When he began to run for the Republican nomination for President, Jeb Bush stepped down as chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), which he founded to spread the gospel of high-stakes testing, tough accountability, charters, and vouchers. The new chairperson is Condoleeza Rice, who shares Jeb’s views on corporate reform. FEE will hold its “national summit” in Denver on October 22-23. You might want to plan to attend to learn about the campaign to privatize public education. Be sure to check out the sponsors. I can promise that you will not learn anything about the financial scandals that have plagued the charter industry or the disappointing results of vouchers at this conference.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Privatization, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers

25 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

drext727 says:

August 25, 2015 at 11:02 am

Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.

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Joseph says:

August 25, 2015 at 11:16 am

Do we want Condi’s Common Core and testing, where education
will come like a “mushroom cloud” in the mind?

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- Duane Swacker says:
  
  August 25, 2015 at 11:36 am
  
  They’ve got the weapons system to deliver that bomb to make the mushroom cloud, check out their logo for the conference. (Actually it is a F- 16 silhouette)
  
  What the hell does a fighter jet have to do with education??
  
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Duane Swacker says:

August 25, 2015 at 11:21 am

Note to self: Put Target on the “no shop” list!

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- A Teacher From Georgia says:
  
  August 25, 2015 at 7:24 pm
  
  Second note to self: Cancel my insurance with State Farm!
  
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Chiara says:

August 25, 2015 at 11:25 am

Every single one of them went from working in government to lobbying government, with the exception of a former journalist and one who came from a lobbying firm:

http://excelined.org/about-us/team/

If we’re wondering why our existing public schools don’t seem to have a single advocate in government (although we’re certainly paying a lot of people who are supposedly working for us) we might look at this revolving door thing going on.

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Marian Cruz says:

August 25, 2015 at 11:32 am

Both are completely out of touch!

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unheardofwriter says:

August 25, 2015 at 11:58 am

Hi Diane, Here is a great article from the LA Times about what happens to a school when teachers are in charge of reform measures. Enjoy!

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-84260500/

Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2015 15:00:21 +0000 To: mcf0110@hotmail.com

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- Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:
  
  August 25, 2015 at 1:08 pm
  
  Plus mean, greedy, and nuts, too.
  
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Involved Mom says:

August 25, 2015 at 12:22 pm

maybe some clout can be gained by public school supporters by talking about the true definition of “education.”
What is the definition of education by the FEE? What is the definition of education by the NPE?

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Lloyd Lofthouse says:

August 25, 2015 at 12:48 pm

If you are a public school teacher or administrator, they might not let you in the door. The RheeFormers are an exclusive club.

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retired teacher says:

August 25, 2015 at 1:27 pm

The title has been changed from the “national summit” to the “national nadir.” Seminars led by MBAs will include the following:

1. How to Squeeze the Life Blood out of a Poor Community
2. Techniques of Courting the Right People
3. How to Play Government Leaders that Hand You a Ton of $$-Obfuscation 101
4. The Right Tempo of Churn and Burn to Keep Them Guessing
5. Jeb Bush Will Debate Himself: The Love and Hate of the Common Core
6. Bubble techniques for the 21st Century–Is “C” Usually Correct?
7. Where to Hide the Money
8. Dealing with Pesky Parents and Other Ways to Expunge Democracy
9. Classroom Management–Waterboarding for Students
10. How to Select Students from Parents’ Tax Returns and Phrenology
11. Union Busting and Ways to Eliminate Senior Teachers
12. Strategies for Lowering the Bottom Line-Recycling Dumpsters as Classrooms
13. Teacher Evaluation-Latest Dartboard Techniques

All of these unlucky ideas come with a tickets to the Billionaire’s Gala where Condi will play the piano featuring songs from “Les Miserables” and “Sweeney Todd.”

I couldn’t resist, and I hope you get a laugh! Where’s Somdam Poet when you need him?

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- Duane Swacker says:
  
  August 25, 2015 at 3:00 pm
  
  SDP is probably busy with getting this school year up and running as smoothly as possible for the students, unlike the edu-deformers who have no clue to what a beginning of the school year is like.
  
  P.S. You’re doing fine filling in for SDP!!
  
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- Joseph says:
  
  August 25, 2015 at 4:51 pm
  
  National Nadir? a Muslim word? from Arabic naẓīr. The FBI must be infiltrating this group. Maybe they can entrap them.
  
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  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    August 26, 2015 at 8:05 pm
    
    Just like algebra and heaven forbid “Arabic numerals*” along with the concept of zero, eh!
    
    *Which the Arabs/Muslims attributed to Sub-Continent Indian civilization. So that the Arabs were intermediaries who brought those “Indian” numbers to the “Western” World.
    
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  - Christine Langhoff says:
    
    August 28, 2015 at 4:04 pm
    
    Duane – It was the Maya who introduced the concept of zero on this continent.
    
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Noelle Green says:

August 25, 2015 at 1:54 pm

FEE’s board of directors consists of billionaire hedgefund partners and investors, like William Oberndorf, Charles Schwab, F. Philip Handy, Betsy DeVos, and of course Joel Klein the VP of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

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Joseph says:

August 25, 2015 at 2:04 pm

Well we need an expert to talk about the Common Core weapon of mass destruction.

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brackenkaren says:

August 25, 2015 at 3:54 pm

Do not be fooled by C. Rice’s sweet smiling face. She is not only a member of the CFR but also the ever so evil TriLateral Commission. She is bad news folks. And was DEEPLY involved in Common Core.

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- Dienne says:
  
  August 25, 2015 at 7:10 pm
  
  Please do yourself a favor and stop following Alex Jones.
  
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  - Duane Swacker says:
    
    August 26, 2015 at 8:10 pm
    
    Dienne,
    
    I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss what the Trilateral Commission was and is about. Many on the left and many on the right have serious problems with the concepts that the TC promotes. Here is a link to the Trilateral Commissions site:
    
    http://trilateral.org/
    
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Substitute Teacher says:

August 25, 2015 at 4:14 pm

Here is the FL DOE Evaluation of the Florida Tax Credit dated August 2015.
I wonder if the schools with multiple years of negative learning gains lose the ability to get vouchers? See table on page 36 for avg learning gains.

Click to access FTC_FinalReport-13-14.pdf

Where are the writing and science test scores that public school students have to take?

Schools can chose which test they are going to give, and some could actually hand-score tests. Schools send photocopies of test score sheets – wow. Shouldn’t they get the official scores from the testing organization to ensure no funny business?

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- retired teacher says:
  
  August 25, 2015 at 5:08 pm
  
  You still wouldn’t know if there was “funny business” going on during administration.
  
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FL Teacher says:

August 25, 2015 at 11:05 pm

Condoleeza Rice is either using her “national security” perspective to ease her conscience and/or deceive the American people. I used to respect her – no more. Her foundation is a farce.

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patriciahale says:

August 26, 2015 at 10:38 am

Loved this from Session 3
“In a perfect world, education reforms would take root and spread based on their merit. But we are confronted by an organized and well-funded opposition dedicated to maintaining the status quo. And so we also must sell reform because even the most thoughtful and effective education policies have little chance to succeed without the support of parents, educators, business leaders and community members. But what messages work best when reaching out to different audiences and demographic groups? During this session, experienced communications professionals will review the most effective, proven, and tested strategies for engaging the public in reform.”

When did we become well-funded?

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