[act-ma] (Sun.) 3/8 Julian Vasquez Heilig Discusses Privatizing Education at Cambridge Forum

[director at cambridgeforum.org]

Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street ● Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-2727
email: director at cambridgeforum.org
www.cambridgeforum.org

Release                                                                                                      
February 24, 2015

PRIVATIZING EDUCATION: The Health of Democracy

On Sunday, March 8, 2015  at 3:00 pm Cambridge Forum hosts internationally
known education policy expert Julian Vasquez Heilig discussing contemporary
efforts to privatize education and the ways that this movement threatens
American democracy. Middle-school teacher Suzie McGlone responds from her
experience within public education. Education of children has been viewed
as a public good from the early days of European settlement in North
America.  The Massachusetts School Law of 1642 laid out the rationale for
public education: “Forasmuch as the good education of children is of
singular behoof and benefit to any Common-wealth.” And Horace Mann, whose
19th century school reforms served as the foundation for public education
across the United States,  specifically saw public education as the key to
developing citizenship and civic virtue.  Heilig and McGlone explore how
current effort's to privatize public education square with the civic role
that public education has traditionally played?  How are today's calls for
“education reform” linked to the privatization movements?  How can
citizens respond in order both to improve public education and to
strengthen the civic and societal roles that education plays?

Julian Vasquez Heilig is currently a Professor of Educational Leadership
and Policy Studies and the Director of the Doctorate in Educational
Leadership at California State University Sacramento.  His current
research includes quantitatively and qualitatively examining how
high-stakes testing and accountability-based reforms and market reforms
impact urban minority students. He also conducts research on issues of
access, diversity, and equity in higher education.

In addition to his academic work, Heilig has held a variety of research and
practitioner positions in organizations from Boston to Beijing. These
experiences have provided formative professional perspectives to bridge
research, theory, and practice. His work has been cited by the New York
Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, USAToday, Education Week,
Huffington Post and other print and electronic media outlets. He has also
appeared on local and national radio and TV including PBS, NBC, NBCLatino,
NPR, Univision, Al Jazeera and MSNBC.

Suzie McGlone has been a middle school teacher in a number of Boston Public
Schools, including failing schools and a turn-around school. She currently
teaches at Orchard Garden K-8 School in Boston.  She received her Master's
degree from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard and has also worked
on a state-wide Massachusetts teacher training project introducing the
mandatory MCAS tests following adoption of the No Child Left Behind
legislation.

This program is funded in part by MassHumanities, which receives support
from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National
Endowment for the Humanities.

The program is free and open to the public. Cambridge Forum is recorded and
edited for public radio broadcast. Edited podcasts are available, and
select forums can also be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.    

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Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-2727
www.cambridgeforum.org