Jeb Bush has been advocating everything related to corporate reform for many years. As Governor of Florida, he imposed high-stakes testing, charters, simplistic accountability measures, letter grades for schools, and did whatever he could dream up to promote competition and choice. He tried to get vouchers, but was only able to get vouchers for special education (a program once described in a prize-winning article as a “cottage industry for graft”). He sought a constitutional amendment to make vouchers possible, and Michelle Rhee joined him to promote vouchers. But in 2012, voters said no by 58-42.
This fall, this hater of public schools will teach at the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance, which is supervised by voucher advocate Paul Peyerson. Students will no doubt learn that public schools must be replaced by a free market. They will learn that choice will create Mira Les. They will learn that families should schools just as they choose milk in the grocery store: whole milk, 2% milk, 1% milk, chocolate milk, buttermilk. No one will tell Jeb about Sweden and Chile.
Saddest of all is that he is giving the annual Godkin Lecture, an honor once reserved for distinguished scholars.
As the evidence piles up that choice is no panacea, do you think he will apologize for the schools and communities he has disrupted?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So much for our once great universities. They are fast becoming disreputable dens of corruption. Do you smell that? Smells like greed.
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Seems that money can buy even education. Wondering if Gates is sponsoring the funding for this one?
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Maybe the scent is similar, but I feel it’s actually the scent of arrogance and/or the desperation to “matter”. Not greed.
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Can you buy chocolate milk on food stamps?
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Can one even find any chocolate milk in the food deserts that are urban poverty areas?
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It is sad that such a venerable institution should open up its gates to the barbarian horde of profiteers. I would assume that some remaining scholars would be offended by all the lies, and lack of evidence behind so called “reform.” As we have repeatedly observed, money can buy a mountain of garbage that Harvard will be happy to host for the right price. For a split your sides laugh, please read Peter Greene’s “Professor Bush Goes to Harvard.”http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/09/professor-bush-goes-to-harvard.html
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Competition creates winners but also losers. Only through collaboration can we all be winners.
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Wow.
A prestigious Ivy League school — arguably the most prestigious in the mind of the general public — hires and gives a forum to a former governor who demeaned the entirety of U.S. public schools as “government monopolies” that are “controlled by teachers unions”, and “failure factories” and on and on … where he will lecture on his view of these schools … i.e. close them and turn them over to money-motivated charlatans with whom he’s connected.
Here’s Valerie Strauss at the WashPost opining:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/09/27/after-failed-presidential-bid-jeb-bush-is-back-in-school-this-time-as-a-teacher-at-harvard/
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VALERIE STRAUSS:
“Critics accused him of wanting to privatize the entire public education system and noted that he doesn’t call public school districts ‘public school districts,’ but rather says that the United States has ‘over 13,000 government-run monopolies run by unions.’ (He doesn’t mention that some districts don’t have unions or that unions can’t win a contract agreement without politicians agreeing.)
“The course to which Bush will contribute at Harvard is taught by Paul E. Peterson, a professor and director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance; and John White, Louisiana’s state superintendent for education. Peterson and White have been supporters of the kind of school reform that Bush made famous.”
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On the subject of money-motivated charlatans, here’s Part 2 (of 4) of a series exposing the scandal-ridden California Charter School industry. Notice how when a scandal breaks, the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) makes a public comment agreeing this latest scandal indicates there’s a problem that needs fixing.
However, once the spotlight is off, CCSA’s lobbying arm throws everything but the kitchen sink into killing any legislation that would have prevented such corruption in the first place, and would prevent it in the future.
Also, there are countless “independent learning centers” popping up all over the state — sometimes opening without even informing the district in which they are located. Thes scams are replicating and spreading like cockroach nests, with the California Charter Schools Association running cover for them and protecting them at every turn.
Here’s the link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/09/28/why-californias-charter-school-sector-is-called-the-wild-west/
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CAROL BURRIS:
“Desert Sands is one of 15 independent learning center charter schools, which are defined as non-classroom-based independent study sites, connected to Learn4Life, a network of schools that claim to provide personalized learning. On its website, Learn4Life tells prospective families that it connects students to resource centers so that they can receive one on one instruction because “no two students are alike.”
“Bryan’s classmates, Mayra and Edith, who also returned to the public school from Desert Sands, found their experience at the charter to be anything but “personalized.” They described education at Desert Sands as no more than a continuous cycle of paper packets, optional tutor appointments and tests that students continue to take until they pass. Three calls to three different Learn4Life charter schools confirmed that the instructional program was driven by paper packets that students pick up and complete. After packet completion, students take a test to earn credit. Although students can make an appointment for help with the packet, they are required to come by only once a week.
“Of the 15 charters authorized to Learn4Life operated corporations, 13 are required to operate high-school grade levels. Each school has its own name, principal and sponsoring district, but uniqueness ends there. The schools are in reality a web of resource centers sprinkled in office buildings, strip malls and even former liquor stores. They advertise themselves with nearly identical websites with the same pictures, quotes, descriptions of program, principal letters and a common phone number and address. The homepage of the Desert Sands High School is indistinguishable from the homepage of Diego Valley, as well as the homepages of 11 other high schools that are part of the chain. All that differs is the name of the school.
“Diego Plus is one of the many corporations operated by Learn4Life. Diego Plus and its three Learn4Life charter schools (Diego Valley, Diego Hills and Diego Springs) are defendants in lawsuits filed by Grossmont Union High School District, San Diego Unified School District and Sweetwater Union High School District. The three charters opened their resource centers in the three complaining districts without notifying them. They were authorized by and are the responsibility of the Julian, Dehesa and Borrego Springs school districts, each of which receive considerable income for supervising these charters located far beyond their boundaries.
“In total, the three Learn4Life Diego Plus charters enroll almost 2,000 students. Their respective four-year 2015 graduation rates are 10.8 percent, 19.3 percent and 0 percent. Forty-five percent of the students in that Diego Valley cohort dropped out of the charter school. It does not appear that long-distance supervision of storefront schools is working out well for kids.
“Transparency and accountability, as well as legal efforts to force legal compliance, have been stymied and complicated by the continual changes in Learn4Life corporate names and addresses. A recent petition to the court on behalf of the Grossmont Union High School District lists 13 corporate names located at the same Learn4Life address. In 2014, there were no less than eight not-for-profit corporations listed at that Lancaster address that filed tax returns[1].
“Each of those eight corporations received funding from the state of California. During the 2013-14 school year, the sum of all government grants given to those eight related corporations was $61,476,306. About 11,000 students are enrolled in the 15 Learn4Life schools[2].
“Officers of the Learn4Life corporations play musical chairs with titles, often receiving compensation from several different corporations. For example, Steve Gocke is listed as the superintendent of Desert Sands Charter. In 2014, Gocke received $139,750 for serving as the secretary for the two different Learn4Life charter schools. Dante Simi served as the chief executive of six different Learn4Life related corporations and the CFO of two others. According to the organizations’ 990s, his 2014 compensation was $270,200. Dante’s son-in-law Skip Hansen serves as a senior vice president, and received a six-figure salary for his services. Simi’s wife, Linda, is also listed as a key employee of one of the corporations.
“Perhaps all of the above attempts at obfuscation might be forgiven if the schools were actually getting the job done. But they’re not. The average 2015 graduation rate for the schools was 13.73 percent. Two of the schools had graduation rates of 0 percent. Dropout rates for cohorts ranged from 27.6 percent to 53.9 percent.
“Are these alarming rates solely a result of serving at-risk students? Although Learn4Life advertises that its mission is to serve students who dropped out or are at risk of dropping out, its schools take students as early as ninth-grade, including those who simply want a quick and easy way to graduate early. There is no requirement for prior failure before entering the schools.”
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Then there’s the Steve Van Zandt and the EdHive fiasco near San Diego, which Peter Greene wrote about on his blog Curmudgucation:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2016/01/ca-one-more-charter-get-rich-quick.html
Here’s Carol Burris on this:
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CAROL BURRIS:
“In February 2016, former Mountain Empire superintendent, Steve Van Zant, pleaded guilty to felony conflict of interest charges after it was discovered that he was personally receiving 5 percent of the revenue generated from oversight fees from the 13 charter schools his district authorized beyond its boundaries. In addition, some of those charters hired the Van Zant consulting firm, EdHive, which provided services to the charters. Its website bragged that it could find authorizing districts for the those who wanted to open Independent Learning Centers that would save the charter schools money.
“When the Van Zant story broke, the California Charter School Association agreed that the case raised legitimate concerns. ”
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Again, CCSA puts out a statement agreeing it’s bad, but as the saying goes “talk is cheap,” as evidenced by their actions later on:
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CAROL BURRIS:
“However, legislation to address the problem of districts authorizing charters in other districts, and even other counties, was opposed by the California Charter School Association (CCSA) and vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014. A present bill on the governor’s desk, SB 739, would put a small restriction on a district’s ability to open independent learning center charters in other districts by ensuring that the sponsoring district is fiscally solvent (does not have a negative certification), thus decreasing the profit generating motive.
“Despite the recent scandals, California Charter School Association Advocates, the political arm of CCSA, is opposing SB 739, along with AB 709, which would subject charters to the conflict of interest and transparency rules that public schools follow.
“Although the original intent of the independent charters may well have been to scoop up at-risk kids and give them a second chance, the lack of criteria for student placement, along with inadequate regulations have led to obvious abuses. There are now far too many independent learning charter schools whose operators, some with no background or expertise in education, make substantial salaries, while cash-strapped districts grab students and revenue from other districts miles away.
“Worst of all, the students who need the most support and daily guidance from adults are in charters that do not require much contact at all.
“Mike Matsuda, superintendent of the Anaheim Union High School District, is fighting what he considers to be the predatory practices of yet one more independent learning charter, Epic Charter, which has entered his district. His powerful statement to the Orange County Board of Education can be found here. Matsuda, who has been recognized for his leadership by Education Week, understands how tough it is to serve at-risk students well.
“ ‘Educating and engaging marginalized students who often suffer from chronic depression due to poverty, family dysfunction, or exposure to emotional or physical violence in the neighborhood is a complex process that’s definitely not cheap,’ Matsuda said.”
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Yep, one of my favorite lines “gubmint school monopoly”.
As if almost 14,000 community based democratically run public school districts can be considered a monopoly. Just one of the many edudeformer lies and falsehoods propagated to further the pillaging of the “common good”.
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He doesn’t even apologize for the dumb A-F grading system. Ohio’s is useless. They change the measure every year. I don’t even think the people at the state department of education understand it, let alone “parents”.
It’s ridiculous. It swings wildly. If I were listening to these geniuses I would be transferring my son in and out of schools every year.
I resent paying for stuff that these highly paid lobbyists sold. State lawmakers have a duty to stop wasting time and money because they are enthralled with the name “Harvard” or “Bush”.
Use your head. We didn’t hire Jeb Bush. We hired YOU. Be a grown up. Say “no” to an ed reformer every once in a while. Show us you’re capable of independent thought and judgment. That’s your job.
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“He doesn’t even apologize for the dumb A-F grading system.”
When will public school teachers and admins and parents condemn the “dumb”, actually invalid, unethical and unjust system of the grading of students?
Is it a case of the pot calling the kettle black?
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As soon as all colleges and universities stop using grade point and test scores. Right now, that’s the end game. If they do, I’ve got no problem moving beyond A-F.
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Vale Math,
Should it be a public schools function to sort and separate students for the benefit of universities? Where can I find the legal rationale for that?
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You won’t. It is the game. I don’t like it either. It is about money. If a student has a high grade point and high SAT/ACT scores, the funding matrices spew out how much discount the family gets off retail price. Of course the wealthy trust fund dullards like Bush, Romney, and Trump get a pass. Bernie was right, college should be free.
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Agree that any properly accredited course of study should be free and available to all who wish to study. This country has more than enough wealth to supply that (and universal health care coverage) but heaven forbid that the most avaricious among us should have to fork over any of their hardly earned stolen wealth.
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Also, just a warning to public school superintendents and school boards.
Jeb Bush sells tech product to public schools. He wants cheap garbage online classes for middle and lower income kids. He’s been pushing commercial product into public schools for a decade now.
Don’t buy it. If you do and it’s a waste of money local people will hold you accountable.
No one asked for online courses to replace teachers. This is ed reform marketing. Don’t fall for it.
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KEY (and likely only relevant) POINT: Jeb Bush SELLS tech product to schools.
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Hey, now he can market it as “Harvard professor endorses the use of this product.” (that is if he would be smart enough to think of that angle-I doubt it.)
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Here’s an award-winning piece about Jeb Bush’s efforts to sell online product to public schools in Maine.
Thankfully there was a single reporter who was on the ball and caught them.
Why is Harvard promoting this? Why would they promote cheap garbage being sold to lower and middle income schools?
Can ed reformers please restrain themselves with this tech marketing? This will HARM public schools. Conduct your experiments with people who can afford to lose. Put this crap into the private schools your own kids attend. Stay out of mine.
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What’s next? Chris Christie will be invited to lecture at Princeton University on educational policies?
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No, Joe–John King (Dem…Rep…not much difference in most cases, these days) will tap Christie to become his National Anti-Bullying Program Czar!
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Me gusta.
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Joe,
According to Wilipedia, Bill Baroni, defendant in NJ Bridgegate trial, taught Professional Responsibilty course at Seton Hall Law School.
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Christie is busy trying to coach Trump – after the delicate foot-in-mouth removal procedure is performed. But there’s no guarantee of success.
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Easy A in Jebs no energy or low energy class. How can any student possibly believe anything this jerk says about education. Watching the debates this past year it was evident that Jeb folded like a wrinkled suit when Trump attacked Jeb regarding his low energy or in some cases no energy. Jeb was made a fool and dropped out of the presidential race in a few months even though he had over 100 millions dollars in donations – only because of the bush name – Harvard, you have just lost credibility in my book as my kids will not even apply to your institution because now you are a corrupt institution.
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The Kennedy School of Government should be renamed the Center for Profit Taking from the Common Good. JFK would have publicly excoriated Gates and Bush, as “SOB’s, sons of business”. Then, he would have strengthened public education, denying the tech and finance industries, the opportunity to rob communities and, to sacrifice students to greed.
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Diane, your web site is quickly becoming a site with articles about charters and privatization. THis crap unfortunately is happening in every state but aren’t we all just sick and tired of the bull shit??? When will people wake up and dispose all this smoke about how great these crappy charters are stop drinking the koolaid including you Diane, please stop writing articles about privatization, charters, reformies or whatever they call themselves…..Lets see more articles on public schools and how we are treating all the illegal immigrants with white gloves and giving them everything for free including free lunch, school, train pass, rent and food, free air, open speech to criticize us all and most do not speak english. THen they transfer to the “charters” last for several months and then come back to public schools cause the charters do not want them any longer. What a joke
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Say huh??
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Just our troll of the week. Nothing to see here.
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Yes, I know.
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Everyone MUST read Jane Meyer’s book, Dark Money. Draws all the lines between the Kochs, etc., to control of the colleges & universities.
BTW, the decimation of public universities–Chicago State University (you may have read of their troubles in this blog)– has enrolled only EIGHTY SIX freshman for the 2016-17 school year, according to both the Chicago Tribune & the Chicago Sun-Times.
This is a public university with a mostly African-American student body. This is due, in part, to a loss of MAP grant funding (due to the ongoing ILL-Annoy state budget stalemate, as in–we don’t have one!), but students interviewed in the article stated there to be a lack of trust, a “suspicion of school administrators” (the president of the university left last week, with no explanation) & a question as to whether or not the school would stay open in the short term. One student–who will leave at the end of the semester–has enrolled at–“an online university.” (A possible case of out of the frying pan, into the fire.)
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UnKochMyCampus.org
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“According to OH’s performance index 94% of its urban schools deserve Ds or Fs. According to value-added it’s 63%. Which sounds right to you?”
They’re having tens of thousands of kids and teachers jump thru endless hoops to collect this data and then they just go with their gut on what it means.
This isn’t “science”. It’s politics and ideological belief.
Public schools cannot win this game. Good faith compliance with ed reform mandates is a waste of time. They will always rig it so public schools are the losers.
https://twitter.com/jointhefutureOH?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
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It’s $$$$.
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Even Jeb Bush has freedom of speech just like Donald Trump. They are both allowed to lie as much as they’d like to discover how many ignorant people they can fool.
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Louisiana’s John White, involved in the Paul E. Peterson/Bush class at Harvard was listed in Kim Smith’s New Schools Venture Fund, “Supporters of the Great Teachers and Principles Act” (2013), along with these other public employees: John Deasy (L.A.), Deborah Gist (R.I.), Kevin Huffman (Tennessee), Joel Klein (NYC), Jason Kamras (D.C.),
Marcus P. Johnson (Sanger, Calf.), Jonathan P. Raymond (Sacramento), Christopher J. Steinhauser (Long Beach), Michael E. Hansen (Fresno), Jason Glass (Iowa).
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Maybe Harvard can get Dubya to teach art.
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I vote Jeb! most likely to get lost at Harvard finding the lunchroom. How the low-intelligence Bush brothers ever got this far is a tribute to the perversion of inherited money in our free market “meritocracy”.
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Me gusta
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THis is a great comment you made my day and gave me a laughing fit
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As only the Curmudgucator can put it:
“This is a guy [the jebster] who spent his entire life building a big, beautiful sand castle with hopes of winning the big sculpture contest, only to have the castle ignored by the crowds and kicked over by some cheeto-faced baboon.”
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Then Jeb! brought out mommy to defend him against the big, bad orange bully.
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Back in high school, I refused to apply to Harvard or any of the Ivy Leagues (I was invited/nominated/whatever you call it as well) for an undergraduate degree because their stupidly competitive spirit and disinterest in ethics was palpable. I’m weirdly proud of Gates and Zuckerberg for dropping out–well, they both had clearly brilliant minds, and so I applaud them for dropping out. Because did Harvard really add to their educations? Seems like they already had plenty from wherever else they came from and there was no point in continuing. Yet, I also wonder if Harvard mis-educated them with regards to ethics; they have repeatedly stumbled on issues there–Gates’ approach to education and Zuckerberg’s approach to privacy. I’ve already repeatedly encountered several Harvard folks (not all, of course, some Harvard folks are wonderful) who consistently have ardent opinions on things they know little about; I blame this on the “cold-calling” technique that’s prevalent at the business school (HBS) which pressures people into joining discussions that they perhaps should not.
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It is time for some of Harvard’s distinguished faculty (for real… not the Bush types) step up and protest! Howard Gardner might lead the way.
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What’s It All About, Harvard?
Influence, Money, Power — all dedicated to no higher aim than acquiring more Influence, Money, Power.
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