Buffalo School Privatization in Peril

Instead of praising NYSUT – the NY Teachers Union – for upholding the democratic rule of law, the Buffalo News is lamenting that a “special interest group” has stuck its nose into the Buffalo School Board election and messed up the so called “reform agenda” of the school privatizers.

The goal of the privatizers is to close public schools that they claim are failing to perform (without looking for the reasons that the students are failing, like they don't speak Englsh) and converting them to for profit private schools that do not have to report to the taxpayers via a democratically elected school board.

According to election law candidates need 500 signatures to be on the ballot and run for a position. NYSUT challenged several of the candidates petitions and two if them came up short.

James Sampson, the swing vote and president of the board, was apparently 31 signatures short of the 500 needed. Sampson was part of the “PaladiNO!” block that was fighting to privatize Buffalo Schools. This block also forced out the previous superintendent and was greatly disappointed in their hand picked successor – Interim Superintendent Ogilve, who stepped down and disappeared after one year. (Evidently he didn't want the job or the heat from the powers that be?)

Patricia Elliott was also short by six signatures. She was sympathetic to the privatization movement and was counted as part of the block of five. (Reminds me of the Gang of Five in Maoist China.)

While neither name will be on that ballot as of the writing of this blog, it does not preclude a write-in campaign by either member.

Now the News should be praising NYSUT for making sure that the law is followed. After all, there are rules and they need to be followed, correct?

Except when the rules get in the way of the powers that be and their agenda.

The powers that be want the Buffalo Public Schools privatized so that they can take the money and line their pockets with it. There is no real (peer reviewed) research that shows that privatization actually increases achievement and graduation for those that attend,

Private schools, such as religious schools and college prep programs, do well because they are serving a specific clientèle – the wealthy and the religious – that wants a specific ideology pumped into their children's heads. I've worked with students that have left those institutions and some of them were just about clueless about actual history, science, and anything dealing with reality. They were good at memorize and regurgitate. Not much else.

When looking at what the school privatization movement advocates, what they do not want is want is what Buffalo and other poor urban areas have – a high percentage of low achieving students with special needs. Charter schools actually have in their rules and codes of conduct spelled out methodologies that make it very easy for them to push these high needs students out of the charter school and back into the public schools. The whole goal of the privatization movement is to skim the best and the brightest off of the public schools and leave the low achieving students behind to struggle and suffer in poorly funded schools with over sized classes where teachers can not give the students the attention they need to succeed.

The Buffalo News supports this privatization agenda, which is why they are lamenting the success of NYSUT's challenge to the nomination petitions of board members.

Put the shoe on the other foot – What if people who were opposed to privatization had their names taken off the ballot because they did not have enough signatures.

What story would the Buffalo News be writing then?

I'm sure it would look nothing like what we have been reading all week.