Neoliberalism

Basically, what I've come to learn as neoliberalism is the desire to privatize things in the public sphere that are regulated by the government...our schools.  Obviously some people support this, but I feel that this is a very negative thing.  

Some may argue that privatization of our schools is a great thing.  Schools that have been privatized no longer have to worry about exams and student preformance for money.  That means that teachers are spending far less time "teaching to tests" and concerned with children's scores and more time teaching students things that they need to know in order to be successful at the next grade level and have time to spend ensuring that all concepts are fully understood.  The problem with "teaching to tests" is that students aren't being given the chance to spend time on things that they need to actually learn.  They are being pushed to know things that teachers feel may be on the test.  Not only is this bad because they don't have the chance to learn other things that they need to know, but they also probably aren't actually even learning these things.  They are being pounded into our students heads simply for testing time and if they don't remember the concepts after that, it doesn't really matter.

On the other hand, privatization of our schools, at least to me, basically means that our schools are being used strictly as money-makers.  If we get rid of all public education...what happens to our students? How does that effect the way that students learn?  And how does that effect their education and knowledge long term?  State tests are one of the major things that would be effective by the privatization of our schools.  This seems to be a good thing based on the fact that we seem to have determined that state testing is a bad thing because it causes teachers to "teach to tests" and not really teach students the things that they need to know.  Another seemingly negative effect of privatizing schools is that schools that are usually made this way are schools that are failing or not meeting certain requirements.  This is an issue because once these schools reopen as private schools they are much harder to get into and therefore the students who actually get into these schools don't tend to be lower-class minority students.  Then these students are forced into schools that are still open and are failing, therefore their education is compromised and maybe they aren't receiving as good of an education as some others may be receiving in other schools.

I unfortunately think that these education issues are like a pendulum  and will continue to go back and forth.  I don't think that one thing will be solidly settle upon, and therefore, our students will continue to suffer.  I feel that arguments will continue over what the best way for teachers to teach is and how and what students should be learning.