Many opinion commentaries concerning our Oklahoma public schools have been contributed by Benjamin Scafidi to the Oklahoman newspaper, as well as other like-minded publications around the country. Ben Scafidi has a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and is the director of the Education Economics Center in the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University, in Georgia. He teaches business students "how to make money" at the expense of our public schools. Scafidi is an extremely intelligent Education Economics professor at Coles College of Business and no doubt a polished politician as well. He is probably much smarter than any public school teacher or administrator in Oklahoma, including yours truly (I'm only a hick cattle rancher in the hills of Rush Creek), but I have questions for Dr. Scafidi: What interest does a business professor from Kennesaw State University in Georgia have in our Oklahoma public schools? Why does Scafidi seem to be obsessed with proving that our Oklahoma public schools are terrible? and Why is Scafidi obsessed with taxpayer funded school vouchers?
Ben Scafidi will probably not answer these questions, and before we attempt to answer them - it's a fact, Dr. Scafidi is in the business of teaching students and business owners "how to make profits". It's also a fact that politically - the Republican Party Platform for public schools is private school vouchers for all students (PSVAS). In order to be politically correct, the Republican Party refers to it as "school choice". Private school choice for State Legislators (PSCSL) or PSVAS is also part of the platform of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA). The OCPA bills itself as a conservative "think tank", except for public schools - of which it is very progressive. Many true conservatives agree with this OCPA political assessment.
Dr. Scafidi is also a senior fellow for EdChoice, a pro-voucher group which encourages State Legislators around the nation to pass legislation which benefits private and corporate charter schools, and a regular contributor to the OCPA. The drumbeat for private school vouchers by organizations such as EdChoice and the OCPA has been long and steady, but has increased significantly as of late because they see the 2018 Oklahoma Legislative Session as an opportunity to snag taxpayer dollars in the form of pro-voucher legislation. The pro-voucher groups utilize false implications, innuendos, and rhetoric, if not outright lies - to get their message across. They also employ professors and fellows such as Ben Scafidi to intentionally mis-analyze data and convince the public that public schools are failing, and the only answer to our failing public schools is to de-fund them. One way that Scafidi and his ilk use to dis-credit public schools is to try to turn school employee groups against one another, such as in his article Oklahoma's (missing) $8,872 teacher pay raise. Scafidi's innuendo is "because public schools spend too much money on non-teacher expenses, teachers cannot get a pay raise". He says that Oklahoma teachers would have received a pay raise, were it not for the fact that schools hired too many administrative and support personnel. He falsely implies that schools don't need counselors, librarians, school nurses, custodians, bus drivers, teacher assistants, cafeteria workers, superintendents, etc..., and could have given the "saved money" by eliminating them - to teachers. In another article, Scafidi writes "Oklahoma state law tries to hold down administrative expenses in public schools. That is a great idea in theory, but does it result in the hiring of more teachers instead of hiring other staffers? The short answer is no." The fact of the matter is schools are required by law to keep administrative expenses below 6% (for a school the size of Blanchard)of total expenditures. A couple years ago, the law was changed requiring schools to keep administrative expenditures below 6% to below 5%. It was thought this change would result in schools giving teacher pay raises, but it did not. (By the way, Blanchard schools administrative expenses are 2.05% of total expenditures). For Scafidi to say that "Oklahoma state law tries to hold down administrative expenses" misleads the public to believe that state law cannot hold down administrative costs - It clearly does. Scafidi goes on to ask ... does it result in the hiring of more teachers instead of hiring other staffers? implying that if schools just had lower administrative expenses, they could hire more teachers. Scafidi does not lie, but encourages the public to believe something that's just not true.
In another article by Scafidi, The Failure of Public Schooling in One Chart, he implies that since our public schools are failing, we may as well send our tax dollars to private and for-profit corporate charter schools. Scafidi is definitely a sharp, polished politician, but the same kind of politician who convinced the public to send federal tax dollars to "suitcase farmers" (eastern farming corporations) back in the 1930's in order to create the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. Scafidi's article could have been written by an eastern politician and entitled The Failure of Oklahoma Farming in One Chart.
I think all three questions posed at the beginning of this post can be answered now with only one word - Money. As a matter of fact, the motivating interest for all corporatists, whether Democrat or Republican, is the almighty Dollar - which may result in the death of our public schools. The rise of corporativism (corporatism) may also result in the death of conservatism in the Republican Party, as more and more Republicans continue to be "bought off" by corporate interests. So, the interest a business professor from Kennesaw University in Georgia has for Oklahoma Public Schools is not "a better education for our public school students", but the profitability of Oklahoma public schools. The "corporate suitcase farmers" of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl (eastern corporate farmers) were only interested in the profitability of our Oklahoma topsoil, just as the "corporate suitcase educators", such as Dr. Scafidi, are only interested in the profitability of Oklahoma public schools. We know what the end result of the suitcase farmers was, but still don't know what will happen as a result of suitcase educators' actions???
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