A few months ago, John Merrow met with the National Superintendents Roundtable (a non-reformster group) and talked about the best and the worst of what he had observed in 41 years covering education.
His biggest regret? He didn’t find the key document about cheating in DC until after his Michelle Rhee documentary had aired.
His major prediction: a major charter scandal will soon erupt.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And the sun will rise tomorrow …
My prediction: another major charter scandal will erupt, and the MSM and powers-that-be will ignore it.
The biggest issue in the last four decades is that teachers are no longer allowed to teach.
“His major prediction: a major charter scandal will soon erupt.”
And per Campbell Brown’s marching orders, Brown’s THE 74 pro-school-privatization website will scrupulously ignore it.
Here’s the opening article of THE 74, where
Campbell Brown states its mission:
“I have learned that not every story has two sides.
And I will not allow for false equivalency when
a child’s future is being compromised, regardless
of the vitriol it provokes.”
How can someone purporting to be a journalist say
something so transparently idiotic as that?
Here’s that quote in context:
https://www.the74million.org/article/campbell-brown-journalism-advocacy-and-why-not-every-story-has-two-sides
Okay. That’s just great.
In Campbell’s mind, there’s only one side
that’s right — Campbell Brown’s, and the
school privatization billionaires that are
funding her … they’re “for the children”.
The other side — teacher unions, parents who
want to keep democratic governance of schools —
well they’re just wrong, wrong, wrong …
“they’re not for the children.”
Remember EDUSHYSTER’s expose just before
THE 74 just went on-line?
A prominent (unnamed) reporter interviewed for
a job with Campbell’s THE 74, then reported back
to Edushyster the astonishing conversation she had
while interviewing.
One of Campbell’s functionaries told the reporter
applying to work there that THE 74’s reporters —
including her, should she get hired — would be
barred from doing any reporting that was critical
of charter schools, or of school privatization, and
that any charter school scandals — even those that
that hit the mainstream media and became national
stories — must be ignored as well.
Here’s that story:
http://edushyster.com/will-the-74-investigate-charter-scandals/
Well, that’s basically what’s happened. Regarding the
recent scandals with Eva Moskowitz & Success Academy,
scandals that got national coverage on PBS and elsewhere …
as far as Campbell Brown, THE 74and — in Ms. Lyuton’s
words — “the 74’s roster of smart, veteran journalists” are
concerned, it’s like the Success Academy scandals never
even happened.
They wrote not one word about all of that.
This is like back with the old Soviet news outlet TASS.
Well, we can now expect the same thing with LA School Report.
Another thing you notice is that in Edushyster’s article is
that the operation that’s running THE 74 is the “Mercury”
P.R. group, the same group that Walmart uses in its
suppression of any budding unionism in its stores. Mercury
operatives even pretended to be journalists at an
anti-Walmart rally in Los Angeles’ Chinatown.
Mercury is also in charge of PR for … wait for it …
Eli Broad’s “Great Public Schools Now” plan to
convert half of LAUSD school to privately managed
charter schools.
So Mercury is running L.A. School Report —
controlling 100% of its content — where it will
report on Eli Broad’s “Great Public Schools Now”
privatization plan, which Mercury is also doing P.R. for.
WTF???!!!!
Notice the use of language: as I see it, for enablers and enforcers of self-styled “education reform,” criticisms of rheephorm words and deeds (and the chasm between them)—no matter how mild and helpful and well put—are often labeled “vitriol.”
And a line leapt out at me—
“This is like back with the old Soviet news outlet TASS.”
That’s what you get when the same sorts of folks who spewed out tons of “vitriol” proclaiming what seemed to be their hatred of Soviet-era PRAVDA et al.—
When what they really had was envy.
Rheeally! And in the most Johnsonally sort of ways too…
😎
Q) If you had a favorite bumper sticker about schools, what would it be?
A) We need a system that asks each child, “How are you intelligent?” not “How intelligent are you?”
Sounds very Finnish to me . . .
Not sure that I’d place that much importance to the “intelligent” aspect.
It also depends how we define intelligence. Are we talking “theory of multiple intelligences” intelligent? Or are we simply defining intelligence by “academic skills?”
A much broader definition of intelligence would be necessary.
There’s probably a better word we could use, but anyways, it would be a step in the right direction.
Reblogged this on National Mobilization For Equity and commented:
Examining the history of US education ~ all levels, public and private ~ is critical to understanding public education now ~ and changing course.
Merrow: “We have apps for socialization. ” Seriously? And how is that working out for today’s teens?