C. Patrick Burrowes is anoxia list who was born in Liberia and educated in the United States. He is very concerned about a pending deal to outsource Liberian education to Bridge International Academies, which USA for-profit company controlled by American investors, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
Burrowes writes:
A Bridge Academies investor goes on the offensive:
http://ssir.org/articles/entry/a_big_problem_a_small_experiment_and_a_lot_of_noise
I expect Kevin Starr (as an investor in Bridge Academies) to support the company’s take over of Liberian elementary schools. After all, this deal would result in rapid returns on his investments. Too bad, he resorts to playing loose with the facts while smearing critics.
He begins by mislabeling Bridge as an “African” company. He would be hard pressed to name a single African investor in the exclusive white male Silicon Valley backers of this venture. If Africans and others are crying foul, it’s because we seen these “well-intentioned” schemes play out to our detriment time and time again. And when it all comes crashing down, Kevin and all the other we-know-better-than-Africans-what’s-best-for-them set will be nowhere around to pick up the pieces.
If the school-in-box rote-teaching method employed by Bridge Academies is so great, why not sell it in the U. S. first? Truth is, the company is a bottom feeder, preying on the weakest of the weak. It avoids countries where educational and teaching standards are enforced.
Far from encouraging competition (as Kevin suggested), the company secured its take-over of Liberian school through a no-bid process from a government noted for high levels of corruption, even by African standards.
The author claims this deal isn’t going to make anyone a ton of money, as if Bridge Academies is a non-profit. Far from it, the company’s own pitch to investors highlights the obscene profits to be made in this “market,” meaning its automaton schools for producing uncritical worker bees.
Kevin is dismissive of “tribal” rights and adopts a breezing tone that’s completely inappropriate given the gravity of what’s at stake. Bridge Academies and its know-it-all fat cats are not only endangering the future of Liberia. They are also putting at risk the principle of universal public education, which has benefited their societies for hundreds of years. All on a whim and with the cockiness of a high-roller at a craps table.
I wonder if he would be so cavalier about radical policy changes that affected the education of his kids?
C. Patrick Burrowes
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So much for colonialism being a thing of the past.
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It’s neo-colonialism: the colonizing country (or founding country, in the case of Liberia) still has an outsize influence on the former colony.
When I teach neo-colonalism in AP Human Geography, I’m using this situation as an example.
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WOW! So Kevin does understand his intellectual capacity. Cripes. He admits it.
So, idiot that I am, I was surprised by the shitstorm of protest that blew in last week. My favorite gust was from the UN Rapporteur on the Right to Education (huh?), who thundered that the agreement constitutes a “gross violation of the right to education,” and “violates the Liberian government’s legal and moral obligations.”
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This is not just an example of colonialism, but also vulture capitalism at its worst.
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“If the school-in-box rote-teaching method employed by Bridge Academies is so great, why not sell it in the U. S. first?”
It is being sold in the US. Rocketship uses a series of computer programs in each subject area – you could plug it in anywhere in the country and it would look exactly the same.
“And Fuerza Community Prep looks and feels like a Silicon Valley creation, with its brightly lit classrooms almost entirely devoid of the low-tech educational toys of other elementary schools. On a recent visit, there were no pretend kitchens, boxes of wooden blocks or easels to be seen in the classrooms. Students were often spoken to using language more common in corporate offices than elementary schools. A kindergartner whose uniform pants were falling down was told to “dress for success,” and an administrator boasted that a first-grade teacher “was maniacal about not wasting time” with her young charges.”
The US Department of Education promotes Rocketship. They’ve endorsed the model.
They’re getting rid of language teachers where I live- replacing them with canned programs. It’s (obviously) cheaper.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2015/07/05/rocketship-charter-network-criticized-overly-rigid/29646659/
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I don’t really care if they make money at it- if that’s the motive. I think the better question is when did it become okay for a few US business people to run all public schools?
I don’t recall anyone consenting to this. I sure didn’t and I doubt the people in Africa did either.
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the Pennsylvania auditor has issued yet another damning indictment of Pennsylvania’s charter school law:
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/92766-pa-charter-school-law-worst-in-us-state-auditor-general-says?l=mt
At this point they have to be deliberately ignoring the evidence. This is about the 5th time in as many years where this guy has done his job and been completely ignored.
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio are vying for “worst ed reform in the country”. Ohio gets all the attention but the other two states are just as bad. PA may be worse than OH.
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Chiara, don’t forget Florida, Indiana, Nevada, Arizona.
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Absolutely disgraceful. Not surprising the Minister of Education in Liberia states charter schools in New Orleans as his “inspiration” for the project. He claims charter schools in New Orleans, “have delivered higher completion rates and better learning outcomes”, and that “the poorest children… have benefited most”.
You have to read it to believe it.
http://moe.gov.lr/site/pages3.php?pgID=137
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