Is Rising Teacher Productivity Increasing High school Graduation Rates?

The national high school graduation rate increased to 75.5% in 2009, up from 72% in 2001, according to a report by a nonprofit group headed by former secretary of state Colin L. Powell. Considering that socioeconomic status is the biggest influence on academic achievement and that familial wealth declined substantially during that same time period, one would have expected graduation rates to have declined. The fact that they didn’t is likely the result of increased teacher productivity.

Worker productivity across the nation has grown steadily for the past thirty years, with corporate profits rising in spite of massive layoffs and a general decades-long trend of downsizing and exportation of jobs off shore. While technological improvements have increased efficiency, many workers have also been forced to do the same work that was previously accomplished by a larger work force, working longer, harder and faster than they did in the past.

This same trend has been happening in schools, with teachers being expected to implement numerous “reforms” that require them to work longer hours and accomplish more in their workdays.

One particular way this has played out is in the closure and redesign of so-called dropout factories, where 60% of a school’s population fails to graduate on time. These schools have been under tremendous pressure to change, resulting in closures, conversions to charter schools or redesign.

Education reformers will no doubt try to take full credit for these improvements and continue their lambasting of teachers and their unions. However, even when reforms can be positively linked to improvements in graduation rates, it is ultimately the teachers who must implement the reforms and who bear the greatest burden in terms of increased workload and consequences when those reforms do not succeed.

It is also questionable whether Powell’s data are even significant. A 3.5% increase is not a very large gain, particularly in light of the fact that graduation rates for black (63.5%) and Latino students (65.0%) are still substantially lower than for white (82%) and Asian students (91.8%)—(data from the Washington Post).

Furthermore, there are several states (e.g., California, Nevada, Connecticut, Arizona, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Utah, Nebraska, Arkansas, New Mexico) with stagnant or declining graduation rates, despite the implementation of the same types of reforms implemented in states with large gains. Indeed, Los Angeles and Oakland have among the highest percentages of charter schools in the nation and have closed many of their dropout factories, yet dropout rates are still relatively high for black and Latino students.

Ultimately, there is no doubt that teachers are working harder and that administrators are getting more out of them, despite declining wages. This would be one measure of productivity. Whether or not Powell’s graduation improvements are real or an artifact is another question.

Let Them Drown: A Case For Corporate Euthanasia

Three years after raping taxpayers to the tune of $4.6 trillion to bail out Wall Street, under the lie that it would help the economy and housing market recover, both are still in the dumps. The bursting of the housing bubble caused $6 trillion in lost wealth so far, and an additional $2 trillion is still expected. As a consequence, working and middle class homeowners saw the bulk of their wealth disappear overnight and there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.

The wealthy and their politician allies argued that extended tax breaks for the richest Americans and their corporations would create jobs, yet millions of Americans are still out of work. They also said that if we did not bail out the banks and automakers, that it would worsen unemployment. Yet the UAW signed concessions with the automakers that resulted not only in layoffs, but declining pay and benefits for those who were lucky enough to keep their jobs, while the bailouts resulted in large raises and bonuses for corporate bosses, but no effect on unemployment rates.

So what would have happened if these large corporations had not been bailed out? Would the sky have really fallen?

We will never know for sure, but we do know that Bank of America, the recipient of billions of taxpayer dollars, was not only guilty of predatory and unlawful lending practices, but is now set to cut 40,000 jobs nationwide, according to the Los Angeles Times. The bulk of the layoffs will occur in California, which is still coping with one of the highest unemployment rates (12%) in the nation.

BofA is grappling with huge losses that are due in part to its idiotic takeover of the failing Countrywide and the requisite acceptance of its “toxic” assets. This takeover was possible only because of the bailout, which provided it the necessary capital to prey upon weaker competitors like Countrywide, money that the politicians said would be used to cut some slack to drowning homeowners or hire more employees or provide better wages and benefits to its employees.

Capitalism’s propaganda tells us that bosses are entitled to large profits precisely because they are taking large risks with their capital. The implied corollary of this is that if their businesses fail, if they make bad investments, take risks that do not pan out, or get caught cheating, lying or stealing, they will necessarily lose some or all of their wealth and their businesses will sink.

At the same time, so long as capitalists believe that they will be bailed out, their mistakes forgiven, and their profits insured by taxpayers, they will continue to take the biggest risks possible, thus ensuring more economic meltdowns and a continued downward spiral of wages, living standards and environmental degradation.

Perspective 1 (bosses and millionaires): The people should continue helping us acquire more wealth than we and our heirs can ever spend, both through low wages and benefits at our companies, and through taxpayer bailouts and subsidies to our businesses paid for through cuts to social services.

Perspective 2 (capitalist mythology): Businesses that fail due to poor management, risky investments or criminal activity, will necessary die a natural death, no matter how large or important, to be replaced by smarter, stronger and better businesses [that will continue to control the wealth and power of society].

Perspective 3 (working people): Workers are the actual source of all profits and economic growth and should not only control how all workplaces and society function, but should have an equal share of the wealth.

Large corporations that are sinking should not only be allowed to drown. They should be held under to minimize our suffering.

Worse Than The Great Depression

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

According to CBS News, about 6.2 million Americans (45% of all the unemployed workers in the country) have been jobless for more than six months, a higher percentage than during the Great Depression. Yet the recession has been officially over for months. Corporate profits have reached record levels. The wealthy are wealthier than ever. And apparently they are the only one who really think the recession is over.

Not long after the latest unemployment figures were released (9.1% nationally), Obama’s top Economic Adviser, Austan Goolsbee, resigned (probably to get a less stressful and more lucrative job on Wall Street). There is no chance that Obama will use government spending to create jobs and certainly no chance that government policy will change to aid those who are struggling to stay in their homes, feed themselves or get medical care.

Obama said today that he is not worried about a “double dip” recession (probably because it would have no effect on his personal wealth and maybe because the first recession actually ended). Yet the policies being pushed by Congress are almost certain to exacerbate the current crisis. Axing Medicare, lowering taxes, continuing wars in at least four countries, decreasing government spending, ignoring those who are drowning in mortgage debt, allowing Wall Street to continue its shenanigans, are all certain to strain the economy further.

Meanwhile, wages have stagnated over the last 10 years more than any 10-year period since the great depression.