Charter Schools

New Labour's pet privatisation project is partly inspired by the introduction of 'charter schools' in the USA. These show that businesses will invest if there's a good likelihood of profit.

Leo Casey, a US teachers' union official, wrote of "a growing array of venture capitalists and for-profit corporations driven not by education but by the hope of profitable business opportunities... Conservative politicians and right-wing ideologues view charter schools as the thin end of the wedge that will prepare American society for greater educational privatisation..." In 1992 the authorities in Baltimore gave Education Alternatives Inc. a $135 million contract to run nine schools. The company promised to cut back on administration and concentrate resources on teaching.

In fact it spent $750,000 on lawyers, travel and consultants and $2 million on 'overheads' at its head office hundreds of miles away. The firm cut 25% of teaching posts, so teachers faced classes of 39 children.

Many US states are setting up charter schools which are now a real target of interest for private business. The experience of teachers in Massachusetts points out our schools' future under Blunkett's plans.

In 1997 the state Governor of Massachusetts proposed to increase the number of such schools from 25 to 75. Teachers opposed this expansion - there had been no assessment of the success or failure of the charter schools.

Meline Kasparian, President of Massachusetts Teachers Association said in 1997: "Admittedly, 'charter schools' have been a roaring success in at least one area: their ability to siphon funds - about $35 million this year - from state education expenditures. ...Charter schools, which serve half of 1% of all students, will receive 8% of all new education reform aid dollars this year.

"Reimbursement to school districts... will decline to zero over the next three years, making the bite taken by charter schools even more damaging. Charter schools have been permitted (and tacitly encouraged) by the state administration to limit their services in special needs and bi-lingual students."

In the States the whole charter schools project has received wide attention from the business community. A conference in Nashville brought together Venture capitalists and education entrepreneurs to "brainstorm on how to transform the American public education system into a major for-profit industry."

Denis Doyle, from the pro-privatisation Hudson Institute, warned that their greatest foes are "teacher unions," which, according to him, want to preserve the public school 'monopoly' for their members' benefit.

We have been warned.