When Alfie Kohn published his book “The Schools Our Children Deserve” back in 1999, he was already sounding the alarm on letting corporate interests dictate educational policy and practice. He argued passionately for student-centred learning guided by research on child development rather than business principles. Yet 25 years later, corporations and edtech companies have steadily eroded democratic oversight of state schooling.
As a recent article highlights, politicians like Governor Hochul in New York now parrot the same old “back to basics” sloganeering straight from corporate lobbyists’ talking points. The author worries this will accelerate rather than reverse the privatisation agenda that has directed students’ learning online to maximise tech firms’ profits. Since Kohn warned about school standards being designed for “tougher business climates,” Silicon Valley has effectively transformed public education into a vehicle to pad its bottom line.
The past two decades have seen testing mandatory from primary through secondary whilst data mining children’s performance all the way. School “choice” has siphoned funds toward shoddy charter academies reflecting corporate interests over communities. At a moment demanding urgent action on social equality, US classrooms instead instil conformity via Skinnerian control mechanisms - obedient consumers for tomorrow’s workforce. Yet as Kohn foretold, “the more we turn schools into businesses, the less interest those businesses have in fostering critical thinking.” This anti-democratic transformation will only further imperil the next generation’s creativity so vital for societal renewal.
No place for students with IEPs?
Whilst all students suffer under the profit-driven model of schooling, those with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) unfairly shoulder the deepest inequities. The past two decades of market-based reforms have systematically denied vulnerable learners the special assistance guaranteed them through federal law. From vouchers funding private academies unwilling to accommodate disabilities to charter networks concealing their screening processes, the promise of “school choice” has largely shut out those who need extra support.
Even public schools have used corporate-style cost-cutting to reduce specialised staff and push more students with IEPs into mainstream classrooms without proper supports. Technocratic evaluation schemes then label them “underperforming” when standardised tests fail to account for their needs described in IEP documentation. Diagnostic data becomes warped into punishment rather than tailored intervention. Districts also leverage funding formulas to incentive removing disabled students’ accommodations so performance metrics appear higher overall on paper.
Whilst Kohn highlighted the inherent ableism underlying “back to basics” rhetoric, the rising tide of privatisation has only made educational accessibility worse for neurodiverse and physically impaired pupils alike. The notion of schools serving shareholders first makes human compassion towards vulnerable young people deemed undesirable defects secondary. Yet no just, equitable society can abandon its children with developmental delays or learning disabilities. The only pathway to inclusive classrooms runs through small, specialised settings focused on individual dignity over profits or performance ratings tied to funding. Our public education still holds power to lift all societal members higher. But to do so, citizens must reclaim it from corporate interests measuring efficiency before shared humanity.