john-taylor-gatto-weapons-of-mass-instruction

20 WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION
composition less and less local. Board seats became stepping stones
for the ambitions of politicians, insurance policies for interests which
drew their sustenance from school affairs: real estate people, textbook
publishers, materials suppliers, et al.
I remember the shock I felt the first time I discovered, quite by
accident, that I could personally negotiate larger discounts on book
purchases (or anything else) than the school district could. It didn't
seem to make sense.! The most personally troubling occasion was the
moment I decided to use my own fUnds to purchase classroom sets
of good books for student use rather than rely on the "approved" list
of books for which school fUnds could be used, and which required
many months, if not a fUll year, to pass through the acquisition protocols
and be shipped. Traveling to a book wholesaler, open to anybody,
to secure its standard 40% discount, as I stood at the cash register
with a hundred copies of Moby Dick and a hundred copies of Shakespeare's
Plays in shopping carts, the checkout clerk asked me, ':Are you
a schoolteacher" Without thinking, I nodded affirmatively, after
which she rang the books up at a 25% discount.
"You've made a mistake;' I told her. "The discount is 40%:'
"Not for schoolteachers;' she replied curtly. And when I bellowed
in angry protest, she became indignant. "Look;' she said, "that's the
discount your Board of Education negotiated. If you don't like it, take
it up with them:'
Now why on earth would my employer sell outmy right to a standard
discount Can you think of a reason that isn't crooked And, of
course, it wasn't only my right to a fUll discount the school aut~orities
had stolen, but every teacher's right in New York City. Perhaps this
1 In one instance, for example, the school board voted to buy 5,000 copies of the
Har-Brace College Handbook (a grammar/usage guide) for $11.00 a copy at the moment
it was being remaindered by the publisher's own book outlet for $1.00 a copy,
a $50,000 net difference. When this was pointed out by my wife Janet - a member
of the school board at the time who demanded a vote be taken - the balance of
the board refused to buy the cheaper copies! Many other examples could be given.
Reams of blank paper available for $1.50 a ream in bulk to anyone, were purchased
by my school district for $2.50 a ream.