In late April, I posted an article by Minnesota blogger and public school advocate Rob Levine about a sneaky effort by elites in the state to rewrite the state constitutional clause on education to protect and encourage segregated charter schools.
This new post digs deeper into the machinations and motivations behind the demand to revise the state constitution.
The campaign is led by the president of the local Federal Reserve Bank but named “the Page Amendment” for a popular local judge.
Blogger Steve Timmer explains that the money and muscle for “the Page Amendment” comes from the president of the local Federal Reserve Bank and the Minneapolis Foundation.
“Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari and former Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Alan Page penned an op-ed in the Star Tribune that ran in the paper edition on May 4, 2021. They made a case for the “Page Amendment” to amend, well gut, really, what’s known as the Education Clause of the Minnesota Constitution, Article XIII, Section 1. It provides:
“UNIFORM SYSTEM OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools. The legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise as will secure a thoroughand efficient system of public schools throughout the state. [emphasis added]”
“They complain that the provision is old and needs to be replaced. Of course, the Education Clause is about the same age as most of the rest of the Minnesota Constitution, including the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. But they want to replace it with this:”
“EQUAL RIGHT TO QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION. All children have a fundamental right to a quality public education that fully prepares them with the skills necessary for participation in the economy, our democracy, and society, as measured against uniform [emphasis added] achievement standards set forth by the state. It is a paramount duty of the state to ensure quality public schools that fulfill this fundamental right.”
So this change in the state constitution’s language is intended to relieve the state of its obligation to provide “a general and uniform” system of schools, thus allowing the untrammeled growth of charter schools, including the highly segregated charters for which Minneapolis is known.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
22 February 2021
Beware of Federal Reserve System-Atlanta involvement in education à la Geoffrey Canada and such
The Federal Reserve System recently hosted its third event in a virtual series that “examines systemic shortcomings and advances solutions to racism in education.”
With the new Fed-Atlanta President Raphael Bostic as front-person, the Fed is out promoting education reform in the style of Harlem Children Zone’s Geoffrey Canada, Khan Academy’s Salman Khan, and similar others.
Nowhere to be seen or heard are the likes and voices of defenders of public education such as Diane Ravitch, Lesley Fenwick, Alfie Kohn, and similar others who stand to see the nation’s public education systems improved as the democratically governed public goods they are supposed to be and not be privatized and consumerized and otherwise destroyed as those of Geoffrey Canada’s persuasion and now apparently the Federal Reserve System would have it.
[…]
On a personal note, as someone who put in nearly ten years with Fed-Atlanta, I say the Federal Reserve System must not be involved with public education! The Fed should stay in its lane.
Moreover, unless it has changed its leopard spots (naturally, leopards cannot change their spots), Fed management of certain of its employees is a demonstrable paragon of “racial inequity” practices. I have first-hand experience with the practices and their arbitrary and capricious “limits to growth.”
And rest assured, it is not by chance that the new Fed-Atlanta President who is out front with the Federal Reserve System’s “Racism and the Economy” series is a “Black” person.
This is not a new picture show for me; I have seen it before, when “diversity” was all the rage at the Fed.
https://mailchi.mp/c2bc8ff360c4/beware-of-federal-reserve-system-atlanta-involvement-in-education-la-geoffrey-canada-and-such?e=%5BUNIQID%5D
Ed, yours is one of the few voices on this blog who resonate with me. Thank you for explaining your viewpoint. It matters.
I love how ed reformers proudly boast that their entire “movement” is both funded and run by 6 billionaires:
“What’s more, Broad helped to organize some of our nation’s top education donors, including Walton, Gates, Fisher, Robertson, Hastings, and the Arnolds. His passing leaves a sizable hole not just as a funder, but also as a strategist and advocate—a role that fit synergistically with his temperamental inability to accept the status quo, a stance he also brought to many other realms besides education. Even after he gave up on urban districts as the unit of change, Broad was undaunted in his convictions. “I’ve never been afraid of failure,” he once said, “and the worst thing that can happen is—nothing changes.”
They’ve turned over US public education to the 6 or 7 or 8 billionaires who employ them, and not only is this not a problem in the “movement”, it’s lauded.
It’s..odd. Like some 19th century concept of wealthy people being the presumed leaders, by virtue of the size of their fortune.
All public school parents should read within the ed reform echo chamber. I don’t think people have any idea what the agenda is. They tone it down when they present it to the broader public. You learn quickly that this is 100% about replacing all public schools with ed reform’s “vision” of privatized contractor systems funded by low value vouchers.
https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/was-eli-broad-right-try-improve-urban-districts-or-should-he-have-focused
“While Ohio policymakers don’t have control over how most ESSER dollars are allocated, they can work to ensure that these funds are being used appropriately. That goal is important for two reasons.”
Are people who don’t support public schools credible to police how public schools spend federal relief funds?
Aren’t they just going to measure the approach of our schools based on how closely the approach hews to their agenda?
RttT funding was conditioned on meeting ed reform demands for charter marketing and promotion and teacher measurement schemes. What if the ed reform agenda priorities are not the priorities of my local school district? Do they have to be? Why would that be the operating assumption?
Isn’t the point of the pandemic funding that UNLIKE NCLB and RttT public school funding isn’t conditioned on compliance with ed reform agenda items?
We rejected a program like NCLB and RttT. No. Not going to do that again. They’re now going to judge public schools based on the same narrow agenda anyway?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Here’s what these “uniform standards” ACTUALLY bring about:
a. dramatic dumbing down of curricula and pedagogy as educators (and the makers of materials used by educators) start doing test prep to prepare students for taking tests narrowly focused on those “standards.”
b. dramatic diversion of resources (and thus enormous opportunity cost) as time, money, energy, and other resources of school systems are diverted away from teaching and into paying for test preppy curricula, pretests and posttests and benchmark tests and other practice tests, test proctoring, payments to testing companies, databases and data walls and data chats.
c. the death of innovation in and differentiation in curricula and pedagogy as a uniform, test-preppy pablum is served up to all students and innovative, new, small producers of curricular materials face and impossible barrier to entry erected by educational materials juggernauts (I’m looking at you, Pearson).
D. much that is important in the fields of study supposedly covered by the “standards” is left out because the makers of these didn’t think to include it.
But hey, sounds good UNTIL you actually start thinking about it.
And think of this: The United States was educated into becoming the greatest power on Earth without “uniform,” imposed-from-the-top educational standards.Why? Well you might remember that the Common [sic] Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic] were paid for by Bill Gates to create one national bullet list to tie monopolistically controlled educational materials and educational databases to and that he hired a guy with no experience and a LOT of hubris to toss them together and serve as the decider for the rest of us–for every curriculum developer, curriculum researcher, subject-matter expert advising curricular materials makers, teacher, and administrator. Because why? One ring to rule them all.
Enough.
Standardization is for screws, not curricula, not pedagogy, not students.
cxs:
as time, money, energy, and other resources of school systems are SIPHONED away from
the death of innovation in and differentiation OF curricula and pedagogy
Well said. The United States achieved a great deal without so-called standards that dictate and limit pedagogy. Standards work well if the goal is to produce adept test takers, but that is not what we need. We need original, creative thinkers with a solid, comprehensive education in the arts, science and social sciences. We won World War II and put a man on the moon without standards. Excellence and opportunity should not be rationed. All young people should be encouraged to do their best at whatever they decide to do.
A website’s, “Our Work”, tab posts, “expanding education choice initiatives”. The mailing address is in Minnesota.
The organization’s Executive Director, Shawn Peterson’s prior employers include, Minnesota House of Representatives (Director of Majority Legislative Services) and Liberty Strategies, a full service government affairs and lobbying firm.
Mr. Peterson’s bio identifies his membership in the American Enterprise Institute (Frederick Hess’ employer) Leadership Network and, membership in the Knights of Columbus (an organization led by a former legislative aide to Jesse Helms).
For the 5 years, prior to his appointment a year ago as Executive Director of Catholic Education Partners which is the organization described in my first sentence, Sean was Associate Director of Public Policy for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.
The CEP board includes the Archbishops of Louisville and Omaha and a person identified as with the USCCB.