A key long term strategy of privatization advocates is to convince people that everything is worth paying for and that more choice is always a good thing. The free market will always be better than a government monopoly.

This strategy has been fine-tuned as industries have spent decades around the world privatizing everything from electricity, transportation, security, communications, healthcare, and even water – the very source of life.

Embedded in a consumer culture with a thirst for ‘new’ and ‘efficient’ everything, people have totally bought into the idea and are willing to pay for just about anything. Now our world is drowning in goods that we don’t need and that fewer people can afford as we compete for limiting jobs with lower wages, and valuable public services are chronically starved for funds just as the people need them the most.

What’s left to privatize? The trillion dollar global industry of education has been the focus of privatization advocates since the 90’s when Milton Friedman began comparing schools to grocery stores in making a case for a school voucher system that would work like the food stamp program. The end goal is for parents and students, as the education consumers, to shop for their school of choice instead of forcing them to choose their neighbourhood school. In a competitive market, the schools that attract the most students would do well, while the schools with lower enrolment would simply go out of business.

As the public education system was founded in the early days of the industrial revolution it must continue to shift to meet the needs of the techno savvy world striving for sustainability and thirsting for new approaches to old problems. While schools need to become more fluid to deal with these challenging times, we don’t need to throw the baby out with the bath water.

With the shopping mentality taking control school districts everywhere continue to face parents demanding more and more school choice. In these tough economic times I question how much choice do we really need? And how much choice can we offer and still be able to afford to provide quality for all kids?

The next generation is going to have to survive many things we are still learning to deal with (or even acknowledge) such as rapidly rising sea levels. I work at a community pool where the water metaphors come naturally, so to prepare our kids to be strong swimmers in life I like to think about the necessary educational stages like sets of swimming lessons:

- Early childhood development stage (like Parent & tot/preschool lessons) helping kids feel comfortable in the water, helping parents feel comfortable in the water with their kids. Learning is through exploration, song and play.

- Elementary stage (like swim kids lessons) ready to be in the water themselves, focus is on building confidence by teaching them the basics and beyond like floating, kicking. The more confident and experienced they get the more you focus on finessing the strokes.

- Secondary stage (youth swim clubs and life guard training) having provided them with safe transitions into their youth they can now dive into the deep end and bravely try new things while the lifeguards are still around to mentor and prevent them from drowning.

Each of these stages provides an increasing sense of confidence and independence, a gradual broadening of community, and builds mutual respect for other swimmers around them.

Water as a human right is easy to understand – without it we die and our world would not exist.

I would argue that education is a human right as well as it provides our society with the means to share in our fountain of common knowledge, and the safe space to learn from each other’s differences. Our survival depends on busting the myth that we live in individual bubbles, and acknowledge that everything we do creates a ripple of influence in our communities and beyond.

Every child has the right to a strong start in life regardless of where they are born. This includes strong communities with quality neighbourhood schools so parents don’t feel pressured to ‘shop’ for a better ‘service provider’.

That hasn’t worked out well for people when their water was privatized.

We can achieve better when we all chip in together and focus on the common ground we share. A water filtration and sewage system we all pay for collectively is much more affordable and efficient than meeting our own needs. We agree everyone deserves safe drinking water from their tap so we make it happen.

If we invest in public education as a genuine right for all kids at the neighbourhood level, we can finally turn the tide and help the next generation prepare for any floods they may have to face in the future together.

For more information please contact kathy@educate-me.ca