To the Point:

Privateers at it again

By William E. Scheuerman

UUP President

The pirates of privatization are at it again. For more than 10 years, they’ve been chasing the public schools through the seas of public funding. Charter schools, school vouchers, the Edison company — you know the headlines. Now these pirates are poised to board the ship of public higher education and crash it into the rocks.

In Massachusetts, Texas, Wisconsin, Colorado and New York, flagship universities, as well as smaller vessels in the state fleet, are already under attack. The governor of Massachusetts proposes to spin off the state’s Amherst institution by converting it into an independent entity. The plan would also merge six existing institutions into three; it would also privatize three other institutions, including the state’s only public medical school. While the pirates make their usual claim that this move is a money saver, studies show that privatization often has little to do with saving money. Nonetheless, the move will also significantly reduce student access and significantly increase tuition.

Meanwhile, Colorado is considering a voucher system. The University of Texas-Austin is heading toward privatization, buoyed only by its huge endowment. And the president of the University of Wisconsin system is proposing that its 26 campuses be cut loose from the anchor of state funding and supervision.

Not to be outdone by these other states, New York’s governor has his own ideas about public higher education in New York. No, I’m not talking about the proposed $183.5 million cut to SUNY. I’m alluding to his proposal to privatize SUNY’s teaching hospitals. While this scheme would enable the governor to say he cut the labor force without layoffs, the impact of privatizing SUNY’s hospitals would be disastrous to SUNY and the many New Yorkers who rely on its public hospitals. The hospitals are connected to medical schools where training — not making a buck — is the priority. Not only would public medical education become more costly and restrictive, it would terminate health care for the indigent in dozens of upstate counties and force the closing of important trauma centers and burn units that were so desperately needed on September 11. Privatization would also cut off revenues that now flow from the hospitals to the other academic campuses, further exacerbating SUNY’s fiscal plight.

Universal public education is the bedrock of Jeffersonian democracy. Built on the premise that an educated citizenry is necessary for democracy to flourish, Jefferson’s vision paved the way for America’s public school system, where the most humble and downtrodden have the same opportunity to learn and develop their potential as their better-off peers. From hamlet to metropolis, every corner of the United States has reaped the rewards of this wonderful experiment. This Jeffersonian vision has expanded with time. The Morrill Act of 1862 created our great land-grant colleges. The post-WWII GI bill opened college doors to many who previously never even dreamed of such an opportunity. And, when their children — the Baby Boomers — reached college age, off they went to colleges and universities in record numbers, triggering the largest growth in public higher education in American history. Universal education from pre-K to grad school was the roadmap for prosperity and democracy.

Implicit in this vision is the concept of the public good. The pirates of privatization view the phrase “public good” as an oxymoron; there is no public, just a collection of individuals and individual interests. They seize this time of fiscal crisis in the states to push forward their agenda of stripping government of all its public functions. And with education claiming the biggest pot of state funds, public education is the ship to sink first.

If Jeffersonian democracy is all about education and equality, what do the attacks on the Jeffersonian ideal tell us about elected leaders who make their careers on dismantling this egalitarian vision? Worse, what does it say about us if we let them get away with it?