"All-star list of billionaires" vs parents and teachers with meager resources. Unfair battle indeed

[madfloridian]

There is an article up at the Education Week blog called Schools4Sale: Inquire at DOE.

It is by Diane Ravitch, the former assistant Secretary of Education to GHW Bush.

She once supported the idea of charter schools to help those who were in trouble in traditional public schools. But she has seen the idea perverted and twisted and turned on its heads since being turned into a for-profit enterprise.

Schools 4 Sale: Inquire at U.S. DOE

The Obama administration has resolved that "school reform" requires privatization of as many public schools as possible. Officials in the administration point to examples of truly excellent privately managed charter schools and imply that all privately managed schools will be equally excellent, just by being privately managed.

..."The charter concept is a promising one, but only if the charters commit to helping the kids who can't make it in regular public schools. Then they would serve an important public service. Most, however, seem to think that they are supposed to compete with public schools and drive them out of business so that privately run schools can take over a basic public function and take over public space, leaving themselves free to remove the most difficult students.

Whence comes the strong and powerful push to turn more public school students over to privately run schools? Well, let me name a few sources. First, there is Arne Duncan's Race to the Top fund, which dangles $4 billion before the states if only they are willing to open the door to more privately managed schools. Secretary of Education Duncan signaled his intention to promote the charter school "silver bullet" by hiring the CEO of the NewSchools Venture Fund as CEO of the Race to the Top. Honestly, when you put a charter school promoter in charge of $4 billion in federal funds, what else would you expect other than advocacy for privatization?

Then come the billionaires to get their share of it all.

Then come the billionaires. We already know that the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, and the Walton Foundation are all big-time supporters of privatization. See Chapter 10 in my book for the story of this convergence of agendas.

Then come even more billionaires, usually clustered around one or two overlapping groups. One such group is the aforementioned NewSchools Venture Fund. A recent article in The New York Times described a gathering of this group at a "luxury hotel in Pasadena, California." At that tony meeting, investors who started companies such as Google and Amazon mingled with executives from the Gates Foundation, McKinsey consultants, and scholars from Stanford and Harvard. Secretary Duncan spoke to the assembled throng by video from Washington and pledged "to combine 'your ideas with our dollars' from the federal government." Yes, indeed, it is a real movement, led by the richest entrepreneurs in our society.

The teachers and parents with "meager resources" simply can not beat that combination of power and money.

Ravitch once referred to this group as the Billionaire Boys' club.

Most bizarre is when the mayor and chancellor show up at charter school rallies and tell the parents that public schools are no good and that they are lucky to be in a charter. I often wonder at such times if these two have forgotten that they are responsible for the 98 percent of the city’s public school children who are in regular schools. It’s like the president of Macy’s telling his customers to shop at Wal-Mart.

She refers to Bloomberg and Klein in that statement, and yes...they really do things like that.

Of course, this course of action has the enthusiastic endorsement of the Billionaire Boys Club, that is, the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, and the Walton Foundation. They know what needs to be done, and they don't see the point of listening to such unenlightened types as parents and tea

At some point the music and the upheaval will stop. But when it does, will there still be a public school system? Or will the schools all be run by hedge fund managers, dilettantes, and EMOs?

A nearby school system is being shocked into awareness right now. They are looking to hire a new school superintendent.

The last one they interviewed told a group that teachers' salaries were just fine as they are, and that teachers are not under stress.

I hear the union leader got up in disgust, and that finally the Jeb-loving educators here are waking up. Trouble is now it is not just a Jeb thing anymore. It has become a movement supported by both parties.

And there are few resources for teachers and parents who care about public education to fight back.

[rockymountaindem]

1. Of all issues, why have they decided to dominate this one?

Like, if you had all that money, why specifically would you want to spend it on education "reform"?

[aquart]

2. To prevent children from being taught to think?

From being taught economic history? Labor history? Anything resembling the truth?

[dotymed]

27. No doubt,

just look at the Texas "textbooks" to see how bad the elitists want to change our country into serfs. It is beyond belief.

[madfloridian]

3. To control the education agenda?

Now that is real power.

[joeybee12]

5. Because to set up charter schools you need highly-paid consultants to "figure out'

what to doa nd who to hire, these people have "friends" in such businesses...it's about making a buck off your kids' education.

[madfloridian]

12. Yep. Highly paid consultants...very highly paid principals.

Some make a quarter to half a million.

[donco6]

7. Money, Money, Money.

Until recently, private business had no entry point into the billions of cash that run public schools. Well, except through competitive bidding for construction projects or the privatization of portions of the operations, like food service (Sodexho) and custodial (ServiceMaster). Now they've got a way to take the whole ball of wax and apply a 22% indirect cost to charge overhead. It's manna from heaven.

[erodriguez]

24. Because there is so much money to be made

if not for them, then for their rich friends.

[ljm2002]

4. Thank you, madfloridian, for all you do...

...to keep this issue in the forefront here at DU.

It is shameful. And even here on DU we seem to have a contingent of charter school supporters, who always pipe up with "But charters are public schools too!", while they never address the facts like the big increases in lease payments that end up going to private "charter management" companies, and the like.

K&R

[phantom power]

6. Fuck you, Diane Ravitch.

"Oh, it was a great idea when I supported it, but now it's been ruuuuuuinnnnnned."

Fuck you. Throwing our public school system under the bus was always a terrible idea. But you're going to play the "nobody could have predicted" card.

I call bullshit.

[madfloridian]

8. Actually several educators supported the original ideas about charters..

"I am a historian of education, so allow me to provide a brief overview of the origin of charter schools. Charter schools were first envisioned in 1988 by two men who didn’t know one another. Albert Shanker, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, had the idea, as did Professor Ray Budde of the University of Massachusetts.

Both of them thought that public school teachers could get permission from local authorities to open a small experimental school and then focus on the neediest students. The school would recruit students who had dropped out and who were likely to drop out. It would seek new ways to motivate the most challenging students and bring whatever lessons they learned back to public schools, to make them better able to educate these youngsters. The original vision of charter schools was that they would help strengthen public schools, not compete with them."

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/6065

At least she is speaking out. No Democratic leaders are doing so.

That is the real shame.

[Hannah Bell]

9. i tend to feel that way too. i hate to be so suspicious, but if you make it into the

upper regions of any policy area, you're just not that dumb that you can't see the implications & possible evil uses of things.

[madfloridian]

10. It's hard to believe you would be that critical of Ravitch now.

She is speaking out, one of the very few.

[Hannah Bell]

11. i'm not critical of anything she's saying now.

[tonysam]

13. And even she hasn't connected this movement with what is going on worldwide

as Lois Weiner has.

[madfloridian]

15. EdisonLearning is a major force in moving across the pond.

Edison Schools moving across the pond? International movement for businesses to run schools?

"Businesses are looking to revolutionise state education by bidding to run hundreds of schools, as politicians open the door to new education providers.

Companies want to create national chains of state schools, eclipsing the current groups of charitable academy sponsors, which tend to be small and geographically based.

Although both the Government and the Conservatives say that organisations driven by profit should not run schools, both have created a path for them to enter the sector. Governing bodies of new, or existing, schools can appoint a contractor to operate the school on their behalf — a model used widely in the US.

...."All three are almost certain to be approved, given their educational experience. After an interval, understood to be two years, they would be able to apply to become accredited schools groups — enabling them to run larger numbers of schools."


They seem to think they have succeeded so well in the US.

[Hannah Bell]

17. not the only one that's international, e.g.

Mosaica is looking for highly qualified and experienced individuals to support our worldwide educational initiatives.

People are our biggest asset: we hire and train highly qualified teachers and experienced educational leaders. These professionals keep abreast of current research-based effective teaching strategies, standards-based learning, and best practices in leadership and team building; all of which are vital to a highly effective learning community.

Please click on the link below to learn more about our current opportunities and to apply with Mosaica Education.

http://mosaicaeducation.com/careers/

Here's a classic example of the kind of corporate-driven charter chain that is neither educationally innovative nor locally controlled: the Math & Science Preparatory Academy of South Fulton. The charter schools proposal - developed by the for-profit Mosaica Education, Inc. - illustrates just how much the charter movement has evolved (err, been bastardized) by entrepreneurs, profiteers, and corporate hucksters looking to turn a buck. Local control? Nah. Teachers permitted to experiment with new teaching techniques and approaches? Nope, not here. This is all about profit, baby, and expanding the privatized version of public education....

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/04/mosaica-education-inc-and-lack-of.html

[madfloridian]

20. That's a new one to me...Mosaica.

I thought I had at least heard of most of them.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. But she quit when she saw the evil

I admire her for what she did.

[Hannah Bell]

18. took her a while to see the evil - wasn't it just this year?

she's been at the highest tiers in the system for years -- Bush 1's ed secretary -- it's not like she was too dumb or non-connected to be able to see the writing on the wall.

sorry to be suspicious of a current hero, but her conversion just seems kind of unbelievable to me.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. No it was 05 or 06, IIRC

Have you read her book? I would suggest you do so. There is a lot in it (actually most) that I think you'd agree with.

[madfloridian]

21. I ordered the book from Progressive Book Club...on back order.

It must have sold out quickly.

Still waiting.

[Hannah Bell]

28. my error, then. i thought it was this year, based on my memory of comments here.

but my memory isn't what it used to be.

thanks for the recommendation.

[Jakes Progress]

22. Had to be there.

At the time there was no indication that this was a neo-con plot. Many of the movers in the standards push were thinking that they were going to help. Many of the ideas and practices that the movement put forward would have helped. But any good idea, any practical and real programs were always scotched by the top. We had an evaluation program that would have really been useful. It was deemed too expensive and too complicated. Pencil and paper tests make more money for the corporations and that is what got put in.

Have you never been a big part of something that went wrong? How about campaigning and pushing for Obama only to have his administration enact reagan/nixon agendas? Everybody screws up. Fessing up is the honest way to go there. Ravitch is not just saying "sorry". She is working at letting people know.

[donco6]

23. While that's true, I still applaud someone who can publicly admit their error.

She seems to be trying to undo the damage. I'd rather have that than the Colin Powell stony wall of silence.

[madfloridian]

16. Can you imagine Duncan telling the rich guys to use federal govt money....

to achieve their purposes?

"Then come even more billionaires, usually clustered around one or two overlapping groups. One such group is the aforementioned NewSchools Venture Fund. A recent article in The New York Times described a gathering of this group at a "luxury hotel in Pasadena, California." At that tony meeting, investors who started companies such as Google and Amazon mingled with executives from the Gates Foundation, McKinsey consultants, and scholars from Stanford and Harvard. Secretary Duncan spoke to the assembled throng by video from Washington and pledged "to combine 'your ideas with our dollars' from the federal government." Yes, indeed, it is a real movement, led by the richest entrepreneurs in our society."

The more I read that the angrier it makes me. The rich will get richer on taxpayer money as they privatize public education.

:mad:

[erodriguez]

25. The advertisement on this page agrees with the reformers.

It just goes to show you how much money and influence they have.

[madfloridian]

26. Describe the ad.

I don't see the ads except for the few on the left hand side.

[pundaint]

29. Don't let Gates do for education what he did for software reliability!