Will Bunch, a journalist in Philadelphia, foresees disaster for his city’s public schools, which have been under siege by privatizers for a decade and are barely scraping by.
“Betsy DeVos, the right-wing billionaire school choice advocate tapped today by President-elect Donald Trump to run the U.S. Education Department, is definitely good at some things. Arguably, she’s displayed great skill in practicing the dark arts of big-money politics, using her family’s vast Amway forture to woo state legislatures through lobbying and obscure political-action committees and impose a vast empire of charter schools from Michigan to Louisiana.
“Her biggest failure, though, is a pretty huge one: Failing to do a damn thing to educate America’s children, especially in the nation’s poorest zip codes.
“Take a look at Detroit — Ground Zero for education reform in DeVos’ home state of Michigan, where the heiress has pumped millions into the political system to boost what advocates call “school choice.” The result is a broken urban school system where charter-school privateers have made big profits — aided by the failure of an charter oversight bill that the DeVos family spent $1.45 million to fight — and low student achievement has been locked in. Federal auditors discovered last year that an “unreasonably high” number of charters were among Michigan’s worst 5 percent of schools.
“Now. as Trump’s pick for Education Secretary, DeVos — with no governmental experience unless you count running the Michigan Republican Party — will be in a position to push her unregulated brand of the charter-school grift with the full force of the federal government. And public school advocates in Philadelphia are horrified.”
Read on.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Essentially, America voted Scamway into office earlier this month. By basically the same exact people that get scammed by such organizations and related businesses.
This is not change, this is stupefied submission. Idiots on airplanes shouting to passengers, “Donald Trump, baby!” may as well be Slim Pickens riding a nuclear missile into oblivion.
I think it’s probably worthwhile to look at the last ed reform initiative in Detroit for the template going forward. What ed reformers did in 2012 in Detroit with the EAA is replace public schools with “blended learning” charters. They bought a garbage online program and used that as the basis of the EAA charters.
It was hailed by ed reformers (including Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee) as the wave of the future, 21st century learning, but what it really was is an attempt to raise tests scores cheaply. It was an absolute disaster but they’re still madly in love with this idea.
That’s what local people should watch for- cheap gimmicks sold as “innovation”. If it sounds too good to be true IT IS. If the snake oil salesmen travel to your school and tell you they can raise test scores on 5k a student, run them out of town. Buy NOTHING from these people. You will regret taking advice from hucksters and frauds.
They don’t bother to look at the results in order to shape policy. Since privatization is wholly political and economic, they just plow ahead with the next bad idea. Glow children staring at screens all day is the ultimate cheap product that can be called “public education.” Trump and his band of billionaires can care less about other people’s children. Their children and grandchildren will never attend these fake schools. Maybe then, the working class that supported Trump will see that they were scammed along with so many others that had better sense than to vote for this con artist.
So this is from 2013. All of ed reform hailed the Detroit ed reforms as miraculous. Everyone from Arne Duncan to Michelle Rhee were out there cheerleading.
Don’t forget that. They ALL backed this. They no longer mention Detroit but this had lockstep backing in all of ed reform:
“The Skillman Foundation is sponsoring a lunch panel on Thursday called “Detroit: The Final Frontier of Education Reform.” Mary Kramer, the publisher of Crain’s Detroit Business and a Skillman Trustee, will moderate the panel discussion featuring John Covington, head of the Education Achievement Authority, CEO of Excellent Schools Detroit Dan Varner, and Gov. Rick Snyder. They’ll discuss how combining online learning, innovative public policy, bold leadership, and high-quality classroom teaching is helping to turn Detroit schools from abysmal to elite. It runs from noon to 1 p.m. in the Brighton Pavilion at the Grand Hotel.
See more at: http://www.skillman.org/Knowledge-Center/A-Rose-for-Detroit-Blog/Mackinac-Policy-Conference-preview#sthash.3TeOSgZC.dpuf
Online learning was the key. That’s what ed reform sold in Detroit. Charters were just the delivery mechanism. This is what DeVos will be selling to public schools. Don’t buy.
It’s important that ed reformers be held accountable. Be aware that ALL of ed reform backed Detroit privatization- Eli Broad lobbied hard for the EAA and Duncan lauded it as a huge success.
This is Duncan from 2009. All of ed reform promoted Detroit privatization from 2009 to 2014 until the failure became impossible to ignore:
“U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says public schools in Detroit have improved in the last four years. Duncan was in Detroit today with Governor Rick Snyder. They toured a traditional public school and a school in the state’s Education Achievement Authority.
The EAA is a controversial state-run authority meant to turn around failing schools. Based on his tour today, Duncan says the EAA shows promise.
“Obviously, long long way to go, and there’ll be bumps in the road and hurdles. But my only goal is to see every child be successful,” said Duncan. “I think the only way we get there is if, again, the EAA is successful, the Detroit public schools are successful, charters are successful. We just need great public schools across the state and across the country.”
DeVos isn’t solely responsible for ed reform in Michigan. The entire crew of “liberal” and “Democratic” ed reformers assisted her every step of the way.
The ed reform disasters in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania were BIPARTISAN. The echo chamber marched in lockstep on them FOR YEARS.
Here’s a critic of Michigan ed reform in the NYTimes:
“The situation is not entirely Ms. DeVos’s fault, of course, but she is widely seen as the main driver of the entire state’s school overhaul. She devised Detroit’s system to run like the Wild West. It’s hardly a surprise that the system, which has almost no oversight, has failed. Schools there can do poorly and still continue to enroll students. Also, after more than a decade of Ms. DeVos’s getting her way on a host of statewide education policies, Michigan has the dubious distinction of being one of five states with declining reading scores.”
I don’t want the ed reform “movement” to get away with this. They NEVER objected to Michigan ed reform when it mattered! They all marched in lockstep with all of this. Duncan actively cheered it on, up to an including expanding Ohio charters when everyone in the state of Ohio knew they were a disaster.
Why are they credible now? They refused to criticize their own “movement” when it mattered. In fact, they silenced every critic by insisting that we were all the shills of teachers unions.
ALL of ed reform is responsible for this. It’s too late for them to speak up now. They’re no longer credible.
Ed reformers, ALL of them, have actively harmed public school kids in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. They have damaged these school systems. Public schools ARE WORSE than when this started. They ALL need to be held accountable, not just DeVos.
I am desperate for the nation to get some sort of honest assessment of the damage done to public education by Bill Gates and Arne Duncan. I am not an expert on anything, much less financial matters in education. I hold out some faint hope that this idiotic choice for department of education will do something with vouchers that blows up in the face of the conservatives……by knocking the keerap out of a lot of charter schools as they get the shock of having to deal with people as ruthless as they are in hiring cheap, unqualified teachers, and abuse the standards required of actual public schools. Is it too much to hope for that the vouchers could cause rage among the wealthy bandits exploiting children with unchallenged competition? This woman is so ridiculous that something unplanned for…..other than the destruction of public schools could happen. Or am I just dreaming? I hate the free ride conservatives have been given with Bill Gatesism.
I just read today, don’t know if it’s true, that schools funded by Gates in a country in Africa are shutting down due to issues you’ve mentioned: 1) cheap, unqualified teachers 2) minimal regulation
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/25/africa/uganda-schools-zuckerberg-gates/index.html
I’m seeing a lot of criticism of Michigan ed reform from ed reformers now that DeVos is in charge.
Here’s my question: where were all these critics for the last 15 years when this was going on in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania?
Why did all of ed reform march along lockstep promoting this in these states?
Public schools supporters have been screaming that this is a disaster for those of us who live in these states for for 15 years. We were either ignored or smeared.
Why are ed reformers credible on it now? They did NOTHING when it counted. In fact, they cheered each and every DeVos-style reform.
Now that’s national they all of a sudden care? They didn’t care when it was limited to MI, PA and OH?
how about that….wait until it hits them in the pocketbook.
The good people of Philly and other urban areas need to organize demonstrations against harmful policies that promote charter expansion. People of the suburbs should support these efforts. We need a solid show of collectivism. If they can force privatization in the cities, they are coming to your neighborhood next in a quest for ever expanding “markets.”
As a senior and an outsider to public education, I, nevertheless, have a key interest in the education of all children —- and for years continue to read about charter schools, common core, and related transitional efforts. It all seems to add up to confusion..
Was wondering is there any one place to read up on what’s happening to clarify the situation which will probably come to head w the appointment of Devos to Sec of Edu—i.e. why are the wealthy such as the Broad, Gates, Devos, Koch, Walton, and other families so opposed to public education for all? Certainly, public education for all seems reasonable to me.
Is their goal to guarantee a lower educated, lower cost work force?
Is their goal just to suck profits from gov’t taxes?
Is it just to obliterate the teachers unions?
Anything else?
Pray tell—-what is their driving force or forces, since their efforts don’t seem to be aimed at making the country stronger and more competitive vs rest of the world.
Garth,
You could start by reading my last two books. I tried to synthesize what is going on.
The billionaire philanthropists are arrogant. They think because they are rich, they are smarter than everyone else. They are never accountable for messing up the lives of others. They want to shape the world. They want to make it efficient. They step on other people and never notice the damage they do.
Thanks Diane– I’ve ordered Reign of Error for my Kindle, and will get Death and Life of the Great American School System… when I finish.