Kevin Kumashiro is a professor of Asian-American Studies and a scholar of American education. You must read his book “Bad Teacher,” in which he dissects the corporate reform movement.
This important article–“When Billionaires Become Educational Experts”–describes the right wing foundations and business groups that are financing the war on public schools and their teachers. It will make you eager to read his book.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
cross posted the original article at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/When-Billionaires-Become-E-in-General_News-Billionaires_Education_Educational-Crisis_Privatization-161003-194.html with this commentary.
See my serieshttp://www.opednews.com/Series/legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html, particularly the one on privatization, https://dianeravitch.net/?s=PRIVITIZATION
using information that Diane provides about the state legislatures https://dianeravitch.net/?s=legislature which are taking over the local schools, with nary an educator on board, and giving them to charters, with not a shred of oversight! Here is a link to Diane’s posts on charter school corruption: https://dianeravitch.net/?s=corruption
Diane posts scores of reports like this one, on how “EduProfiteers See a Big Market in Education” here is one:. https://dianeravitch.net/2015/04/14/confidential-report-eduprofiteers-see-a-big-market-in-education/
She introduced us to California: Meet the Billionaires Who Are Financing the Spread of School Privatization: https://dianeravitch.net/2016/09/01/california-meet-the-billionaires-who-are-financing-the-spread-of-school-privatization/
and warns us to be aware that this is a worldwide takeover of education by the oligarchs who KNOW that getting people as kids, wins the battle to take over any nation.
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/worldwide%20takeover%20%20%20%20%20https://dianeravitch.net/?s=Worldwide+
Anya Kamenetz wrote an illuminating and actually frightening article https://www.wired.com/2016/04/apec-schools/
about Pearson’s ambitious plans to introduce for-profit education around the world. I quote the article at length because it is so important. Diane urges you to read it in full. It appears in “Wired” magazine.”
Kevin Kumashiro is not a professor of Asian-American Studies. He is the Dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco.
correct and when i read this artical perhaps three years ago , it was a detailed history of the attack on far more than public schools
He ties it back to the Powell memo and
Even the attack on the construction trades by the Business Round Table .
I have fowarded this excellent article many times . If the book is half as good , it will be well worth the read
Mega-philanthropies are now targeting higher education and the privacy regulations governing major data systems operated by the federal government and non-profits.
I have just created a spread sheet to show investments of the Gates and the Lumina foundations in these ventures. Their agendas are aided by sending a lot of money to other foundations and to LLC’s that specialize in producing white papers and other forms of PR to create the illusion that their agendas are grassroots initiatives. (The same strategy used to market the Common Core).
Both of these foundations, aided by others and by profit seekers, are determined to make competency-based credentials and on-line learning the new normal for postsecondary education. Just as mega-foundations have leveraged their wealth and influence to raise havoc in K-12 education, they have launched programs at eliminating public higher education programs that do not have a clear “labor market value.”
Gates wants postsecondary degrees and credentials that are “worth something.” By that he means return on investment with a national stack rating of ROI programs based on “big data” analytics with ratings at multiple time intervals preceding during and beyond program completion (extending to three, five, and ten years after program completion. These measures are intended to show the economic “value added” by higher education. (VAM will be alive and well for a long time).
See for example how the Gates-funded Institute for Higher Education Policy also funds many of its papers. Notice how the “pitch” is framed, just like the Common Core, as if this is a “state-led” venture. Take at look: Answering the Call: Institutions and States Lead the Way Toward Better Measures of Postsecondary Performance” at http://www.ihep.org/postsecdata/mapping-data-landscape/metrics-framework-technical-guide
A history lesson for public education advocates to understand. Thanks for sharing.
This article should be required reading at every education school. I would add a personal narrative that sheds insight as to how very successful people view education in general and their own in particular.
I attended a very good private school where I received a great humanities education. Now, as a teacher, I can look back and view the experience through 35 years of being in a classroom and studying how to teach. Unfortunately, successful business leaders and other professionals cannot do this. One guy I met stands out in this way.
Right after I graduated from college, I met this guy who had also graduated from my school. He was fabulously wealthy, and flew in his private plane to trustee meetings at the school.
He regaled me with long winded depredations of the present state of the school, suggesting that its stature had dwindled since he left. Not every kid ever went from the school to Big Old Ivy U, but he was convinced that it had been his way. Finally he challenged me with a question: what can be done about this decline? Obviously, he wanted confirmation of his point of view more than he wanted solutions. I gently reminded him that our school produced people who were good community leaders, like my own father, a farmer, and had been doing that for a long time. That was a good answer, was his patronizing response.
People who are very successful cannot see how their education materialized. People that are unsuccessful can rarely see either, for education and economic success are not necessarily two sides of the same coin. What a person thinks came from his education might have come from a combination of other experiences.
This article. This one. This is what I want Hillary Clinton to read.
Before I discovered Diane I read this artical
Both demonstrate that this is about far more than public schools
Michael Moore, whose recent movie, examined education and drew important conclusions, will be taping a T.V. segment in Wilmington, Ohio on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 6 and 7. Information and free tickets are available at http://www.tblus.com/moore
What a great article. Most of what I’ve read just jumps from a comparison of Carnegie/ Rockefeller/ Mellon to Gates/ Broad/ Walton/ Koch. It really helps to get the long view. But it leaves one wondering, where are the pro-common-good liberal philanthropists, and why haven’t they (like the pro-biz conservatives) developed a similar network of think-tanks, lobbyists, etc? The article makes it sound like the only driving philanthropic forces for the common good were civil-rights & labor proponents– the first sitting on its laurels & entrenching/ bureaucratizing since the ’60’s, the other in dissaray and without clout since the decimation of our manufacturing base.