Conclusion

According to the present American commonsense, the purpose of public schooling is to train workers to get jobs and create a strong economy. Ask most high school students why they should complete high school, and they will tell you that they need a high school diploma to get a good job or to get into a university so they can get a better job. Ask most students at a public university why they are in college, and they will tell you that it is to get a good job. Ask most Americans why we need to have a strong system of public education, and they will tell you so that America can compete in the world marketplace. Whether we are talking about the Reagan administration’s Nation at Risk, the George W. Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind, or the Obama administration’s Race to the Top, the overwhelming understood purpose of public schools is to provide the engine for the capitalist economy. ¹ The present-day, billionaire-funded educational reforms—such as those advocated by Microsoft’s Bill Gates; the oil refinery Koch Brothers; the financial, communication, and media mogul Michael Bloomberg; the Walmart Walton family; and Amway’s Richard DeVos—have clearly assumed that the primary, if not only, purpose of schooling is to train workers for a competitive market. ² In this commonsense, public schools are understood to be institutions harnessed for private purpose, assuming that a democratic public space can take care of itself.