On Privitization of Public Schools

The Network for Public Education, started by the great Diane Ravitch and now lead by Carol Burris, also a noted public education advocate, have put together a great Toolkit on school privatization all over the U.S.  This work was generated by the push by new Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

Unfortunately the general public is often confused by the misleading terms that privatizers use to mask their agenda. Terms like "choice", "portability" and Empowerment Scholarship Accounts are an attempt to make religious school vouchers and other unpopular policies acceptable. 


In response, The Network for Public Education has prepared a toolkit called School Privatization Explained. Each one page fact sheet is designed to correct  the misinformation that De Vos and others have used to push school privatization. From charter myths to ESAs, we pull off the masks.


You will find our 13 facts sheets here and an interactive map here that will let you see where your state lies on the road to school privatization.

The thirteen fact sheets cover the two main issues to privatization -  charter schools and vouchers.

There's also a "report card" for each state via an interactive map. Washington State received a "C".

Here's a great article from The Conversation blog about vouchers (and "neo-vouchers").

Let your state legislators know about this useful information.