Solidarity and struggle.

AuthorConniff, Ruth
PositionEDITOR'S NOTE - Privatization of public schools - Editorial

We have been covering the nefarious workings of the school privatization lobby for the last several years here at The Progressive. Public schools are a cornerstone of our democracy, and efforts to siphon public money into private schools pose a major threat to universal, high-quality schools that are accountable to the public--a foundational ideal in this country.

When Donald Trump named Betsy DeVos, a shadowy figure who has worked to help elect anti-public-school candidates in down-ballot races around the country, including here in Wisconsin, we saw the writing on the wall. DeVos has been called the "four-star general" of the school choice movement. She makes no bones about wanting to do away with what she calls "government public schools" and replace them with tax-funded vouchers for private and religious schools.

We asked Jennifer Berkshire, one of our Progressive Education Fellows, who writes the hilarious EduShyster blog, to profile DeVos and her devastating impact on the Detroit public schools. The result is a highly readable and seriously worrying piece.

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Jeff Abbott also covers the education "reform" movement in this issue--from an international perspective. In Mexico, teachers have been putting their lives on the line to defend a vision of education in which teachers serve as community organizers in rural, indigenous areas. The Mexican government has responded with a bloody crackdown. The forces the Mexican teachers are battling are familiar to public school advocates who oppose school privatization and too much standardized testing here in the United States. But the stakes are much higher. Now one of the largest charter school chains in the United States is helping open new schools in Mexico, bringing into focus the international struggle against the privatization of education.

One of our great recent editorial interns here at The Progressive, Tanner Cole, grew up in Kentucky. After a summer working at our Madison office, he returned to his home state and files a timely and thoughtful piece on the politics of climate change in coal country.

David Helvarg has been observing Trump's...

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