The Right to an Education or The Obligation to Be Sorted for Capital

The Left is fond of extolling the virtues of a free public education system, particularly the delusion that it increases social mobility and promotes liberty. Aside from the fact that few people move up in social class, regardless of their success in school, the system is not truly free. It is a taxpayer subsidy to business that ensures there are sufficiently educated workers to do the jobs employers want done and to consume the products and services they are selling.

In “Science and Education in Capitalism,” Ruthless Criticism points out that education serves as a sorting mechanism for capital, funneling future workers into the hierarchy of jobs. School does not simply deliver knowledge, training and skills to students, but does so per unit time. During exams, students demonstrate how many questions they can correctly answer within a given amount of time. Consequently, it is not their knowledge we are assessing, but their efficiency compared with their peers, exactly what employers are looking for.

Grades do not tell us how much a student knows or how well they can solve problems. They simply tell us how a student has performed in relationship to his or her peers and give an indication of how that student will be sorted in the future. The better the grades, the more advanced classes that student can take, the better college he or she can attend, the more impressive his or her resume, and the better the chances of a higher paying job.

Most jobs do not require brilliant workers. Thus, the state does not need to invest much into public education—just enough to ensure there are sufficient workers with the minimum skills necessary for the job (a few highly trained people to be managers, supervisors and bosses, and lots of average people with minimal training to do the rest of the work). Of course there is also a need for scientists, but from the perspective of the employing class this is solely to create new and better products that can be sold and patented, innovations that give them an edge over competitors. Scientists working to improve public health, in contrast, are a burden as they contribute to regulation and legislation that impairs profit-making.

The rationality of keeping education costs low has been amply demonstrated over the last four years, as states have slashed education budgets without harming the profitability of business. In fact, corporate America has made record profits in that same time period despite the divestment from public education, while a surplus of highly trained workers and scientists remain jobless or accept low paying jobs that have nothing to do with their training.

The needs of capital also determine what content is taught. An understanding of American history sufficient to celebrate the 4^th of July with pride serves the interests of capital by ensuring there will be a supply of cannon fodder for its wars, whereas knowledge of Haymarket, Homestead, the IWW and Ludlow might lead one to rebel against capital. Hence, the former takes up a great deal of the history curriculum, while the latter, if it is taught at all, takes up no more than a few lines in the text book.

School also prepares students for the world of work by simulating (and legitimizing) the competition that occurs in the real world, only in school the competition is for grades rather than money. However, the competition in school is no more “fair” than that of the world of employment. One’s relationship to the labor market not only determines his wealth and social status, it also determines his children’s status in school. Affluence is a great predictor of graduation rates, test scores and overall school success.

The public education system of the 20^th century—the remnants of which limp along today—is inefficient in its service to capital. Since knowledge for knowledge’s sake does not increase profits, universities can do away with many of the luxuries that have allowed professors to do basic research in the past. Increasing the competition for grants (while increasing corporate sponsorship of research) increases the likelihood that research will have a potential for profitability. Distance learning, blended learning and outsourcing of teaching at the K-12 and college levels allows schools to teach the basic skills students need to compete in the job market at a much lower cost (and greater profit to the businesses that supplies these services). Doing away with tenure and seniority increases administrators’ control over staffing decisions and reduces payroll expenses by making it easier to lay off higher paid veterans. Internships and service learning may provide youth with marketable job skills, but they also provide employers with cheap or free labor that is easier to exploit than older workers.

Jobs Trump Wages: Ironworkers Great Sellout

(Image From Recollection Books)

In an economy with high numbers of unemployed workers who require a year or more on average to find work, it is understandable that workers would fear for their jobs and a secure livelihood. However, for many industries, particularly manufacturing, the problem has been ongoing for the past forty years, as U.S. manufacturing has downsized or moved off shore. The problem has exacerbated the decline of unionism, particularly in the private sector, as union manufacturing jobs disappear and either never come back at all, or get replaced by lower waged, nonunion jobs.

New York’s unionized iron workers, fearing they will be squeezed out of jobs by cheaper nonunion workers, have voluntarily agreed to a 15% cut in compensation (roughly $14 per hour in wages and benefits), in hopes of undercutting their nonunion colleagues. According to the New York Daily News, 86% of union members approved the deal.

This brings up a couple of disturbing questions. What is the point of being in a union if it is not improving wages, benefits and working conditions? If union workers voluntarily reduce their pay to a level commensurate with nonunion workers and must continue to pay union dues, they are actually earning less than their nonunion colleagues. Such a strategy is not likely to preserve union jobs for long, as workers start to see fewer benefits to remaining in the union.

Then there is the question of why there are so many nonunion workers out there to undercut their pay and benefits. If the union was really doing its job, it would be aggressively organizing nonunion jobsites and creating an atmosphere in which it is more painful and expensive for employers not to hire union workers.

Teacher Outsourcing in Ohio

Private charters turn a profit by taking in tax dollars like other schools, but then “streamlining” operations and “running their school like a business” (i.e., downsizing, union busting and low wages). The money saved on low wages can go into profits or, in the case of “nonprofit” charters, toward hefty executive salaries. Concept Schools, in Ohio, took this scam a step further by illegally financing the recruitment of low wage teachers from Turkey.

The federal government began investigating the company this week for the travel and immigration expenses it spent recruiting math and science teachers, according to a report by Tanisha Mallett on 10TV. According to the report, Concept Schools paid for travel and immigration expenses for 19 Turkish employees and some of their family members.

This is not Concept’s first run-in with the feds. They were investigated in 2008 for alleged abuses of H1-B visa rules. Between 2008 and 2009, U.S. immigration documents revealed that 53 H1-B visas were issued to employees of Horizon Schools throughout Ohio. H1-B visas are supposed to be issued only for workers who have specialized skills or for jobs in which domestic employees are unqualified. Horizon’s Vice President Salim Ucan has dishonestly claimed that he tried, but failed, to find teachers and investors locally. This is absurd. There are many Ohio teachers who have been laid off and who would appreciate a teaching job (though perhaps not in his sweatshops). Ucan probably could have even recruited TFA scabs for below union wages.

Auditors also found that payments were made to people who were never even employed by Horizon schools, including some who lived in Turkey. According to Chanel 5 news, a Dayton Horizon Science Academy has paid $600,000 over the last five years to the property's owner who lives in Turkey.

One thing that has been left out of most of the recent media coverage of this scandal is that Concept Schools are part of the Gulen charter schools network, which are run by Turkish scientists. (For more on Gulen, see here). Many believe that the Gulen schools have a hidden agenda of promoting Turkish nationalism and Islamic culture and values. While neither of these agendas are prohibited (there are plenty of parochial Christian and Jewish schools, while all U.S public schools promote U.S. nationalism), they should preclude the schools from receiving any public funding. In actuality, Horizon schools receive millions of dollars in federal and local funding.