David Sirota, Denver journalist and talk show host, has
been trying to figure out the push for privatization. He thinks he
has it: profits. He recounts the tawdry Tony Bennett scandal, in
which he rigged school grades to protect a political donor, then
moved on to Florida, where his wife was hired by a for-profit
charter corporation that Bennett favored in Indiana. And he recites
a few more chapters and verses in the privatization story. He
concludes: You could consider that the most prolific
fundraiser in the education “reform” movement is not someone with a
stellar record of education policy success, but instead Michelle
Rhee, the former Washington, D.C., schools chief whose tenure was
defined by a massive cheating scandal. But
maybe the best way to see that profit is the motive of the
education “reform” movement is to note that no matter how many kids
they harm or how many scandals they create, Bennett, Bush, Rhee and
other privatizers continue getting jobs, continue being touted as
education “experts” and continue raising huge money for their
cause. Thanks to that dynamic, education
politics is spotlighting a fact that should be taught in every
civics class. It is a fact that contradicts the pervasive rhetoric
about meritocracy, but it is, alas, a fact: If you are backed by
enough money, you will almost always retain your status in America
— no matter how wrong you are and how many lives you
ruin.