With another vote on the Urban Hope Act today, I wanted to pull this comment by Keith Benson from last week’s post and highlight it on the main page: 

Unfortunately the new Hope Act passed yesterday, 30-1 (among state lawmakers who, collectively, have ZERO children who will be affected by this dreadful bill). But what stuck out to me as civics and civil rights lesson was how corrupt the legislative process can be. First, I would like to steer the topic away from education quickly to illustrate a point.

About two years ago, following the Sandy Hook shootings where schoolchildren were murdered, the public clamored for more restrictions on guns, generally requesting more background checks, gun magazines with less capacity, and stricter sales guidelines at gun shows. Even NRA members overwhelmingly agreed. If consensus among the diverse American public could exist, it was on this issue two years ago. But despite constant campaigning, lobbying, and polling, a bill for stricter gun control NEVER made it to the House floor for vote. Further one gun control measure that did, was attached to another bill, and was extremely watered down, and ultimately died. Those events forced me to become more skeptical concerning the possibility of Blacks and Hispanics ever being truly represented through “the process”. I thought if a class full of innocent, beautiful 1st graders, and overwhelmingly white could be gunned down in their classroom, and NOTHING changes concerning this cause, there is no way we, urban poor minorities would ever be represented or spoken for through politics.

Back to the new Hope Act… Often we hear about the fact that Camden charters have about 3500 students, where the public schools here have about 10,000. In that charters have been in operation here since 1998, what I glean from this is, as charter parents CHOOSE to send their children to charters, public school parents also CHOOSE to send their children to public schools. Indeed the students themselves took the streets to demand PUBLIC schooling as well as advocated for their laid off teachers. But the “choosing” of the smaller charter party dominates school politics here. I have my suspicions as to why…lawmakers know charter teachers aren’t likely to stay in the profession as long as public school teachers thus lessening a pension burden, there is plenty of money to be made among the connected associated with charter schools, charter school organizations themselves are adored by corporate elite and they lobby and donate money to lawmakers, racism (the belief that what is white is simply better whether in the classroom of mostly black and brown kids, or in school management), and lastly and even more consequential, that the Hope Act is a massive land (and money) grab cloaked in education reform…but this I already knew these things, and thus, were not new.

What really struck me surrounding this issue of forced massive corporatization of public schooling here, was how the legislative “process” was simply a sham; an instrument to accomplish whatever Power desired. Routinely the original laws concerning the Hope Act were broken. Provisions of the law were continuously rewritten; stated deadlines were missed and then extended. And facing a pending lawsuit by the parents of Camden concerning where and how many Renaissance schools could be established, NJ lawmakers huddled together yesterday to make what was illegal (according to the law THEY created), now legal. On one hand I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. People in Camden are of low means and are minority and have been enduring generations of political and legal marginalization; but this was so very blatant and sad. If this is the kind of behavior exhibited from our “leaders” in politics, how can anyone caring about genuine democracy have faith in the fairness and representative values our “democratic” politics constantly espouse?

Picture via Courier-Post, by Douglas Bovitt

The lessons I’ve learned regarding politics using this Hope Act and its Renaissance Schools as a case study is that if Power wants something, Power will use whatever means at its vast disposal to get it. For me, this is unacceptable, and everyone associated with this process and its schools should really take a long and critical look in the mirror.

“Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence;… to alienate humans from their own decision making is to change them into objects.”
? Paulo Freire

 

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