Public education is becoming big business as bankers, hedge fund managers and private equity investors are entering what they consider to be an ’emerging market.” As Rupert Murdoch put it [3] after purchasing an education technology company, ‘When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone.”

Education historian Diane Ravitch says the privatization of public education has to stop. As assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, she was an advocate of school choice and charter schools; under George W. Bush, she supported the No Child Left Behind initiative. But after careful investigation, she changed her mind, and has become, according to Salon, ‘the nation’s highest profile opponent” of charter-based education.

Bill Moyers: This week on Moyers & Company, the high cost of turning our schools into profit centers.

Diane Ravitch: In terms of the public coffers there are billions of dollars, but I think what’s at stake is the future of American public education. I believe it is the foundation stone – one of the foundation stones of our democracy. So an attack on public education is an attack on democracy.

Announcer: Funding is provided by:

Anne Gumowitz, encouraging the renewal of democracy.

Carnegie […]