Ignoring Poverty in the U.S. the Corporate Takeover of Public Education

Ignoring Poverty in the U.S.: The Corporate Takeover of Public Education examinesthe divide between a commitment to public education and our cultural myths and morepowerful commitment to consumerism and corporate America. The book addressespoverty in the context of the following: the historical and conflicting purposes in publiceducation-how schools became positivistic/behavioral in our quest to produceworkers for industry; the accountability era-how A Nation at Risk through NCLBhave served corporate interest in dismantling public education and dissolving teachersunions; the media and misinformation about education; charter schools as political/corporate compromise masking poverty; demonizing schools and scapegoatingteachers-from misusing the SAT to VAM evaluations of teachers; rethinking thepurpose of schools-shifting from schools as social saviors to addressing poverty sothat public education can fulfill its purpose of empowering everyone in a democracy; and reframing how we view peopleliving in poverty-rejecting deficit views of people living in poverty and students struggling in school under the weight oflives in poverty.This work is intended to confront the growing misinformation about the interplay among poverty, public schools, and whatschools can accomplish while political and corporate leadership push agendas aimed at replacing public education withalternatives such as charter schools. The audience for the publication includes educators, educational reformers, politicians,and any member of the wider public interested in public education.