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<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4em; MARGIN: 0px 0px 1em; FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: #444; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><EM><STRONG><FONT
size=3>BILL MOYERS: We're talking about big money, aren't
we?</FONT></STRONG></EM></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4em; MARGIN: 0px 0px 1em; FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: #444; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><EM><FONT
size=3>DIANE RAVITCH: Absolutely. Minimum, at least, from the estimates I've
seen it's a market of $500 billion. Now we--</FONT></EM></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4em; MARGIN: 0px 0px 1em; FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: #444; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><EM><FONT
size=3>BILL MOYERS: A year?</FONT></EM></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4em; MARGIN: 0px 0px 1em; FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: #444; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><EM><FONT
size=3>DIANE RAVITCH: Yes. An annual market of $500 billion. So the
entrepreneurs do see it as huge opportunities to make money. There are now
frequently conferences, at least annually, conferences on how to profit from the
public education industry. Now I never thought of public education as an
industry. But the entrepreneurs do see it as an industry.</FONT></EM></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4em; MARGIN: 0px 0px 1em; FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: #444; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><EM><FONT
size=3>They see it as a national marketplace for hardware, for software, for
textbook publishing, for selling whatever it is they're selling, and for
actually taking over all of the roles of running a school. This is what the
charter movement is. It's an effort to privatize public education, because
there's so much money there that enough of it can be extracted to pay off the
investors. But I think what's at stake is the future of American public
education. I'm a graduate of public schools in Houston, Texas, and I don't want
to see us lose public education. I believe it is the foundation stone, one of
the foundation stones, of our democracy. So an attack on public education is an
attack on democracy.</FONT></EM></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4em; MARGIN: 0px 0px 1em; FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: #444; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><EM><FONT
size=3>BILL MOYERS: The people behind privatization, you say they're flush with
cash. Where is it coming from? Where does this money trail
start?</FONT></EM></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4em; MARGIN: 0px 0px 1em; FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: #444; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><EM><FONT
size=3>DIANE RAVITCH: You have to understand that firstly we do have a
significant number of for-profit charter schools. They're not the majority, by
any means. But they're driving a lot of the legislative changes. There is also
the power of the federal government.</FONT></EM></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4em; MARGIN: 0px 0px 1em; FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: #444; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><EM><FONT
size=3>Our Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, put out $4.3 billion called Race
to the Top. And he said to the states, you can't be eligible for any part of
this money unless you lift your cap on charter schools. So suddenly the lure of
getting that federal money made many states change their laws to open the door
to many, many more charter schools.</FONT></EM></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4em; MARGIN: 0px 0px 1em; FONT-FAMILY: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: #444; FONT-SIZE: 14px"><FONT
size=3><EM>So that's really what driven the increase in charters. But what-- the
other thing that's driven them is that there is a tremendous political force of
very wealthy hedge-fund managers who are investing in the charter-school
industry and seeing it grow. And so they have fought for these laws. There's
also a lot of charter school money going as political contributions to
legislators in many of the states where the charters are booming.</EM> </FONT><A
style="COLOR: #2585b2; TEXT-DECORATION: underline"
href="http://billmoyers.com/episode/public-schools-for-sale/#disqus_thread"
target=_blank><STRONG><FONT size=3>Public Schools for Sale. Moyers and
Company.</FONT></STRONG></A></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>