Deborah Gist, the former state superintendent of schools in Rhode Island, has recommended a $920,000 contract for the Boston Consulting Group in Tulsa, where she is now district superintendent. The contract will be funded by “private donors.”
BCG has won similar contracts in other districts. Their reports typically recommend downsizing and privatization.
This is not good news for Tulsa.
The first question that citizens of Tulsa should ask is, what is the education expertise of this business consulting group? When last I looked, Margaret Spellings–who has never run a school district–was its education consultant. Since she is now the new president of the University of North Carolina system, who is running the education business at BCG? Who are the “experts” at BCG who know more than Deborah Gist and the teachers of Tulsa?
The Tulsa school board will be writing a blank check to BCG unless they find out exactly who is giving advice and why Tulsa should want it, even if someone else is paying the bill.
In other districts, when BCG arrives, public education is in danger.
A reader told me that the school board gave him this article to reassure him.
The lead author used to be Rick Hess’ assistant at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. None of the three co-authors ever worked in a school, according to their online bios.
What expertise do they have in education?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The sad reality is that the opportunity for graft and mismanagement of funds is very high with the use of consultants, vouchers, and alternative portfolio models. Yes, traditional public schools have their scandals but the level of public scrutiny and systems of internal controls provides a level of safeguard for taxpayer dollars that doesn’t exist in the choice/reform model.
Just today, I saw this troubling story about voucher programs in Milwaukee.
http://fox6now.com/2016/02/11/voucher-school-leader-indicted-for-stealing-taxpayer-money-spotted-at-new-milwaukee-choice-school/
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Does “private” donors mean “anonymous”, or will the corporate donors be made public? This is exactly what happened in Philadelphia, and we are still living with the fallout.
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Education is one incestuous industry. And there’s always a Pearson connection isn’t there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Barber_%28educationist%29
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Tulsa public schools could surely use $920,000
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Boston Consulting Group is no friend of pubic education. I agree.
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These guys know nothing about what it takes to educate a child K – 12, but they know every trick there is to squeeze money out of a Death Valley rock in the middle of summer.
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They don’t need to know anything about education; they just need to continue to operate as you have outlined. In fact, the report is probably already written, they just have to show up, poke around, and pronounce the verdict: PRIVATIZE! Bring in the charters as fast as possible.
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Yep, here in Philly they were funded by William Penn Foundation.
Sent from my iPad
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Hello Stiles,
Nice writeup!
“the tulsa school board will be writing a blank check to bcg unless they find out exactly who is giving advice and why tulsa should want it even if someone else is paying the bill” “the tulsa school board will be writing a blank check to bcg unless they find out exactly who is giving advice and why tulsa should want it even if someone else is paying the bill” “the tulsa school board will be writing a blank check to bcg unless they find out exactly who is giving advice and why tulsa should want it even if someone else is paying the bill” Yep!
Perhaps you are looking for guest-poster?
Take care,
Paul Randolph | AI-writer.com
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