One of the nice things about having your own blog is that you can do things like recommend an article that appeared last November.
I recommend this article by Lee Fang that was published in The Nation.
It is a stunning piece of investigative journalism about the corporate reform movement, its leaders, its methods, its goals.
The article centers on events in Florida but the context is national.
It is a shocking story, well documented, and very important.
When I read it, I tweeted it.
It deserves to be read and widely circulated.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes, I bought that issue on paper, in fact; and so it has come to pass.
That was November. I still keep saying these things about how the truth matters more than anything else in journalism, but it’s way past 1984 out here.
So, now what?
Chemtchr,
When will your part two article come out? The education one, follow up to the Gates article…..anxiously waiting. Thank you as well for your investigations, research and writing. Please keep us informed.
I had not read this. I have forwarded to many teachers. Of all the articles out there, this is one all teachers and parents should read. Please take the time and forward to all in your town, city, district and state.
THIS is the article ALL should read.
They will destroy our public school system and it will not matter to them because they will have made their millions and it won’t affect their children. This is nothing more than greed. How sad for our country.
Excellent recommended reading.
Fang mentions that TN passed a bill that was essentially ALEC’s bill verbatim. Here’s a glimpse at the decision-making process, or lack thereof:
“Gov. Bill Haslam, who signed the bill into law in June, said last week that he’s just now learning its full impact.
‘I’m growing increasingly familiar with it. It’s something I want to understand the ramifications a lot better. I understand how (virtual education) could be very beneficial; you could offer subjects that aren’t offered other places. But I do think we have to think through the consequences a little bit more than we’ve done so far.'”
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/jul/24/virtual-school-may-drain-tax-funds/
Apparently, considering the possible ramifications of a bill is something you do only after signing it into law.
And only when the truth is told and you look like an ass…otherwise full steam ahead and the kids be damned. Profit and greed over young people and education.
> Apparently, considering the possible ramifications of a bill is something you do only after signing it into law.
Yes, retroactively is the way to do it.
I read the long article by Lee Fang noted in your blog above and highly recommend that others do the same. I hesitate to ask what I consider an intellegent question with all the madness and insanity going on in the destruction of democratic principles and education. Has anyone researched the possible harmful, physical, effects to children who spend hours on the computer? We know from research that the educatonal results are almost negative, but I believe it is essential that the physical effects be considered.
The promoters of visual learning appear to have an almost “fetish blind reverance” to the technology, or are they blinded by greed? Another concern to citizens should be the cost, both initial and long term.
This is all about creating a permanent underclass. You know the rich kids will not be in online schools. They will be in real schools taught by real teachers using real books and real curriculum. Virtual K-12 charters need to be outlawed as harmful to children, and distance K-12 learning limited only to students in rural areas or for credit recovery and implemented and overseen by local school districts.
I believe that this so-called “reform” will affect all children negatively because it is not based on a solid educational foundation.
Education is already dealing with big money;
School Lunch program cost $10.8 billion in FY10
In Illinois, school transportation costs approached $1 billion in Fy09
Putting computers in schools have cost about $20 billion during past twenty years (Disrupting Class, 2011, p. 81)
Total annual spending on education in U.S. is $800 billion
Business already controls what kids eat, how they transport kids, curriculum and computers.
The article is illuminating, although it only quotes one study about PA’s charter schools.
Part of this issue is that the wrong kids are enrolled online. Online is for students who are good students, have good organizational skills, and can self-regulate.
If you read the posts I have written about cybercharters, you will see that there have been many studies and reports about them, not just one.
They concur: cybercharters provide a poor education but continue to expand because their sponsors make campaign contributions to politicians and make millions in profits.
I am aware that you’ve written about cyber charters, The issue is that education is already big business. Additionally, there are a lot of groups on both sides of the education issue giving money to campaigns, just not business interests.
There is a difference. Teachers pay union dues out of their salaries. That is what keeps their unions afloat. There is way different from corporations taking over public schools to make a profit. Every penny of taxpayer dollars should be spent on education, not on paying dividends to investors.
That’s where it gets partisan. In many states the dues are confiscated or “fair shared” so that membership is required. So it is actually a “profit” for the teacher unions.
Back to the main point. Schools are already big business: lunch programs, bussing, textbooks, curriculum materials, computers, unions, etc.
No, I don’t think you can reasonably compare a teachers’ union with a corporation collecting millions of dollars in taxes and then pocketing the money as profit. I am not prepared to see schools turned into profit centers of corporations simply because they buy supplies from corporations. That is a truly bad idea. Next you will suggest we outsource the instruction to India–or the children. After all, we do that with everything else.
Yes, we can! (Sound familiar?)
I am not advancing outsourcing education. That’s an inappropriate stretch.
My point: Schools are already big business and profit centers: lunch programs: bussing, curriculum materials, textbooks, computers, unions, etc.
we should not be giving our public school students to for-profit corporations.
that’s different from buying pencils or computers or lunchroom supplies.
I sent an email to a friend and facetiously commented “The next thing we know, we may be sousurcing our children to China to work in the factories.” The following is her response:
“Your comment re the future outsourcing of our children may not be far off the mark” Read from 3D, page 139, a free download at http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com, by Charlotte Tompson Iserbyt.
“In the September 1976 issue of Phi Delta Kappan, “America’s Next Twenty-Five Years: Some Implications for Educaton,” Harold Shane described this version of the “new and additonal basic skills” as follows: Certainly, cross-cultural understanding and empathy have become fundamental skills, as have the skills of human relations and intercultural rapport…the arts of compromise and reconciliation, of consensus building, and of planning for interdependence becomes basic…As young people mature we must help them develop…a service ethic which is geared toward the real world…the global servant concept in which we will educate our young for planetary service and eventually for some form of world citizenship…implicit within the “global servant” concept are the moral insights that will help us live with the regulated freedom we must eventually impose upon outselves”.
That’s a laudable philosophy. Regardless of the person in control (supt or CEO), there needs to be strong and transparent accountability.
The reality is that education is being deregulated across the country. Specifically, in Illinois, legislature is talking about putting pension costs back on the districts. That’s an additional 15-20% of the budget that will go to pensions. So in the next five years, the class sizes must go up to address the reduced funding for the pension cost shift.
Additionally, the legislature has already raised the retirement age for new teachers to 67 years. That means teachers stay longer and are paid at the highest salaries for a longer period: Fewer teachers making more money.
By mid-century, those two issues alone could double class sizes. What kind of schooling is that?
In the high-performing district where I live and taught, millions have been cut from the budget, but the hardest cuts are yet to come. The state is flat funding its share of the budget, so that means yet more cuts to address ever-growing costs. The next ones will be directly in classrooms and with teachers.
The community is not ready to raise their property taxes further to support growing salaries and benefits. For districts who are in a less fortunate situation, the cuts will have draconian effects.
The current system is unsustainable. We need to think of affordable and meaningful ways to reach all our students whether its virtually, in traditional classrooms. or in modalities that are emerging.
Some of the reformers think that in a professional entourage model, a teacher can address 2-3 times as many students as she now does. While absurd, we need leadership, not partisanship, to help us land in a place that has important results for our kids; I will let the academic experts define those results.
Recognize that education is the last large economy to be deregulated. That deregulation is sweeping across the country. One can hope that it’s going to be different, but that’s not the case. In a decade, schooling will not look like it does today. Help move this forward to a good place, not in a place where a teacher works with 300 students.
You can see some of my analysis about the deregulation movement here http://wp.me/pJpvr-pe and other postings linked to it.
correct typo to read “outsourcing” first paragraph…