Lee Fang is one of our most extraordinary investigative journalists. He is one of the few who has looked behind the rhetoric of the privatization movement that calls itself a “reform” movement. Unfortunately, the goal of “reform” is to dismantle the public sector and turn it over to entrepreneurs. In 2011, Fang wrote a blockbuster exposé about the online industry and its ties to politicians.
In this article, Lee Fang describes Ted Mitchell, who has been nominated to serve as Undersecretary of Education, the second most powerful spot in the U.S. Department of Education.
Mitchell is chief executive officer of the NewSchools Venture Fund, which promotes and funds charter schools and for-profit ventures.
Fang writes:
“As head of the NewSchools Venture Fund, Mitchell oversees investments in education technology start-ups. In July, Zynga, the creators of FarmVille, provided $1 million to Mitchell’s group to boost education gaming companies. Mitchell’s NewSchool Venture Fund also reportedly partners with Pearson, the education mega-corporation that owns a number of testing and test-book companies, along with one prominent for-profit virtual charter school, Connections Academy.
“Jeff Bryant, a senior fellow with the Campaign for America’s Future, says it seems likely that Mitichell will “advocate for more federal promotion of online learning, ‘blended’ models of instruction, ‘adaptive learning’ systems, and public-private partnerships involving education technology.”
“Mitchell did not respond to TheNation.com’s request for comment.
“His ethics disclosure form shows that he was paid $735,300 for his role at NewSchools, which is organized as a non-profit. In recent years, he has served or is currently serving as a director to New Leaders, Khan Academy, California Education Partners, Teach Channel, ConnectED, Hameetman Foundation, the Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools, Silicon Schools, Children Now, Bellwether Partners, Pivot Learning Partners, EnCorps Teacher Training Program, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the Green DOT Public Schools.
“In addition, Mitchell serves as an adviser to Salmon River Capital, a venture capital firm that specializes in education companies. Mitchell sits on the board of Parchment, an academic transcript start-up that is among Salmon River Capital’s portfolio.
“Salmon River Capital helped create one of the biggest names in for-profit secondary education, Capella University. “As a foundational investor and director, [Salmon River Capital’s] Josh Lewis made invaluable contributions to Capella’s success. From leading our landmark financing in 2000, when Capella was a $10 million business operating in a difficult environment, through a successful 2006 IPO and beyond, he proved a great partner who kept every commitment he made,” reads a statement from Steve Shank, founder of Capella.”
In sum, the fox has been put in charge of the henhouse.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
Cappella University was also involved in the student loan corruption investigations that were conducted by several state attorneys general.
What amazes me about the online for-profits in a political sense is that everyone knows they target veterans. PBS did a great series on it and there’s been ample testimony before Congress. We know there’s very little real concern in DC for the low income folks online for-profits steal from, but veterans have always had some political clout, at least RHETORICALLY politicians love to align themselves with veterans.
How can there be testimony on for-profits ripping off veterans WHILE this guy is getting hired? I know ed reformers are connected politically and have completely captured Arne Duncan, but this is ridiculous.
http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/attorney-general-cuomo-announces-agreements-two-universities
Here is what breaks my heart. President Obama knows all of this. HE KNOWS. He is a brilliant man. So – by extension – he supports this.
“He is a brilliant man.”
NO!!
He is not a “brilliant” man. He’s a toady and tool of the neoliberal establishment through and through. It’s not brilliant to do what one is told to do.
Until all realize that neither the dims nor the rethugs have anyone’s interest in mind except the 1% of the 1% nothing, absolutely nothing will change without force and violence.
Keep voting for the lesser of two evils no matter which side of the neoliberal plutocratic oligarchical coin. Won’t make a bit of difference. Any one who votes for the dims or the rethugs deserves what they get, unfortunately, the vast majority of people (you know those roughly 50% of folks that don’t vote because they can’t in good conscience vote for the supposed lesser of two evils) get hosed along the way.
He’s an idiot
He’s no Bush, however.
The deep, deep problem with all the initiatives coming out of Washington is the purveyors of these ideas have no feel for children or adolescents. When you teach in classrooms for a number of years you get a feel for what will work and what will not work — the Department of Education, beginning with Mr. Duncan say and do things that might look good on spreadsheets and Power Points, but would look awful in classrooms. You have to reread Dewey to return to a style of writing and perspective that places children at the center of the reform discussion. Even when the President and his Secretary utter the words children in their education addresses, iy always seem to be an after thought — oh, we need to put children first someplace. Having taught in the 60’s and 70’s I know there were many educational experiments that went awry, but we were always trying better ways to interest kids and engage them socially and emotionally. Now students have become data points to be aggregated/disaggregated and then programmed in someway. I am personally grateful that I started in teaching and ended in school administration in a golden age when I had the freedom to work at my craft and allow teachers to experiment with activity structures that were intellectually engaging as well as interesting.
Those purveyors have a great feel for children – their own, anyway. Obama sends his kids to Sidwell Friends. That tells me he knows what a good education is, and it isn’t about any of the things he’s forcing on public schools.
Good point — again to quote Dewey:
What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.
So why did you vote for him—twice?
the freedom to work at my craft and allow teachers to experiment with activity structures that were intellectually engaging as well as interesting.
amen to that
Love it!
I remember seeing a news clip of Obama visiting an elementary classroom. In observing how he was interacting with the students you could instantly tell that he had no clue; no “feel for children”.
I can’t fault him for this, his professional background was teh adult world. I can fault him for puttingpeople in charge of teh DOE that have “no feel for children” We are really paying the price for this faultty judgement.
Excellent post Alan. I’m afraid its going to take a long time to get the toothpaste back in the tube.
He has no empathy.
“Now students have become data points to be aggregated/disaggregated and then programmed in someway.”
In other words the powers that be are using the most innocent, the children, as a means to their (the powers that be, and that includes GAGA teachers, administrators, state education personnel, politicians and the edupreneurs) own aggrandizement/benefit.
Unethical and immoral is what it is and thoroughly disgusting. May they roast by their genitalia. And, yes, I mean that in a literal sense as that would still be being “nice” to them to allow the bastards to live.
Child molesters and abusers those folks are in the worse sense of the words, especially since they say that what they are doing is “for the children”!! Lying bastards they indeed are.
While I don’t condone the violence you preach, Duane, I do agree that the children are being abused under NCLB, RTTT, and the assessments of CCSS. I don’t suppose, however, that implies you are ready to come drink tea with me. Perhaps we tea drinkers abuse children too, in your view, by promoting various myths as fact. What was that old hippie phrased, “Drop out, turn on, and ???????” what was it? “tune in” to what? To real learning, i.e. self-directed learning.
HU,
Been a tea drinker all my life, no coffee for me, cause American woman can mess your mind**. Sittin here enjoy my first cup of the morning, decaf PG Tips. English tea store.com has some great teas. Just recently have gotten into Assam tea.
And you’re right for chastising me for my violent remarks. Really, I’m just an ol peaceful bear, but when I see violence perpetrated on innocents it tends to get my dander up. Chastisement taken!!
“. . . abuse children too, in your view, by promoting various myths as fact.”
Yes, I do believe that promoting myths (especially religious ones) as fact should be considered child abuse, just as promoting the “grading” of children as we do should be considered child abuse.
“What was that old hippie phrased, “Drop out, turn on, and ???????” what was it? “tune in” to what? To real learning, i.e. self-directed learning.”
You got it a little twisted, but the sisters don’t mind that. Perhaps in a libertarian, tea party sort of way we should partake of the magical mushroom and smoke the ol hookah and really get into some “real, self directed learning”, EH!!!
**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkqfpkTTy2w
Like you, my teaching career started in the early 70’s and I will be retiring as an administrator this year. Up until the last few years, I felt great about my work, but I can no longer implement policies I disagree adamantly about, and the writing is on the wall where this is all going. The death of the “Great American School System, is being well-documented.”
I wish it were the case, but the great American School system will muddle through in most states, though funded at low levels for a while. Too many sheeple support it.
It’s for the … money.
I am trying to break myself of the habit of commenting on blogs, but Alan C. Jones, if ever a comment epitomized the term “hitting the nail on the head,” it is yours above. Thank you.
I second that. Amen.
Dewey’s ideal, which also serves as the epigraph of Diane’s book, has a hidden implication in it, however, which Alan misses or ignores, and that is the notion that the community should pay for an elite education for every kid. To do that, however, would require a level of taxation so high that private economic activity would be depressed to the extent that the economy would not generate the funds needed. Diane does not accept that cause & effect premise. She thinks you can limit private wealth and still have people produce it. That’s straight socialist/marxist theory, but it cannot and will not work. Unless people can actually keep and pass on the fruits of their work, they won’t work. It’s just human nature, sad but true. So you can admire the ideal, as I do too, but realize that the only people who are going to get an elite education are the people whose daddies can pay for it. That doesn’t mean the rest of society shouldn’t be entitled to a common school education, with the most talented, moved on up selectively to junior high school, and then selectively to high school, and then selectively to college. That’s what Jefferson envisioned, an education system tasked with bringing to light the best minds from every strata of society, and that was what American education used to do. NO ONE in America had an elite public education, except in the truly richest suburbs (e.g. New Trier), but it was an adequate education for work in the factories of America. When American education, however, adopted marxist precepts of achieving a utopia for all of the workers, it addicted to its own rhetoric and furthermore slipped into the standard mode of corruption of public sector unions where the unions supply money and ground power to elect legislators and the legislators return the favor by voting through ruinous pension benefits, which have become, as we know, unsustainable, as in Detroit. Since public unions will never reform themselves, they have to be constricted, as in Wisconsin now, to collective bargaining for wages only, or eliminated by privatization. That kind of union corruption is what Diane and others here mean by “democracy.” It has turned out to be unsustainable here, as it has in every other corrupt government on the globe. I disagree that the AIM of the reformers is the destruction of the public school system. I think they are just incredibly misguided. But the effect of the testing system MAY be to push more and more students out of the public system into alternatives ways of getting an education. Ultimately, of course, the process for conservatives is to fund schools by universal vouchers. That’s a whole other can of worms, but it MAY come about. And basically because public school theory adopted John Dewey’s utopian premise and thus became Robin Hoods who took from the rich to feed the poor the same food the rich had. The absolute fact still is, “you can have what your daddy can pay for.” But if you don’t have a daddy, you have to take the food of charity. You can get rice and beans from the government, but you’ll never get rib eye. That was Dewey’s flaw and fallacy. To achieve what seems like a noble goal, he had to have the government collaborate on stealing citizens’ private property. That reduces to the ends justifies the means. We know better now. A bad means corrupts a good end.
Dewey believed that his ideal of schooling e.g. his lab school would be realized in all schools — at no additional cost. Having taught in the inner city, led in a middle class suburban school, and consulted in what is termed an elite school, I would support Goodlad’s appraisal of schooling in American (A Place Called School) where he found that the delivery of instruction in our country is pretty much the same whether you reside in Texas, New York, or in suburban Chicago or Sidwell, What is different is who is sitting next to you in the classroom — the prior knowledge that is being brought into the classroom and the expectation on the part of the community that your child is headed to college—in the case of Sidwell,an Ivy League College. Although there is no doubt that Dewey leaned towards a form of government that would distribute wealth better (who could argue with that considering our current state of income inequality) his books on education where focused on curriculum and instruction — how to make all schools—even the most elite—places where a child’s interests can be transformed into disciplined ways of knowing the world. Not to belabor the point, but what schools are measuring, and which schools residing on the right zip codes are good at, is crystallized intelligence — what a student brings into the classroom from their home environments. What all schools are not good at, and which all of Dewey’s books on education are written about, is the development of fluid intelligence –the ability to apply what we know to the real world problems we confront on a daily basis. Surveys of CEO’s throughout the country all agree that even students from our best universities are unable to perform in Dewey’s terminology intelligent action. Over many volumes of his work, creating curricula and a pedagogy that would generate intelligent action was impossible in schools dominated by what he the machinery of school administration. The machinery that for Dewey was so formidable to progressive approaches to curriculum and instruction is now formalized into national educational policy — common core, race to the top, no child left behind. I should add that as a Principal of a high school in a non-elite school district, I was able to develop programs and courses in my school that Dewey would be proud of and that could rival any program at Sidwell. My regret, is that I ran out of time and energy to expand these ambitious pedagogies to the entire building.
You sound like one of the good guys of American Education, but I must take issue with one of your remarks above: “Dewey leaned towards a form of government that would distribute wealth better (who could argue with that considering our current state of income inequality) . . . ” I would argue with that based on the actual economic facts.
The socialist countries of the world have GREATER income inequality than we do to begin with. The ruling elites are able to steal more the more power they have. Second, mere income inequality is a liberal red herring for the question of real buying power of wages. Inequality of income is a symptom of corrupt and stagnant government, and that increase to its current levels has occurred under Obama and because of Obama.
That you are economically misinformed doesn’t necessarily invalidate your education opinions, but your misplacement of cause and effect certainly does not give ME confidence in your notion of the obvious desirability of a change of government form to more state control.
LESS government control of the economy is the requisite for more prosperity, not the simplified solution of taxing the rich more.
Harland:
In an effort to become more economically informed, I did google the list of countries that have the most income inequality and countries that have the least economic inequality — you might take a look at the lists so we both can become more economically informed. While doing your research, take a look at the attached clip on income inequality in the United Sates — true we are not number one, but we should be there soon (take special notice of those socialists countries). Should add that central to pragmatism (Dewey’s philosophical bent) is always have your facts straight before trying to solve complex societal problems. For that reason, Dewey was always uncomfortable with ideologies, talk of socialism or communism, because their god’s eye view of the world could only result in a distortion of the facts to fit a particular political agenda.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?autoplay=1&v=QPKKQnijnsM&desktop_uri=%252Fwatch%253Fv%253DQPKKQnijnsM%2526autoplay%253D1
Harlan, I’m getting a better understanding of where you are coming from and I can tell you that it’s scaring me.
Nobody is calling for an elitist education system for all, we just want an equity in our public school system. There’s a far cry from attending a two year local program at a school like Erie Community College or a four year program at a SUNY school to a four year degree at a private school such as the University of Rochester to a four year program at the elite Notre Dame or the Ivy League Harvard. All are options, but the majority of people in the Buffalo can only consider the first two, if any at all.
But nobody says you have a “right” to a college education. The laws do say you have a right to attend school from grades one through twelve. Not private schools – but public schools, and the courts in NYS say that these schools need to be somewhat equitable. Granted, some suburban schools where the tax base is higher will have some advantages inherit in the system, but that doesn’t mean the inner city or rural schools need to be rat holes. And technically everyone has the option to apply to one of those elite top tier private schools, although they don’t necessarily have the ability and/or the funds to attend, even if accepted. We have a Nardin Academy – where the privileged go to learn and network.
Perhaps you are against Early Childhood Education. Many of us on the blog feel that exposure to some sort of education, specifically verbal development, can’t start soon enough. That’s somewhat of a luxury – in the past only people who could afford PreK took advantage of the opportunity (I know I made it a priority for all four of my children). I don’t begrudge families the free universal PreK which is now available and my main concern for Kindergarten is that the curriculum is currently off track, inappropriate, and at times harmful.
Yet, I’m getting the notion that you want to go back to the system we used back in the 1700s when Jefferson was alive. A system for the landed gentry. A system that supported slavery – where it was against the law for “Negroes” to learn to read and write. After all, too much knowledge is a dangerous thing. That’s why prior to Gutenberg, only an elite few even owned a book – the better to control the ignorant peasants.
Harlan, how far back do you want to go? Who do you want to shut out? Are you saying that the poor don’t deserve an education since they cannot afford one? Only if they are one of the chosen few? That is obviously not fair and equitable. It borders on in-humane. There’s that SF dystopian novel again.
We aren’t calling for Oprah to give each of us a car, but we do want the opportunity to take a seat inside and go along for the ride. We realize that everyone can’t or should go to Harvard, but if they are one of those brightest and best, they should have an opportunity to be educated enough to try. And the rest of us will be happy with lesser choices – as long as there are choices. Harlan, your proposal would remove any opportunity for advancement. Perhaps you are for a caste system like in India. (I’m not calling you a bigot, but in that system, the darker you are, the lower the caste.)
I do agree that there needs to be alternate means of arriving at an end result. This one size fits all crap is almost as bad as “Sorry, no room here for the likes of you. You don’t quite meet our standard for entrance.” In essence, the result is the same – some win (it looks like 30%) and too many lose. We had some excellent programs here in WNY in the BPS, even an avionics curriculum. After 99 years, that vocational school was closed – it didn’t meet the Regent’s requirements and was a labeled a failing school. (Of course, the travesty of the NYS Board of Regents ruining a top notch education program in the name of progress is the topic for a different blog.)
So Harlan – did I hear you correctly? You know, you aren’t the only one who can do a good rant. All of us here are impassioned about education. We don’t all agree, but we all care. My question is – who or what do you care about? Is it the money in your pocket or an attempt to rise above us all?
Forgive me if I have misinterpreted your intent, but your tone was not one to inspire confidence.
I will “listen” with respect, but don’t expect me to accept, the precepts of your quest, to keep those souls at rest, who aspire to the best, but can’t achieve success, so settle in their beds, and forget what’s in their heads, because you say they must, remain amongst the dust, until one day they creep, and get up on their feet. “Help us up we pray, so that we may one day, achieve a great success, and do our very best, to join the human race, and rightly take our place, that we may also be, part of humanity.” And so we lend a hand, to those within our land, and ask them all to join, we’ll gladly lend our coin, to see them grow and delve, from PreK up to 12, so we can finally be, a people who live free. (Forgive my attempts at literacy).
I like your rant Ellen, and especially the verse at the end. I advocate that every parent receive a tax funded voucher to spend at a school of their choice. The only objection I can see is that some parents will want to spend their vouchers at religious schools. That I don’t know how to handle. Perhaps each school should have to have some sort of certified curriculum. What do you think?
Harlan, I’m still sorting my feelings out about the voucher issue. I’m more for choice than vouchers. I even think that, in theory, charter schools could be a good thing. I was actually involved in the start up of a school satellite which converted to a charter. The intentions were good, some of the ideas were forward thinking, the results were somewhat disappointing. I am appalled at what the charter movement has become, not innovative experiments to foster diverse learning environments, but catapults and battering rams used as money makers for a select few.
I liked the idea of magnet schools. I think that if Erie County combined into one school district, mixing urban, rural, and suburban kids – black, white, Hispanic, refugees, immigrants – providing a multitude of school choices – local schools, magnets, (Montessori, performing arts, culinary, gifted, etc.) special programs geared towards certain career choices, vocational schools, schools specializing in dyslexia and autism, etc. – the results would be amazing. While working at Olmsted, I discovered that if a learning environment is nurtured and accepted by the student body, there is less resistance to actual learning. I’m not saying there is no disruption – we are talking kids – but not to the extent of schools which don’t have a similar climate. Students who are struggling or belligerent need to be placed in a totally different environment and provided the resources they need – one on one tutoring, counseling, a safe haven, a small setting, even help with drug or alcohol dependency – so that they can be redirected in a positive way and eventually return to their school of choice. (And this sort of problem should not limited to the inner city.) I also feel alternative tracts need to be offered to kids who can’t achieve success in the standard manner (just because you aren’t book smart, doesn’t mean you are stupid). And there should be a formal GED program for 18 year olds who don’t have enough credits to graduate so they can walk across the stage with their peers and get their diploma (or GED certificate). They shouldn’t be ostracized for not completing the normal tract. Obviously I have been thinking about this for some time. Unfortunately, the school districts are entrenched in their ways (when the state suggested the suburbs “adopt” some of the city kids into their buildings – well, let’s just say “there was no room at the inn, not even in the stable”.)
As far as religious education – when I was young I looked down on children who went to the local parochial school. It was childish, but I was a child. As an adult, having lived in two top notch school districts, I always wondered why pay the high school taxes if you planned to send your kids where you had to pay even more money. It’s an unequal system in many ways (for both sides), but in the end I have come to respect this choice. Most sincerely want their children brought up in a religious environment.
The scary parents are the ones who want to keep their children away from what they consider “riff raff” – Other colors, other cultures, other religions, other beliefs. I don’t understand, because eventually those youth will have to encounter the real world and work with the same people their parents rejected as subpar. You can’t live in a gated community forever – unless you’re the child of Bill “Gates” and company.
But the most disturbing of all, are the parents who home school their children so they can teach them a misconstrued view of the world where dinosaurs roamed free with the caveman. And their version of good and evil would make anyone with a moral sense vomit. Who knows how twisted their take on history can become and I shudder to think their choices of good literature. We won’t mention science. Sometimes this philosophy has even been used for entire “religious” schools. Those are the ones which should be questioned – more of a brainwashing than an education.
Now, I’m not casting aspersions on all parents who chose the home schooling route. I think it is a difficult process, especially for the high school years. We considered it for my son (he requested it at seven) and between our numerous combined teaching certifications we could have done it, but his view of school would have been an all day video game festival. I also, selfishly, did not want to give up my career. I feel there are numerous valid reasons to go this route, and, if done thoughtfully, getting help where needed, it could be successful. My dream of teaching is a scenario where if you were studying a subject, you could pick up and actually visit the location being discussed. WWII – visit Germany, The War of 1812 – Old Fort Niagara, Art – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Drama – Broadway, Music – Prague, Architecture -Greece, Ancient Civilizations – the Pyramids, Sports – the Olympics, Science – the Smithsonian. My own private plane, tons of money, and a curriculum – the sky would be the limit. I’d actually be doing it more for myself than my kids, but I day dream.
Finally, I don’t begrudge people who can afford to have their children attend private, upscale schools. That’s a choice too – a choice not available to all, but a choice nonetheless. I make an effort to be grateful for what I have and not envy the things in life beyond my reach. So you won’t see me calling out Obama or the others for sending their kids to a school like Sidwell. We all want what’s best for our prodigy. Again, it’s the luck of the draw.
The big picture here is this —
The global finance industry is determined to insert itself as the middle man in all investments of public funds, from public investments in public institutions like education, health, public safety, what used to be public utilities, and welfare to pensions for public service employees to anything else paid for by the taxpayers. All public monies will then be funneled through the Casinos of the world’s various Wall Streets, where the oligarchs who do nothing more valuable than turn the valves will always be guaranteed the lion’s portion of the funds that pass through the pipeline.
Quite true, Jon, as usual with your comments!!
Yes, now thtat a market based approach is making health care so “affordable”, time to remake education, so the same delivery can cost twice as much as it used to.
Obama stands to go down in educational history, like what the sham-wow did for paper towels.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/elizabeth-warren-education-department_n_4398107.html
I was glad to see Elizabeth Warren accurately characterize Duncan’s DOE as a “lapdog” for lenders and monied interests.
I’m thinking Richard Cordray may not be corrupt and may be able to advocate on behalf of students, too. He was a great attorney general at the state level. His consumer protection agency has some jurisdictional reach on student loans/rip off schemes and such. He’s a clever lawyer and I haven’t seen any evidence he’s bought off by the privatization crowd, YET 🙂
This appointment should answer any questions about whether the President is hearing us. We are apparently in a knock down, drag out with neo-liberalism for the future of our public schools.
+1
So true. People need to start realizing that this “brilliant man” is as deep into the pockets of corporate America as any Republican. For the life of me, I don’t get it.
This is a good piece on how Warren and the CFPB is stepping in to regulate and work on behalf of college students where Treasury and Duncan are supposed to, but won’t:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/elizabeth-warren-sallie-_n_3956604.html
Does anyone really believe they’re going to regulate these for-profit colleges when they’re hiring people who have made careers out of privatizing public education? I mean, really. It’s insulting. Do they not teach the concept of “conflict of interest” at the Broad Academy of Management? Ethics? Any of that?
Oh, I’m sure they teach all about conflicts of interest – that’s why they’re all so good at it.
How many Americans are aware of the fact that Obama and Duncan are doing everything in their power to end public schooling? How many would be happy about that?
If the media in the U.S. were not owned by the same guys who are using Barry and Arne as their windup toys to carry out their plan to bring an end to public education, then, of course, this would be an enormous story–perhaps the story of our time. But the MS in MSNBC is Gates, and Murdoch owns Fox, and most people get their news from one or the other, and these guys are business partners in inBloom and on the same deform team.
‘How many Americans are aware of the fact that Obama and Duncan are doing everything in their power to end public schooling? How many would be happy about that?”
I certainly can’t speak for “Americans” but I was unaware of it until it literally showed up on my doorstep in Ohio, with the defunding of my public school and the promotion of charters and private schools. That’s when I started reading Duncan and found him indistinguishable from the politicians and lobbyists who are harming my local public school.
I think a couple of things prevent it from reaching a tipping point. Education is a “state issue”, so the efforts are spread out across states and don’t easily form a clear pattern. Duncan gets virtually no pushback from Republicans (because there is no difference between Duncan’s approach and Bush’s approach) so there’s no real debate. Finally, public education advocates are in a kind of silo. You have great blogs and advocates and I’ve loved finding them, but I’ve had to FIND them because I’m not an educator.
My county has the largest public school system in the state of Alabama. I don’t think hardly anyone where I live has thought of this.
This is refreshing. An admission by a public education privatizer that the goal is to completely destroy public schools and privatize:
“The state’s decision to go all-charter in New Orleans has implications for the rest of Louisiana. Dobard said the Recovery School District would run fewer and fewer schools in Louisiana, and would either close schools or do full-school charter transformations rather than trying to gradually phase out schools, because district officials have learned that doesn’t work.
And it has implications for the rest of the country as well, because the system has become a national example. Tennessee and Michigan have created their own state takeover districts, and other states are considering it.
Michael Petrilli, executive vice president of the conservative Fordham Institute think tank, marveled at the news. “Don’t mess with success!” he said. “We will now have a full experiment” for others to learn from. “There will be important lessons — once the charter sector is the main game in town.”
Petrilli, of the Fordham Institute, said the Recovery School District has succeeded in improving education in New Orleans, and also has made important strides toward guaranteeing fairness, including equal opportunity for students in special education to choose their schools. “These leaders in New Orleans have been very thoughtful about the infrastructure you need to make this kind of a system work well,” he said.
He foresaw the same all-charter future for other school systems that are leaning heavily toward charters, including Detroit, Washington D.C. and possibly Kansas City. “New Orleans is getting there first, but I’m suspecting it won’t be the only one” in five years, Petrilli said.”
If you hire an ed reformer to run your public schools you may as well just hand them over, because they’ll be gone in 5 years.
I saw Petrilli and Company are moving into rural districts. I think it may be tougher to end public education in areas with democratically elected local boards, but my general approach will be to oppose anyone who is 1. a TFA’er or 2. a “reformer”
Obama attended the prestigious private Punahou School in Hawaii from 5th-12th grade. The public schools in Honolulu have a bad reputation, from what I’ve read. This probably inclines him to give credence to those who slander public schools.
While it is heart breaking to hear that what we have long suspected about there being a Federal push to privatize America’s schools, Obama’s appointment of Mitchell essentially tips his hand for the American public to see. Now it’s just a matter of getting word out to the slumbering masses.
Here is Ted Mitchell’s bio from Teachingchannel.org where he is on the Board of Directors:
[Ted Mitchell
President and CEO, NewSchools Venture Fund
Ted Mitchell is the President and CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, a venture philanthropy firm committed to transforming public education by supporting education entrepreneurs. Since its founding in 1999, NewSchools has raised more than $150 million and supported over 40 early stage education ventures, helping them to build high-performing organizations that serve America’s most underserved children. Prior to taking the helm at NewSchools in 2005, Ted served as President of Occidental College, Vice Chancellor and Dean of the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA, and as Professor and Chair of the Department of Education at Dartmouth College. Ted also served as the President of the California State Board of Education from 2007-2011. Ted received his BA, MA, and Ph.D from Stanford University, where he served on the Board of Trustees from 1985-1990.]
Here is the link to a NewSchools Venture Fund paper “What is Educational Entrepreneurs?” which includes their definition: “…we will define education entrepreneurs quite narrowly as a rare breed of innovator whose characteristics and activities may lead to the transformation—not merely the slight improvement—of the public education system.”
Click to access EducationalEntrepreneurship.pdf
“…a rare breed of innovator whose characteristics and activities may lead to the transformation—not merely the slight improvement—of the public education system.”
Translated, “…profit driven corporate predators whose utter ignorance of education will transform the public education system into a cash cow for the 1% at the expense of America’s children and our democracy.”
We need to get the word out. We need a “watch” list of the people who espouse support but are actually using their position to gain power and wealth.
Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
The president is not the only Democrat to turn his back on traditional progressive ideals. James Carville recently wrote an article in which he praises the privatization of education in New Orleans:
“Perhaps as remarkable an improvement as any, however, is the education system, which was one of the worst in the country pre-Katrina. According to education nonprofit Educate Now!, 91 percent of students are in charter schools, the highest in the country.
New Orleans has gone from 62 percent of students attending failing schools to just 5 percent. ACT scores and graduation rates are up and school dropout rates are down — now better than the national average.
In the words of the mayor, New Orleans has become the nation’s laboratory for innovation. And even brighter days are ahead.”
http://thehill.com/opinion/james-carville/192686-james-carville-new-orleans-americas-best-success
I never saw that coming. 😦
There really is no longer a difference between Democrats and Republicans. People need to start looking for a good third party.
(Perhaps if Dr. Ravitch can find the time in her busy schedule, she can write a quick response to Carville. This just really surprised and disappointed me.)
No wonder there is so much confusion – you get a different story everywhere you turn. The article was misleading. A high number of students are in charter schools, but it implies that they are all doing extremely well. I guess we will just have to take Carville’s word – or not.
The upshot is that we have to go by what we’ve personally experienced in our own school districts. I can’t imagine that these other states have discovered a magic bullet. A pill they want us to swallow to make us believe that their schools are now better than ever. Maybe there was pixie dust in those flood waters. Clap three times and all your educational problems have been resolved.
This is exactly the hand revealing card I have been waiting for.
Common Core is now completely in line with:
the failure of HAMP (your neighbors have lost their home but the banks are fine)
the TPP (an up and coming Obama disaster of global proportion)
Obamacare (spending 1k per minute lobbying by big insurance pays off)
No surprise to find this out, I was just watching to see if there would be any more evidence to support what I’ve been thinking. Hard not to start to think this was an unethical mess while Pearson is making money hand over fist.
Mr. President, this sums up your legacy.
Hurting the nation as you support of the illusion of money.
This is why I read this site and respect our hostess for her work. Ladies and gentlemen the reports from the front show education in this country is under attack by powerful groups. We can and must act, to do something in concert, in order to signal to everyone, especially our attackers, that we intend to peacefully, lawfully, protest against what is happening. If we act together, on a given date, and peacefully assemble in public places, conduct teach-ins in our classrooms with our students, march where we can, sit-in and stop the system if we have to, to reach out and barrow every tool and weapon from the past, only then we might be able to save American public schools.
With all due respect, siting on our computers and texting to one another will not change anything. The time has come. We need to act. We need to act now. I beg our hostess not to remove my post this time. I have seen and heard too many horror stories recently, in my our school and on this site. Our very future is at stake. We need to work together stop this trend. It is up to us, you and me, all of us who are called to teach and are called teachers, to make our case to our fellow Americans. We need to exercise our 1st Amendment rights. 2014 is a crucial year. Let’s act now while we can.
This is no sudden shift on the part of Barack Obama. He was heavily involved with the school privatization movement before he took office and has been furthering that agenda since he first entered in his first term. He’s no friend to the world of public education. “Conflict of Interest” seems to be meaningless on both the state and federal level, nowadays.
Here in New York, the “reformers” have been bullying the districts with little money and, therefore, little political clout or voice for more than a decade. But they made a mistake when they started pushing their agenda on the more affluent, successful school districts both in the urban and suburban areas. Then telling the parents that their kids aren’t as smart as they thought they were as an “explanation”. That their schools were lacking. Schools that have been consistently funneling graduates to some of the best universities in the world for decades.
I hear you. And I think we’ll be seeing more and more public protests of these policies in the new year. But I don’t think you’re giving enough credence to the power of these blogs and other social media outlets. Word of mouth is still the best advertising. I post many of the links concerning this national scandal on my Facebook page. I recently wrote that I was sorry for using the site as a pulpit, but that the lack of media coverage made me feel that it was necessary. I got some really nice replies from people, asking me to continue with the links. People tell me that they’re reading the posts, regularly. Friends are passing them on to friends. Etc.
Yes: let’s organize and make our protests visible. And let’s also use this little keyboard and screen in front of us to spread the word, too. Just as in the classroom: technology is an excellent tool. One of many at our disposal…and a very powerful one.
Over 30 Buffalo parents and teachers peacefully protested when John King came to Buffalo to broadcast his message on the local PBS channel in front of a small, previously selected audience. There would have been more, but it was in the middle of a lake effect snow storm (what some in less hardy parts of the country might call a blizzard). An equal number picketed Robert Bennett’s home (a Board of Regents member) earlier in the week to protest the implementation of CCSS and high stakes testing. The teachers union is contemplating going rogue and instituting their own lawsuit.
There are some people out there who aren’t just giving lip service. And I predict that the less the listening, the more “visible” the response.
Thank you Marianne for providing the link to the paper on educational entrepreneurship. It does seem that the planned innovative disruption of public education will be the destruction of public education.
“What is Educational Entrepreneurship?” (http://www.newschools.org/files/EducationalEntrepreneurship.pdf) shows that every aspect of these reforms and their outcomes, including disruption, are planned and intentional. I think that the “Education Entrepreneurs” view the frustration, complaints, and opposition from teachers and parents as progress.
For example, it states that “the power of these entrepreneurs in education is not only as developers of alternative sources of teachers, leaders, schools and tools, but also as change agents whose efforts spur change in the larger system. As Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen has found in his studies of business, “an organization cannot disrupt itself.” In other words, organizations charged with serving a current customer base can only “sustain” and take change so far, while new “disruptive” innovations are the ones that move industries forward by quantum leaps.
This explains why, despite the best of intentions, educators and policymakers have found it impossible to achieve better outcomes within a bureaucratic structure designed more than a
century ago.”
Are there any leaders in the Department of Education with actual K-12 classroom experience? Why are business people running our school system?
Because they can. Because business people are telling our leaders what to do because they gave them the money to get elected (and re-elected) and are promising them more goodies once they leave public office.
If I had to choose one thing to change in our country’s system of government on both the Federal and State levels, it would be Campaign Finance.
Right there with you, you are correct that would be the game changer.
It is known as crony capitalism. The American system is corrupt and does not serve the people. The USDOE serves the people who have given Obama tons on campaign money. Same story second verse out of D.C. It’s hard to believe that this is what the Democratic Party has to offer in the modern era. What a joke.
Obama put a friend who was a basketball player in charge of education in the United States. I’d say that tells us a lot about the Obama administration.
They were both involved with the school privatization movement prior to entering politics. Arne’s a basketball player who wants to dismantle our nation’s public school system. Is anyone here a lawyer? Please forgive my ignorance, but I wonder whether all of this is legal and, if not, whether we could organize a nationwide class action lawsuit.
Vouchers are a great idea.
Only there’s no reason that people without school-age children should have to pay into the educational system.
And parents should pay dedicated school taxes in proportion to the number of children they have in school.
And parents whose children are in more expensive programs should have to pay in proportion to those expenses.
So why should the government even get involved? Just have everyone pay their corporate education service providers directly.
And then we’d have no system of public education at all.
Good prescription for the destruction of a nation.
I will always be thankful to the residents of Amherst, NY for helping me provide a fine education for my kids and now my grand kids. It’s not Sidwell, but it’s as close as you can get in a public school system. In some ways, even better.
At first I thought you were serious, Jon. I know all too many people who have that same selfish, myopic vision of the “evils” of taxation in the area of education. I was glad to see the turn of your post at the end.
If anything, we should be focusing on why corporations such as Apple are allowed to shelter their earnings in order to reduce the taxes that they should be paying. They’re shirking their responsibilities and legal obligations as a corporation born and bred in the United States of America.