth-grab-rich-just-one-year) in stock market gains in 2013, defer taxes until they cash in the stocks, and then pay a lower capital gains rate. They can also get tax breaks by putting some of this money into their reform-minded educational foundations.
>
>  **Using the Corporate Model on Our Children** -Much of the vast new wealth of the super-rich is being used for the purpose of educational 'reform.' [Rupert Murdoch](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/rupert-murdoch-news-corp-wireless-generation-education) called K-12 "a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed." [Forbes](http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/09/29/80-of-michigan-charter-schools-are-for-profits/) added, "The charter school movement \[is\] quickly becoming a backdoor for corporate profit." Most recently, the Wall Street Journal [reported](http://www.wsj.com/articles/fight-is-on-for-common-core-contracts-1415752728), "As states race to implement the Common Core academic standards, companies are fighting for a slice of the accompanying testing market, expected to be worth billions of dollars in coming years."
>
>  The result of private educational reform is seen in [unproven](http://www.alternet.org/education/4-most-profound-ways-privatization-perverts-education) charter schools that [eat up budgets](http://www.alternet.org/education/7-big-public-education-stories-2014), [overcharge](http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/ttr-charter-rent_0.pdf) on a per-student basis, pay CEOs [many times more](http://www.nationofchange.org/2014/12/07/hypocrites-2014/) than their public school counterparts, and, in one case, [double](http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/06/30/five-facts-dangerously-deluded-education-reformers) the pay of executives in just one year.
>
>  These are unsustainable costs for long-term educational success.
>
>  **The Business of Schoolchildren** -In Brown vs the Board of Education in 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren said, "Education...is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms." In the mindset of big business, the best education is in learning how to make money off the children.
>
> *(Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org, and the editor and main author of "[American Wars: Illusions and Realities](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0932863566/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0932863566&adid=1MCNFWDB21VVWVVFPEW5&)". He can be reached at <paul@UsAgainstGreed.org>. This piece was posted first at CommonDreams.org)*
>
> *-cw*
>
> *CityWatch*
>
> *Vol 13 Issue 9*
>
> *Pub: Jan 30, 2015*

  - [  Previous Article **Let’s Recall the Sore Losers** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8343:let-s-recall-the-sore-losers&catid=16)
- [  Next Article **Boyle Heights: Heckling Be Damned, Kids Win Concession** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8345:boyle-heights-heckling-be-damned-kids-win-concession&catid=16)
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