The public domain, which benefits the vast majority of the population, is under attack, locally, nationally, and globally. The media and health care are controlled by a few mega-corporations, public utilities and social security are under siege, and public education is next.
Corporate privatization claims to improve efficiency and accountability.
But corporations are undemocratic institutions unaccountable to public oversight. And efficiency is often a pretext for cheapening education to maximize profit. Like all professionals, academic faculty undergo prolonged rigorous training, long probationary periods in their jobs, and thorough peer review of their performance. Unequal access is promoted by building prisons instead of schools, incarcerating youth instead of educating them. Schools are militarized with junior ROTC programs and turned into prisons with high tech surveillance equipment.