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Jul 21, 2021Liked by Mark Isero

there's a lot on my mind when it comes to the implications of the privatization of education:

- who they are meant to serve and why? white wealthy families come to mind but i wonder how much of this is also the failures of the government to meaningfully invest in education.

- privatized education is used as a tool to further drive race and class divisions. the juxtaposition of workers and students' families; the BIPOC students and white students; and ultimately who passes through the esteemed gates of the Ivies.

- with the high tuition and the fundraising, are teachers getting paid appropriately? it's concerning that the head of one of the schools had a 700k salary.

- i'm looking forward to this weekend's discussion to hopefully dive into the nuances of some of this!

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Jul 19, 2021Liked by Mark Isero

I'm finding myself pondering the impact on the students -- the values and lessons that they draw (consciously or unconsciously) from the experience of attending these schools and encountering their families' related behavior and rhetoric. Also stymied about alternatives -- even if these schools "get a chain and a padlock and close up shop", wouldn't these dynamics likely repeat themselves in wealthy public school districts? What alternatives could address underlying causes and impacts?

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Jul 19, 2021Liked by Mark Isero

Private schools in general are a symptom of our society's lack of actual commitment to increasing opportunities for all. All private schools need to convince their clients that they will give their students the 'leg up' they all desperately crave. The rest is all hand waving.

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Jul 19, 2021Liked by Mark Isero

I'm gonna lean into Mark's love of Nikole Hannah-Jones here and quote one of her tweets: "If you have a Black Lives Matter sign in your window or yard but no black kids in your child's school -- you're a liar" (March 18, 2019) Engaging with our current article made me think about performativity and whether or not places of immense privilege can really be "leaders" in anything progressive... so that's what I'm thinking about!

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Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the article:

“The Dalton parent is not supposed to be on the wrong side of a savage inequality. She is supposed to care about savage inequalities; she is supposed to murmur sympathetically about savage inequalities while scanning the news, her gentle concern muffled by the jet-engine roar of her morning blowout. But she isn’t supposed to fall victim to one.”

The writing! Very provocative.

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