Miseducating for the Economy
Frann Michel hosts this rebroadcast from KPFA's Against the Grain: Better Education, Better Jobs?
We often hear how poorly educated American students are, ill prepared for 21st century tech jobs, which go to other workers in other countries. But what if more education will not lead to more highly paid skilled jobs? Educational psychologist Gerald Coles discusses how American companies are getting the workers they need, since most of the economy is based on low-paid jobs.
Gerald Coles, Miseducating for the Global Economy: How Corporate Power Damages Education and Subverts Students’ Futures (Monthly Review Press, 2018)
Trilateral Commission report on The Crisis of Democracy (1975)
Also noted on this episode:
The City of Portland is considering six new Tax Increment Finance Districts
Samuel Stein in Capital City Gentrification and the Real Estate State (2019, Verso) describes Tax Increment Financing (TIF) as a "geobribe":
"Under TIF, planners usually start by designating an area as 'blighted' --terminology borrowed directly from "urban renewal" planning. Next, the city issues bonds for new infrastructure development in the district. After making improvements to the land and raising its value tremendously, the city hands the land to a developer, who builds private commercial or residential buildings. If their property values rise, their tax revenues are 'captured' and used first to pay off bondholders, and then for renewed investment inside the TIF zone; if property values are stagnant or fall, the city is on the hook to pay back the bondholders. Risk is thus transferred from the private sector (real estate developers) to the public sector (the rest of us). When they fail, TIFs blow up budgets; when they are successful, they magnify uneven development. In such 'successes,' TIFs can generate more revenue than an entire city's municipal budget, reinforcing the disparity between gentrified and disinvested neighborhoods."
What “TIFs” Are and How They Averted the Chicago Teachers Union Strike
City of Portland doesn’t know how much money its affordable housing program saved developers by Kimberly Cortez (Street Roots, 14 Aug 2024)
Schools closing because of COVID outbreaks
Left Image: Logo, text: KBOO Community Radio Portland Oregon Old Mole Variety Hour. Image: radio tower, gear, star, lightning bolts. Colors: light blue background with dark blue, red, white, yellow image and text. Right image: cover of Gerald Coles, Miseducating for the global economy: How corporate power damages education and subverts students' futures; image of a silhouetted student sitting in a hallway, head on knees. Fair use illustration.
- KBOO