...are going the way of public prisons, and it keeps me up at night.

I toss by night and cry by day.

Just found a January 2012 study done by this Dr. Gary Miron (cited above) for the National Education Policy Center reviewing the incidence of for-profit education management organizations (EMOs).

Details include:

• The number of states in which for-profit EMOs operated was 33 in 2010-2011.
• In 2010-2011, 35% of all public charter schools in the U.S. were operated by private EMOs, and these schools accounted for almost 42% of all students enrolled in charter schools.
• Since the 1995-1996 school year, the number of for-profit EMOs has increased from 5 to 99, and the number of schools operating has increased from 6 to 758. It is estimated that enrollment has grown from approximately 1,000 students in 1995-1996 to 394,096 in 2010-2011.

By Jonathan Kozol, Harpers 2007

(link...)

Some years ago, a friend who works on Wall Street handed me a stock-market prospectus in which a group of analysts at an investment-banking firm known as Montgomery Securities~described the financial benefits to be derived from privatizing our public schools. "The education industry", according to these analysts, "represents, in our opinion, the final frontier of a number of sectors once under public control" that "have either voluntarily opened" or, they note in pointed terms, have "been forced" to open up to private enterprise. Indeed, they write, "the education industry represents the largest market opportunity" since health-care services were privatized during the 1970s. Referring to private education companies as "EMOs" ("Education Management Organizations"), they note that college education also offers some "attractive investment returns" for corporations, but then come back to what they see as the much greater profits to be gained by moving into public elementary and secondary schools. "The larger developing opportunity is in the K-12 EMO market, led by private elementary school providers", which, they emphasize, "are well positioned to exploit potential political reforms such as school vouchers". From the point of view of private profit, one of these analysts enthusiastically observes, "the K-12 market is the Big Enchilada".

...that people are finally catching on to this.

Still wish that more people could see that the groundwork has already been laid here in Knoxville with our Broad Academy superintendent.

Don't forget our pair of Broad Foundation residents.

We have ample help from the Milken Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in "implementing instructional accountability" and "prioritizing human capital management," too.

Billionaire philanthropists (and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce) are well represented on the First Floor of the AJ these days.

They'll see their ROI soon enough.

Yes, they did approve a charter school, Scott. The charter organization just dropped the ball soonafter.

They also approved locating both our STEM school and our Paul Kelley school in the first two school locations not to be the real property of the school system. Shrinking publicly-owned space is another hallmark of the corporate reformers.

I can't recall who voted to outsource custodians and who didn't, but that our superintendent proposed it at all is in keeping with his Broad training.

But really, if you think one local school board might be able to hold back this rising tide, I think you're mistaken.

School boards have already been disolved all over the country and no one asked the board members' permission to do it.

...it's a TRIO.

Ah, yes. I forgot about Randy (and Sandra Clark) telling us so.

Four Broadies total, then.

Plus Lowell, Michael, Bill, and Melinda.

Scott, these are just some of the country's larger school systems that no longer have elected local school boards and are instead under mayoral control:

Baltimore, MD
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Hartford, CT
Los Angeles, CA
New Haven, CT
New York City, NY
Philadelphia, PA
Providence, RI
Washington, DC

Discussions are now (or were recently) underway on establishing mayoral control in these larger school systems:

Atlanta, GA (this month)
Detroit, MI
Houston, TX
Milwaukee, WI
Newark, NJ
Peoria, IL
Rochester, NY

In most of the cities in which the mayor already has control, he appoints both a superintendent and a school board (so it isn't particularly clear what authority those school boards actually have--but it's scarce little).

I'm not pointing to any issue of price or location, either one. I'm pointing to the issue of public ownership. KCS doesn't own the L&N building and it doesn't own the building where the Paul Kelley school is, either.

Oligarchies rise when "things public" shrink, like public space.

Oligarchies rise when media are consolidated, too, like Clear Channel now owning 1400 radio stations and just, what, five guys left to comprise the Associated Press.

I'm just paying close attention and I'm nervous. Really, I think you should be, too.

...I'm not going to spend a lot of time tonight looking up a lot of minutiae.

"Minutiae?"

If you're referring to that list of 11 major U. S. cities to have abolished their elected school boards and ceded control of their school systems to their mayors (and that list of 7 more major U. S. cities contemplating the same move) as "minutiae," I'd say that collectively those data aren't "minutiae," at all.

Collectively, those data are, well, a pretty big news story.

It's just been hard to find all in one place.

Can we agree that having adequate public space--including public school space--ensures freedom of assembly, which is a basic constitutional right, and that any trend to reduce public space is to be avoided?

It appears we do agree that a school governance model like the one we have ensures that multiple elected officeholders retain the ability to hire and fire schools' chief administrator, and that any trend to consolidate that authority in the hands of a just one elected officeholder (i.e., mayoral control) is to be avoided.

My point is that the "corporate reformers" embrace both of these principles which most of us think are to be avoided.

If McIntyre and the school board wanted to kill public education in Knox County, they would have been content with the status quo - classroom underfunding and neglect of school facilities.

Instead, they have proposed the debt-free renovation of several schools (including Shannondale, which Tamara has in the past advocated needs renovations); day-long kindergarten, which many studies have shown helps early grade literacy; additional money to fund positions that would be devoted to early intervention; and better pay for teachers (we can argue about whether it should be on merit or across-the-board, but there should be no argument that Knox County needs to raise its status from 37th in teacher pay in a state that doesn't pay its teachers well). The community schools program funded by the proposal is designed to get parents and other stakeholders in the community involved in the schools, a key component to student success.

None of that suggests an abandonment of education by the public. On the contrary, it suggests the public be more involved in education.

Years ago, I attended a public meeting where Tom Ingram tried to pitch the Edison Schools concept to the school board.

Just curious: Did he reveal to them that he was an investor in Edison Schools?

Scott, I don't fault the school board in any manner except that I suspect they're too little aware of how this broader "reform" trend is morphing into a corporate takeover of public schools nationally. I'd just about bet, if they pass by here, they'll learn some things they didn't know. Indya's told me so, anyway, and I know she reads widely.

Neither do I have any objections to those several budget line items you detail. I'm somewhat wary of the line item for technology--primarily because I recall the school board/county commission collaboration to use a 30 year bond issue to fund those "wireless desktops" some years back, which technology promptly landed in school library closets about 29 years prior to the repay.

My sole concern for this budget is the so-called "strategic" compensation plan that will cause teachers' pay raises to become dependent on others whose performance they can't control. In too many cases, the plan will make their pay raises dependent on the performance of others they don't even know.

I know, you think it's a swell plan. And you don't seem to question that he didn't care to raise base teacher pay from 37th to, say, 36th, either.

Question: If I were to round up 15 or 20 teachers (in about 15 or 20 minutes), would you and/or Jack give them an audience, as in allow them to speak anonymously? You need to.

Tamara, thanks for your actions earlier today. You know what I mean.

And thank you.