Education reform is often referred to as the "civil rights issue of our time." But what would have happened if "edupreneurs" had used their money, influence, connections and access to solve the riddle of why we can't integrate schools?

Ch. 2: Democracy and Public Education: A Future in Peril - Have You Heard - Air Date 8-12-21

Why are the same states that are rolling back democracy also intent on dismantling public education? We assembled an all-star cast to get some answers.

Ch. 3: The Hidden Agenda of Privatization with Jessica Piper (pt.1) - Teach Me, Teacher - Air Date 10-31-21

Jessica Piper, a previous middle and high school English teacher and now candidate for Missouri state representative, believes there's a far bigger agenda behind the outrage we are currently hearing about.

Ch. 4: Betsy DeVos Is Still Making Moves to Destroy Public Schools - The New Abnormal - Air Date 4-1-23

Betsy DeVos is no longer wreaking havoc as former President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education, but even without the title, the Republican donor is still actively making moves to “destroy” the public school system.

Ch. 5: The Surprising History Behind Charter Schools - WBUR - Air Date 11-4-16

Today, teachers' unions are among the fiercest opponents of charter schools in the United States. The fact that a legendary union president was maybe the key champion of the idea tells you how much things have changed in 30 years.

Ch. 6: The Segrenomics of American Education w/ Dr. Noliwe Rooks - Human Restoration Project - Air Date 2-11-23

Because it is so well researched and presented, Cutting School: The Segrenomics of American Education, is a frustrating read. To tell the story of privatization, segregation, & the end of public education requires a massive cast.

Ch. 7: The War on Public Education Is Escalating – with Jennifer Berkshire - Is This Democracy - Air Date 3-16-23

We are in the midst of an escalating rightwing assault on public education in America. It comes in the form of an attempted authoritarian takeover of schools and universities, in hundreds of bills establishing state censorship, banning books, ect.

Ch. 8: Diane Ravitch on Pandemic School Privatization - CounterSpin - Air Date 5-22-20

We talk with Diane Ravitch about the latest scheme for rich folks to decide what's best for schools their children don't attend.

Ch. 9: Racism-High-Stakes Disaster Education | Dr. Ricardo Rosa - TEDxCCSU - Air Date 11-24-15

Dr. Rosa is a member of Save Our Schools, United Opt-Out and the Badass Teachers Association. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, an activist, writer, and researcher.

MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)

Ch. 10: The Secret Power of Homeschoolers - VICE NEWS - Air Date 10-12-22

VICE News investigates why families are opting out, and what happens to the institution of public school when people abandon it.

VOICEMAILS

Ch. 11: Thanks for the Rowling episode - VoicedMailer Roland

Ch. 12: Regarding Puberty Blockers - VoicedMailer J

Ch. 13: Thoughts on the J.K. Rowling episode - VoicedMailer Boris

Ch. 14: Something to add to the JK Rowling episode - VoicedMailer Daniel

FINAL COMMENTS

Ch. 15: Final comments on responses to the trans rights and authoritarianism episode

MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)

Produced by Jay! Tomlinson

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this episode of the award winning best of left podcast in which we shall take
0:07.2	a look at the history and present of the interconnected movements to privatize education
0:13.0	and dismantle democracy. Clips today are from Have You Heard, Teach Me Teacher, The New
0:19.5	Abnormal, WBUR, The Human Restoration Project, Is This Democracy, Counter-Spin and a Ted
0:27.3	X Talk by Dr. Ricardo Rosa, with an additional members only clip from Vice News.
0:38.9	From reconstruction where you had people saying let's have poor people and rural people only
0:45.6	do vocational education up through the 20s to 30s where there were these Rosalwald schools,
0:53.8	which there's a whole story about how people sing the praises of how much Rosalwald did and
0:59.5	those schools were a godsend, but it's really the burden for financing them and building them
1:06.0	and putting the curriculum together was on these poor communities who had to give every single cent
1:10.9	that they had to get some kind of education through the 1950s where Brown v. Board, I mean the
1:19.8	country put the former slave-hoding states put so much effort and money and time and creative
1:29.5	thinking into figuring out how not to integrate schools, how to they would close entire school
1:36.2	districts instead of thinking about how to integrate up through the 70s where we all know about
1:46.6	the struggles that the countries had with busing, which fundamentally was about we do not want our
1:52.3	schools integrated and people like Joe Biden and others who would go so far as to say we will
2:02.4	forbid any school districts who want to integrate their schools from using federal funds to
2:08.6	put gasoline in buses in order to achieve that. Like really if we had put all of that energy in
2:16.3	time into the one thing that we know works, wherever we be as a country, as opposed to continually
2:24.1	singing to fight these saying battles about how do we educate poor people in this nation?
2:28.9	Rooks also noticed another remarkably consistent phenomenon across the decades,
2:34.2	wherever black communities were pushing for access to education, white philanthropists and
	...

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