Mercedes Schneider’s new book on corporate reform is now available.
Its title is “A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who in the Implosion of American Public Education.”
This is the description on amazon:
“”Corporate reform” is not reform at all. Instead, it is the systematic destruction of the foundational American institution of public education. The primary motivation behind this destruction is greed. Public education in America is worth almost a trillion dollars a year. Whereas American public education is a democratic institution, its destruction is being choreographed by a few wealthy, well-positioned individuals and organizations. This book investigates and exposes the handful of people and institutions that are often working together to become the driving force behind destroying the community public school.”
Gene Glass, eminent researcher at Arizona State University, posted this review:
“Schneider has exposed the corruption, greed and entangling of self-interests that underlie the attempt of the mega-corporations to grab billions of tax-payer dollars that are appropriated for America’s K-12 public schools. She puts the names and faces on the movement that Diane Ravitch documented in “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.” There are no “must reads” anymore. There are just a handful of “should reads”: “A Chronicle of Echoes” is at the head of that list.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Read the description on Amazon, but buy the book through your local bookstore. Buying locally supports your community in many ways. We know that good public schools are good for the community. So, too, is buying Mercedes’ book from your local bookstore.
Great reminder – thanks you
Another piece to the puzzle is the role that public school district administrators have played in this developing horror story.
In order to protect their 6 figure salaries and pensions, administrators (from ass’t principals up to central office folks) have learned to put the blame at the foot of the teachers. For proof, consider that teachers have all of the accountability, none of the power and little of the money whereas administrators have little accountability, all of the power and most of the money.
What about the teacher unions and tenure? First, tenure is a non sequitur in K-12 education–real tenure is available only to professors at the college level. All tenure does at the K-12 level is to give some illusion of due process. Second, the teacher have given their collective bargaining power to their union managers who in turn have colluded with district administration to keep teachers at bay and ready to have blame hung around their necks.
The private equity folks have seen this debacle and figured that the situation was ripe for the pickings–especially the pickings of 600+ billion dollars a year in publicly funds!
So, public school administrative bureaucrats–you are next and I don’t feel sorry for you in the least.
Brutus – I was one of those administrators you speak of and I understand your frustration and angst. Yes, there are some administrators who do blame teachers while taking none of the responsibility themselves – heck, I even worked under 2 superintendents who did this. But there are many administrators who do not do this, who perhaps see a bigger picture and recognize that the enemy is not within the educational system. When public education is attacked, as it certainly is now, we all need to find a way to work together and stop firing at each other. The old idea of ‘circling the wagons,’ at least as I understand it, was to protect attacks from without -not from within.
“When public education is attacked, as it certainly is now, we all need to find a way to work together and stop firing at each other. The old idea of ‘circling the wagons,’ at least as I understand it, was to protect attacks from without -not from within.”
While I understand calls for solidarity, one also has to understand that, from the perspective of this 20 year veteran teacher, the vast majority of administrators are the worst GAGAers for precisely what Brutus has stated. They have been at the forefront of demanding, hammering these educational malpractices. They are little more than thug enforcers. The very few who actually do some independent critical free thinking usually get shuttled off to some side administrative career ending job.
it is up at Oped
Quicklink: “A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who in the Implosion of American Public Education” | OpEdNews
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/A-Chronicle-of-Echoes-Wh-in-Best_Web_OpEds-America_America_American-Schools_Democratic-140430-177.html#comment486340
Wow. That puts it out there for sure.
Dr. Schneider, congratulations on the release of your book! I look forward to reading it.
With her usual precision and attention to details, Mercedes Schneider has an opportunity to do for Education what Thomas Piketty has done for a wholesale re-evaluation of capitalism.
Present the facts. Present the data. The Reformers have manipulated both so much, they live only in a fantasy world of rhetoric that is not substantiated.
Looking forward to a book that calls them to task and refutes unequivocally the fabrication they have foisted on the students of America for their own gain.
Thanks in advance, Ms. Schneider.
A bravura piece of work!
Just ordered mine!
😎
Read about the Koch brothers influence in Colorado’s Jefferson County
http://jeffcoschoolboardwatch.org/2014/05/01/americans-for-prosperity-solicits-donations-to-support-wnw-and-charter-schools-in-jeffco/
I would love to have it on CD with Dr. Schneider reading it. She has the most beautiful voice! I had the great privilege of riding along with her as we navigated the complex highways and byways in Austin, TX for the NPE Conference. She was a true leader and risk taker! I’m very excited about her book!