Reader Chiara sent the following comment about new funding by the U.S. Department of Education for for-profit ventures. Since when did ED become a source of venture capital for start-ups?
“Duncan’s cranking up the private sector subsidy funding on his way out the door:
“On Wednesday the department will announce a pilot program that will allow federal grants and loans to flow to educational-technology companies that team up with colleges and third-party “quality-assurance entities” to offer coding boot camps, MOOCs, short-term certificates, and other credentials.”
“Partnering with accredited schools to deliver tech skills for credit is a dangerous back door to access federal student loans,” wrote Clint Schmidt He called for the department to put “a rigorous standard in place” before federal aid could cover boot-camp tuition.
“The risk is a short-term, money-grabbing mind-set”
Nothing could possibly go wrong there, right? Public money to ed-tech companies. They’re doing this…. because for-profit, online colleges were such a smashing success?
Is there some reason the federal government feels they have to market and fund ed-tech? Is there a shortage of salespeople at these companies or something so we have to provide publicly-paid salespeople for their product?
http://chronicle.com/article/A-Boon-to-Boot-Camps-US/233742″
Here’s another description: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-looks-to-let-students-use-federal-aid-for-training-bootcamps/2015/10/14/9a4eba38-72bb-11e5-8d93-0af317ed58c9_story.html?postshare=7671444875772458
U.S. Deputy Secretary Ted Mitchell was formerly CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, which invested in these kinds of business ventures, as well as charter chains. He has no problem with for-profit education; NSVF supported it when he was in charge.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And it is too ugly to print.
John A. Matthews
Executive Director
Madison Teachers Inc.
821 Williamson Street
Madison, WI 53703
608-257-0491
matthewsj@madisonteachers.org
http://www.madisonteachers.org
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Thanks for this, Diane. Bet Duncan will continue being a lackey for the $$$$$.
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Yvonne Siu-Runyan: apologies…
Somehow, after trying to do my CCSS ‘closet’ reading of decontextualized informational texts and running out of flashlight batteries when all went dark—but still steeling my “rigor” and “grit” by trying to study in the absence of all illumination—
I had just come out into the light and read the posting and your comment and thought you wrote—
“Bet Duncan will continue working on swelling his bank account.”
My bad. I know his ego and wallet couldn’t possibly be involved because, after all, it’s all about the kids.
Or am I still laboring under the residual effect a Common Core Rheeality Distortion Field exerts on its victims, er, beneficiaries?
In any case, I’ll try to do better next time.
😎
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What, it wasn’t enough to be the public face of charter proliferation, all testing all the time, public school closings and teacher scapegoating?
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Here’s Duncan’s legacy. It’s more corporate welfare for tech. companies. Taxpayers really need to “lend them a helping hand.”
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MOOCs have a dismal track record of success – a bit better when students pay for it, but, still abysmal pass rates.
I see a very limited space for students to pay for information that is pretty much freely available when what they need is someone to walk them through it and respond to them (and not just be put into virtual groups to help each other).
MOOCs mostly seem to pre-suppose that the credential is what students are after and the learning is a formality they’ll find some way to get through on their own time. What will be the value of such certifications? Who will respect them, who will accredit them?
This seems to prey on those who desperately are seeking education and can’t make it fit their schedule, but may not know that just because a college offers it, doesn’t mean it is widely accepted or respected in a given field (transferability – see ITT tech for examples).
The big question is, why would the DOE spike a large amount of money onto education products that vary widely in quality, rarely produce better results than full classroom courses, and whose outcomes and their validity for particular professional certifications is highly questionable.
For a guy who is so fond of accountability, why does he demand incredible amounts of it from the public sector, then almost none from the private (don’t answer that).
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That’s OUR money going out the door. Too bad he isn’t going out the door in cuffs. Here’s to the next administration. May they hand out indictments like we hand out candy on Halloween.
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After Obama won the White House for his 1st four year term, when he moved in, he brought his wolf pack with him—like a pack of hungry wolves being let into a fenced pasture crowded with fat sheep that can’t escape.
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Must be the DINO’s idea of wealth transfer. Troubling. NO ROI.
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Ms. Ravitch:
When you address the University of Louisville on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 5pm ET, I’ll be among the audience. You generously wrote in your Sept. 5th blog about our efforts here in KY to save our pension from predatory investment managers. Our Kentucky Teacher Retirement System is currently funded at 36% and I filed a lawsuit over the lack of transparency back in August, 2015. Thanks for the notice you took of our struggle.
Randy Wieck
Louisville, KY
Teacher
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Ms. Ravitch,
When you address the University of Louisville on October 20, 5pm ET, I’ll be among the audience. You generously wrote in your Sept. 5 blog of our efforts to save our Kentucky Teacher Retirement from predatory Wall Street alternative managers. Our pension is currently funded at around 35%, and I filed a lawsuit in August against the lack of transparency in investments. Thank you for taking notice of our battle.
Randy Wieck
teacher
Manual High School
Louisville, KY
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Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
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To answer M’s question, “The big question is, why would the DOE spike a large amount of money onto education products that vary widely in quality, rarely produce better results than full classroom courses, and whose outcomes and their validity for particular professional certifications is highly questionable”
Public Records requests on contracts between school districts and their online ed partners reveals the data culling info collected on each kid with each keystroke. Child’s name, etc is all there and parents are also encouraged to create their own accounts to view the progress- Illuminate software, Amazon’s Tenmark, etc. Home IP addresses are also collected so universities now know everything about the children, including parent engagement and how to find them. Districts allowing EdTechs to share data with universities for “research” purposes backdoors the militarization and human capital agenda grooming put in place. Charters manufacturing minions and militia.
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I believe the open and celebrated corrupt corporate profit-taking in the USDOE started during the George W. Bush administration when NCLB led to Reading First and suddenly millionaires were being created all over, if they were party stalwarts and true believers who donated mightily to campaigns by selling a useless bill of goods that promised instantaneous turnaround of “failing” schools if district bought the programs that held the imprimatur of the DOE minions who would also profit themselves. There was quite a hullabaloo about the Reading First scandal at the time. How quickly we forget. . . .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901333.html
More than a few of the grifters in the USDOE today are leftovers from that shameful near-decade long debacle and, of course, the newbie neoliberal corporate wing of the Democratic party ushered in with Obama and Duncan weren’t about to be left out of the cash cow program already in place and beloved of all their plutocratic owners, so they cashed in too.
It’s quite amazing to see the amount of evil and corruption that NCLB spawned and made possible. Something that many of us who were around back then warned about and were subsequently ridiculed for by our more “serious” peers who thought we were conspiracy theorists. RIP Gerry Bracey!
Bittersweet vindication, however, and what a high price we’ve paid! Moneylenders in the temple of learning and they can’t be driven out, it seems, without a new revolution from the people to reform and remake the government as a servant of the people rather than a corporate goon enforcing unfair advantages to the already-rich and powerful.
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Yet again:
The role of big money in running our government officials is something that we not only abhor but must fight.
Again:
My view:
Back Bernie. Both Hillary and the Republican front runner, not Donald Trump have the major portion of their campaign money from the Wall Street crowd.
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When Duncan and Obama, for their own children, selected schools that reject the reformy products foisted on the American people, they cemented their legacies.
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