Muskegon Heights may be predominantly minority but Redford, the latest to be privatized, is 88% white… it is about class and fiscal "efficiency" which means it is about race but by far not predominantly about race.
-- Alan P. Rudy
^^^^ CB: I agree with Alan that "ultimately" it is about class. White supremacist prejudice against majority Black districts is the foot in the door to get it going. Some of the white suburban opposition to Charter schools in Michigan is because it has a sort of backdoor school racial integration potential.
Alan correctly puts "efficiency" in quotes because it is as privatization, of course , ultimately about cutting teachers' wages, benefits and pensions as a way to save money.
I think that also operating underneath all the attacks on teachers' , their unions and dismantling the existing school systems the ruling class is very disturbed at the success of the US public school system. The percentage of Americans attending college is at historic highs. The ruling class doesn't want a large portion of the 99% "thinkers". .
This quote of John D. Rockefeller gets at the idea:
"I don't want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation of workers." John D. Rockefeller (founded the National Education Association)