This is another version of: it is easier for capitalists to imagine the end of the world than it is for them to imagine the end of capitalism.
Charter schools are pay-the-rich schemes that emerged in the midst of the neoliberal period that was launched at home and abroad in the late 1970s.
Charter schools are one of many mechanisms the rich have concocted since the 1980s and 1990s to counter the unavoidable law of the falling rate of profit under capitalism.
Mainstream economists often refer to this inescapable law as the law of diminishing returns. This is when the “return on investment” (ROI) is lower than the investment itself, especially over time. Diminishing returns are a built-in tendency of capitalism that affect the capitalist economy as a whole.
To avert the inevitable fall in the amount and rate of profit over time, capitalists necessarily concoct antisocial ways to increase their profits in the course of competing with other owners of capital. This can take the form of more aggressive advertising, changing expiration dates on products, charging people more fees and taxes for commodities and services, planned product obsolescence, going to war, lowering workers’ wages and benefits, cutting social programs, printing money, transferring public money to owners of capital, eliminating regulations and taxes for big corporations, and more.
Owners of capital are obsessed with maximizing profit as fast as possible, no matter the cost to society and the environment. Their drive is egocentric, narrow, and antisocial in character. Major owners of capital are not concerned about and cannot objectively see phenomena from a human-centered perspective. They are not interested in nation-building or a diversified self-reliant economy. They do not care about what happens to anyone or anything else as long as their self-serving interests are satisfied. Anything that obstructs their narrow interests is seen as a big problem, especially the striving of the people for their rights. The world we live in must privilege the narrow interests of owners of capital above all else.
This is why when California passed a “landmark law” (AB 1505) on October 3, 2019 changing charter school laws in the state, the president of the California Charter Schools Association, Myrna Castrejon, said: “The thing I love the most about the bill is that it affirms that charter schools are here to stay.” Castrejon also said that, while the new law in California “modifies the rules of the road for renewals and approvals of charter schools, we do believe this agreement does put to rest the idea of whether charter schools have a place in the landscape.” The website of the California Charter Schools Association had this to say about the first major overhaul of California’s charter school law in 27 years: “The announcement of a compromise deal on charter public school-focused legislation, AB 1505, affirms that charter schools are here to stay as a permanent and valued fixture of California’s education system” (emphasis added). Castrejon is pleased that there is no scenario that excludes pay-the-rich schemes like privately-operated charter schools.
Charter school promoters cannot imagine a world with no privately-operated nonprofit and for-profit charter schools. They can picture public schools collapsing and disappearing, but they cannot conceive of a world free of privately-operated charter schools that increase their private wealth at the expense of kids.
Charter school advocates are not about to abdicate antisocial efforts to fleece as much funds and property as possible from public schools. The intense downward pressure on the rate of profit is too great for owners of capital to relinquish charter schools as pay-the-rich schemes. The rich desperately need charter schools as a mechanism to avert diminishing returns in a continually failing economy. It does not matter if charter schools are segregated, deregulated, unaccountable, deunionized, scandalous, rife with corruption, perform poorly, are run by unelected individuals, reject many students, have many uncertified teachers, overpay administrators, and undermine public schools. Last year, wealthy charter school promoters spent $23 million backing Antonio Villaraigosa (against Gavin Newsom) for Governor of California because of his strong support for crisis-prone charter schools.
There is a lot at stake for neoliberals, privatizers, and corporate school “reformers.”
Charter school promoters are very pleased that charter schools were not wiped out in California, but they are still nervous to see such organized opposition to privatized education arrangements. They did not count on it.
The worn-out charter school narrative that relentlessly demonizes, humiliates, and scapegoats public schools is not gripping as many people as charter school supporters would like. Most people still love and value their public schools, even the so-called “failing” ones. This means the fight between human-centered forces and capital-centered forces is far from over. In all likelihood it will grow more intense and more people will see non-profit and for-profit charter schools for what they really are.
California passed its charter school law in 1992. With more than 1,300 charter schools, California has the most charter schools in the country. Most of the state’s charter schools are in Los Angeles County, San Diego County, and the nine counties in the Bay Area near San Francisco.
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