Photos: Harvey Finkle & Adrian C. Garcia
At first glance, struggles over schools in México, Canada and the U.S. seem totally separate: Mexicans protesting a national law causing funding cuts and testing of teachers; Canadians protesting an Ontario law freezing teacher salaries; Americans fighting against schools closed or turned over to charter schools. But these attacks all serve a relentless campaign by global capital to privatize public education.
That will be the core message when the Trinational Coalition to Defend Public Education brings activists from these countries together in Chicago, May 9 to 11, hosted by the Chicago Teachers Union. The Trinational was formed when NAFTA became law in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. in 1994, the first broad treaty making public education a commodity for trading on the stock market. This step began the open transformation of public education from a right for all into a form of corporate property.
Education companies can’t maximize profits as long as education is considered to be a social right, equal and available for all, and provided by government taxes. Something had to change to make education tradable and profitable. The way to do that was to privatize it, which NAFTA helped do. Private profit began to trump the rights of people, and the Trinational was born to meet the challenge.
