Paul Peterson, director of Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, seems to have a coined a new descriptive term for American education although the concept will not be unfamiliar to those who have read John Taylor Gatto: the education industrial complex.
Before the education-industrial complex was erected, America led the world in its commitment to education. From the earliest days of our Republic, many small towns each heavily invested in the community’s students, more so than any other nation. Teachers and students were held accountable to community expectations. Local investments contributed to a vibrant educational system that expanded rapidly, helping to propel the nation to the world’s pinnacle by World War II. Harvard Kennedy School
This “complex” is of course the interrelationships between unions, local school boards, and increasing state and national control of eduction. But one thing jumped out at me in the very first sentence of this paragraph.
Before the education-industrial complex was erected, America led the world in its commitment to education.
Really what has changed is our definition of what a “commitment” to education is. Peterson talks about communities. Local communities which invested heavily in education and expected certain standards to be met. Local investors. Parents who placed expectations on schools, teachers and their own children. A personal commitment of time and resources.
But today? “Commitment” is defined in dollars. How much teachers are paid. How much we spend per pupil. What kinds of technology is available to students. We have expectations, but we place them on the state rather than on our children and those directly responsible for teaching them.
Rather than holding our own children accountable for learning, and remaining involved in our local schools, we pressure the state to “do something.” We pressure the federal government for “accountability.” But we forget that accountability has always existed in American public schools. Because the school systems we support with our tax dollars are accountable to us and they always have been.
But now the education industrial complex has grown so powerful that it questions those who take responsibility for their children’s education. Because we do not have enough “commitment” to public education.
Hat Tip: WorldMagBlog
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
Exactly! At some point the focus shifted from a commitment to our child’s education to a commitment to public education.
I have to say that there are a few public schools in smaller, often rural communities that haven’t shifted the focus yet. I was fortunate enough to attend one of those schools. However, I am afraid they are a dying breed.
YES!
and it’s nice to see one the massive brains at a big university see it correctly for once.
YES!
and it’s nice to see one the massive brains at a big university see it correctly for once.
Public education is now viewed as a right, therefore the government must provide for it (not my view.) Many of the recipients of public education are not property tax payers and really don’t have anything invested. And the taxpayers assume it’s out of their hands.
As I have educated myself on the Constitution this year, I have come to the conclusion that the solution to the educational issues we have is to privatize education and make people pay for it. Then everyone will be accountable and we will lose so many layers of “accountability” that currently is in place. Just teachers, students and the people who pay the teachers.
And never mind school boards anyway, the edu-industrial complex is more and more a university-governed thing, right? Glenn Beck’s been doing a series of radio riffs recently about Harvard’s half-trillion dollar private endowment, that they completely control and pay no taxes on as it throw off billions in income each year, all while changing $47,000 per year per student in tuition even though they could afford to give the eductaion away free to everyone by now, and getting the federal government to subsidize it . . .
That change affects us greatly, even as homeschoolers. I’ve been chatting with a couple of friends lately who fear that they haven’t done enough this school year. It has been so ingrained in our culture that public school=education that we have to make a conscience effort to fight against it. Otherwise, we will be carried downstream attempting to copy a system.
Private…or at least local. There are a good many children who would not receive any sort of education were it not for the public system. These cases were dealt with before, and it is my understanding that their growing numbers (teenage immigrants) actually pushed the compulsory education movement around the turn of the century.
And if we are going to have Washington involved, we need a different model. The point of our socialism is supposed to be to redistribute wealth in order to level the playing field. So why is that last year NE papers ran a story about how we sent more to Washington for education than we got back? My question was, “Why do we get any back at all?” We are a wealthy state and our education system ranks well be all measures. Our tax burden would be lower and our flexibility greater if we just sent in our “contribution” and it all went to states like LA.
But instead, we send it off so that the feds can attach strings to how we can get it back? A lot of sense that makes.
What jumps out at me is this:
“Teachers and students were held accountable to community expectations.”
I think our sense of community has changed. In education our sense of community has took on a state wide, now a nation wide so as to meet a global wide community expectation.
I think of the “education-industrial complex” in even broader terms.
Everyone’s schedule is effected by the public school system. Everyone’s. If you work, you have to work around the ps schedule, you have to vacation around their schedule. Your child has to be sick around their schedule. If you don’t work, your options in the community are scheduled around the ps schedule.
Clothes shopping, food shopping, jobs related directly to schools and those tangential to schools, holiday celebrations, etc. — all dictated by public school.
Find a children’s TV show that doesn’t involve school. Find a clothing department that doesn’t include school uniforms or the latest required attire.
Traffic is influenced. Sleep patterns are influenced. Eating habits are influenced.
Etc.
We are all captive to the “complex” and there are too many with a vested interest in keeping things just the way they are or who cannot imagine things being much different to really expect much change.
We unschool. We still feel the squeeze.
Nance
That’s an interesting observation, Nance. I know many homeschoolers who generally stay home during school hours just to avoid the questioning. I never really think about it unless I am driving near the school when it lets out. Crazy!
But people do automatically question why you have children during what they know to be school hours. And there seems to be a sense that you must not be doing “much” if you have time to run errands at 1:00.
I get frustrated by how most things in our area are designed around the schedules of dual-income families. Even the toddler and preschool classes are held only in the evenings, which often is prime meltdown time for my little ones. I can understand wanting to accommodate working moms, but why can’t there be a choice of day or evening classes? That way, families can pick whatever works best for their own needs.
It really does affect everything in the community, when movies are released and then when the playing times are, when sales tax holidays are legislated (for back to school shopping of course!) and when you can schedule those fabulous fun camp-type experiences for your kids (only in the summer when school kids can come.)
This is particular problem for us in Florida, because the summer is rpetty miserable compared to the spring and fall when we’d LOVE to be doing stuff if only anything for kids was going on –
And I feel compelled to underline once more, the irony of HARVARD especially, pontificating about the edu-indistrial complex. This is like Greg Laden (a Harcard grad) pontificating about public shcools rather than home education as the best policy for the nation. Harvard ought not be the authority on how to govern our public education. Harvard is an endowed private university that none of us can touch as citizens — accountable neither to us or our government, and impervious to the effects of our marketplaces.
I was in a department store in the middle of Bremen (in Germany) yesterday and in the computer/games section, all the games consoles had the following notice on them “In co-operation with the Bremen Senator for Education (yes, the same one to whom some of you may have sent Christmas cards last year), the consoles are only switched on from 3:30pm.” The purpose is to prevent kids who play hooky from loitering in the department store to play on the consoles during school hours, but now nobody can do this.
I can understand security chasing them out, but when else is a parent to go check out potential purchases? Not to mention adults who may want them for themselves.
Typical, though. Rather than deal with the problem, restrict the liberty of all in order to control.