A reader in Boise sends the following comment about the trial of Khan Academy videos, funded by the Albertson Foundation:
From the article linked in Diane’s post:
“The statewide pilot received $1.5 million for training, technology, technical assistance and assessment from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation.”
The Albertson Foundation has given over $500 million to Idaho schools over the years, but for the past few years its efforts have been devoted to promoting some of the worst initiatives and legislation ever to don the mantle of “education reform,” most notably in the run-up to the November 2012 elections. Throughout 2012 the Foundation published monthly full-color, multipage supplements in all the major print media in Idaho, touting the benefits of reform efforts, documenting the so-called “failure” of Idaho schools, and casting a suspicious eye upon the teachers union, the Idaho Education Association. (Idaho is a right-to-work state.) Joe Scott, an early investor in K12, Inc., heir to the Albertson fortune, and the current chair of the Foundation’s board of directors donated $200,000 to Idaho Voters for Education in an attempt to save the Luna Laws from repeal. Idaho Voters for Education presented itself as the “voice of Idaho parents,” but after a lawsuit filed by the Idaho Secretary of State forced it to reveal its donors, turned out to be a group of fewer than two dozen hedge-fund manager, venture capitalists, and billionaire social engineers, including NYC Mayor Bloomberg, who donated $250,000.
They threw their money away; the Luna Laws were repealed by large margins at the polls. Diane has written about them here before:
“The Luna Laws imposed a mandate for online courses for high school graduates (a favorite of candidates funded by technology companies), made test scores the measure of teacher quality, provided bonuses for teachers whose students got higher scores, removed all teacher rights, eliminated anything resembling tenure or seniority, turned teachers into at-will employees, and squashed the teachers’ unions.”
To get out the reformers’ message, the Albertson Foundation created the ED SESSIONS, monthly talks by “national thought leaders on education reform,” now in its second year. The Foundation isn’t particularly interested in thought leader opposed to market-driven, for-profit education reform; past speakers include Salman Khan, Sir Ken Robinson, Marguerite Roza, Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform, and Andy Smarick of Bellwether Education Partners. Coming up, Kristoffer Haines, VP at Rocketship Education and Rick Ogston, founder of Arizona charter school Carpe Diem, to talk about “no-excuse schools.” In addition, the foundation recently launched a web site and radio/tv ads to promote its initiative “Don’t Fail Idaho,” the latest of the Foundation’s many efforts to dominate the conversation about school reform under the guise of fostering and promoting discussion. In short, the Albertson Foundation is anti-union, pro-charter, and apparently determined to spend a metric boatload of money to get its way.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Quick question for Diane and the new organization- I’ve seen Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talks (all three) and they appear to be fulling positioned against high stakes testing and the narrowing of curriculum (and messages of failure) that result from their use. Has he had other print or media presentations suggesting he is in favor of corporate reformers and/or privatization?
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Robinson is a more complex and nuanced speaker. He’s among a relatively small number of people who “both sides” can legitimately claim is understanding and promulgating their point of view.
However, every speaker understands beforehand who they’ll be speaking to, and so, for any given appearance they’ll place their emphasis where it seems most appropriate.
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Of course Tom Luna would support online education. He dropped out of Ricks College (1981) and Boise State University but needed a college degree to run for Idaho superintendent. So he got his degree from Thomas Edison State University in 2002.
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Like Sandy Brehl, above, I’ve heard nothing from Sir Ken Robinson that makes me think he wants to privatize schools and LOTS that makes me think he is opposed to standardized testing… and to the best of my knowledge Salman Khan has not sold out to corporate America… my hunch is that Albertson invited them to give themselves cover…
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They are just another part of the “Old Boy’s Network.” They work in concert worldwide on their mission of total domination of all sectors and education is a mandatory sector to take over in their “Grand Vision.”
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Sal Khan is a friend of Bill Gates , and” Bill and friends” have supported him and encouraged his work.
Bill’s own children missed school a lot while traveling and Sal Khan’s lessons were used to keep them up with their classes.
Reading about that in Newsweek introduced me to Sal’s Math lessons, which I used for refresher exercises to keep up with my grandchildren. ( Didn’t work out too well…keeping up that is.) 🙂
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Why shouldn’t teachers be at will employees? Everyone else is.
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That’s a sociopathic view, Harlan. And it’s completely inaccurate; corporate executives are frequently under contract, as are athletes, actors, musicians and writers, just to name a few.
Charter “school” managers almost always sign contracts, with salary and benefits that almost always pay 2 or 3 times what the highest paid school district employee makes after 20+ years of service. (Like the husband and wife team in Florida that made $2 million in 3 years—all legal, under contract—including a classic “Golden Parachute” for $500K on her way out…
All for a charter that was so abysmal, it couldn’t even jump the very low bar set by Jeb Bush in Florida!
So much for the virtues of “at will” employment.
And while you’re at it, you should speak with a few of my friends and family who have personally experienced the “benefits” of “at WHIM” employment. They include people who helped to take a startup and make it immensely profitable in just a few years; gone.
People who were there every time there was a crisis on the weekend or in the late evening. People whose marriages and family relationships were severely damaged or destroyed by their constant travel and long hours.
Their “reward”: they were shown the door at 47 or 54 or 58, just in time for a Perfect Storm of medical issues, financial meltdown and family dissolution.
Why? In every single case the company was profitable. Every one. It was just “time to shake things up around here” as one smirking, newly appointed 33 year old said to me.
Ha ha. So much for all the time and work and sacrifice. That’s why the word “sociopathic” is so very appropriate for this.
Your hatred for teachers, their representatives, and our public schools really does drip right off the page, Harlan. It’s pretty obvious from your comments.
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The short answer Harlan goes back to the progressive movement a hundred years ago and civil service reforms, before which teachers and civil servants were At-Will-Employees. Experience showed that when civil service employees had no job protections, they were at the mercy of patronage, political purposes, and general discrimination by office holders and political parties. Since civil servants are paid for by the public purse, civil service job protections were established to protect against the political parties in power using the civil service for its own purposes. After all, when you go to the post office, you don’t want the postal clerk to ask you which political party you are voting for before mailing your package, or if you are a teacher to be asked to donate money to the political party in power if you intend to keep your job. Thus, today you can’t fire a civil servant unless a just cause if given and proved, and teachers come under that protection as civil servants.
There is a longer answer also, since it’s a poor answer that says the way things are (at will employment for private workers) should be the way things should remain for everyone else. If we simply did what everyone else did, there would be no progress in history and nothing would have changed socially from 5000 years ago. The point of a good society is to live well and not just make a society richer. Although studies show that more money does make people happier in general, studies also show that happiness in the US has not increased in the last fifty years despite economic growth. So we may want to ask what social policies will make people happier if we are not getting any benefit for the increased economic growth. But this is a longer question.
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The teaching profession has already been there and done that, Harlan. We are not going back to pre-union times.
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Harlan, it has something to do with academic freedom. Without job security, there will be large sections of this nation where evolution is never discussed, nor global warming, nor anything that any member of the community might object to. I suggest you read my book “The Language Police.” You would find it enlightening.
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The same would be true if we really had local control.
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Charter CEOs are not “at will”. They are dictators who can’t be removed from power. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Shouldn’t the taxpayer who they are getting rich from get to remove them from power? You seem to like “at will” teachers but not charter CEOs and their families. Yes. It is true. Look no further than your own state.
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Go ask your local firefighter’s union or police union.
What’s that? You say it never occurred to you to complain about their contracted employment status?
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Search the web..Look at the tests..Incredibly unreal…UN-real-applications in every case!!
Some states..took one book and half of another..interpreted the standards from the book….posted them on their website….gave the teachers no books….and expect them to run by the thousands…copies and copies and copies and copies of material. on old broken down old machines gave teachers no supplies to go with the standards..UNBELIEVABLE!!!
THE RTTT MONIES ARE IN THE POCKETS OF A FEW IN THE TESTING HIERARCHY AND WILL BE IN THE POCKETS OF THE BOOK PUBLISHERS FROM WHICH THEY TOOK EVERY WORD….WORD FOR WORD….
IF YOU RAN A COMPANY THE WAY THE STATES ARE RUNNING THIS TESTING PYRAMID…YOU WOULD GO BANKRUPT YESTERDAY!!!
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The entire “hedge fund billionaire” reform movement in education is predicated upon the premise that social pathology is an impediment to achievement in traditional public schools but not in privatized public schools. Ironically, this argument is pursued by the same profit driven corporate interests largely responsible for the social pathology that exists in the schools they wish to reform. The evil genius of the scheme is that profits will be private while the investment will remain public.
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It’s just an old time con game. Nothing more. The saddest part is that Obama and dept of ed. went along with it all. It is merely exploiting the poorest children in the US.
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