Dipti Desai is a professor of the arts and art education at New York University. She teaches both pre-service and in-service art teachers. As she watched what was happening in the world of education, she decided to create a graphic to illustrate the “Educational Industrial Complex.” Readers may know that when President Dwight D. Eisenhower was leaving office after his second term, he warned voters to be wary of the “Military Industrial Complex.” Who knew that in 2015 we would have to keep our eyes on the “educational industrial complex,” a combination of corporations, philanthropies, government agencies, and the organizations that promote privatization and high-stakes testing?
The report can be downloaded here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Of all the incredible posts on this blog that teach us all so much, this might be most informative and concise of them all. I will share this with many people. Thank you!
I agree Greg. This is great work! I had done an Inspiration 9 concept map back in the fall of 2013 on the people involved in the education reform complex. (I just emailed it to Professor Desai.) However, it got to be too much to keep track of and research. Which I guess is a statement itself about the complex of people and organizations involved in this.
you could also refer back to the (always growing) map Dora Taylor, Sue Peters and myself worked on/published back in 2010/11…
And that’s the thing Sahila, it is always growing! I loved the work that you and Dora and Sue did also. It’s all part of the big puzzle that they’ve created. And there’s a large number of “they” that are in the game here. It’s not a game to us, but it is to them.
I wish I could take your work and Dipti’s work and what I did and put it all together and make it accessible to all, and continually update it. But that takes a lot of work and time, something teachers don’t have much of.
well, the bones are there — it’s probably a case of laying the three sets of charts over each other, erasing the duplications and adding the new linkages/players etc…. not hard, but complex and time consuming…. once it’s done, wont be so difficult to keep updates — just needs someone to set a google notification on certain keywords appearing in news items etc and then to add any new information….
i dont have the mental space to work on something so complex right now…
wondering if there’s a grad student anyone knows, who might be interested in doing/working on something like this for their dissertation?
it’s also be interesting – and very useful – to see the main (national) chart, overlaid with what’s happening in each state…. i first worked out BROAD’s MO, doing that with the national picture and what was going on here in seattle…
once you see the pattern, it’s much easier to counter/disrupt it before it becomes fully embedded…. that’s how we here in seattle have been able to minimise the implementation of the ed deform agenda to a greater extent than in other places… we sent Broad and TFA packing, got rid of most deform-influenced school board directors, de-clawed several Gates-funded astro-turfs, fought back against charters, working on stopping testing…. not sure what the parent/teacher community is doing about common core – i dont keep track as religiously as i used to…
For whom, exactly, is the State of Florida’s Accountability System for?
I like this chart but it makes me think of Thoreau. Simplify, simplify!! Very informative!
This brilliant piece of work appears to have been done by a woman http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty/Dipti_Desai
Right you are
Fixed it
Is this the same woman teacher in Florida who did the ALEC chart a few years ago?
Excellent starting point to investigate the players. Hope the media picks up on this and expands on each deformer. Or is that a pipe dream?
CROSS POSTED WITH COMMENTARY And links to posts here about the privitization by the billionaires.
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-Educational-Industrial-in-General_News-Corporations_Education_Organizations_Privatization-151024-140.html#comment568679
Are you familiar with this Truth-out piece?
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/18442-flow-chart-exposes-common-cores-myriad-corporate-connections
I’ve been saying for a while that the end-goal here is the Defense Industry Model, as that is the sweetest of the sweetheart deals on the planet.
I prefer to call it the Department of War Industry Model.
You do the acronym —
Hint: It’s DIM and getting DIMmer …
. This is a wonderful start on showing relationships that just keep getting more complicated and difficult to track. For example, EdWeek, once the newspaper of record for many, now has editorial content on topics sponsored by and of interest to 13 foundations (down from 17).
On October 21, Education Week announced a “content partnership” with PBS Newshour meaning EdWeek provides ready to use content to PBS, with the video production company Learning Matters TV, founded by recently retired John Merrow, making the video segments for PBS…a deal that Merrow facilitated.
In addition to the foundations already shaping editorial content in EdWeek, four are getting this initiative off the ground for three years with $4.6 million in funding. Quess who is funding this communications system for education that is not really public because content and distribution is now privately funded: Carneigie Corporation of New York, Bill and Melinda Gates Founddation, the Leona M. And Harry B. Hemsley Charitable Trust and Wallace Foundation.
As a longtime worker in arts education I am really thrilled to see this graphic from a colleague who is super savvy about this era of billionaire-funded disruption of public education.
Increasingly social service organizations and their programs are being taken over with little regard for public decision making on priorities at the local level.
Consider, for example, the MacArthur Foundation’s “Collective Shift” program for “anywhere, anytime learning” in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Pittsburg, and Washington, DC.
This initiative is supported by Arizona State University, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, among others. These programs award ” badges” and ” certificates,” called microcredentials, for participating in classes offered online and in community centers.
A major aim is to de-institutionalize education. Even so, the programming choices are, in the main, offered by place-based public institutions such as museums, libraries, recreation centers and through Internet access to their programs, including major resources from venerable institutions such as the Smithsonian and National Gallery of Art. Of course, for-profits that are working the same turf.
For a future scenario with schools and formal education a minor player in the new “sharing ecology” of education–where entrepreneurs compete to offer content and services– visit KnowledgeWorks.org.
Laura: Just explored KnowledgeWorks and caught a glimps of our educational future. As you note, institutions will play a larger role and the concept of a K-12 sequential curriculum taught by highly qualified and certified teachers could be a thing of the past.
People reading this who are not teachers may say, “Great! These groups are investing
in education! We need more money there. What’s the problem? These advances provide more opportunities for the children in our country.” Please give answers to these questions that explain why these developments are NOT in our country’s best interest.
Excellent point. Will include this in my communications with those I’m trying to “enlighten” about this mess.
Your concern, tfl, lies in the fact that investing in education for a large return on that investment is fundamentally different from investing not only money but more importantly time and effort in helping individuals develop as they see fit.
It’s much more than that, Duane. It’s how all of this is affecting the work teachers do to educate students, and ultimately the children and our country. The diagram shows the involvement of all these groups. I am looking for a narrative to accompany the diagram that
explains why this is not in the best interest of our country. I can show
non-educators the diagram, but I need to be able to articulate what it
means in their lives. Without that I’m just making noise that they don’t understand. Who can provide the narrative? Diane?
tfl,
What do you think the narrative could be? What do you see as something that can serve to distinguish different investing opportunities?
Perhaps ask them if investing money in order to make money is the same as investing time and effort to help the community improve, such as coaching sports, helping with day camps, etc. . . .
Look to yourself for a satisfactory answer, then you will be able to relay, explain it all the better and sincerely.
Teachforlife: I wrote the narrative in my last book, “Reign of Error”
Perhaps tfl the narrative has to do with all of those companies and “non-profits” and people and boards and books and so forth, all of that costs money. It was money that was going to the public education of the kids of our country. It was going to music and art programs in schools and smaller class sizes and longer times for instruction and teachers being respected. Now it’s going to those people and their organizations.
But Diane’s answer was much better than mine. 🙂
Thanks to all three for your answers. Diane, I do have your book, and it is the best narrative. I do like the one provided by mathcs for a brief answer. It will be good to have the diagram to show people how very many parts are involved.
October 24, 2015
NYTimes.com »
Breaking News Alert
BREAKING NEWS
The Obama administration declares the push for testing in schools has gone too far
Saturday, October 24, 2015 12:03 PM EDT
Faced with mounting and bipartisan opposition to increased and often high-stakes testing in the nation’s public schools, the Obama administration declared Saturday that the push had gone too far, acknowledged its own role in the proliferation of tests, and urged schools to step back and make exams less onerous and more purposeful. Specifically, the administration called for a cap on assessment so that no child would spend more than 2 percent of classroom instruction time taking tests.
Read more »
Obama still supports high stakes, annual testing. He still pushes districts to tie test scores to teacher evaluations. Still pushing Common Core (which is funded by the MILITARY Industrial Complex in this Education Industrial Complex map). He is calling for the amount of time spent testing to be reduced from 2.3% to 2.0%. Big deal. He still helps his pals cash in on charter school deals. Still gives our money to TFA. He still keeps Randi W as a pet.
I respectfully disagree that this Times article is breaking news. The Educational Industrial Complex map is intriguing, though. Just look at all that Big Oil and Big Microchip-Data! And the DoE loves all the moneyed companies and private boards on the map. We will always be cattle to all of them. Go Bernie.
Yep. Language matters.
“Race to the Top” has the competitive winners/losers paradigm embedded in the title.
Bill Gates has singled-handedly done more to corrupt public education than any other person on the planet, imho, with his big bucks and his “college readiness” propaganda.
Very interesting! (Author needs to correct spelling of ‘Common Core State Standards’ on the graphic – it loses a little credibility).
Although it’s date 10/15, Pearson sold FT in Aug. to Japanese investors and its stake in CourseSmart to Ingram Industries in March 2014.
And edTPA is owned by Stanford Univ, not on the chart, but administered by Pearson.
I would like to see a similar chart for the Council of Chief State School Officers. I do jot believe this organization should be funded by outside money–it seems like a way to get around state law restrictions on gifts and a conflict of interest.
Art teachers are amazing people!
Reblogged this on Creative Delaware and commented:
Wow! The power of a VISUAL. Where would the world be without art teachers?
What would this diagram have looked like 30 years ago? Did it exist?
Does anyone have a better version of the graphic?
I’m so excited to have found others who know about/ care about the educational industrial complex.
While I was in grad school in the College of Education at the University of Oregon a few years ago, I published some power structure research on the COEs at UO and University of Washington.
No one in the UO College of Education was interested, as you can well imagine.
Contact the creator at NYU, Dipti Desai
The URL to the Rueter’s article on granting citizenship to foreign investors is broken… the accurate link is http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/12/us-usa-education-charter-visas-idUSBRE89B07K20121012
Diane, would you please have Dipti save this infographic in a higher resolution? Even when printing or viewing at 100%, it is virtually unreadable. Thank you so much.
John
John Inman Ed.D., M.A., Ed.M., DDPE Creating educational solutions where learners develop individual gifts and realize their potential Seattle, WA john@learningexceptionalities.com http://www.learningexceptionalities.com 425-954-7256
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John,
Thanks, I will pass along the suggestion to Dipti.
we also have to consider the ‘inverse’ of the “Educational Industrial Complex” which I coined as the (public) “University-Governmental Complex” in http://bitly.com/Urgent_Evoke but which (as i found out later) was already known as The Academic-Governmental Complex.
Instead of focusing on the corruption of public education / government by (multi)national corporations here the spotlight will be on the corruption of the political processes in our democracy by almost full time professors (with NO ties to multinationals !) at our public universities who also administer a unpaid part time job as Senators. In a small country as The Netherlands that’s still possible.
http://www.pearltrees.com/t/studievoorschot-onderwijs/stemmers-studievoorschot/id13466407
The case-study above center’s around at least 18 double hatted Senators of the Dutch First Chamber (~ UK House of Lords ~ USA Senate) who didn’t mind to vote yes on the ‘studievoorschot’ Education bill. (36 yes , 29 no).
With this bill the grant system for ALL HE students in The Royal Kingdom of The Netherlands inverted into a ‘social’ loan system.
Thus the governement saved 1 billion a year which our noble senators ‘reinvested’ via the same bill in … HE. Meaning those 18 noble senators secured their own unbiased professorships , board of directors / trustees functions etc: in dire times.
The silly thing was that this voting wasn’t problematized by this obvious conflict of interest by neither Student Unions, nor the HE student medias, nor mayor newspapers , nor TV-stations. No matter how hard I tried to open their eyes.
I somehow must have foreseen this total breakdown of our Dutch 4the Force as safeguard of our proportional represententational democratic processes but nevertheless it came as a shocker. Because from the very beginning of my intervention via @whatsinthebox0 i introduced quite fluid fictionalized methods of cross platform story’truth’ telling. The core of the project was plugging my twitter-avatar Freeman guerrilla style (without consent nor prior knowledge by it’s scenario writers ) into a weekly and very timely political public TV drama-serie as one of it’s main but yet hidden characters. Fictionalizing a hardcore truth is a proven road towards the acceptance of the unpalatable. Or so i was taught. The TV-serie is about a fictional dutch political party whose struggles within the heart of the dutch political establishment at The Hague’s Binnenhof (inner court [Royal Court cultur undertones intended]) are narrated. http://www.vpro.nl/programmas/De-Fractie.html … So it’s similar to netflix’s House of Cards or the danish Borgen. But the long term story line is -contrary to those just mentioned- intertwined with (almost journalistic) up to date timely dialogues recorded during mid weekly film shootings which are then during the weekend montaged into the long term movie tread to be broadcasted the following monday evening. The scenario writers also enrich this experience of being right on the skin of our times by using twitter avatars for their TV characters and via #defractie hashtags. The scenario writers feuilletonesc storytelling mode thus heightened my chances to tickle their imagination and courage so as to enrich their fiction with a little truth that nobody down here in The Netherlands dares to mention. Alas all to no avail. My efforts to get my little theme incorporated into this publicly broadcasted TV series did not succeed. yet.
Now after trying to break this dutch Omertà for almost a year i came to the conclusion that i very probably won’t be able to do so from inside the Netherlands. We really need outsiders to draw attention to this deep corruption of our Dutch political and journalistic processes. Because in the NL’s the little childish voice calling out that our King ( our democracy // our journalism ) isn’t wearing any clothes is just very effectively being ignored. And the time to intervene is now. The Netherlands is proudly and bombastically celebrating both it’s 200 year Royal Kingdom of The Netherlands anniversary as it’s 200 year anniversary of it’s democracies double chamber structure.
I don’t know the USA/UK etc: systems well enough to see to what extend this little case-study of The Netherlands will be fruitful but maybe it might be …
greetings
I certainly agree that businesses have way too much influence and say in what is happening to our education system. I’m curious: haven’t for-profit businesses always had a big stake in profiting from education and programs/testing? Can we make a comparison, say, from when I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s? Thanks!
Joanna, in the ’70s and ’80s there were no for-profit public schools and no corporate chains running “public schools”
Schooling is being outsourced to corporations
I’m a huge chart-lover myself https://educationalchemy.com/2015/10/30/common-core-and-corporate-colonization-the-big-picture/