Lost in Transition: Dan McGowan's Insufferable Labor Journalism
How the Mighty Hath Fallen...
It seems like only yesterday people were acclaiming Dan McGowan as a wunderkind of progressive journalism. For a bright shining moment, it seemed as though the voices of public educators in Providence had found an advocate in the fabled Fourth Estate who had the gumption “to call balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat” (quoth Chief Justice Roberts), contra the inglorious habit of Providence Journal Editorial Page author Edward Achorn (Mrs. Achorn was rather humorously exposed by Patrick Crowley as a school privatization lobbyist in a long-lost column for RI Future).
The reality of the current shoe-leather scribe under consideration is simple domestication. Mr. McGowan’s columns show all the signs of having been authored totally in the comforts of a study at the Boston Globe whose occupant has not actually established sources, leads, and contacts besides the institutional ones gravitating around the State House, the Rhode Island Department of Education headquarters, City Hall, and the astro-turfed Koch-financed “community advocacy” groups that work hand-in-glove with the larger charter lobby.
Consider this extended conversation with Dr. Shawgi Tell of Nazareth College taking about how state takeovers of school systems actually work:
Have you ever seen McGowan rely on these kinds of sources?
This is a kind of “email in-box” journalism that I certainly am familiar with. When I was the Arts and Entertainment Editor at the Rhode Island College Anchor Newspaper, I learned rapidly how to aggregate a selection of press releases generated over the week by various campus offices and departments so as to announce the multiple shows and exhibitions opening that week. Usually on Thursday or Friday, I would pull together various print-outs and create both an Events Calendar and, if I was so inclined, a story utilizing quotations provided in the dispatches by the respective department chair, show director, or artist under consideration. One could create the impression that the campus was on the verge of an artistic renaissance simply by gathering together a week’s worth of quotations about shows in the Nazarian Center whose main audience demographic was, in reality, limited to old Italian ladies from North Providence, Silver Lake, and Smith Hill.
Of course, the problem here is simple, insofar as I was writing about poorly-rendered stagings of Chekov whilst urban core education is a far more diresome matter requiring much more serious journalistic chops.
I used to sit in coffee shops to talk with union officials and young progressives based out of the West End who were interested in magnifying the voices of the students as they advocated for things like Ethnic Studies and Counselors Not Cops. Those were emotionally-fraught days, especially in moments where push might come to shove in the impending contradiction with the state. Nonprofit community groups have their own complexities that only become amplified in such circumstances. The intransigence from the Powers-That-Be was frustrating, yes, but that was a vital part of the process.
By contrast, one would understand none of this taking place below the surface of a Dan McGowan education report.
In Rhode Island, charter schools are a somewhat complicated matter. Historically, the state has one of the lowest public school enrollment rates in the country owing to the high number of Catholic parochial schools and prep schools that were a distinct component of the labor movement’s social contract. Catholicism was the dominant religion, meaning the Bishop was a reliable ally in warding off even the whiff of left wing trade unionism (cue the Mafia and Raymond Patriarca), and it was a norm for municipal and state employees to use their hard-won union contract wages so to finance private tuition bills. In this sense, the charter industry has sought to replicate the ambience, suggesting that privatized schools can serve the same purpose of the old parish schools run by the nuns (pay no mind to the mountains of educational scholarship, perhaps including some authored by local scholars at the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College, that shows charters fail repeatedly when held up to scrutiny). Dan McGowan as a reporter fails to reflect these social complexities in his writings.
Let’s examine just one matter that is deeply pertinent, but also under-discussed, by Mr. McGowan.
Recently, Hasbro toy corporation has begun to make serious noise, promising to relocate from their longtime Rhode Island headquarters to greener pastures in neighboring Massachusetts. This is a long-standing corporate stage show in New England. Along with Connecticut, the Southern New England Tri-State area is rapidly degenerating into a protection racket, with each legislature being compelled to present the most grotesque tax breaks to these mondo-corporations in exchange for their continued residence in the state. The Chamber of Commerce in each state operates the racket and the taxpayers are intended to suffer as so to pay the shakedown. All on behalf of a production line that is simultaneously, in all likelihood, being subsidized by a Southeast Asian development bank or government tax official headquartered in China, Vietnam, or perhaps the Philippines, meaning that nation likewise has subsidized Hasbro greatly on account of this racket.
To clarify, Hasbro holds contracts with some of the most significant merchandising licensees, including Marvel, Disney, and Star Wars. They hold in their direct arsenal of intellectual properties items like Mr. Potato Head, The Transformers, GI Joe, Monopoly, Scrabble, Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, and Nerf-branded foam toys and sports equipment. The supposition that the creators of Play-Doh are hard up for luck is a striking one.
In 2016, Alan Hassenfeld, former Chairman and CEO of Hasbro, published this Editorial in the Journal, “Don’t Let RI House Hurt Charters,” wherein he wrote:
Too often in Rhode Island our government does not do enough to promote changes that will have the potential to expand opportunity and improve services for our citizens because those changes go against the status quo. As a former business leader, I’ve always thought it necessary to stick my neck out to speak out when this happens. It is happening. In January, the House of Representatives passed a bill by an overwhelming margin that would effectively end the expansion of charter schools. This bill sends the wrong message to businesses and families looking for change and opportunity. Why would we seek to prevent more students from attending schools that are doing such great work? Thankfully, the Senate has yet to bring this bill to a vote and Gov. Gina Raimondo has shown leadership by promising to veto it if it reaches her desk. The governor has also taken steps to deal with some of the financial issues traditional districts face with the expansion of charter schools by proposing a revised funding formula in this year’s budget. We need more leaders in our state to recognize the powerful impact these schools are having for the students they serve. Our leaders should be demanding more of them, not fewer.
Where the good fellow finds the audacity for such claims is rather astonishing, if we foreground the fact this individual’s major contribution to human civilization is named Optimus Prime. The man has zero training in pediatric or pedagogical developmental theory, urban geography and sociology, or education policy.
When people think of his corporate sense of civic responsibility, Rhode Islanders rapidly recall how Hasbro peppered the Ocean State with life-sized Mr. Potato Head statues, some of the most garish elements of a tourism economy run amok thanks to corporate interests who never saw a gimmick they didn’t like.
When we talk about charter schools in Rhode Island, we really mean the conversion of the Providence Public School District into a complete charter network, something that has been in the works for more than a decade. (Full Disclosure: I am a teacher in this District and union member whose opinions herein are strictly my own.)
Whether we simply chalk it up to corporate greed or we likewise recognize that the rate of declining profit for Hasbro is being further augmented by an ever-shrinking annual income in the Providence Treasury’s Office of Tax Collector, the reality is that the Hasbro business of the past several weeks suggests a serious acknowledgement of how their discussions with the Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and major legislative leaders included the high taxes linked with public education taxes.
What is the reason for these tax issues?
Besides the obvious impacts of the pandemic recession, which are still being felt locally, the crux of the issue lies with the role of the nonprofit industrial complex. After more than 35 years of driving in and out of Providence on a daily basis, I can describe in vivid detail the manner by which the private universities, the hospital/healthcare provider chains, and other agencies in the nonprofit industry have gobbled up the highest-valued real estate within the municipal limits.
In the 1980s and into the ‘90s, revitalization of the Jewelry District and 10 Davol Square was a major economic project seeking to strengthen the local economy by attracting new for-profit businesses and industrial players. 10 Davol was originally envisioned to be a fine clothing sales venue.
Now, the land is mostly occupied by either Brown or Johnson and Wales University. The business offerings are limited to restaurant and entertainment venues and it instead seems that Brown is set on the further gentrification of the Downtown.
As a result of such developments, it is becoming more difficult for City Hall and the School Department to keep the lights on in the school buildings. Supplies are limited and resources are on the decline precisely at the moment when Providence students, due in no small part to the after-effects of the pandemic, are going to require more supports in the classroom. We teach a cohort of students with one of the highest rates of childhood poverty in the Northeast and their lot is not yet improved totally after the end of the COVID nightmare. (A sentiment many teachers can likewise echo in their pleas for help in confronting personal pandemic burnout, a matter also emerging within the ranks of nursing unions.)
That might underwrite a proper comprehension of the reporter’s shortcomings. His columns on sports evince how he habituates such settings quite naturally. In fact, I would go as far as to say he might have served everyone best had he limited himself to that beat until he actually comprehended educational theory. The reality is that McGowan’s reporting treats the extremely complex nuances of public education as if he were reporting on a high school softball game. “Balls and strikes” indeed, Mr. Chief Justice.
The problem with Providence Public Schools is that simply everyone knows the current municipal tax code is unsustainable, regardless of whether you are an arch-red Bolshevik or a hardcore Ayn Rand Libertarian. The state subsidy for high-poverty students, along with the various federal block grants afforded via the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Acts, continues to diminish as the costs for students and their teachers increase.
Hasbro Corporation is playing a game of Russian Roulette with the tax man. Unless the General Assembly budges, they will head for greener pastures. Too many Rhode Islanders remember when this happened in the Jewelry District and all the major manufacturers off-shored as part of de-industrialization.
Between the Providence jewelers and the commerce stemming from the Naval base at Quonset Point in North Kingstown, the state was rapidly converted from a manufacturing to service economy, predicated especially upon food and hospitality services. The specters of those memories will underwrite the impetus used to bully local legislators into a more-favorable deal that will be directly impactful upon Providence students and the wider municipal economy.
Whether or not this can be adequately hindered is a matter of important debate and discussion. Hasbro is not wrong to recognize they carry a disproportionate level of the municipal tax burden whilst the private colleges and the Lifespan hospital chain skirt paying a red penny every year owing to their nonprofit status.
But likewise, it is incumbent upon Hasbro to recognize that this state’s economy has seen few of the rewards that should be yielded by headquartering one of the most profitable toy manufacturers in America. When a consumer purchases a Hasbro toy in California, how much of that sale’s total income ends up paying for school supplies in Providence? I imagine little to none.
What precisely does Hasbro do as an actor in the local economy now that it produces all its products in the Global South? Do people actually make things in the Providence headquarters anymore or is it a business operations hub for what amounts to a large importer vending Chinese-manufactured toys?
If it be the latter, why not recognize that the cheaper production costs per toy means an increased profit margin, which in turn would suggest that Hasbro has just a little more cash to pay the tax collector than they might suggest?
These are legitimate topics of civic discourse and debate that are directly impactful upon student outcomes. McGowan oftentimes will close his columns with pithy arguments about how “nobody cares about the students.”
Most recently, he has been reminding readers incessantly that the Federal government is no longer financing a 30-minute school day extension that was provided on an emergency basis via COVID-related funding streams, implying that someone besides the Feds should be held responsible for the City not being able to finance extra class time. Meanwhile, Superintendent Javier Montañez publicly invoiced Mayor Brett Smiley for funds owed the School Department that will be necessary to keep the lights on in the next few months.
Which is to say McGowan is not just oblivious to educational theory, he is oblivious to basic journalistic facts. He is ginning up completely bizarre notions predicated upon science fictional budgetary funding streams.
Do I as a teacher wish we had more class time?
I think any teacher with a brain in their skull can affirm that sentiment and find a few extra minutes every period by getting rid of onerous computer-based testing imposed surreptitiously by District.
These summative assessments, lacking in firm pedagogical grounding or justification given the circumstances of our student body’s particular needs, absorb weeks of class time every year and end up being little more than arbitrary tasks failing to properly engage students within their respective Zones of Proximal Development.
McGowan’s only training in public education was via a stint in City Year Rhode Island. I did 'service’ at the same agency in 2009-10, the year after McGowan, and that nonprofit has a particularly anti-union bent that is hard to disentangle from the otherwise-magnificent work they can do in a school building (among their worst habits is serving as a feeder for Teach for America, the union-busting outfit seeking to de-professionalize public school educators). After I did City Year, I made a documentary, tried my hand at freelance journalism as a career, and then became a substitute teacher in Providence. I therefore understand the inclinations towards animosity and distrust McGowan might harbor, especially around topics like the school-to-prison pipeline, but he’s likewise never spent any significant copy in a column talking to various community groups that organize the formerly-incarcerated and family members of those directly impacted by mass incarceration.
The reality is that it is fair to expect better for the coverage of this complex topic precisely because of the tremendous import it has for students.
McGowan is apt to point his finger and say others are not thinking about the kids but everyone knows it has been a long time since he talked to the students and families of Providence in a manner reflecting how their communities organize to advocate for stronger public education.
It is not for want of trying that they seek to be given this opportunity, only lack of interest on the part of the Boston Globe reporter.