Can a fox be trusted to guard the henhouse? Can the guy who oversaw the Néw Orleans experiment in privatization be counted on to “improve” public schools? Does the Laura and John Arnold Foundation care about anything other than privatization and taking away defined benefit pensions from public sector workers? John Arnold was a very successful Enron trader, now a philanthropist and advocate for charter schools.
Reader Chiara contributed this development:
“HOUSTON, TX—The Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) today announced that Neerav Kingsland has joined the Foundation as a senior education fellow. Mr. Kingsland will oversee the Foundation’s efforts to improve K-12 education. Most recently, he served as the chief executive officer of New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO), a nonprofit organization working to ensure that every child in New Orleans, Louisiana, is able to attend a high-quality public school.”
This is the guy that wants to privatize all public schools, right? Glad to see the ed reform “movement” is moving towards ever-more extreme policy and practice.
Can someone who wants to eliminate public schools really “improve” public schools? If the ed reform movement attaches no value at all to schools that now exist, are they really likely to go about “improving” them with any kind of appreciation for the downside risk inherent in replacing them with the privatized model?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
FYI…Lately, you’ve been using the Spanish “e.” For instance: Néw Orleans. The problem is probably a keyboard setting.
BEST,
BMJ
BMJ, I wish I knew how to get rid of the accent over the e, but I don’t. Some have suggested I turn off the auto-correct but I find it helpful more than harmful.
There is a poignant teacher resignation letter published in the Dayton Daily News today. The editor titled it, “Teaching in Ohio has become ‘impossible’ “.
With perversity, the 0.2% claw to be feudal overlords. They steal the reward of others’ work, suppress wages, deny minimum pay, eliminate minimal economic security and undermine the, once effective, taxing that enabled the country’s citizens to dream of and achieve opportunity.
The reformers’ schools-in-a-box, sold in impoverished nations, at prices out of the reach of the country’s citizens, demonstrates wickedness, which is destined for our shores. The World Bank’s complicity, in the demise of public education, reflects oligarch hatred for human decency.
Philanthropy is the wrong word, the right word is depravity.
You have posed a rhetorical question.
Sent from my iPhone
Louisiana/New Orleans is pleased to have Mr. Kingsland gone but the rest of the nation now has to suffer under his mistaken notions that “New Schools” will fix everything. Recently attended a conference where he spoke the grand ballroom of the hotel was not big enough to contain his ego.
Wait a minute! This guy was a successful trader at Enron? Those are just the kind of credentials we want in someone to improve education in America. (sarcasm intended) Maybe he had an epiphany of some kind after that debacle. Enron remains a case book study in corporate greed gone amok.
The first two members listed for the NEA Foundation Senior Fellows Advisory Group are a person who is also a fellow at America Achieves, funded by Laura and John Arnold and the second is a trustee with Western Governor’s Institute, a degree-conferring organization, in which teaching plays no part.
With friends like the NEA, teachers are ….
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Not all charter schools are bad and not all traditional public schools are good. In fact most typical public schools are crap. They don’t differentiate very well to address each student’s different learning styles and they don’t teach moral values yet children who attend these schools are exposed to all kinds of crime and immorality. Then, we wonder why they turn out to be criminals. Charter schools give parents much more choice on how their kids will be educated without the burden of tuition of private schools. Plus, they give teachers like me the opportunity to hone my skills and grow professionally while teaching a much more manageable sized class. It’s a win-win-win-win for the children, their parents, their teachers, and the operators. What’s wrong with that?