D.L. Paulson is a reader who has commented before on the entrepreneurs who are investing in privatization and disruption in public education. Here he comments again on GSV (Global Silicon Valley), a leading edge investment company in the education sector.
GSV is a syndicate of financial/investment companies. GSV Advisors is where some of the trouble lies, at least in terms of conflict of interest and self-dealing. The management team invests personally in charter schools which in turn buy the products of its other portfolio companies. GSV (Advisors or Capital, it’s not altogether clear) also supports edsurge.com, which serves as a faux-journalistic voice for this “reform” movement. And all this goes on while GSV Advisors dispenses its advice to its “sister company”, GSV Capital, which makes the big investments, including the bad ones in Coursera and Chegg. (The jury is still out on U2 and Declara.)
GSV Advisors operates in a way that probably makes its management team rich—and possibly at the expense of GSV Capital, because of the personal investments mentioned earlier. Why GSV Capital stockholders put up with this situation is baffling, because this publicly-traded company has never performed very well. It has made up for its bad decisions in the education market by smarter decisions with companies like Twitter and Dropbox. Apparently GSV’s very smart management team can’t quite grasp why its expertise in one area, growing high tech companies, doesn’t carry over to student learning. Nevertheless, its poor decisions in education substantially worsen the condition of our schools, because of all the propagandizing, “disruptive technologies”, and siphoning of taxpayer money.
You should look at this page which shows the management team for GSV Capital:
Notice anything? It’s hard to miss: no women, no color, not a hint of educational experience. Yet this small group, *unelected* and cloistered in a corporate boardroom, is making hugely important decisions about the education of our youth. Americans need to be aware of what’s happening here. We *all* need to rise up and reclaim our schools before it’s too late. And we need to understand this goes way beyond the false notions of “choice” and “student performance”. It’s not the government that’s doing something wrong here; it’s the corporations that are meddling where they don’t belong. Please, let’s not allow a 19th century-type oligopoly to destroy public education in America. It would be worse than railroads and oil; it would mean a diminished future for our children, our communities, our nation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
No women, no color, not a hint of educational experience. Yet this small group, *unelected* and cloistered in a corporate boardroom, is making hugely important decisions about the education of our youth.
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I just emailed GSV with my thoughts re their campaign. If I hear back, I’ll let you know.
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As a parent I read every article and they have served well to inform and advise. The outrage and frustration is so rampant at every level. But mostly it is evident in the faces of the children themselves. Look beyond all the clerical issues (which must be called out and smashed). The underlying tone of corruption and dysfunction is being felt by them in a way that neither they nor we can aptly put into words, but is is there and it is simply put “wrong”. This article speaks to what has to be busted and exposed. The only way to stop this is to hammer at the truth. The corporate environment is well versed in the “shell game”. But truth and integrity always prevail. I beg each and every person to just keep hammering. Talk to other parents. Challenge school administration. FIGHTBACK! This is by no means just going to go away on its own. Stay vigilant. Get the facts and speak out!!!!!!!
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I agree with you truth is beauty as the poet says, but sometimes it arrives too late. I hope the American people don’t get fooled again as with “There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.” And the consequences-thousands killed; thousands without limbs;… imagine how the USA will after the privatize rs take over.
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This reminds me of something way back in the 70’s. There was a theory that MBA’s could be effective in any biz immediately w/no prior experience in the field cuz they were so well and generally educated. It was a huge disaster. Context knowledge always matters, as does cumulative experience. So, we have these guys that share only an inflated sense of their intelligence about anything making decisions that are entirely devoid of contextual knowledge and experience. And their god is bottom line, not social justice and growth. They will fail an enormous portion of the kids they assume responsibility for – as data points vs. real, live humans. Their endless arrogance reminds me, as well, of Halberstam’s great book The Best & the Brightest.
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Good piece in the Toledo Blade on the failure of ed reform leaders to regulate Ohio charter schools:
“As the start of the school year approaches, who is cleaning up Ohio’s wretched charter school system?
Not the Republican-controlled Ohio House. Its members fled the Statehouse for summer vacation without enacting a bill approved by the GOP-majority Senate that would have strengthened the state’s notoriously lax regulation of charter schools.
Not Gov. John Kasich, despite his warning in his State of the State message last February that he would work to prohibit charter operators “from sponsoring new schools if they’re not doing their job.” Mr. Kasich is spending more time these days pursuing the Republican presidential nomination than charter school reform. Last week, he dismissed the charter controversy as “just a political thing.”
Not the Ohio Department of Education, where a top official recently admitted tossing out poor test scores for some online charter schools, thus improving the state evaluations of their sponsors on which funding decisions are based. That official, David Hansen, has quit, but state Schools Superintendent Richard Ross is slow-walking his response to what critics call a violation of state law. The department has rescinded the bogus evaluations, but has not corrected them.”
My advice to other states would be to get regulations on the front end of these privatization deals, because you will NOT get them once lawmakers are captured. The idea that you can open school after school and ask questions later- “build the plane in the air”- is incredibly reckless and a decision they will deeply regret.
There is downside risk to the Obama/Kasich version of ed reform. The silly notion that this will inevitably be win!/win! is either naive or dishonest.
Everyone involved can lose- public school students AND charter school students, which is what has happened in this state. That’s possible. It was always possible. Radical changes don’t come without downside risk.
https://www.toledoblade.com/Featured-Editorial-Home/2015/08/09/Ohio-s-charter-chaos.html
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I would also mention that while I’m relieved Ohio newspapers are finally taking a look at ed reform, they did a real disservice to readers by swallowing this whole for a decade. They should have sought out critics instead of getting quotes from the same charter promoters year after year, because there were PLENTY of warning signs. Assuming this was going to be win/win for everyone involved ignores the practical reality of the wisdom of setting up two public school systems. The effect on existing public schools wasn’t even considered in the rush to embrace ed reform. That’s not fair to public school students, and since 90% of Ohio students attend existing public schools, it is hard for me to understand how the whole system was supposed to improve without considering 90% of students. That doesn’t make any sense. It never made sense.
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Educational Disaster Capitalism
This is what happens when non-educators and anti-educators steal control of our schools and universities. Democracy cannot survive the assault for much longer.
What do you call people who sell out their country for money?
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What is concerning is that these techie brats have a lot more money than sense. They view education as a new market to exploit. The main problem is that in education the stakes are so much higher because the “market” is the future of our country. That is why decisions about education should be left to educators that understand child development, methods of teaching and how to engage learners and connect with them.
The driving force behind privatization may not be the government, but they are totally complicit. Through tax incentives and brakes the government created laws to promote the vulturism of our public services. Our own president is part of the problem as are many members of Congress that are on the corporate payrolls. While government is not the driving force, they create the climate in which privatization thrives.
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To Dr. Mike Sacken:
I would like to repeat your wisdom in “”Context knowledge always matters, as does cumulative experience””
All educational Gurus in this website are entitled to be addressed as Dr. even if they only have more than one master degree because of their wisdom and experiences.
I have expressed in the past that community, society and country are ONLY screwed up or destabilized by INTELLECTUAL, RICH, WELL EDUCATED and AUTHORIZED PEOPLE.
Most importantly, people tend to ignore the law of karma so that they blindly commit the horrendous crime = destroy civilization = destroy the joy of learning and teaching.
Have these criminals ever thought about their sufferance from the karma of their horrendous crimes? GOLD = MONEY is their only answer to their GREED REGARDLESS of the well-fare of their country and people.
I am very sure that these horrendous criminals will testify their own karma sooner or later. Life will be very long for these criminals to suffer Alzheimer, and poor physical health for what they have done horribly to population. Back2basic
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