EduShyster has done it again.
Imagine a conference on the freshest, boldest education idea of ever. Who would you want to hear from? Of course, those two ex-chancellors Rhee and Klein, who both had their chance and made no difference other than to introduce the concept of disruption to an entire school district.
And here is the idea of the year: schools should operate like law firms! Read on. Don’t laugh.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The mind boggles. It’s like education has become one long episode of Fawlty Towers. Sigh.
We should really call this how many more ways can you come up with to destroy public education. These asinine ideas just keep coming from the self-appointed elite know nothings. Lock them in a school building for a week with severely emotionally disturbed students and then let’s see what bright ideas they have IF they survive.
“The idea comes from former lawyer Rafiq Kalam Id-Din who is concerned that the nation’s law firms and financial institutions are sucking up all of the best talent.”
Wow. I could have stopped reading it there. Is that egotistical or what? He’s no different than the hedge fund people that think THEY are the smartest people in the world and so should be designing the best education for our youth. No different than Bill Gates or Eli Broad or Michelle or any of the others trying to reform education.
And next, from a former Soviet official… “Run your school system like the Siberian Gulag!
White shoe law firms really do provide the best possible client service – I should know, I’ve worked for two of them. Client service is drilled into every employee from the janitors up through the top attorneys. Whatever the client needs or wants, the client gets.
There’s only one tiny little catch to the law firm model. Only the very richest clients can afford that kind of service. The rest of us mopes, to the extent we can afford a lawyer at all, are stuck with Bob & Joe’s Law Firm and Chop Shop, LLP who probably won’t take your case in the first place and if they do, they’ll get around to it in their sweet time and if they should happen to be successful, they will take at least one-third of any payout.
I went to the Daily Beast to read about the Innovator’s Summit. It’s quite a read. Sean Parker (Napster, Facebook) came dressed as a pirate. General Stanley McChrystal, who once led the war in Afghanistan and was sacked by President Obama, explained his ideas about leadership which had to do with low grade wood and glue. Rhee whined about losing her most recent job, which brought a compassionate response from the General, who said he “knew something about that.” and then lamented that she may not have made “the best of friends” in order to lead a national agenda of reform. And to top off this Mad Hatters Party, the innovators were escorted to their seats by costumed “Mardis Gras Indians.” Either Tina Brown, Editor in Chief of Daily Beast, who put this mess together, or writer Randall Lane, who was assigned to write about it,- one or the other – is going to be gone from this online magazine when the next round of firings happens. Mardis Gras Indians indeed.
“The result is an organization comprised solely of professionals, all of whom are motivated by the incentive to perfect their craft for the sake of their clients, and ultimately themselves.”
Well, let’s see, I am a professional who does try to perfect my craft for my “clients”, which also benefits me as well. Shall I submit my billable hours to the superintendant?