Education Week is a paradox. On one hand, it has many excellent reporters who check facts and write lucidly without partisanship. On the other, the corporate entity has become a selling platform for technology and charter schools.
I used to blog regularly at EdWeek, in a column called “Bridging Differences,” with Deborah Meier. No one ever changed what I wrote. I know that editorial independence is central to a journal’s integrity.
But since I departed (and even before), Education Week needed advertising from the industry on which it was reporting, and it began to turn into a platform for the industry. EdWeek also receives funding from the Gates Foundation and the Walton Foundation, each of which has its own agenda.
And so I regularly open my email box to find advertisements from EdWeek for tech products, webinars, seminars, panels, events, etc.
The latest was a solicitation for a webinar about “Mastering the Charter School Market.” Part of the pitch was that charters would capture 20-40% of the “market” by 2035.
Where did they get that figure? I thought about it. Then I discovered the source: The projection was made by Bellwether Partners, a consulting firm founded by reformer Andrew Rotherham, a leader in the charter school movement who represents charter corporations and advocates. This 2015 report (slide 60) says that the charter schools will have 22-38% of the “market” by 2035. That assumes that the numerous scandals associated with deregulation and the resistance of parents and educators to privatization have not slowed the movement long before then.
I am posting this after the event, because this is not an advertisement but rather a post expressing my concern about Edweek’s descent into marketing for the edBiz, whether it is technology or charters.
The registration form can be found here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Mastering the Human Capital Pipeline Market” doesn’t have the same ring to it (Bellwether’s description of schools).
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Here’s what “your representatives” are up to today, public school parents.
Holding yet another “public schools suck!” event.
You’re paying for this political campaign:
“Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is expected to offer details about the Trump administration’s vision for a federal investment in school choice in a major policy speech Monday.
DeVos is slated to speak at an Indianapolis summit hosted by her former group, The American Federation for Children, which advocates for school choice, the Education Department confirmed Wednesday night.”
Can any of the people in DC name one thing they have done for kids in public schools in the last year? It is all charters and vouchers all the time!
Kids in public schools get NOT ONE BENEFIT from the DeVos plan. They simply weren’t considered important enough to even consider.
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DeVos’ speech will be another “dog and pony show” for privatization. DeVos figures she is on safe turf in the land of Pence. I was heartened by about a hundred students walking out on Pence’s speech at Notre Dame. We need more people to walk out on those trying to hijack public dollars.
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I didn’t quite understand the huffiness over the actions of the students. They didn’t deny Pence the right to speak at their commencement no matter how much they objected. They just exercised their right to not listen to him. I can’t remember who spoke at my commencement although I do know that the students had a voice in the choice. I really don’t think it is that hard to find a speaker that is not going to offend large numbers of the graduates especially if the students are included in the process. After all it is supposed to be their day.
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Maybe the American Federation for Children should rename itself: The American Federation for Some Children (not Yours)
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Good one.
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Are public school kids still permitted to tour the White House or have they been excluded from there, too? They’re surely not represented at the US Department of Education or in Congress.
They deserve better than to be used by Betsy DeVos as a punching bag to promote her ideological agenda. Why do ed reformers take jobs in public education if they oppose public schools? How is that fair to kids IN public schools?
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Chiara, the ed reephormers take those jobs in public education with the goal of destroying public education from within the system.
Think of a large parasite, eating it’s way through the body.
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Children will get representation, when children can vote. Politicians do not give a hoot about non-voters.
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A sad description, now, for so many previously trusted media outlets facing the same socially devastating reality: “…advertising from the industry on which it was reporting…began to turn [it] into a platform for the industry.”
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Oh, man, is this cynical….
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Dropped my subscription for that very reason.
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