AIN'T NO BUSINESS

I have described and explained the natural rights construct. I have stated that this construct has become the prominent perspective among Americans. Again, that is not to say that other constructs don't have influence on how we see our social world. But what I am saying is that this particular construct is the most influential of these perspectives. And as such, it is being applied to the policy formation of more and more endeavors. One such endeavor is the running of our schools.

We expect our businesses to be run in accordance with natural rights thinking since, in a capitalist economy, we depend on individuals to take their fates in their own hands, be courageous, risk the resources they can bring to bear, and begin a business. By doing so, they increase our wealth, provide a wanted product, and create jobs. The natural rights construct is a view of the world that encourages such actions by promoting the individual to define, for him/herself, the values, goals, and aims he or she will pursue. For many, aiming to maximize his or her financial and material well being is central to his or her value system. Business pursuits, experience tells us, are prominent ways to seek such rewards. This, in itself, is admirable and desirable. The problem is that when such thinking comes to be the prominent way of seeing things, it can influence our view of how we should run just about all of our affairs. To illustrate, let's look at how the natural rights perspective is being applied to education in the US.

In writing about this, I have to depend on reports from others, because I have not been a classroom teacher since 2000. That year is rather pivotal, with the soon to be inaugurated administration of President George W. Bush. Through his efforts, the reform legislation, No Child Left Behind, took effect. Of course, of more recent vintage, the reform, Race to the Top, has also been initiated. In both cases, several policy options have been started. These, in turn, have been inspired by natural rights views. In short, policy makers have put into effect practices that either reflect business thinking or provide opportunities for entrepreneurs. Let me share some of them with you.

The first aim of an entrepreneur is to create a demand for a product or for some change in an existing product. Those who are spearheading our view of business thinking in running our schools have sponsored and actively engaged in convincing us that our existing school system is a total failure. This effort started a long time ago. In 1983 (that was thirty years ago), President Reagan had a commission report on the state of American education. The report, A Nation at Risk, described an educational system in dire straits. Not only were things terrible; the conditions posed a danger to our national security – even though we have since been able to win a Cold War and still enjoy, as the only nation, a superpower status. In her recent book, Diane Ravitch¹ – someone who bought into this dire argument initially – points out that National Assessment of Education Progress results, graduation rates, and college admittance numbers all point to the fact that education in America has been improving since the sixties when we began desegregating our schools. Yes, our improvement has been slow and there are gaps in this general trend, as is the case with black and Hispanic students, but it seems that any shortcomings are more a result of income inequalities than anything else. Comparing our income distribution situation with Finland's, a nation reputed to have one of the world's best educational systems, they have 5% of their children living in poverty whereas we have 23%. In addition, Ravitch points to another condition that is highly responsible for our shortcomings; that is, we have re-instituted segregation – this time reflecting residential patterns, not segregation statutes – and the current practice is legal and has been generally accepted. The problem is that the effects of poverty and a general lack of resources among these segregated schools make improvements in them extremely unlikely.

After a demand is created, then a set of reforms is suggested. These include

• sanctioning charter schools – many of them being organized in a way that provides profit-making opportunities for those entrepreneurs so disposed
• instituting high stakes testing which has affected curricular choices such as eliminating non-tested subjects, arts and such, from course offerings and has also motivated cheating on the part of educators who know their employment depends on test results
• outsourcing of public school functions to private agencies instead of providing adequate staffing such as psychological and counseling professionals – a change that provides even more for-profit opportunities – and –
• instituting carrot and stick strategies to motivate teachers to adopt desired practices – these include merit pay, which has never worked, and posting teachers' names alongside the testing scores of their students

All of these changes are meant, we are told, to increase competition and accountability. The results of these changes, so far: None. The rate of improvement has not changed.

Ravitch, in her book, has several recommendations. They make sense and deserve a try. But I am afraid, given our current views of schools and what we see as the optimal ways of getting things done – as defined by the natural rights construct – we are very unlikely to give such reforms any chance. She, for example, calls for diagnostic testing – which aims to identify students' needs instead of high stakes testing. She also calls for toughening entry requirements for those who seek to enter the teaching profession. This would bolster the status of teachers and increase our trust in them so that they, in turn, can be allowed a level of autonomy that encourages professionalism and innovation among our teacher corps. I have a number of other changes to recommend, but let me end with a general observation.

From my dated first-hand knowledge of schools and from what I have been able to find out about what is currently going on now in our schools, I think that any effort toward improvement needs to be holistic in its approach. While some insights from the world of business can be helpful, that perspective should not serve as our central mode of thinking. To begin with, education is not a consumer service such as having your vacation planned or having your plumbing fixed. It is a service that represents a discipline. Education is something you commit to and are willing to sacrifice to attain. It is a complex service with multiple factors affecting how it transpires. A lot of this I have written about before, but Ravitch's new book provides the opportunity to address this topic anew. I am not as readily disposed to viewing our educational system as “successful” as Ravitch seems to indicate. There are serious problems with the way we run our schools. But I agree with her that a lot of the problems stem from “business practices” being applied to education. We have adopted a view of education as a typical consumer product; we have applied “bean counting” practices that, in the search for short term efficiency, that have overburdened our school staffs; and we have underestimated the challenges of poverty, segregation, and low morale among school personnel in running truly successful schools. All of these defy a “magic bullet” solution or the adoption of a business model. Instead, we need to see a school as a potential or existing community – a community that is born from a community and should maintain, within and without itself, communal characteristics.

1The account in this posting of Ravitch's book is taken from Kozol, J. (2013). This is only a test. New York Times, Book Review section, September 29, p. 21. While I have not had the opportunity to read Ravitch's recently published book, I have read and can recommend her previous book, Ravitch, D. (2010). The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education. New York, NY: Basic Books. In this earlier work, she introduces many of her concerns with the effects on business thinking on our school system.