For the past few weeks the news has been filled with articles about the replacement of public control of Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) with a top-down “board” comprised of unelected pro-privatization forces that will oversee both public schools and privately-operated charter schools in the city.
Such boards, commissions, and entities are nothing new when it comes to education; they exist in many states. They are mainly mechanisms that override democratic arrangements in order to accelerate the privatization and corporatization of education under the veneer of high ideals. The public has no real say in the creation, makeup, or function of such entities.
The Creative Learning Guild (April 16, 202) informs us that two months ago, “the Republican-controlled legislature of Indiana passed a bill requiring the creation of the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation [IPEC], a new oversight board for Indianapolis Public Schools. The public will not elect the members. The mayor [of Indianapolis], who is presently a Democrat, will appoint them…. However, the structure itself—an appointed board with jurisdiction over a district and its interconnected charter schools—marks a substantial shift from the elected governance paradigm that has supported IPS for many years. Those who closely monitored the bill saw it for what it was.”
The new unelected board “will oversee finances, facilities and transportation for public and charter schools across the Indianapolis Public Schools district.” See here for the names and affiliations of the nine members of the IPEC.
To be sure, such top-down entities further disempower the public and reduce public accountability. They vest immense power in the hands of narrow private interests determined to increase and privilege privately-operated charter schools which siphon enormous sums of public money from public schools. State takeovers and mayoral takeovers of public schools generally operate in the same way as well. They have nothing to do with empowering the public, expanding democracy, and strengthening public schools.
As those with political and economic power increase their control over state institutions, agencies, and mechanisms the public can expect to see more assaults on public schools in the name of “improving schools.” The main aim of the neoliberal restructuring of the state is to increase the privatization of education and other sectors.
Privatizers harness greed, intensify disinformation, and oppose any new pro-social direction for society and its institutions. They are not interested in humanizing the social and natural environment. The rapid expansion of privatization at home and abroad ensures that fulfilling social needs disappears altogether.
As in so many other cities, working people, women, students, parents, teachers, and youth in Indianapolis will strengthen individual and collective efforts to oppose the destruction of public schools and democratic arrangements. Top-down entities like the IPEC can and must be combatted. Takeovers of public schools and institutions by private interests can be reversed and overcome. In the U.S. there is a long history of the public blocking or ending state, mayoral, and other takeovers of public schools by major owners of capital.