BOULDER, CO (November 15, 2018) – In this month’s NEPC
Education Interview of the Month, Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education
Gregory A. Smith and Cornell University professor
Noliwe Rooks discuss school privatization, segregation, and the end of public education.
Greg and Noliwe,
who also chairs the American Studies Program at Cornell, explore issues
that have arisen from the range of privatizing reforms prevalent over
the last decade, and their impact on our ability to create equitable
schools. Dr. Rooks has researched the roots of school privatization
going back to the 19
th century, when, she points out, there was the same kind of “deep-pocketed interest” from philanthropists that exists today.
Dr. Rooks coined the term
“segrenomics,” referring to the profit for businesses that offer to
educate children in economically and racially segregated communities.
She attempts to understand the meaning of a society in which those with
access to wealth and power are invested in education reform for “poor
black children”…but only with models of education that don’t look like
the education their own children get.
“We try everything except for the education the wealthy provide for their own kids,” Dr. Rooks says. “This is the education for you, they say, instead of having a sense of what makes a quality education for everyone.”
In her work she consistently finds this discrepancy in education
quality dependent on the economic status and race of the child.
Policymakers must take a
long view towards equity, Dr. Rooks believes – no one election or
candidate will resolve the issue. She argues that what is needed is a
much broader form of organizing beginning at the local level, looking at
what each individual school needs, and figuring out how to fill that
need.
NEPC Education Interview of the Month, hosted by Gregory A. Smith, is released each month from September through May.
Don’t worry if you miss a month. All NEPC
Education Interview of the Month podcasts are archived on the NEPC website and can be found
here.
Coming Next Month
In December, Greg’s guests
will be Dr. Rick Mintrop and Miguel Ordenes of the University of
California Berkeley. Greg, Rick, and Miguel will explore the universal
implementation of school vouchers and privatization in Chile, and what
might happen in the U.S. if similar policies were to become more
widespread here.
Stay tuned in to NEPC for smart, engaging conversations about education policy.
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