Steve Cohen, educator from Long Island, writes:
“One of our favorite quotes: Einstein: Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.
“That which counts that cannot be counted is the historical process by which young human beings act to shape their own potential. Genuine teaching is the task of guiding these young people to complete this fundamental task of becoming an adult with the most care, grace, intelligence and wisdom.
“I would bet that everyone of us who learned from a great teacher knows exactly what I’m talking about. Count what you will, but this uncountable experience is essential in real education of the young.
“Do we really want hedge fund overlords in charge of this basic part of childhood and adolescence?
“I’ll also bet that these hedge funds folks send their kids to schools that embrace what I’m saying to the fullest. Their kids’ education shall not be subjected to foolish accountability–which wastes kids’ precious time growing up.”
Wait! Hedge fund managers have children?
Yes, unfortunately, they breed.
I had no idea after the Great Recession and the pain hedge funds and Wall Street caused Main Street, that they were even human.
Not attending the public schools.
Here’s a good explanation of how even with technically “non-profit” charter school chains, Wall Street hedge funders enrich themselves… and also talks of a school privatization candidate for mayor in Nashville, David Fox:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2015/08/kipp-non-profit-dont-ask-david-fox.html
KIPP Non-Profit? Don’t Ask David Fox
Some hedge fund operators like to point to the evidence of their generosity as measured by huge donations to non-profit charter schools like KIPP. KIPP’s non-profit corporate status, however, only underscores its corporate welfare foundation and its super-lucrative business model.
Not only do corporate donors garner huge tax credits by helping to fund these test prep chain gangs, but the KIPP Foundation and its officers are allowed in the process to amass hundreds of millions each year in “non-profit” dollars from federal, state, and local governments.
For instance, if KIPP is paid on average $10,000 for each of its 700,000 students nationwide each year, that amounts to $700,000,000 collected from taxpayers in a single year. On top of that are the rich real estate deals that corporate politicians have made possible for KIPP in Nashville, DC, San Francisco, Houston, etc.
It’s no wonder that hedge funds and former hedge funder managers like Nashville mayoral candidate, David Fox, are bullish on the No Excuses charters like KIPP and Rocketship. The potential gain for Wall Street and its investors are simply enormous in tax credits and real estate deals, and those private gains come at the expense of public taxpayers and the most vulnerable children who are dehumanized in the process of being mis-educated within a system of penal pedagogy.
Fox, by the way, is the only candidate who is on record as supporting a non-elected Nashville school board that would be appointed by the mayor, and he is the only candidate who wants to turn Nashville schools into a charter system like New Orleans.
You may be assured, however, that Mr. and Mrs. Fox would never allow their three children to be schooled in these total compliance, lockdown environments like KIPP. That kind of oppression is reserved for the least advantaged, and it represents the kind of elitist paternalism that Giuliani made famous in New York with “broken windows” policing of the poor in the 1990s.
Nonetheless, Fox and his friends are eager to increase the return for their hedge fund philanthrocapitalist investors by betting on a sure thing as long as the general public remains in the dark on how these corporate welfare kingpins operate.
The bottom line on “no excuses” non-profit schools: it’s about the bottom line. Corporate charter schools represent a lucrative business model, not a viable education model.
Pauline P.,
Thanks for your comments. Right on.
Also, the rate of return to Wall Street, on charter school debt, was 18% (interest payments), in 2014.
Hedge fund managers are vulture capitalists whose decisions are always based on ROI. They know nothing about education or what is best for students. It is irresponsible to assume their interests support the “greater good.” It’s always about greater profit with them.
VULTURE capitalists … TRUE! GREED reigns in this country. We blame people for being poor.
If the public is allowed to have a choice by Bill Gates and his oligarchs, I think we already know the answer, because teaching is still one of the Five most Trusted professions.
http://teaching.monster.com/careers/articles/9894-teaching-is-one-of-the-five-most-trusted-professions
And here is the list for the least trusted professions:
Car salespeople
Members of Congress
Advertising practitioners
>>>>>Stockbrokers<<<<<<
HMO managers
Senators
Insurance salespeople
Lawyers
State governors
Business executives
http://tsminteractive.com/what-are-the-least-and-most-trusted-professions-in-america/
Eighty-two percent of the respondents rated nursing as very high or high, the strongest result by far. Pharmacists and grade school teachers ranked next at 70 percent.
http://www.briarcliffe.edu/student-life/briarcliffe-blog/may-2014/gallups-most-trusted-professions-nursing-tops-the-list
And Forbes reports that “the Data Shows Teachers are Still Highly Respected.” And according to the chart, that respect is higher today than it was in the 1970s. It’s low point was in 1983. Guess what came out in 1983. After that fraudulent report, the trust in teachers continued to grow at an impressive rate but took a hit soon after NCLB became the mandate but recovered after 2005.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/modeledbehavior/2014/06/14/teachers-highly-respected/
The “National Nurses United” union has come out in support of Bernie Sanders.
That should be an endorsement Sanders can take to the ballot box.
The only person that is a true advocate for the student (parents are a given) is their teacher.
No one else.
How about a list of charter investors/financial supporters and where they send their children to school? Start with Obama and Duncan.
That list would look GREAT on Huff Post, but even better on the WP or NYT…too bad it’ll never get published.
“I would bet that everyone of us who learned from a great teacher knows exactly what I’m talking about. Count what you will, but this uncountable experience is essential in real education of the young.”
Absolutely true. Well put, Steve.
Matt Taibbi described hedge funder, Dan Loeb, in an article in Vanity Fair. The kids, of Silicon Valley’s moguls, Wall Street’s unproductive financiers, and the profiteering reformers, should gather at Loeb’s knee for lessons in rudeness. arrogance and lack of civility. That’s, if they aren’t already getting similar messages from their parents, about rejection of human decency.