Eli Broad made billions in the home mortgage business and the insurance business (AIG).
He runs a foundation that specializes in education reform, medical research, and art.
One assumes he does not tell the medical researchers what to do or the artists what to create.
If only he had the same modesty about education.
He thinks he knows what works.
School choice. Test-based accountability. Merit pay. Business-style management.
None of his favorite nostrums are supported by research or evidence.
No matter.
Now he plans to expand to generate even more “disruptive,” “entrepreneurial,” “transformational” leaders of your schools.
He boasts about listening to no one and plunging ahead.
It worked for him in the home mortgage business, though he was long gone when millions of people lost their homes.
It worked for him at AIG, but he made his billions before that giant collapsed.
Now Broad trains school leaders in his unaccredited “academy.”
They learn his principles.
His Broadies are leading districts and states.
Some are educators, some are not.
Some are admired, some are despised.
But the question remains, who elected Eli Broad to reform the nation’s schools?
He is like a spoiled rich kid in a candy shop, taking what he wants, knocking over displays, breaking jars, barking orders.
America’s public schools are not his playground. Or should not be.
How can he be held accountable?
And who will pick up the pieces when his latest fancy blows up like AIG?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It makes sense to me that sincere educators create a consortium of the top 25 colleges of education in the U.S., with an international component that can be expanded to include the top 25 colleges of education from around the world.
It is time.
Good Idea &mdash
But in a country where cash is king, can anyone create an institution that cannot be bought?
If Diane Ravitch could be President of the consortium, we could.
Yes, no one elected Broad or Gates or Walton or Koch to run the public schools. They buy power and dictate terms. Very impt to shine a bright light on these billionaire boys disrupting schools and public life, undermining democracy for their own profit. Such nefarious power-mongers despise scrutiny. They must control the narrative–how their war on schools and the public sector are represented to the general public by a collaborative corporate media. Their representation includes Waiting for Superman, Won’t Back Down, Geoffrey Canada and Michelle Rhee as saviors of poor kids, etc. This makes it impt to publish and circulate the counter-stories, ignored data, and revealing bio’s of billionaires whose vast wealth makes them suspect to avg Americans. Most people do not like or trust billionaires. Putting the names and faces of Broad, Gates, and the bankers of Dems for Ed Ref into public view will shine a bright light on the nasty truth of what is going on. To do this, keep publishing the names of heroic supt’s and bd of ed members and pub officials who stand up to Gates/Rhee testing war. Convene a conf in Chicago to honor these leaders of opposition, and to publicize the billionaire names and agendas behind the assault on public education. Teachers unions should have been doing this years ago but they refuse to rally their members and fight back except for Karen Lewis in Chicago and a few other local heads.
Maybe Karen Lewis could convene such a conference.
Can you possibly propose it to her? Such a gathering in Chicago could give Hughes national support against the Mayor. The conf is a good use of resources if it rallies and consolidates opposition locally and beyond, bringing exemplary opposition leaders onto same platform to show mounting disgust with this billionaire takeover, and to have large photos of the billionaire boys mounted prominently with text summarizing their sabotage of public ed and democratic process. B/C the teachers’ unions refuse their responsibility to consolidate such opposition, it has to be built outside their dormant organizations. If momentum builds outside the union bureaucracies, the unions will be compelled to follow and avoid being left behind. All the pub schl leaders you mention who speak up deserve recognition but also need each other to enhance their voices and provide cover, which will then encourage more to speak out.
Her name is Karen Lewis, not Hughes. Karen Hughes was George W. Bush’s closest aide from Texas
Thanks for the correction! Karen Lewis, yes, gave a wonderful Labor Day speech to teachers in Chicago.
The San Diego Weekly Reader had connected Broad to the infamous Bersin administration in about 1998 or 1999. We knew Bersin was lost and so, willing to do anything his monied masters required.
I was there. I was forced out for asking why the reform had no curriculum. The emperor was naked. Everyone saw it, but most said not a word, and some rode that wave to the top.
Check out Nellie Meyer, San Diego Unified’s top dog, often on the media scene. We started as first year teachers together at Patrick Henry High. What very different careers we have had, thanks to old Eli and his who cares if anyone really knows how to teach, bust the union and students be damned agenda.
Darkest hour is right before the dawn, right?
In a fascinating article in Vanity Fair a few years ago, Eli Broad vowed to “take over public education in the state of Delaware.” I will find the article and pass it on.
Just a note to the blogger, Eli Broad did not make part of his fortune in home mortgages. He made it in home building with Kaufman and Broad, then we went on to AIG. A number of the housing developments KB built over the years came under fire in many law suits for construction failures that left homeowners holding the bag for inherent building problems. A self prescribed “know it all”, Broad is intent on being a bully in any endeavor he partakes in. He believes his billions give him a right to push his agenda as far as he can. There have been many articles written about his “style”, notable ones being in Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.