Megan Tompkins-Stange recently wrote a book (Policy Patrons: Philanthropy, Education Reform and the Politics of Influence) about her study of certain big foundations. I posted EduShyster’s interview with her. She writes here about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its intention to remake American education, without asking parents or educators if they agree with the foundation’s plans.
She describes the Gates Foundation’s pivot from small schools to Common Core to “personalized learning.” Each pivot involved maximum imposition on districts and states eager for new money, and the money also had strings attached. The strings designed by the Gates Foundation.
As Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and the Walton family foist their experiments on other people’s children, they have no accountability for their mistakes. Sometimes they don’t even seem to acknowledge them.
She writes:
But education is a public good: a fundamental human right to which citizens in a democratic society are entitled. It isn’t a private good that can be negotiated with, or directed by, private interests. This distinction is particularly important in low-income communities that are populated predominantly by people of color, where foundations have long concentrated efforts to pursue unproven innovations. These communities are often those most in need of support, where philanthropists feel they can make the biggest impact. That’s why cities in crisis like Detroit and New Orleans have become central sites for charter schools, many of which are low in quality.
However, while foundations may want to catalyze innovation on behalf of poor children, they must be careful to avoid treating schools and communities as laboratories, particularly when poor families are so susceptible to the threat of uninformed consent. In fact citizens are beginning to push back against foundation funding of ‘proof points’ in their districts, arguing that schools are not testing grounds for wealthy philanthropists to conduct their social experiments. In 2016, for example, the California NAACP called for a national moratorium on all new charter schools.
Until recently, public opinion on the democratic responsibilities that accompany private philanthropy by the wealthy was fairly indifferent. A 2006 study, for example, found that 98 per cent of press coverage on philanthropy was neutral or positive in nature. But since then the debate has opened up, and school reform has become the centerpiece of efforts to highlight the dilemmas involved in ‘private funding for the public good’ as philanthropy is often described.
The key issue here is accountability, not stopping the flow of funding into schools that desperately need resources. Foundations are almost unique among large institutions in being free of accountability mechanisms with teeth, so long as they file some basic paperwork with the IRS and steer clear of openly partisan politics. A private corporation or a government department would not have weathered the cycle of interventions in schooling that the Gates Foundation has pursued over the last 15 years—they would have been held accountable for their failures and subject to greater scrutiny by the public.
That’s very difficult to do with foundations because they are self-funded, self-appointed and largely self-regulating institutions with no democratic mechanisms for debate and accountability, but it would certainly be possible for governments at the state and federal levels to mandate the inclusion of members of the public such as teachers, school superintendents, and independent education experts in deliberative processes around any major innovation, and to enforce regular Congressional reviews of foundations’ work whenever it aims to change national policy around public goods like education.
Foundations are notoriously insular institutions, which rarely welcome or seek out criticism, especially from the voices of affected communities. They also tend to resist attempts to regulate their activities—arguing that this would inevitably lead to political interference—but the balance of accountability has swung too far away from public oversight. Even small-scale measures like improving the diversity of boards of trustees have been opposed or watered down by foundation interests.
However, if foundations refuse to put their own house in order then democratically elected authorities have every right to step in. After all, if philanthropy is indeed ‘private funding for the public good’ (and receives tax benefits in return), then the ‘public’ must be involved in monitoring their performance.
The good news here is that the public is becoming increasingly aware of the foundations’ influence and their lack of accountability. They can mess up a district, a state, or the nation and walk away saying that their grand ideas were not implemented correctly. We have never actually heard an apology from Bill Gates about his teacher evaluation by test scores fiasco or the Common Core controversy or inBloom, nor will we get one when parents rebel against the farce of “personalized learning” by computer. Don’t expect an apology from Eli Broad for all the top-down corporatists that he sent out to school districts across the land. And the Walton family is digging in and investing hundreds of millions every year in the privatization of public education. No excuses! No apologies! No remorse!
Bill Gates does not decide how children will be educated. Parents do.
That concept is not rocket science but it seems to consistently escape so many who follow this blog.
Parents used to decide, or at least have a say,right now big money is taking over public school systems in America. Read about New Orleans, read about Philadelphia. This is frightening because parents should have a say in the education of their children. In NY state no one consulted teachers or parents. That’s why there has been such a bad reaction on the part of the publuc.
Not sure where you are coming from or going with that comment and I usually consider myself fairly well-versed in the art of tongue in cheek and sarcastic commenting.
Please expand and explain what you mean. TIA, Duane
JDHollowell says: “Bill Gates does not decide how children will be educated. Parents do.”
Though I understand your sentiment, there is something missing in that statement. that is, YES about Bill Gates–even if he has all the right ideas, it’s not his decision–he is not King of the Education Land. But if it’s true that, in a democracy, parents should at least have a high voice in such decisions, that’s no guarantee that they will choose correctly. There is a “correctly,” and it’s not a given that they know it well.
A case in point is that many parents do not understand what’s at stake as their public schools are first starved; then as sparkling “reforms” come into view that they can have “choice;” and then as privatization begins to encroach on their own democratic principles and those of their children–principles that they are not aware of and won’t be until they are gone. And so parents can choose from having been led down the wrong path by skilled sophists–one that, if they really understood, they probably would choose differently.
Foundations and billionaires have meddled in our educational systems, particularly those that serve poor minorities, shaping policy and legislation. What is shocking to me is the way they have been given total access to our public schools. In addition, to public schools being cash strapped, our politicians have welcomed billionaire’s contributions to their campaigns. This is a “quid pro quo” arrangement that has allowed billionaires and corporations to use our young people as guinea pigs. Even when communities resist and protest, as in the case of Newark, or Chicago, the communities get what the billionaires and foundations want them to have. Not only have these groups forced communities to adopt practice that has no basis in fact, they continue to insert themselves into local school board elections using their vast resources to influence the electorate. This level of interest in local elections is concerning as it strikes at the very essence of democracy itself. It is an attempt to undermine democratic process and self determination. This is not only a set of “golden handcuffs,” this is a “golden noose” around democracy’s neck. This is villainthropy!
If you want to read an excellent post about “evidence” and the collusion between government and corporate power, read Peter Greene’s new post. Nobody can do tongue in cheek better. I almost fell off my chair laughing at John King’s hypocrisy. http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/09/john-kings-evidence-based-revisionist.html
YES. “the entire battle against poverty can be blamed on the schools”
Cross-posted the article at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Why-should-Bill-Gates-deci-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Accountability_Bill-And-Melinda-Gates_Education_Learning-160917-361.html#comment618427
Soon, like health care, only the rich will be able to access a good education… goodbye democracy and income equality and that is the plan of the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.
Go to the link and see how Gates, Broad Pearson and Walton have cleverly dismantled public education to make “schools’ and education a marketplace.
If you are first beginning to wake up to the war on PUBLIC SCHOOLS, you can catch up fast if you
Go to my series here at Oped, and look at my posts for Privatization,or put privatization into the search field here at Diane’s site. https://dianeravitch.net/?s=PRIVITIZATION
She has been talking FOREVER about the ‘billionaire’s boy’s club https://dianeravitch.net/?s=billionaires+boys+club
See also, the legislative corruption that funds the charter school takeovers! How is did they ruin our wonderful system that was the road to opportunity for Americans. Easy. Look at my Series Page for 15,880 Districts in 50 States: already divided for conquering. | OpEdNews. http://www.opednews.com/Series/15-880-Districts-in-50-Sta-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-140921-34.html
The REAL story of the war on Public Education, which began in the late eighties, is still UNKNOWN because dark money http://billmoyers.com/2014/09/22/5-signs-dark-money-apocalypse-upon-us/?utm_source=General+Interest&utm_campaign=94370722aa-Midweek_0924149_24_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4ebbe6839f-94370722aa-168347829 came into America, and the billionaires purchased the media so that few citizens know the story of how the unions sold out the veteran teachers so their civil rights could be ignored.–, resulting in catastrophic failure of the schools.
It is the untold story of how they took out the professionals who would never agree to replace experienced practice in pedagogy with Common Core Crap!
Think about how hospitals would fare if the businessmen told the doctors how to treat patients, replacing sound practice with cockamamie ideas, no evidence required.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html
Failure was built in as the top experienced teacher-practitioners experienced an assault on their civil liberties. They invented failure to ruin the health care industry, why not end public education in the same way?
Seems to be working!
We talk about the ‘conspiracy’ of the the ‘billionaire’s boy’s club https://dianeravitch.net/?s=billionaires+boys+club, or as we do at Oped News, acknowledge that there is a plan by the oligarchs — who already control our legislatures and media– to control what our people know, (to rewrite our history https://dianeravitch.net/2014/12/05/north-carolina-plans-to-adopt-koch-funded-social-studies-curriculum).
This ‘conspiracy’ is not merely to enrich those the marketplace profiteers.The ‘conspiracy’ is real, because these men who have the wealth once reserved for nations KNOW that SHARED KNOWLEDGE IS AT THE ROOR OF DEMOCRACY.http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/hirsch.pdf
Eric Thayer says: ” There are actual conspiracies in the world. The powerful do routinely collude to hide information. To add to this, people like stories, and conspiracy theories are a form of storytelling. “”The trouble here isn’t a healthy suspicion of power, but the transformation of a culture of political distrust into a swirl of bizarre tales divorced from facts. Conspiracy theories are like mosquitoes that thrive in swamps of low-trust societies, weak institutions, secretive elites and technology that allows theories unanchored from truth to spread rapidly. Swatting them one at a time is mostly futile: The real answer is draining the swamps.”
But Diane, ‘How do we ‘drain the swamps’ when schools and communities have disappeared, so that the only way people get information is from the media.
How can we expect civil discourse in this “pervasive atmosphere of distrust” which is sold night and day on television and on the internet.
As someone who has seen the Delaware Department of Education, State Board of Education, and our very own Governor, Jack Markell, lie openly to the public, there is a very good reason for the distrust. Bill Gates and the other billionaires may have the power, but they only keep that power because state leaders and their state agencies allow them to have that power. When you have to submit FOIAs to get information that should be open to the public, and you are charged outrageous fees to get them, you have to wonder why that is. I submitted a FOIA last year to my DOE for a bunch of contracts. They wanted to charge over $8000. I submitted a complaint to our Atty General who gave a legal opinion they should have only charged about $1700. The accountability for the DOE: nothing. If there is so much distrust out there it is because of things like that.
“. . . they should have only charged about $1700.”
And that is only about $1700 too much. Who the hell can afford FOIAs at that point? Certainly not me.
Diane, Vista Unified School District has entered and won a 10 million dollar grant from a company aimed to destroy and replace traditional public schools with online personalized learning with a global emphasis. Report cards will be replaced with some kind of online personal growth path–imagine the data mining going on here?! In my opinion, over time, parents will be showed the “data proof” that their child is or is not best suited for college (or even best suited for this career choice or not).
No longer will the public school students learn from teachers, but now get “education” from a screen teacher. When they break for group learning the kids will be forced to find solutions to global problems. Forget about academics…these kids will not need them in the 21st century. They only need to become global problem solvers with an ability to get along and work as a team.
The language seems to say parents can opt out for a traditional learning model, but then again it says 100% online learning. How can the school board neglect their own policies and adopt this outside company’s? What if this experiment fails? Can the board return to an academic based school without paying the money back? So many strings attached, but parents are so excited thinking the money will be used for a swimming pool and new technology.
Vista High School has to change its name to Vista Challenge, and ironically this is the only thing parents seem to object too. They have no idea that the superintendent is such a believer in personalized education that the whole district will probably make the switch in a few years.
Teachers can’t make the connection that their career is being phased out. Why would the district continue to pay teachers and screen teachers for the same job? They won’t. Overtime, the live staff will be let go and with it their expensive salaries, benefits, and pensions.
Please see
http://xqsuperschool.org
to see what public education will become, unless parents and teachers stop it!
That “super school” looks super frightening. Is it Halloween yet? Holy cow.
Anyone know anything about this organization. They have nothing on their site about who funds them, although, hey at least The Dunkster is good with them.
Interestingly, the district picked the lowest economic high school to be in this experiment. Many of these kids are second language learners who interpret English on behalf of their parents.
Of course it is the school with the most ELLs and poor students. They don’t have any political say whatsoever. Gentrification coming to a neighborhood soon. Got to weed out all those bad elements first.
Duane,
It is Laurene Powell Jobs, a full blown reformer. She hired Duncan and Russlyn Ali the big proponent of CC
Yep, here she says,
“We are an organization dedicated to removing barriers to opportunity so people can live to their full potential. Established by Laurene Powell Jobs, we center our work on education, immigration reform, the environment and other social justice initiatives. We use a wide range of tools and strategies—partnering with entrepreneurs and experts, parents and policymakers, advocates and administrators—to spur change and promote equality.”
The new education is social justice NOT a solid ground in academics to make you a smarter, informed citizen.
Thanks, Diane and Mo5 for the info!
“This distinction is particularly important in low-income communities that are populated predominantly by people of color, where foundations have long concentrated efforts to pursue unproven innovations.”
Ciedie Aech’s new book “Why is you always got to be trippin” is an excellent expose of all of those “concentrated efforts” and the havoc and destruction those “innovations” have wrought. And I wouldn’t call them “unproven innovations”, as they are proven to be anathema to what community public schools should be about.
unproven and SHORT-LIVED. The chaos which surrounds an endlessly implemented change is what keeps “reform” going in our heavily abused district.
An excellent investigative report on “Dark Money” can be found in an interview with the author of a book by that name, Jane Mayer, available anytime at http://www.booktv.org. Type in “Mayer” or “Dark Money” and get a good in-depth overview of how things have changed in this “democracy” since the 80’s via the oligarchs. I don’t know what else to call it except a “conspiracy.” The Koch brothers actually tried to destroy the author’s reputation as a reporter, but nobody bought it (pun intended).
Dear Diane,
thank you for providing all this information. More on another occasion,
Georg
Georg Lind, Konstanz, Germany
Gates, the thousand pound gorilla, resides in one of the seven states that has no income tax, which results in the state’s poor, paying disproportionately more in taxes. Taxed necessities, eat up the incomes of the poor while Gates’s huge income source remains untaxed, at the state level. Making the inequity worse, the state of Washington has a constitutional limit, of a 1% tax rate on the market value of individual property. So, Gates’ massive palace is flat taxed (more regressive taxation). The difference between Gates and the Walton’s/Koch’s, is PR. Just like other anti-progress oligarchs, Gates is against raising minimum wage and against public pensions. If you experience the traffic congestion in Seattle, you can see how much Gates cares about infrastructure. His imagination and, interest, are limited to hackneyed cost cutting measures, like schools-in-a-box, and corporate profit.