Link to an article by Eric Blanc:
“The Billionaires Dismantling Oakland Schools”
Bonus links: “They’ve Been Doing This Massive, Anti-Democratic Model of Education Reform” and Richard Shaull Quote
Gerald Coles – Education, Jobs and Capitalism
Link to an excerpt from the book Miseducating for the Global Economy: How Corporate Power Damages Education and Subverts Students’ Futures (2018) by Gerald Coles:
“Education, Jobs and Capitalism”
In Lars Lih‘s excellent biographical study of V.I. Lenin, he noted how Lenin’s parents were involved in education and were frustrated that the tsarist autocracy in Russia prevented education (and widespread literacy) in order to constrain the expectations of citizens, in order to maintain the extreme inequality that prevailed under tsarism. When Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power, reforms were swiftly instituted that resulted in historically unprecedented advances in literacy and education more generally. It was not a matter of pedagogical impediments to expanding literacy, or a lack of a notion to improve education and literacy, it was that the education system was subordinated to the maintenance of a particular socioeconomic hierarchy. What was needed was a shift in who held power, and the ideologies of those people, and Coles’ book excerpt makes that point abundantly clear. Capitalists simply disavow their real motivations.
Bonus links: “The Tech Education Con” and Pedagogy of the Oppressed and “Red Diaper Babies” and Democracy and Education and The Higher Learning in America and …And the Poor Get Prison and The Scapegoat
Wayne Au – They’ve Been Doing This Massive, Anti-Democratic Model of Education Reform
Link to an interview with Wayne Au conducted by Janine Jackson:
Bonus link: The New Prophets of Capital Review
Matthew Stewart – The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy
Link to an article by Matthew Stewart:
“The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy”
It is worth noting that the discussion of “tax expenditures” in this article is confused, as explained by economists in the MMT school of thought.
Bonus Links: Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Democracy and Education, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, The Trouble With Diversity, The Social Structures of the Economy, “Extreme Cities,” …And the Poor Get Prison, “The Myth of Populism,” “Social Service or Social Change?,” “The Revolt of the Salaried Bourgeoisie”
Yanis Varoufakis – How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails
Link to a video of a speech by Yanis Varoufakis:
“How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails”
Bonus Link: Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism
Joanne Barkan – Death By a Thousand Cuts
Link to an article by Joanne Barkan:
Bonus links: “A Guide to the Corporations That Are De-Funding Public Education & Opposing Striking Teachers” and “The Assault on Veterans’ Health Care” and An American Utopia
Erin Thompson – Minority Lawyers Hanging From Their Own Bootstraps
Link to an article by Erin Thompson:
“Minority Lawyers Hanging From Their Own Bootstraps: How Law Schools Fail Those Who Seek Justice”
Bonus links: The Trouble With Diversity and …And the Poor Get Prison and “The Decline of the Peoplelaw Sector” and “The Echo Chamber: A Small Group of Lawyers and Its Outsized Influence at the U.S. Supreme Court”
Wayne Au – The Socialist Case Against the SAT
Link to an article by Wayne Au:
Alan Nasser – Could Student Loans Lead to Debt Prison?
Link to an article by Alan Nasser:
“Could Student Loans Lead to Debt Prison? The Handwriting on the Wall”
Bonus link: “Student Loans, The Indentured Servitude of the 21st Century”
Jerry White – Teachers Unions Intensify Efforts to Suppress Growing Class Struggle in the US
Link to an article by Jerry White:
“Teachers Unions Intensify Efforts to Suppress Growing Class Struggle in the US”
Bonus link: Poor People’s Movements and “Making Greater Possibilities Inconceivable: Another Thought or Two on the Logic of Lesser Evilism”