Dr. Priscilla Chan sounds like a lovely young woman. She is married to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and seems to be running the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, which will dispense billions of dollars.
She is a graduate of Quincy Public Schools in Massachusetts so we can hope that she is not reflexively hostile to public education.
Do you have any advice for her?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Please look at real, respected educational philosophers.
Please include public school teachers in decision making.
Please support creativity.
Please know that children learn best when developmentally appropriate practice is used.
Ask the teachers.
Beth Forrester
Retired first grade teacher
Adjunct Early Childhood Professor
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Um, yeah, I have some advice. If she really is such a lovely young woman, she should divorce Zuckerberg post haste.
In any case, if she’s serious about being charitable, she should truly give the money away with (a) no advantage to herself, Zuckerberg or their offspring and (b) with no personal or familial control over how it is spent. The likelihood of either of those things happening I predict is roughly the same as the likelihood that I will be elected president in 2020.
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Dienne for President!
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🙂
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Can I be your PV-President of Vice, oops I mean VP!
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You can be either one you want – pleased to have you! So I guess that’s two votes I’ve got locked up. Sixty million more to go!
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Rome was not built in a day. Secretary of Ed for me?
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Sure!
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No charters!
No vouchers!
No standardized testing!
Civil rights for all!
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Abigail,
a good platform.
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Well, I wasn’t going to vote for myself, but with you as my Secretary of Education running on that platform, I guess I’ll have to vote for me. So that’s three votes!
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Can I be Secretary of Defense?
No grizzly bears!
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Diene for Prez. Now I’d like to be aaidtant Secretary of Education with a special project. I “accept ” Priscilla Chan’s offer of financial assistance with the following provision…
Ready?
Let’s take a look at all the schools that the children of some of or wealthy leaders attend.. you know the likes of Gates, Rhee, Christie, Trump, Obama, etc… let provide all public schools with the freedoms and opportunities of these schools and Dr. Chan… we shall accept your money to reach this goal. And to prove your integrity and real actions to further this initiative… your children must attend the Quincy Public Schools in the poorest neighborhood of Quincy.
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dienne,
The criteria you cited apply to the 2010 Mark Zuckerberg $100 million gift to Newark public schools announced on Oprah with Z, Booker, Christie. I think Zuckerberg learned from that–and certain personal control may be appropriate for better results.
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Their “philanthropy” is a for-profit, limited liability corporation, so ’nuff said about that, and good luck with any suggestions that might impinge on their profits.
As for divorce, I’d agree with you, Dienne, but Chan is there to convince people that Zuckerberg is a human being, not a National Security State cyborg.
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It might be good to read the article before making judgments. Here are some snippets (thanks Diane) from it that have to do with education–and that, in my view show some hope for public school support. I had to wonder, however, how much Bill Gates and friends will influence her. I’d rather she get in touch the The “Edutopia” group headed by George Lucas: (© 2017 George Lucas Educational Foundation, PO Box 3494, San Rafael, CA 94912).
My advice: First, schools are not “industries” in the common meaning of that term. Second, be VERY attentive to the arguments against privatization of public schools, e.g., vouchers, charters, or any public service for that matter, no matter who they come from. (Gates has a very bad idea about the public-school push back. He said once on the Charlie Rose Show this bit of BS about the opposition: They just doesn’t like change. An incredible misstatement, at the very minimum.)
But here are the snips/ALL SNIPS/QUOTES BELOW: Lots more in the article at “. . . .”
Known more colloquially as CZI, the relatively new effort has an ambitious tagline: “Advancing human potential and promoting equal opportunity.” Practically, that means Chan and Zuckerberg are focused on improving industries like education, medicine and even the criminal justice system. Some of their efforts have been straightforward and should have an immediate impact. Earlier this year, for example, CZI donated roughly $3 million to a nonprofit that gives students around the country free eye exams and glasses. . . .
CZI’s efforts are meant to remove luck from the equation. Or at least spread the luck around to a lot more people, children in particular. . . .
On the education front, CZI is focused on a concept called “personalized learning,” which means that each student learns at her own pace. It’s an approach Tavenner’s Summit Public Schools takes and one of the reasons Chan and Zuckerberg donated to the school in 2014, but it’s also why Facebook has been building software programs for Summit since 2015. (Now, CZI is building those programs for Summit Public Schools instead.) The Primary School that Chan started is also changing the traditional equation model by blending a student’s health care and nutrition with their schoolwork. . . .
Chan’s role as a doctor and teacher means she’s seen firsthand what happens when students don’t have proper health care or support from parents at home. It’s hard to get a good education if you’re constantly going to the doctor. . . .
“Kids can’t be present at school because there’s so much going on at home — they’re sick, they’re hungry,” Chan said at Makers. “School’s the last thing on their mind.”
Which explains why Chan and Zuckerberg are eager to part ways with $63 billion.
“I think they both see this as, this is not their money,” said Tavenner. “They are the stewards of this money. And they got into a fortunate place and they feel [they] have a real sense of obligation and responsibility to the world, given the position that they have found themselves in.”
It turns out, giving away your money can take a lot of work.
Chan is an avid reader and is obsessed with learning. Those close to her recall books they’ve discussed together, like “Evicted,” a Pulitzer prize-winning book about poverty in 21st century America, and “Hillbilly Elegy,” what the New York Times described as a “compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white underclass that has helped drive the politics of rebellion, particularly the ascent of Donald J. Trump.”
And Chan and Zuckerberg know what happens when gifts aren’t properly managed. In 2010, the couple donated $100 million to Newark’s public school system, a donation that was later labeled by many as a failure.
The effort was criticized for being out of touch with the needs of the local Newark community and unfamiliar with New Jersey laws. Critics argued that the money wasn’t well spent — much of it went to expensive contractors — and the politicians who were supposed to champion the effort either moved on to bigger roles (Mayor-turned-Senator Cory Booker) or got sidetracked by scandals (Governor Chris Christie). Dale Russakoff, a former reporter with the Washington Post, even wrote a book about the effort.
(Zuckerberg later admitted that he and Chan “learned a lot of lessons” from that donation, but also pointed out some positives — like an increased graduation rate — as a sign that the donation actually worked.)
When Chan and Zuckerberg donated $120 million to local Bay Area schools four years later, Russakoff saw that as a sign the couple had learned the importance of being more hands-on and involved with community leaders along the way.
“It’s a very, very different and much more humble approach to trying to change education,” she told NPR in 2015. . . . END QUOTED MATERIAL
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“On the education front, CZI is focused on a concept called “personalized learning,” ….”
Yeah, right there. Nothing charitable about it. It’s all about benefiting themselves and their techie friends while controlling education through “personalized” (sic) computer “instruction” (sic). I’d have more respect for them if they didn’t even pretend to be “charitable”. Just keep their filthy money like the greedy bastards they are – at least that would be honest.
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dienne77 Wow.
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Catherine:
“CZI donated roughly $3 million to a nonprofit that gives students around the country free eye exams and glasses. . . .”
Do not be fooled by apparently “high dollar” amounts:
$3m divided by $63b = .00005%
$250 divided by $100,000* = .0025%
I give away a quite higher percentage of my “wealth” to Ducks Unlimited in a year than their initiative.
*and that’s probably a high estimate with the vast majority being my home and property.
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Duane E Swacker Great big silly me. I guess those children who got new glasses would feel the same.
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For those of us at the bottom of the economic heap, and I’m not even at the very bottom, but that will soon come, I say fuck Chan and Zuckerberg! No, I don’t play nice when I’m in so much physical pain accompanied by fiscal worries.
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Catherine – you know how a lot more kids could get glasses (and everything else they need)? If billionaires like Zuckerberg and massive corporations like Facebook would stop trying to dodge their taxes with these “charitable” (sic) foundations and LLCs and just pay what they owe. I’m not sure why you keep insisting that this is a charitable venture when all the evidence that we have on Zuckerberg (and everything similar billionaires have done in the past) says otherwise.
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dienne77 I’m not “insisting this is a charitable venture.** I’m saying “let’s wait and see.” You seem to think quick judgments are essential here. They’re not.
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“You seem to think quick judgments are essential here. They’re not.”
Well, okay, but when CZI comes blazing out of the starting gate firing on all barrels, and every public school in the nation suddenly has “personalized learning” (sic) and no teachers before you can say “oligarchy”, don’t say you weren’t warned.
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dienne77 You’re attitude sucks. I’m outta here.
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“It turns out, giving away your money can take a lot of work.”
Another bad sign. Nope, hardly any work at all. Just write a check or go online. We mere ordinary mortals do that every day.
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dienne77 Call me stupid, and I don’t claim to know for certain, but I do have more hope than that. If the article is correctly drawn, then I think there’s evidence for that hope. For instance, their funding of eye exams and glasses for poor children. Read the rest of the article about her history?
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I dunno, maybe. I suppose there’s always hope. But we’ve been down this road before. Look at all the “good work” Gates did with vaccines and clean water and whatnot. Then he destroyed education for his own benefit. And if you look at his apparently “good” work with vaccines and clean water, you’ll find it’s not so pure after all. There used to be a commenter here who went by something like “Chem Teacher” who had done a lot of research into it – absolutely sickening. Maybe Zuck and Chan are better than that, but their history available so far doesn’t bode well. You do know that Zuck got into Facebook by stealing it from his friend, right?
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dienne77 Oh, yes. I remember that. But if ever there seemed an opening . . . .
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See my response to Dienne77 that is directed at you.
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I will ‘wait and watch’. One person’s intentions rarely translate into ground reality. Effectual change takes time, decades mostly. Is she prepared for that degree of commitment?
Moreover, the money would enter public education through channels that are not government. It’s a LOT of money; it would birth new systems independent of public scrutiny.
As I said, it’s a lot of money. Giving away a few thousand dollars to a school is different than donating millions to a district. Here, we are talking about billions. The ‘Race to the Top’ initiative is a good example of the stuff that can go wrong.
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apurva prabhawalkar Yes . . . From the article, I took that (1) she “does her homework;” (2) they had a bad experience with philanthropy in New Jersey, which chastened their naivete associated with their do-gooder intentions; and (3) she knows the classroom and has experience with public schooling.
With others here, I think those intentions are wrong-headed in their development of the tech/iep thing, though, again, I haven’t seen the “weeds” of their planning. One article does not make for knowing this person and certainly not what will actually occur, though again, I thought there was reason to hope for something better than the kind of corporate takeover of Gates and his participation in the “shadow government.”
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Invest in public education and hit real social pay dirt.
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Me gusta mucho.
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Is this another LLC scheme pretending to be charity?
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Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!
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It will probably be more initiatives to undermine public education while the Chan-Zuckerberg’s get a huge tax write-off.
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And a Medal of Freedom.
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Medal of
ThiefdomFiefdomLikeLike
Listen to real veteran teachers – listen and learn.
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Fat chance of that happening!
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Yes, fat chance.
To tweek what Reb Tevye sang in Fiddler on the Roof”, “When you’re rich, YOU really think you know”
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I posted the article on Facebook and recommended she first speak to teachers, parents and students before making any decisions.
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I would advise her to stop pushing “blended learning” or “personalized learning” into public schools. Instead she should allow schools to adopt (or not adopt) her ideas gradually, if those ideas have merit and are a good value for students, teachers and parents.
Stop the hard sell. If this stuff is so great people will use it. Stop scaring them into it and stop exaggerating the benefits.
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And stop with the ridiculous comparisons to “factories” and “19th century schools”
There’s nothing magical about ed tech. It’s a tool. If schools reject it they shouldn’t be scolded and told they are “defending the status quo” or any of the other demeaning insults ed reform relies upon to sell things.
Stop “selling” us, period. I’m tired of being marketed to. Treat us like human beings instead of “consumers”.
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Like a lot!
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The very first thing you should do is hire consultants who understand the damage being done by other billionaires to guide you. Hire Diane to chair the board and recruit board members.
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If you want to be a teacher or run a school, educate yourself first in those fields. Would you practice pediatrics without an M.D.? I certainly wouldn’t take my kids to a “doctor” without credentials. With all the money and brains and youth and money to pay for childcare, why doesn’t she get a real education in the field that she wants to work in? Such arrogance.
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I would recommend that she focus on prenatal and infant health, with parental education connected with that.
I think her fledgling ventures in education are straight out of the standard reformist playbook, focus on charter schools and shoving software and computers into schools under the misleading meme of “personalized learning.”
I also wonder if she took the time or had an interest in educating herself about existing programs for eye exams for students and associate donor programs.
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Chan appears to be one of those people who does things for a short time and thinks that makes her an expert.
She taught very briefly so that makes her an expert on education.
She has worked very briefly as a doctor, so that makes her an expert on eliminating disease (the stated goal of one of their initiatives)
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“Ten Thousand Minute Mastery”
I worked ten thousand minutes
As everyone can see
And now that I am finished
An expert’s what I be
*10,000 minutes = 166.7 hours
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“The Expert”, that is me
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A couple other points. First, I don’t see anywhere where Chan is actually asking for our advice. Or pretty much anyone’s for that matter. Second, the one advisor that is mentioned in the article is a former top exec at Uber – one of the most openly ruthless companies ever to exist (it puts Microsoft to shame, and Microsoft is no slouch in that regard).
Seems to me that rather than asking for her help and trying to “advise” her in the vague hopes that she’ll be an ally, we should instead be bracing ourselves to stop whatever tsunami of destruction she’s planning to unleash.
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I remain cynical and defensive about “well meaning billionaires” inserting themselves into education. As you have stated, she will most likely follow the “ed reformer” playbook. Maybe she will invest in some more screen time for needy students in order to collect some of that ESSA money.
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I comment her on finishing her residency and starting a school.. now go out there and actually practice medicine and/or teach everyday.
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kurtismayfield In the article, it says that she insisted on Mark spending time in a classroom teaching. He ended up teaching a course. I’m not saying we KNOW anything about where she/they will end up going with this. I’m saying we still don’t know until wee see the evidence. And if we claim that we DO know without the evidence, then we are being nothing less than dogmatic–which is what Gates himself has been, at least at times.
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I don’t need “any evidence”. I’ve seen this type of scam many times.
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Duane E Swacker “Wait and see.”
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No need to wait, I’ve already seen! And I ain’t no psychic!
Now if they were to truly give away that $63B no strings attached, I’d might agree.
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Catherine – why weren’t you willing to “wait and see” with Trump? Might it have been because the evidence against him was already there? Zuckerberg and Chan have made themselves clear. It’s to our peril if we refuse to hear them simply because they’re “liberal” (sic).
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dienne77 I have no investments in jumping to judgment about these people. The truth will come out eventually and I’m open to it. I’d just rather wait and see. About Trump? The evidence is just a bit overwhelming. And your implications at the end of your note are, to me, comical.
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A truly “evidence based” approach would require that people like Chan demonstrate the validity and value of whatever they are proposing before they essentially experiment on thousands or even millions of school children (or anyone else, for that matter)
That would necessarily mean the detailed proposal would have to be peer reviewed and, assuming it passed muster, a small pilot study that adhered to all ethical and scientific protocols undertaken. The study results would then be subjected to peer review. Only after doing all of this would larger scale initiatives potentially be allowed.
The burden of proof is on people like Chan, not on the public.
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SomeDAM poet Totally agree. I read one article–that’s it. Maybe she’ll do that, especially after their experience in New Jersey. But I take no stand on it except listening for more before passing judgment. (I don’t know why that sets people’s hair on fire, but it seems it does.)
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I suspect it sets teachers’ hair on fire because they have been burned so many times in the past by billionaire initiatives that followed NONE of the standard scientific protocols.
Gates’ Common Core and VAM initiatives are the best example, but Zuckerbergs have also engaged in the very same behavior.
People are justified in being highly skeptical and in DEMANDing that Chan lay all her cards on the table before she goes ANY further.
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I think there is one more reason that people are skeptical.
Mark Zuckerbergs has been unethical in his business dealings from day one with Facebook so what reason is there to believe he will behave differently with so called “philanthropic” ventures?
Also, if its truly philanthropy they are about, why did they structure their “charity” as an LLC?
Count me among the skeptical.
If it were up to me, i would not allow them to do a damned thing until AFTER they have taken all the steps alluded to.
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Tell Mark to stick to Facebook. Advocate that the best way for the wealthy to help “the less fortunate” is to pay their fair share of taxes.
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Like!
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Yes, and for their (supposedly American) companies to pay income taxes on ALL the money they make and quit playing “Cayman Islands hide n seek”with profits made abroad, as Facebook does
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2012/12/27/facebook-mirrors-googles-offshore-tax-scheme/#77269ac1272d
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Facebook demanded that a local school district in Utah give up $63 million in taxes for Facebook to build a data center. It was rejected, fortunately. But some area in New Mexico, which got that data center, did lose tax money.
They shouldn’t be making money by taking it from schools, and then giving it back with strings attached.
I don’t need to “wait and see.”
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My advice to Chan: Keep your money. Buy a spaceship. You can call it the XP Space Charter. Fly away.
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My advice:
Please send .0002% of that total to this poor retired public high school Spanish Teacher. . .
. . . ASAP!
Yeah, it’s selfish, but at least I’d have enough to live on until I die! Without it, well, we will see how long I can survive economically.
But, but, you lowlife, you didn’t plan your finances well enough. TFS! Die! You don’t deserve to live if you didn’t plan for your retirement properly.
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That’s actually not a bad idea.
If these billionaires set up as fund to help teachers, policemen, firemen and others who have truly served our country, they would actually be doing something good with the money.
But instead, they seem to enjoy supporting stuff like VAM that actually destroys livelihoods and lives.
I’m not sure why anyone should even gives Chazn the time of day on anything. She married a billionaire. So that makes her credible how?
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Once I read “personalized-learning” I couldn’t hear myself reading in my head because of the buzzing that commenced. Do they really think they can get in the back door with their philanthropy (should be in quotes)? They should keep their noses out of everything they didn’t “luck into”. God I am so sick of it all anymore. It really has become a war with the constant surges.
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For the love of God, stay out of Oakland…Bill Gates already left his $10M scent here, and Laurene Jobs made a brief attempt via our ex-bestest Broad-trained buddy Antwan Wilson…Just.Go.Away.
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She should explore the idea of partnering with the state. Instead of donating directly to schools, it would work better if she gives it to the state. It can help fill the deficits haunting the education budgets. The deficits are huge.
Buying tablets for a district that’s struggling to keep teachers, or is having pension troubles, won’t do any good. The state knows, where to spend and where to hold; they have the people. And, her spending can be accounted for.
Any insertion that’s not budgeted breeds trouble. Look at the ‘Race to the top’ initiative. People tend to change when they are offered money – huge money – sometimes, they lose sight of what’s really important.
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“Do you have any advice for her?”
Yes: “Pay more taxes, and we’ll take care of the burden of spending billions of dollars appropriately.”
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They could write a check TODAy to the IRS ceding all their billions if they wanted to.
But they won’t because they want control over how every penny is spent.
People like Zuckerberg and Gates think they know best about everything and won’t listen to “advice” at any rate, so its a waste of time even trying.
And it’s all about control: control of business, control of money and control of the lives of millions of people.
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The fact that security for the Z-berg Hawaii palace required $500,000 shows us, the nation’s direction.
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I would not be surprised if “security” costs much more than that, eg, for 24/7 personal body guards for everyone in the family.
They prolly have a contract with Erik Prince’s “shoot first and ask questions later” security company (whatever he is calling it now after several of his Blackwater employees were convicted of killing unarmed civilians in Iraq)
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The Zuckerberg/Chan Initiative is a funder of Hechinger Report along with Gates. In March, there was glowing article about de-“personalized learning”. A claim of independence would provoke the journalists I respect, to include the critics’ point about de-“personalized learning”, “(the program) really is adjusting the difficulty level of prefab skills-based exercises based on student test scores…(and) requires the purchase of software.” (Wikipedia)
I presume Z-berg is influenced by his FB board members – Marc Andreeson who said India was better off under colonialism, Reed Hastings, who called for an end to democratically elected school boards and Peter Thiel, who described as an oxymoron, women voting and capitalistic democracy.
I don’t respect Chan because she took a highly coveted place in medial school, and failed to use the discipline she studied to make a contribution. She, like the other idle rich (DeVos and Laurene Powell) have glommed onto schools of the poor and middle class to exert their noblesse oblige, in a field where they have no credentials.
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My advice would be to design their technology initiative to include the devices, apps, and programs/subscriptions as PART of the curriculum and abandon the idea of the technology as the centerpiece of the classroom/educational experience.
Besides the obvious physical concerns regarding overexposure to computer screens; children and adolescents need frequent human interactions. Both with adults and peers. Learning to follow rules and directions from an authority figure, sharing, and developing negotiation skills are a central part of the social experience in a classroom. A part that “personalized learning” leaves out of the equation.
Besides the basic needs of the children and adolescents that are being served, I believe it would make good business sense to follow this advice, Ms Chan. Diminishing the direct human role that’s provided by the teacher will create a backlash from the parents, similar to what Mr Gates has experienced with the CCSS.
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Bless you for reminding everyone about the importance of HUMAN INTERACTION. The idea of kids sitting all day in front of a computer screen is depressing – I imagine the end goal would be to save money by having them do it from home. I would add to your point, the fact that for young children – PLAY is what we should be focusing on. It is how they learn and develop into functioning human beings.
Of course, the fact is that the likes of the Koch brothers, the Walton family, Betsy DeVos and others like them are mainly interested in having uneducated, compliant citizens who will work for them at starvation wages and without health or retirement benefits. They want workers who will work and die because they have no other choice, and then can be easily replaced by others in dire need, just like in China, India, Pakistan, Mexico, etc. All while they live it up with all of their wealth. How Betsy DeVos (and many others) can claim to be Christians and be willing to treat people so cruelly is unbelievable to me.
As long as Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg are the ones calling the shots as to how their “donations” are used, there is no reason to wait and see. They will do what benefits themselves, because they are successful and feel they know what is best.
It has been said multiple times – the best thing they can do is PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE OF TAXES! If they still want to donate, do so and walk away. Or . . . create that one school and work on it until they can show that it really works. Then they might have some credibility. It’s what Bill Gates should have done with his Common Core/Testing debacle/VAM. Instead, he flexed his wealth and forced it on just about everyone, destroying many lives in the process – young and old – because it had no chance of working.
Teddy Roosevelt had it right when he fought corporations having too much.
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Ask yourself: is helping children your goal, or is making money your goal (or both). If making money is in the equation, then children’s learning WILL BE COMPROMISED.
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I can’t believe I just tried to post a long response and then accidentally deleted it. I don’t have the energy to write it again so I’ll just say to Dr. Chan:
Do what you can to strengthen the teaching profession. Teachers need autonomy. By that I mean they should run the schools where they are teaching. Once a teacher is credentialed, she should have the freedom to practice to the best of her ability and should not be under the direction of a principal who may or may not be as well-educated and/or experienced. Principals should be “head teachers” again and be part of a faculty where all share in decision-making. Ideally head teachers should continue to teach, at least part time.
Work with your own school until you find a successful way of teaching low-income children. Once you’re satisfied with the results, work with school districts to replicate these successes in PUBLIC, not charter schools.
Because you are knowledgeable about child development, you can probably bring back developmentally appropriate instruction to our schools.
Please support public schools, the bedrock of our democracy. In countries that have charter schools, there is a tendency to isolate children of poverty, color and disability. Charter schools also take governance away from taxpayers and lead to corruption.
Thanks for your passion, knowledge and generosity. I believe you can make a huge and positive change for the children of our country.
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Begging the rich to do anything that influences OUR schools, in OUR communities, paid for with OUR taxes is the antithesis of democracy.
Forcing the rich to pay their tax debt is democracy, Forcing them out of the political process is democracy.
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Even the rich have the right to give away their money if they choose to do so. They also have the right to participate in our democracy.
If there is one thing I’ve learned in my life it is this: People are people, whether rich or poor, black or white, Catholic or Jew. Some are good; some are not. Any of us can improve education for our children and that includes you, me and Dr. Chan.
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Linda Johnson: I think you are right in this: “People are people.” I also think that, wealthy or not, if you really don’t understand democracy, or the difference between democracy and other kinds of systems, and though you’ve grow up in one and benefited from it, then it’s way-too-easy to fail in your recognition of its breakdown, especially when you, yourself, are involved in that breakdown.
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NO, Linda Johnson-
Conditions for bribery defined by example-
The government, schools included, have no right, in a democracy, to accept strings-attached money without the agreement of the voters or their elected representatives. The rich do not have a right to buy politicians and to use them to starve common goods of funds so that the common goods of the people, deprived of funds, become beggars for strings-attached money from the rich. What was the process that led states to adopt Common Core and…. then abandon it?
When contractor schools (charters) are funded by taxpayers and the richest 0.1% stack the deck by having the schools apply exclusionary enrollment practices and create a system of favored treatment for the schools, both in terms of funding and regulations, it is colonialism. It is not democracy
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Oh, my goodness, did I say any of that?
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Let’s see if I can express my ideas more effectively:
If you or I decide to start a private school with our own money, we are free to do so. If we want to donate five million dollars to the local elementary school, we are free to do that as well. So is Dr. Chan. I never said anything about strings attached.
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THE MONEY FROM THE VENTURE PHILANTHROPISTS IS STRINGS ATTACHED.
The published goal of Gates-funded New Schools Venture Fund, “To develop diverse charter school organizations to produce different brands on a large scale”. Bill Gates, Z-berg, Pearson ,…are investors in the largest seller of for-profit schools in a box.
If you are represented by a union, the organization failed you in not providing the info.
Venture villainthropists are “bad people” destroying democracy in favor of colonialism.
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Yup.
The venture philanthropists expect measurable results for their money. They also expect you to do what they want, not what you want.
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I am very aware of the danger to our democracy at the present time and am doing my best to combat it. Each citizen has an obligation to do this. So far as “pay grade” is concerned, I was trying to say that I do not understand this discussion or the objections to my advice to Dr. Chan.
It is a dangerous thing when we start ascribing certain attributes or limitations to any group of people. From what I’ve read Bill Gates might have an education agenda in mind, but I don’t see that in Priscilla Chan.
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Linda Johnson The door is not closed on the Chan argument yet for me either–though (as I said in my other note) the Zuckerbergs are high on the “New School Venture Fund” list. And that site reads like an amateur entrepreneur, wearing an “educator” chest sticker at a conference, wrote it.
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Diane asked if we had advice for Dr. Chan and I responded. I want to see everyone do whatever they can to improve our schools and to support public education. All the rest is “above my pay grade.”
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Diane If you have time, what do you think of the article?
FYI–I finally had time to do a little search and saw on the New Schools Venture Fund site–under big-time contributors: the Zuckerbergs, not to mention “Anonymous.” I looked around the site and actually found a “comments” section. So I wrote a brief note there–but when I tried to send it, the site wouldn’t accept it (I’m not a techie so I didn’t pursue after three tries). BTW, though they mention “public schools” often it’s obvious they don’t mean what we mean by it. Also, they keep talking about their “mission” but I couldn’t find a mission statement, just “values” which were pretty vague. I have to wonder if anyone there really understands anything about foundations? Below is my poor little note as if talking face-to-face:
I think that, as well-meaning as much of this is, at its FOUNDATIONS, it severs the bond between (a) the U. S. Constitution and its government, as holders of the democratic mission (small d) and (b) education; and both as fundamentally SERVING PUBLIC INTERESTS.
As corporations and “entrepreneurs” you can COPY all that the bond affords, at least for awhile; but still, it’s a copy; the bond is broken; and in its place, the much higher potential for all that is bad to occur when the door is open to the misuse of human power.
I hope that you are not consciously anti-democratic; but rather are unaware of how pervasive the democratic spirit is in your own background, despite your apparent forgetfulness of it. I’d rather you don’t know what you are doing (killing democracy by weaponizing your wealth and shooting us all in the head with it, including the students you say you want to help) rather than consciously purveying a new kind of oligarchy or kingship (at best) or a new kind of fascism (at worst).
On a recent Charlie Rose Show, Rose asked Gates why teachers and others are not on board with his ideas about education. Gates responded that (paraphrased): They don’t like change. He couldn’t have been more wrong or slapped teachers in the face any harder. I for one, and “We” for many, just don’t think it’s a good thing to educate the human spirit within the low horizons and imposed limits of capitalist thought and its forgetful functionaries, no matter how well-meaning.
No one says you don’t do much good with your wealth–everyone knows you do. But the interference with the common good that is constantly celebrated when the bond between democracy and education is secure is an historical OVERREACH that many understand as the death knell of democracy in that history.
LEADERSHIP? It’s like the teacher moving into the student’s house and taking over the whole thing rather than helping them learn and moving on.
Especially to the Zuckerbergs who might understand what I am talking about: Do what you can to help PUBLIC education do its job well–make schools in the inner city beacons for what neighborhood schools are supposed to be. Make them so good that they are attractive to those who leave the city for the suburbs. And be sure we keep history, the arts, and especially CIVICS in the curricula so that upcoming students understand the democratic ground they already walk on–before it’s gone–destroyed by the corporate and oligarchic forces that fed off it, like the story of the goose that laid golden eggs–as it stands, you are, in fact, in the process of killing the goose.
Catherine Blanche King
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“No one says you don’t do much good with your wealth–everyone knows you do. ”
This is false.
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Linda Johnson-
If you, your neighbors and mine don’t fight for democracy, who will?
Diane Ravitch has sacrificed more than anyone I’m aware of, for our right, in a democracy to provide the best education the country can afford for future generations. In terms of our responsibility to act, “pay grades” are meaningless.
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Is this woman even a practicing physician anymore? So far as I can tell, she got her doctor’s license, had a cup of coffee, and is now the warmer, cuddlier face for her husband’s monopolistic wealth and political ambitions.
Don’t give her advice; prepare to oppose what’s sure to come.
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