The end of public schools? The corporate reform agenda to privatize education

In this speech, Hursh shows how public education in the United States is undergoing profound changes. Education policy has been hijacked by the unelected and unaccountable corporate reformers who aspire to overhaul the education system through a corporate model of privatization and market competition. They aim to privatize education through expanding the number of publicly funded privately administered charter schools, and hand over making tests and curriculum to corporations. They desire to replace public state-run teacher education programs with programs run by charter schools, such as the Relay Graduate School. They shift where education policy is made: away from the local and public levels where parents, teachers, community members and students can have input, and towards private and often dark spaces where wealthy philanthropists, corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and hedge fund managers dominate. He also shows how educators, parents, students, and community members have collaborated in pushing back against the corporate reformers and have repealed some of the corporate reforms.