Role of Business in Public Schools Mini-Conference
“The Growing Role of Business in Public Education”
Mini-Conference of the Social and Cultural Foundations in Education, M.A. Program
5:30p-8:30p
Thursday May 17, 2007
DePaul University Lincoln Park Campus
2320 N. Kenmore Avenue, Auditorium: SAC 154
Admission: Free and Open to the Public
Business presence in public schooling has grown steadily in the last two decades. This growth has taken a number of forms: school commercialism that puts advertisements in textbooks and on school buses, the expansion of Educational Management Organizations (EMOs) that run schools for profit, for profit charter schools, voucher schemes, contracting, outsourcing, test and textbook publishing. This accelerating trend is radically remaking public schooling in Chicago and throughout the U.S.
Panelists address:
* Educational, political, economic, and cultural implications of profit motivated activities in public schools
* How the federal No Child Left Behind law has been a boon for educational businesses
* How natural and unnatural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War have been used to foster public school privatization
* How think tanks and business groups expand business involvement in schooling
* How the Chicago Renaissance 2010 plan involves privatizing schools
* How business involvement in schooling relates to neoliberal and neoconservative ideologies
* The place of social movements and all educators in addressing this trend
About the speakers:
Pepi Leistyna (UMass Boston) is a prolific author, speaker, and film maker. His books include Breaking Free: the Transformative Power of Critical Pedagogy, Presence of Mind, and Defining and Designing Multiculturalism. He is the creator and writer of the award winning film Class Dismissed: How Television Frames the Working Class.
Denise Gelberg (Cornell University) is the author of the groundbreaking book The “Business” of Reforming American Schools. Her work draws on careful research and a long career as a public school teacher.
David Gabbard (East Carolina University) is the author and editor of a number of books including the award-winning Knowledge and Power in the Global Economy: Politics and the Rhetoric of School Reform, and co-editor of Education as Enforcement: the Militarization and Corporatization of Schools.
Kathy Emery (San Francisco Freedom School) a prolific author, speaker, and activist. She is the author with Susan Ohanian of Why is Corporate America Bashing Our Schools? and the founder and Executive Director of the San Francisco Freedom Summer School.
Kenneth Saltman (DePaul University) directs the Social and Cultural Foundations in Education M.A. program at DePaul. His books on public school privatization include Collateral Damage: Corporatizing Public Schools – a Threat to Democracy, The Edison Schools, and Capitalizing on Disaster: Taking and Breaking Public Schools.
The speakers for the event contributed to a special issue of Teacher Education Quarterly “The Growing Nexus Between Education and the Private Sector: Implications for Teacher Preparation and Development” edited by Bruce Jones and Thomas Nelson.
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My colleague, Kenneth Saltman in DePaul’s School of Education is organizing this important event on Thursday for those of you interested in the topic.
Regards,
Sumi
Professor Sumi Cho
DePaul University College of Law
25 E. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 362-8082
