Content uploaded by Debra Klein
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Debra Klein on Mar 21, 2023
Content may be subject to copyright.
Educational Philanthrocapitalists:
Threats to
Faculty, Students, and Democracy
Debbie Klein, Ph.D.
Professor of Anthropology, Gavilan College
Past President, FACCC
Transforming Democracy: Empowering Voices of Students & Faculty
March 19, 2023
Sacramento, CA
Why Now? Core Beliefs & Analyses
➔We’re in a battle with the academic industrial complex* for the soul of
public education.
➔Education is a human right.
➔Learning is a path to liberation. Education is freedom.
➔The corporate agenda of privatization, anti-labor, austerity &
defunding the public good is shutting out students.
➔Defunding the largest & most diverse system of higher education in
the nation is systemic racism & classism.
➔Building a campaign could reclaim & reinvent life-affirming education
& combat austerity measures.
* Profit-driven relationship between public institutions, private companies & philanthrocapitalist organizations. The AIC transforms
students into customers, administrators into CEOs, campuses into markets & colleges into degree factories. 2
* Nancy Thomas, Institute for Democracy & Higher Education, 2022
Threat to Democracy:
Erosion of the California Community Colleges
3
The community college
mission is to
democratize opportunity
& practice the work of
democracy.
Shrinking of the California Community Colleges
* Data retrieved from California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Datamart and Census.gov (3/6/23)
35% decrease in students (~ 997,565)
since 2008
6.4% increase in annual CA population since
2008
4
“Reform” Takeover
●The education “reform” movement has
been defunding & shrinking the
California Community Colleges for
decades.
●The Chancellor’s Office, BOG & CA
legislators are heavily influenced by the
“reform” agenda.
●Example | New CCC Chancellor Sonya
Christian is currently vice chair of the
Campaign for College Opportunity’s
board, having served on their board since
2017. 5
Lumina & Gates Foundations
●Lumina Foundation for Education
○Founded in 2001
○Largest foundation focused on US higher education
○Entirely funded by Student Loan Marketing
Corporation, Sallie Mae
○Funded Student Success Task Force (2012) & ACCJC
●Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
○Largest private foundation in the world
○Chief architect of Common Core, K-12 standardized
testing & online modalities creating demand for
microsoft products
○ “Gates Effect”: echo chamber of like-minded
ideas among government & foundation worlds
6
“Pay less for college”
“All students deserve
equitable access to education”
Austerity: Dominant “Reformer” Ideology
❑Shrinking CCC mission from lifelong learning, basic skills, strong
workforce & transfer to narrow form of “get in, get out” transfer,
catering to 20% of students.
❑Shrinking enrollment: prioritizing first time, full-time students.
❑Shrinking educational & course options: education is for
developing human capital/workers not growing in knowledge,
critical thinking, character & civic engagement.
7
Terminology: Disruption is not Reform
●“Reform” is a misnomer
●“Reform” groups have intentionally disrupted &
derailed public education
●Corporate disruptors (Ravitch 2020)
○Demonize faculty
○Perpetuate a system that exploits part-time faculty
○Aim to privatize public education
○Aim to lower taxes
○Aim to demolish education as a public good
○Disrupt for sake of disrupting
State Chancellor Jack Scott testifying on
SB 1456, Student Success Act (2012)
8
Corporatizing higher education is socially unjust and morally
unethical…Neoliberalism plays a major role in corporatizing higher
education. Neoliberalism is a form of global capitalism based on the
deregulation of free markets and the privatization of wealth…The basic
purpose of neoliberalism is to allow private interests to own and control
every aspect of the human, social and natural world. Things like food,
water, farmland, forests, health care, prisons, militaries, political
processes, mass media, and of course, education, are targets of neoliberal
control…While most colleges are still nonprofit institutions, their primary
function is to serve the neoliberal enterprise.
-Jason Del Gandio | “Neoliberalism and the Academic-Industrial Complex”
9
Terminology: Neoliberalism
The national “reform” agenda pushed in all fifty states equates
“student success” with the rapid completion of transfer,
degrees, and certificates...The push for full-time attendance
squeezes out students who cannot go full-time, students who
are not necessarily headed toward the corporate workforce,
and those who need and want education for other reasons,
such as lifelong learners.
-Marcy Rein, Mickey Ellinger, Vicki Legion | Free City!
10
Terminology: National “Reform”
Policy Network Driving Education “Reform”
1 3 5
642
US Department of
Education (DOE)
Think Tanks,
Advocacy Organizations &
Professional Associations
Government Officials
(eg. Gov. Jerry Brown)
Philanthrocapitalist
Foundations
American Legislative
Exchange Council
(ALEC)
Republican & Democratic
Parties & Corporate Media
* See appendix 2 | Free City! 11
SB 1440 (Padilla)
Transfer Pathway
Reform
Associate Degree for
Transfer
ADTs
SB 440(Padilla)
Student Transfer
Achievement
Reform Act
Require ADTs and
Transfer Model
Curriculum
2010/2013
SB 1456
(Lowenthal)
Seymour-Campbell
Student Success Act
Education Plans and
success metrics
2012
AB 705 (Irwin)
Matriculation:
assessment
Remedial
Education
Redesign
Vision for Success
Big Audacious
System Goals
Guided Pathways
2017
Budget Act
Student-Centered
Funding Formula
SCFF
Fully Online College
Calbright
2018
AB 927 (Medina)
Baccalaureate
Degree Program
AB 928 (Berman)
Student Transfer
Reform
Intersegmental HE
Committee,
Common GE
pathway, & Auto
placement in ADTs
AB 1111 (Berman)
Common Course
Numbering
2021
Over a Decade of Policy “Reform” from Sacramento
Budget Act
Cradle-to-Career
Data System
2019
AB 1705 (Irwin)
Equitable Placement
Place and enroll the
majority of students
directly into transfer
level English and
math.
2022
“Reform”-Influenced Philanthropist Organizations
1971 2001-2 2005 2006 2009 2010
13
Philanthrocapitalist Foundations: Decoding Their Missions
Prepare people for
informed
citizenship &
success in a global
economy
All lives have equal
value, impatient
optimists working
to reduce inequity
A California where
all low-income
workers have the
power to advance
economically
Lower student loan
default rates,
sponsor college
access & success
initiatives
14
Philanthrocapitalist Foundations: Decoding Their Missions
GRANTEE:
Benefits, supports &
enhances the missions
of the California
Community Colleges
More graduates
for a thriving
California
Expanding
opportunities in
America’s cities
Turn schools into
places that empower
& equip every student
for a lifetime of
learning, expand
access to OER
15
Foundation for California Community Colleges
❑Example
Amy Supinger,
“higher education
policy wonk” (Twitter)
❑2011–present
Student success consultant for the
Foundation
❑2012-18
CA state policy consultant for
Lumina & ED of Student Success
Task Force
❑2017
Co-author & project manager of
Vision for Success
California Community Colleges Vision for Success
16
“Reformer” Dominance
▪9 philanthropist organization
boards: 98 members
▪ CCC practitioners: 15%
▪Non-CCC practitioners: 85%
▪85% of decision makers have no
direct experience in the CCCs
“Reformer” Ideology: “Get in, Get Out” to Cut Costs
Cloaked in the Language of Success & Equity
“Reformer” Hegemony
▪“Reformer” v. practitioner
ideologies of the public good
oppose each other
▪“Reformers” have changed CCC
mission to a “get in, get out”
degree & certificate factory
17
Who gains from the shrinking of the CCCs?
➔Student loan industry
Push for full-time attendance drives students into debt
➔Education Technology
Long game is to eliminate need for faculty
➔Private and for-profit colleges and universities
For-profits cost up to x17 as much as CCCs
➔Anti-labor movement
Long game is to eliminate unions
➔Individuals who do not believe in investing in public education
18
Who loses from the shrinking of the CCCs?
The largest and most diverse student body in US higher education.
Our students become empowered to transform their lives &
participate in democracy when they are able to…
➔Access low-cost, high quality community college education.
➔Return to college to gain new skills, train for a new career, and
explore their passion.
➔Learn and interact with their community in an educational
environment.
➔Explore options as they embark on an educational path.
19
~1,800,000 students
~ 52,628 faculty
~ 27,728 classified professionals
~ 2,289 administrators
CCC Student & Practitioner Coalition
Stronger Together!
* Data retrieved from California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Datamart (3/5/23) 20
Next Steps:
Research, Organize, Strategize, Build a Campaign
❏How do we frame our story?
❏What counter-narrative will win against the “reformer” narrative of
austerity?
❏What would equity look like if we decoupled it from the drive to cut
per-student costs?
❏What are some strategies to build back the California Community
Colleges?
❏How do we influence the state budget and legislation?
❏What else?
21