Caitlin Flanagan is right (Part II) | Jonathan Martin | 5 Min Read

As noted in Part I of this essay, I, like many others, including former independent school educator and parent Caitlin Flanagan, in a cover story of the Atlantic, and Fred Bartels a decade ago, believe independent schools have, as Flanagan says, “become truly obscene.”

I’m writing to call upon any and all educators within this set of schools; any, that is, who are genuinely committed to reducing the “savage inequality” of schooling in America and opposing rather than advancing the rapidly intensifying gaps between rich and poor in our nation, to commit to action to end these schools’ complicity with the grave economic injustices of our era.

I have a list of policies and commitments to suggest.  I offer my list and at the same time welcome others to add to it. I believe that before the next school year begins, a list of this kind should be consolidated and established as a kind of voluntary pledge, akin to the Billionaire’s Giving Pledge, that educators and schools can make.  In two cases, I call for a change in tax law that benefits elite private schools, a kind of legislative mandate that the schools themselves cannot…

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Jonathan Martin

Jonathan E. Martin taught at and led schools in California and Arizona from 1989 to 2012; over the past decade he has been a writer, school consultant, and professional development provider to more than a hundred schools and thousands of educators in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand. His affiliations have included EdLeader21, OECD PISA, NWEA, NAIS, Mastery Transcript Consortium, Blackbaud, Enrollment Management Association, CWRA, and Think Through Math. He is the author of Reinventing Crediting for Competency-Based Education (Routledge Press, 2020), as well as scores of e-books, special reports, and white papers over the past 10 years. He currently directs professional learning for a global not-for-profit educational organization.