This is a stunning article. A real journalistic achievement.
It shows in remarkable detail how certain politicians and investors and entrepreneurs are working together to privatize public education and to generate huge profits for certain companies.
Read this.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good grief, reading this was not such a great way to start my day! This excerpt is particularly outrageous:
Rather than “intellectualize ourselves into the [education reform] debate…is there a way that we can get into it at an emotional level?” Berman asked. “Emotions will stay with people longer than concepts.” He then answered his own question: “We need to hit on fear and anger. Because fear and anger stays with people longer. And how you get the fear and anger is by reframing the problem.”
Indeed, why use intellect and clear thinking when debating education? Ugh. I am put in mind of the sophists who got Socrates killed and ruined Athens.
Perhaps now is a good time to revisit Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. To refresh the minds of those of us who have not read it for a while, here is a synopsis of the plot:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451#Plot_summary
Who knew Jeb Bush was such a conniver? I thought he was the good one. Haha!
K12, Inc., has revved up its advertising in Kansas. You can’t watch tv for an hour without seeing 3 or 4 of their ads. I wrote a piece about what the ads don’t tell you ( http://www.examiner.com/article/k12-inc-advertising-misses-a-few-key-points ).
A former K12 teacher saw this and contacted me, eager to share her story and have it published. I’ve been chatting with her, and I find almost no end to the level of deceit, greed, and lack of concern for students or teachers within K12. It’s truly disgusting, and I can hardly wait to help expose it.
David, K12 has been exposed by the NY Times and the Washington Post. My forthcoming book (not quite finished) has a chapter devoted to its pursuit of profit. Diane