Friday, July 27: We've got some questions?

On Friday morning, we returned to the debate over public education in New York City--a debate that is already controversial in this city, but might be even moreso within our group. Even the three of us find ourselves mired in debate over charter schools.

Here are some of the major questions that we have about charter schools: What policy reforms will Joel Klein, Chancellor of NYC Public Schools, and the City implement in public schools? Are charter schools permanant institutions in public education, or are they temporary stages in a broader, more equitable, public education reform? If competition and accountability are two of the most oft-spoken flashwords for charter school advocates, who is able to access information about charter schools and about public school performance? Does competition not always end in inequality? What are the implications of accepting inequality of educational opportunity, when we also speak about an equal right to equal education? Despite the differences in our opinions, we think that in general, we all share concern for the looming question, what is happening, and what will happen, to non-charter public schools? Similarly, most, if not all of us, have a strong concern for any for-profit charter schools because of the incontrovertible proof that private concerns inevitibly come into conflict with public goods and equality. Furthermore, every critic of public education has mentioned the teachers' union, but we have not had a chance to actually listen to anyone from the union. Critics of the union seem to have very legitimate concerns, but we just need to learn more about the union's own arguments.

We had the opportunity to listen to Mimi Corcoran (former executive director of the Beginning with Children Foundation, Inc.) and Ejim Dike (Right to Education Project) at the International Center for Tolerance Education. We joined high schools students who are also on fellowships at the Human Rights Summer Institute, hosted by the ICTE. HiA fellows will be mentoring the HRSI fellows on education topics over the next week, as the prepare for debate over school vouchers, charter schools, and No Child Left Behind.

In the afternoon, we had a visit from Shari Turitz from the Synergos Institute, about philanthropy along the Mexico-U.S. Border. Because of the fact that many of us had enormous double-bacon cheeseburgers from Five Guys in Brooklyn (especially Sean and Thomas), the post-lunch digestion lull really hit hard. But the role of the private sector in social change has been a repeated theme this summer, and our next speaker, Linda Rottenburg, raised this issue to the fore. Linda is the CEO and founder of Endeavor, a non-profit organization that provides business assistance to entrepreneurs in emerging economies.

Again, Linda's project raised some crucial questions for us, without many answers. For example, Linda told us about two Argentinian entrepreneurs who began an office supply company from scratch. Their company grew successfully--then, Staples bought it out, and one of the two founders is the regional manager of Staples in Latin America. Doesn't this simply allow U.S. corporations to save themselves from the risks of investing in emerging economies until people from these countries have grown their own successful businesses? Second, is this another "trickle-down" economic model of deveopment? That is, will producing another "crop" of successful business people in emerging economies actually benefit the poor? Alternatively, how can you help the poor without a strong economy? If Endeavor is really advancing progressive social goods, why does it happen that so many huge corporate CEOs are so interested in and excited about their work? Many progressives have a knee-jerk reaction to nearly anything from the private sector, but how can we engage in and with the private for progressive politics?

Again, many of us are undecided on the project of Endeavor. But we also see the good of, sometimes, "ending" with some questions. We are also asking questions about where our own perspectives and opinions come from. What historical, cultural, political, and economic conditions have given rise to our own perspectives? It is without a doubt that part of what has made our discussions so vibrant thus far is because of the wide range of diversity of our backgrounds.

At night, to ease our differences, we played a game of "Uno." (Thomas made the incredibly poor joke of a title, "Unoversal.") However, we quickly discovered that there are different ways of playing this game, which quickly devolved into disputes over the rules, and, ultimately, hilarity.

Love,
Soraya, Doreen, Thomas