Paul Horton, a history teacher at the University of Chicago Lab School, wrote a letter to Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), when the Senator announced his intention to retire.
Horton asked whether the senator was aware of the corporate influence on Race to the Top and the Common Core standards.
Horton told the senator that critics of these programs are not extremists:
“In fact…critics of the RTTT mandates and the CCS come from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. In the national education debate, the status quo agenda that is being pushed comes from the corporate middle of both parties that is backed by many of those who have been the biggest beneficiaries of the current economic “recovery” in Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Manhattan (and Westchester County) and large foundations.”
Horton urges Senator Harkin to call Secretary Duncan to a hearing to testify under oath and answer the following questions:
“How many of your staffers have worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? Who are they, and why did you hire them?
“What role did these staffers and Bill Gates have on the formulation of the RTTT mandates?
“How much classroom teaching experience do the principal authors of the RTTT mandates have, individually, and as a group?
“Why are these individuals qualified to make decisions about education policy?
“Were you, or anyone who works within the Department of Education in contact with any representative or lobbyist representing Pearson Education, McGraw-Hill, or InBloom before or during the writing of the RTTT mandates?
“What is the Broad Foundation? What is your connection to the Broad Foundation? What education policies does the Broad Foundation support? How do these policies support public education? How do these policies support private education? What was the role of the Broad Foundation in the creation of the RTTT mandates?
“How many individuals associated with the Broad Foundation helped author the report, “Smart Options: Investing Recovery Funds for Student Success” that was published in April of 2009 and served as a blueprint for the RTTT mandates? How many representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation assisted in writing this report? What was their role in authoring this report? How many representatives of McKinsey Consulting participated in authoring this report? What was David Coleman’s role in authoring this report?
“Do you know David Coleman? Have you ever had any conversations with David Coleman? Has anyone on your staff had any conversations with David Coleman? Did anyone within the Department of Education have any connection to any of the authors of the Common Core Standards? Did anyone in your Department have any conversations with any of the authors of the Common Core Standards as they were being written?
“Have you ever had any conversations with representatives or lobbyists who represent the Walton Family Foundation? Has anyone on your staff had any conversations with the Walton Family Foundation or lobbyists representing the Walton Family Foundation? If so, what was the substance of those conversations?
“Do you know Michelle Rhee? If so, could you describe your relationship with Michelle Rhee? Have you, or anyone working within the Department of Education, had any conversations with Students First, Rhee’s advocacy group, about the dispersal foundation funds for candidates in local and state school board elections?
“This is just a start. Public concerns about possible collusion between the Department of Education and education corporations could be addressed with a few straightforward answers to these and other questions.
“Every parent, student, and teacher in the country is concerned about the influence of corporate vendors on education policy. What is represented as an extreme movement by our Education Secretary can be more accurately described as a consumer revolt against shoddy products produced by an education vendor biopoly (Pearson and McGraw Hill). Because these two vendors have redefined the education marketplace to meet the requirements of RTTT, they both need to be required to write competitive impact statements for the Anti-Trust Division of the Department of Justice.”
This is an extraordinary letter. Please read it. Send it to your friends. Send it to everyone on your email list. tweet it. These are questions that should be answered by the Secretary, under oath, in public hearings.
American education is being radically reconstituted and centralized, with little or no democratic deliberation. The public hears bland assurances about “high standards for all,” “college and career readiness for all,” and other unproven claims and assertions about sweeping changes that have not been subject to trial or open debate or careful review.
Horton asks tough questions. The American public deserves real answers–not flowery rhetoric– about who made the decisions to reconstruct the nation’s education system, with what evidence, and for whose benefit.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So here’s a hard question, and an unpleasant one. Does this not therefore imply, that teachers who stay in the system, even if in their own minds are trying to “help” are in fact helping to perpetuate and forward this evil agenda through their continued cooperation? (I take this uncomfortable POV for a spin here: http://askingquestionsblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/i-was-reading-diane-ravitchs-blog-this.html). Does this not call for a principled walkout of Atlas Shrugged proportions?
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We are not all independently wealthy, and therefore cannot afford to just walk off our jobs; nor can we refuse to teach what our admins tell us to teach, as that is also grounds for dismissal.
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So let the dismissal come, and let your colleagues and otehr community stakeholders see where the true evil is. Worked for Gandhi.
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Fictional monsters like John Galt were anything but principled.
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He is a literary creation and therefore hyperbole personified. But don’t react to the extremest interpretation of his character, look at what he actually did. He persuaded a contingent of people who were being underappreciated, subjugated, used, vampirized, appropriated and micromanaged to the point that their efforts were in utter vain, and got them to realize that as long as they stayed in the game, in a system that they could not beat on their own, they continued to allow themselves to be used in this fashion, but by leaving the system, en masse, their defection would be a MUCH more powerful message than their continued suffering in silence ever could be, however principled they felt they were in their hearts. This is exactly the principle of striking, the difference being that in Galt’s case, the stakes were higher and the personal “cost” of the individuals’ actions, as RS McAlary points out correctly above, was much higher. But precious things are bought at a higher cost, are they not?
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I responded over @ Andrew Kings blog with:
I didn’t read it all, and you do have a point…but we have mouths to feed. I am one who gets along with EVERYONE, but was frustrated at my school essentially equiping me a with a rusty screwdriver, a cracked bucket and a brand new circular saw and being told to paint the house. I DID stand up and ask questions about our:
-ill-fitting curricula that we kept re purchasing despite teacher objections
-our school restructuring and elimintating electives
-all the extra meetings about nothing, led by unqualified folks assigning busy work, that took away from planning time.
My challenge was not met with thoughtful dialogue. It was met with a negative review (first ever) and an order of transfer to another building. My colleagues only quietly supported me behind the scenes. Out of fear, none would stand with me even though they agreed.
So in a sense, yes we are hanging ourselves. We have allowed our unions to be seperate entities to only be in contact with at contract time or to complain when the prinicpal assigned us too much lunch duty. WE are supposed to BE the union and we’re not holding ourselves accountable. We’re waiting for someone else to do it and we are dying. We let this happen and we lacked the forsight to prevent it.
I’m not suggesting we would have won a debate. But we could have at least laced up the gloves before laying down.
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I thought this was an excellent comment, and my response was as follows:
Your story sounds like mine as that of so many others. I’m thinking of collecting them all and writing book. (Actually half-seriously.)
I agree — I stop short of faulting teachers in a more unqualified fashion because what you say is true; administrators’ behavior is tantamount to extortion, and when extorted, the sage advice is just do what you’re told and don’t make the guy with the gun mad.
My ex-colleague (the one who said “I completely agree that we need to take a united stand. However, we are nowhere NEAR united, and I am currently the sole breadwinner in my family of 5. So…..I’m not going to be the one leading this foray.”) and you have valid points. There’s nobility and then there’s martyrdom, and a helluva quantum leap between the two.
You aptly described public education in this sentence: “My colleagues only quietly supported me behind the scenes. Out of fear, none would stand with me even though they agreed.” Well, okay, that’s two sentences. My point I guess, is that this act, the silence, is viewable as both evil and forgivably justifiable. Like philosophical wave-particle duality. And my absolute disgust with “either-or” thinking (see my post at http://askingquestionsblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/false-dilemma-either-or-fallacy-and.html for more on that topic) keeps me from characterizing it explicitly as one or the other.
Good comment, thanks for posting 🙂
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“[C]ritics of the RTTT mandates and the CCS come from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and the libertarian wing of the Republican Party.”
Ironically, each has different complaints, and different philosophies underlying their complaints, but you would think that such bipartisan angst would find purchase somewhere. Of course, the Progressive want a mythical utopia devoid of rigorous standards (because standards are hegemonic and unfair) and packed with alternative assessments (because standards are de facto discriminatory and cruel) all leading to the great socialist ideal of a diploma and a hug for all, whereas the Libertarians want the total abolition of the NEA, the elimination of all public schools (“government schools”) and government funding for schools, and total local/parental control.
The latter is well summed up by the ranting of noted Objectivist C. Bradley Thompson: “Just as antebellum Americans in the North had to be roused, educated, and radicalized on the evils of government-sanctioned involuntary servitude and on the need to abolish slavery, so too 21st-century Americans need to be shown the horrors of government-run, involuntary schools and persuaded to abolish them. Americans must come to see not only that the public school system is failing, but also that it cannot be reformed—because, like slavery, it is fundamentally immoral.”
Ugh… why the hell do we feel compelled to gravitate towards silly extremes in our rhetoric? (Read about my thoughts on the either-or fallacy here: http://askingquestionsblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/false-dilemma-either-or-fallacy-and.html ).
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All Federal employees names and salaries are public information. If you request the names of ED employees you could probably crowd-source a search of who worked for whom and where.
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The point of having the Senator ask Duncan isn’t to ferret out names, it’s to have public testimony of record that essentially the entire Department of Education is, to all intents and purposes, the Gates Foundation.
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The point of the having the Senator ask Duncan these questions under oath isn’t to ferret out names, but to obtain public record that the Department of Education, to all intents and purposes, is the Gates Foundation.
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@PESJA Social Media Manager and @PESJA. That what I assumed from the letter and I agree with that strategy for now. But let’s assume it doesn’t get that far or Harkin asks and Arne dances. I would argue that locating names and salaries would be a great next step and then digging around to locate those appointees who have to file financial disclosures and seeing what is in them.
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Lastly (for now), I recently found an article by Paul Riede of the Syracuse Post Standard from back in 2009 when RttT was brand spanking new, and he was looking forward to what was on the horizon…
He raises an interesting point (http://askingquestionsblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/race-to-top-and-10th-amendment-look.html)… Does not decision-making at the federal level, whether it is the imposition of NCLB/RttT/Common Core, or the elimination of NCLB/RttT/Common Core, in some way deny states their 10th amendment right to do what they feel is best?
I hate to use Texas as an example, since Rick Perry gives me the heebie-jeebies, but his recent bold stroke to eliminate something like 70% of his state’s students’ mandated testing seems a perfect example of this. (Of course, knowing Rick Perry, he’s probably doing it just to enhance his redneck ethos, rather out of any informed pedagogical sensibility, but still… LOL.)
So where does the 10th Amendment fit into all this? And the other side of the coin – is it NOT reasonable to impose some consistent standards across the board instead of letting each state do whatever the heck it wants? I mean, we are “United” states, after all…
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The root of the problem is money given to the states by the federal government for the purpose of running their education departments. Once the states got hooked on that money, and the Fed began threatening to withhold it unless certain things were done, it was checkmate.
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Andrew, Rick Perry deserves no credit for the legislation to reduce the sheer quantity of testing in Texas. There was no “stroke of a pen.” The testing burden was reduced because of the pressure brought by parents, administrators, and local school boards on the legislature. Rick Perry, who had appointed a totally inexperienced non-educator as his Commissioner of Education, was not a factor. Indeed, the previous state Commissioner, Robert Scott, gave a huge boost to the anti-testing movement when he denounced high-stakes testing in early 2012 as “the education-industrial complex” and “the heart of the vampire.” He was booted by Perry.
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Well, it cheers my heart no end to be able to not give Rick Perry credit for something 🙂 But “pressure brought by parents, administrators, and local school boards” is kind of my point… a.) That we don’t have to take all this lying down, and b.) I don’t know if it was intentional, but you did not say “teachers” when you said “pressure brought by parents, administrators, and local school boards,” and that too is one of my issues – teachers, more than anyone, have to be vocal and proactive, even mercenary.
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FYI: Perry is actually against the new legislation that reduced state tests from 15 down to 5…the bill may get vetoed or changed in special session…
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Are we entering a democracy of “pay to play?” Let’s assume for argument’s sake that the goal of the status quo corporate reformers really is to eradicate poverty, give every child a step up and a fair chance, and ensure that every child is college and career ready. When and if this were to actually happen through whatever means, would the corporate reformers then be willing to reform themselves? There is, after all, only so much money to go around. Would the 1% (or even the 10%) be willing to give up some of their wealth for those who are rising out of poverty and becoming college and career ready? Would they then be willing to pay those who serve in the restaurants they own, work at their cash registers, clean their bathrooms, work on assembly lines, work at their call centers, etc. etc., a real and living wage that lifts them out of poverty? With health care benefits and at least a matching 401? If every student were to become college and career ready, would they provide high paying jobs to each and every college graduate and trade school graduate and career ready high school graduate? And if they were willing to do this – share the wealth – as part of corporate reform, would they not be doing this very thing right now? So we go back to the primary question – what is the goal of the corporate reformers? We can rule out eradicating poverty, giving every child a step up and a fair chance, and ensuring that every child is college and career ready. There is a big difference between practice and advocating a policy and forming an organization and writing a book.
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You raise two excellent questions that will no doubt be argued in a court someday. I hope that that day is soon.
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“ensure that every child is college and career ready”
Another edudeformer phrase being used thoughtlessly!
What is the purpose of public education?* Where can you find the stated reason for public education?* I’ve never seen anything in the authorizing documents for public education about “college and career ready”.
*See your state constitution for the answers to these questions.
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Senator Harkin, I send you courage and strength to do what is right for America. Our country is crying out for common sense and integrity. Please ask these very important questions. Demand the answers and protect our children and generations to come. Education is about children, and deals made in backrooms do no belong in our classrooms.
Paul Horton, thank you for your courage in voicing the very specific questions Americans deserve to have answered. I pray your letter will be the catalyst to stop this insanity.
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I’d just like to say that this is one of the most interesting letters linked to on this blog. I feel like I should print up the list of questions provided and keep them in my pocket, just in case. Thank you, Diane.
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Let’s face it Obama is bought and sold by these people and not just in education. Look at the rest of his policies such as the financial world which directly effects education concerning the funding and lack of such through the financial mess that was purposely made just to destroy us and set up this particular situation worldwide for total domination and control of all the money. That is all this is about. Through controlling education you not only have access to the new profit center with over $700 billion in it you also get to control the minds of the next generations through controlling the schools and government. This is their obvious goal.
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Obama, president of the people or president Punahou? I guess he has a few more years to write his legacy.
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Reblogged this on The Indignant Teacher and commented:
Yes, this letter most certainly should go viral!! Pass it on…
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Reblogged this on Crazy Crawfish's Blog and commented:
Some good questions, but also a good clarification that the opposition to inBloom and CCSS is mainstream and comes from the bases of both Democrats and Republicans. The interests being represented here are a third extra-national stealth party. that pulls the strings of both, a Corporatist profit driven one.
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But also interesting is how the progressive left and the tea-party right can unite on this a few more educational issues. Truly amazing indeed.
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I urge the writer of this letter to send a similar letter to Senator Bernard Sanders who is also on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
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Excellent idea. Diane–can you also urge Paul Horton to send a similar letter to Senator Bernard Sanders?
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Saunders might be more receptive, especially if one of his constituents sends it.
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Chuck Grassley (R-IA) might be interested in opening an inquiry in the house about the tangled interests in DoEd. He questioned Duncan in 2011 about DoEd’s connections to hedge funds short sellers and their influence in setting policies. Grassley had suspicions that DoEd employees were alerting Hedge Fund short-sellers about upcoming rules on for-profit colleges.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/grassley-questions-education-agencys-ties-to-wall-street/
Something’s rotten in Duncan’s lair.
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Something’s???
Howsabout damn near everything.
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This is one of the most important blogs that has been written and aired to date!!! Thank you Paul Horton for your letter. Senator Tom Harkin is a champion of equity in education and a reasonble man wrapped in the true concerns for what most people on both sides of the isle think of the American promise. He does act on finding the Truth.
Reading the comments on the blog, which are well written and provacative, most all that come back to the same concern and straight for the heart of this crises and national shift to an ultimate new way of life for the children and future generations…it is embodied in FOLLOW THE MONEY! Root out the arrogant egocentric architects of this very well designed change and implimentation for redesigning our entire education system (and other systems as well!). Be mindful that they may only be the handmaidens to the real architects of change which are far more insidious then the first of those you find, but they will lead you to the ultimate culprits. Read Tell All The People:An education experiment in China by Pearl Buck and recognize the same names from the interview with James Yen. Then read Douglas D. Noble and Sheldon Wolin, the voices of reason who researched and wrote words of warning. Do a chaser with Eisenhower and you will have a complete picture of the then, now, and future.
A grab for the power of a nation, the minds of the children, and a global reshaping for the benefit of a few over the concerns and needs of the masses. It is the greatest scam of all time and no better then the slight of hand of the nut and shell game. However, it is not amusing and controlled by people who believe they are the omnipotent minds of our time and further believe themselves to be right and delude themselves that this is in the best of interests of all, as long as they get the ultimate benefit!!!! Shame!!!! No matter how brilliant it may be it tampers with the heart of what makes us human.
Many have been made instruments of their own destruction and worse part of something they fundamentally do not agree or wish to be part of….see how easily a nation and world can be seduced to the dark side in poor economic times (also a contrived and tampered with system of business in bed with governance). Look to history!! There is never a time or excuse for following evil destruction calling for the neglect of others. This nation was formed and adopted the people of the world, who came to follow a philosophy of equity and opportunity for ALL.
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“Above all, high-tech corporate interest in education reform expects a school system that will utilize sophisticated performance measures and standards to sort students and to provide a reliable supply of such adaptable, flexible, loyal, mindful, expendable, “trainable” workers for the 21st century. This, at bottom, underlies the corporate drive to retool education and retool human capital. “We in the personal computer industry,” notes Apple CEO John Sculley, also chair of the National Center on Education and the Economy, “are really in the behavior-changing indudstry. We have the challenge to create the tools that fundamentally are going to change the way people learn, the way they think, the way they communicate, the way they work!” such is the scope and hubris of the regime of technology in education, a legacy of military fantasy conjoined with the unbridled self-interest of corporate power.”
“The impulse to introduce technologies into education reflects not so much the use of technology in the service of education as the ongoing ursurpation of education in the service of technological enterprise.”-Douglas D. Noble
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“Mueller is not alone as a growing number of parents push back against standardized exams and question the state’s relationship with makers of those tests.
Pearson’s close connection to the state Education Department has raised eyebrows before. In late 2011, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office opened an investigation into whether Pearson or a related non-profit foundation improperly underwrote international travel for New York’s former top education official, David Steiner, months before Pearson was awarded a $32 million five-year contract to develop state tests.
Both Schneiderman’s office and Steiner declined to comment on the case.
Pearson and state Education Department officials have denied any wrongdoing. Company officials declined to answer any questions for this story and forwarded them to the state Education Department.”
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/An-exam-that-gets-an-F-from-critics-4581122.php#ixzz2VRMVExqr
Interesting side note on the subject of investigating Duncan’s connections. Horton should cc Schneiderman.
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Let’s make this one go VIRAL. This is most important post. Thank you, Diane.
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Student tells on common core test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJEGP1qWzy0
An intriguing Account of an 8th grade student who took the common core exams known as SAGE. These tests have been linked with controversy as students from around the country give accounts of unusual conditions surrounding the secretive tests; tests which neither parent nor teacher can see. These reports from students give details of anxiety, fear, disorientation, and dizziness, as well as physical symptoms like headaches, stomach aches. Many tell of students who after taking the tests become hostile towards parents and peers. Some have even become insecure; sucking their thumbs crying while cradling themselves in a fetal pose. This account is of an actual 8th grade student who describes his experience with the Common Core Sage test. visit http://www.repealthecommoncore.com for more common core info. READ IF IT’S BROKEN DON’T FIX IT available at amazon.com for everything cc
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