Fighting Privatization of Schools

Kevin Wang

ASA 2 Section 2

Week 4

Fighting Privatization

This article, like many others, recounts the story of student activism on campuses. This particular one describes and compares the movements of the students of University of California system and the City University of New York and their opposition of the privatization of public universities. The problem of the dissociation of the systems’ higher administrators and the students has become a growing problem. Connections to the private industry are growing stronger and what used to be a public university is filled with the interests of investors.

No longer can we say with certainty that the public institution is by the people and for the people. In fact, it seems that students have more doubt than trust for the governing powers of the universities. This doubt is not without reason, however. There is heavy evidence pointing to the possible corruption of education administrators. Police, while doing their job to keep the peace, are gaining a reputation of being unnecessarily aggressive and seem to be taking one side sometimes. But the protestors aren’t perfect either. There is disorganization and sometimes no effective leadership to provide the movement with a coherent voice. Protestors are also sometimes performing actions that the police have no choice but react to, not because they are sadists, but because of the potential of violence in a large crowd of angry people. There is too much of a “us versus them” feeling these days. But while I’d love to say that we should all get along, sometimes it takes more than that. Maybe it takes a leader with friends on both sides to step up and bridge the gap. How much progress have student movements done? In what ways can progress toward a less privatized school system be measured? 

Occupy Cal General Assembly