World’s largest for-profit education company is using pandemic to push tech-driven “mastery-based learning”
Our newsletter for people who think public education should be truly, absolutely, authentically public.
June 2020
In the Public Interest
Democracy, shared prosperity, and the common good
In the Public Interest is a comprehensive research and policy center on privatization and responsible contracting.
In the Public Interest
Democracy, shared prosperity, and the common good
In the Public Interest is a comprehensive research and policy center on privatization and responsible contracting.
Is there peril or promise in online learning?
Our email newsletter for people who think public education should be truly, absolutely, authentically public
May 2020
A Philly suburb wants to sell its water, offering a glimpse of post-COVID America
As revenues plunge, cities like Chester, Pa., must resist the temptation to privatize crucial public goods and services.
May 2020
Research overwhelmingly shows that a computer can’t replace a real live K-12 public school
Technology should be seen as a tool to help teachers teach, not replace them and the schools they teach in altogether.
May 2020
Research Brief: Why online education can’t replace brick-and-mortar K-12 schooling
Research on online education reveals a long track record of poor academic performance, lack of equity and access, and privacy concerns.
May 2020
Charter schools are taking crisis aid meant for small businesses
Our newsletter for people who think public education should be truly, absolutely, authentically public.
May 2020
The Postal Service helped us survive Spanish Flu. Amid coronavirus, Trump is trying to bankrupt it.
The October 25, 1918 edition of the Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer, a local Connecticut newspaper, reads like it was written during the COVID-19 pandemic. The frontpage reports a decline in cases of the Spanish Flu. [...]
May 2020
“Humans are biohazards, machines are not.” New York to “reimagine” public education.
Our newsletter for people who think public education should be truly, absolutely, authentically public.
May 2020
Front-line workers need more than thank-yous. They need Congress to save states and localities.
It’s both #TeacherAppreciationWeek and Public Service Recognition Week, which uses the hashtag #PSRW. And, yes, we should #ThankATeacher and honor our federal, state, county, and local government employees. But teachers, [...]
May 2020
Online K-12 education companies during coronavirus are “like coke dealers handing out free samples”
NewSchools Venture Fund, a pro-privatization, anti-teacher nonprofit, has compiled a list of free tools and products.
May 2020
Online K-12 education during the coronavirus crisis, explained
The forced closing of public schools and the move to “distance learning” through online tools, apps, pre-packaged lesson plans, and tracking devices raises the question: what does the future of education look like? [...]
May 2020
Why we should be raising (not cutting) taxes on the richest Americans right now
What Naomi Klein dubbed the “shock doctrine” is in full gear. Corporations are salivating over using the coronavirus crisis to further privatize public goods and services, from the U.S. Postal Service to public [...]
April 2020
For-profit online education company K12 Inc. to investors: There’s “upside” in the pandemic
Cashing in on Kids is a newsletter for people who think public education should be truly public—produced by In the Public Interest.
April 2020
Will you help us stop the privatizers? Take this survey about online public education.
The Koch-funded Mercatus Center is calling for the deregulation of public education. The right-wing Heritage Foundation’s “National Coronavirus Recovery Commission,” which includes an executive with the for-profit [...]
April 2020
“This is someone who once said public education was a ‘dead end.’”
Statement on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s new federal funding for “online/virtual” education that will accelerate privatization of public education
April 2020
11 warning signs that someone is trying to privatize your public school
Our pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
April 2020
How to spot privatization schemes in the middle of a crisis
Two checklists for monitoring threats of privatization of public goods and services in the age of coronavirus.
April 2020
Why the tag team of conservatives and corporations keeps winning
Conservatives have long been clear about what they want. Progressives have focused on specific issues and campaigns and remained silent on the ideas that unite us.
April 2020
For-profit online education company K12 Inc. aims ads at children as stock price climbs
Our pick of recent news about the privatization of public education and the parents, students, teachers, and communities fighting back.
April 2020
Koch-funded think tank says for-profit online schools are “what the future of learning looks [...]
Cashing in on Kids is In the Public Interest's pick of recent news about the privatization of public education.
April 2020
The Anti-Government Echo Chamber
A brief pulling together examples of how corporate figures, right-wing organizations, and conservative politicians talk about the role of government—or the lack thereof—in American life.
April 2020
The charter school industry is vying for federal bailout money
Cashing in on Kids is In the Public Interest‘s pick of recent news about the privatization of public education and the communities fighting back. Not a subscriber? Sign up. Make sure to like us on Facebook and [...]
April 2020
Online learning shouldn’t be an excuse to privatize public education
Here’s our pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back. Not a subscriber? Sign up here. Online learning shouldn’t be [...]
April 2020
Congress just gave cheap, high-speed internet access to everyone. April Fools’.
Wouldn’t publicly owned and operated internet come in handy right about now? With so many students learning online and so many people working from home, wouldn’t that be nice? Americans pay more than almost anyone else [...]
April 2020
As the coronavirus crisis unfolds, we must #ProtectALLWorkers
we can’t forget about the teachers educating kids online, the postal workers sorting our mail, and the millions of other public workers still on the job. [...]
March 2020
The 40-year corporate attack on government made the coronavirus crisis worse
Many were appalled when then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon framed the Trump administration’s agenda in its early days as the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Appalled about Bannon’s [...]
March 2020
To slow down coronavirus, we need a public health approach that’s truly ‘public’
Protecting the public health of all us requires protecting the health of each of us, without exception.
March 2020
Unions helped stop the spread of Ebola. They’re trying again with coronavirus.
During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, unionized medical interns, residents, and fellows spearheaded patient care plans at hospitals nationwide.
March 2020
Congressman confronts Education Secretary Betsy DeVos about charter school failures
Cashing in on Kids is In the Public Interest's pick of recent news about the privatization of public education.
February 2020
Washington State is about to kick out the bottled water industry
Americans purchase some 50 billion bottles of water every year. That’s more than 95,000 a minute! All that water comes from our public water systems and groundwater. In other words, the bottled water [...]
February 2020
Michael Bloomberg has spent big on pushing charter schools in California
Our pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
February 2020
Black men with prostate cancer are twice as likely to die as white men. Except those with VA health [...]
Go figure. When African American men don’t experience delays in diagnosis or treatment, they survive just as often as white men.
February 2020
Bay Area charter school finally scraps enrollment preference helping wealthier students
In the Public Interest's pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
February 2020
Therapy. Gardening. Housing assistance. There’s a bright future for public schools.
A groundbreaking new study shows that community schools can improve attendance, increase graudation rates, and more.
February 2020
National School Choice Week is actually about promoting certain choices over others
Instead of investing in all public schools, the funders behind National School Choice Week want our communities to leave education up to private markets.
February 2020
Wall Street wants in on public school construction, and that’s scary
For years, we’ve heard the same false claims behind the push to use public-private partnerships to build new infrastructure, like toll roads and prisons. Private equity firms and Wall Street banks say public-private [...]
January 2020
No one asks how are we going to pay for war. So, why should we for public transit?
Tons of positive ink has been spilled about Kansas City, Missouri’s decision last month to make public transit fare-free, and rightly so.
January 2020
Education historian Diane Ravitch has a new book, and she’s coming to a town near you
Cashing in on Kids is In the Public Interest‘s pick of recent news about the privatization of public education. Not a subscriber? Sign up. Make sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. [...]
January 2020
California School Accountability Report: New charter regulation already paying off | and more
Our pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
January 2020
A new direction in 2020 for In the Public Interest. Well, sort of.
We're going to start showing what truly public, democratic control over public goods means and looks like.
January 2020
Summit Public Schools appears to be skirting the intention of California’s recent charter [...]
Our pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
December 2019
Charter schools are opening and failing like start-ups. That can’t be good for kids.
Thousands have been shuttered since the turn of the century. More than 35 percent of those given federal grant money between 2006 and 2014 either never opened or were shut down, costing taxpayers more than half a billion [...]
December 2019
D.C. proposes closing neighborhood school, as charter school backers demand access to public property
Our pick of recent news about the privatization of public education in the District and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
December 2019
Billionaire Eli Broad buys credibility for charter school movement with $100 million gift to Yale [...]
Cashing in on Kids is In the Public Interest‘s pick of recent news about the privatization of public education. Not a subscriber? Sign up. Make sure to like us [...]
December 2019
Don’t like D.C. public transit? Then support the bus drivers striking to fix it.
You wouldn’t be wrong to blame Transdev for crippling public transportation in Northern Virginia since October. The multinational corporation all but guaranteed a strike by taking every dollar of profit it could out of its [...]
December 2019
California School Accountability Report: San Jose charter to close | School privatization explained [...]
Our pick of recent news about the effort to privatize public education in California and the families, students, and teachers fighting back.
December 2019
How to talk to your family about charter schools during the holidays
What you should say when someone starts dissing traditional, neighborhood public schools and hyping up charter schools.
November 2019