Archives for category: Education Industry
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Peter Cunningham Says that the Public is Rejecting Public Schools

By dianeravitch
February 17, 2016 //
55

Peter Cunningham was Arne Duncan’s spokesperson in the first Obama term. He was assistant secretary in charge of communications. I once heard him described as “Arne’s brain.” He now runs a billionaire-funded website called “Education Post,” which advances the “reform” agenda. .

Here is an interview with Peter, in which he expresses his view that public schools are on the way out and the public is turning its back on them, preferring charter schools, home schooling, and vouchers. His answer: more accountability. I guess that means more testing. But when everyone takes the same tests, the public schools usually outperform the students in charter schools and voucher schools.

Since public education is an integral part of a democratic society, I am not sure what he is suggesting or why he thinks it is a good thing for people to turn towards privatization. Privatization produces inequality; it produces segregation; it produces some excellence and some squalor and plenty of mediocrity. The real problem is that we have an inward turning society of deepening inequality where it is every man, woman, and child for him/herself. We lack visionary leadership. We lack the kind of leaders who would call upon the better angels of our nature and inspire us to pursue the common good instead of our own self-interest.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, School Choice, Testing

Peter Greene: Governor LePage of Maine Appoints Himself as State Commissioner of Education

By dianeravitch
February 16, 2016 //
10

Governor Paul LePage is a Tea Party guy who has twice been elected governor of Maine. He prevailed each time in a three-way split.

As Peter Greene notes, Governor LePage is known for his bizarre statements. Among other things, he refused to attend an event honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Day:

One of his first acts as governor was to refuse to attend a Martin Luther King Day breakfast and, when called on it, to tell the NAACP to kiss his butt. He also undid decades of environmental reguations, and took down a mural of labor history in the capitol, comparing it to North Korean brainswashing. He sabotaged a $120 million wind power plan.

He has gone through six education commissioners in three years. The last nominee might have had some trouble getting approved by the State Senate because he is a creationist.

Governor LePage is a strong supporter of charter schools, choice, digital learning, and competency based education (nonstop assessment by computers). He views public schools with contempt.

Early on in his first term, he embraced Jeb Bush’s digital learning plan and set about implementing it. One of the best exposes of our time was written by Colin Woodard about “The Profit Motive behind Virtual Schools in Maine.” That’s when many people recognized that the tech companies were giving money to Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Educational Excellence, and FEE was promoting the tech companies’ products. And it was all about profit.

Greene thinks that Governor LePage may crown himself King of Maine. One hopes that he will have only one opponent in the next election. He is an embarrassment to the state of Maine.

Categories Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Maine, Privatization, Technology

How Privatizers Learn to Hoax the Public 

By dianeravitch
February 14, 2016 //
17

The Foundation for Education Excellence, the organization founded by Jeb Bush to turn education into an industry, is holding a boot camp to teach newcomers how to shape their message of privatization and call it “reform.”
The teachers are not educators–who cares what they think?–but PR specialists who know the tricks of their trade: how to sell ice to Eskimos, how to sell a defective used car to unwary buyers, how to persuade people that the moon is made of cheddar cheese. 

Categories Bush, Jeb, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, For-Profit

The Death of Corporate Reform, as Predicted by Robert Berkman

By dianeravitch
February 13, 2016 //
13

Robert Berkman, a blogger in New York, predicts the closing of the last Success Academy charter school (the Trump School) in 2020.

 

The last student, the last teacher, the last dollar, the last classroom ends in 2020, he says.

 

This was the inevitable result of the election of 2016, he writes.

 

In his blog, “Better Living Through Mathematics,” he uses his sharp wit to eviscerate corporate reform and its enablers.

 

He predicts an uprising through the democratic process in which voters take back their government from corporate interests.

 

It is a fable.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

Obama Will Nominate John King Formally as Secretary of Education

By dianeravitch
February 12, 2016 //
74

John King is currently Acting Secretary of Education. President Obama will formally nominate him to serve as Secretary. 

King’s autocratic behavior as state commissioner of education spurred a massive parent opt out from state testing. King adamantly supports testing, VAM, Common Core, and charter schools. He taught in a “no excuses” Uncommon Schools charter with one of the highest suspension rates in Massachusetts. 

As commissioner, King defended inBloom, a Gates-funded data-mining project. After other states had withdrawn due to parent protests, King supported inBloom. The state legislature listened to parents and passed a law forcing the state to drop inBloom. After NY’s withdrawal, inBloom collapsed. 

Categories Charter Schools, Common Core, Data and Data Mining, Education Industry, Education Reform

Deborah Gist Recommends $920,000 Contract for Boston Consulting Group in Tulsa

By dianeravitch
February 12, 2016 //
9

Deborah Gist, the former state superintendent of schools in Rhode Island, has recommended a $920,000 contract for the Boston Consulting Group in Tulsa, where she is now district superintendent. The contract will be funded by “private donors.”

BCG has won similar contracts in other districts. Their reports typically recommend downsizing and privatization.

This is not good news for Tulsa.

The first question that citizens of Tulsa should ask is, what is the education expertise of this business consulting group? When last I looked, Margaret Spellings–who has never run a school district–was its education consultant. Since she is now the new president of the University of North Carolina system, who is running the education business at BCG? Who are the “experts” at BCG who know more than Deborah Gist and the teachers of Tulsa?

The Tulsa school board will be writing a blank check to BCG unless they find out exactly who is giving advice and why Tulsa should want it, even if someone else is paying the bill.

In other districts, when BCG arrives, public education is in danger.

A reader told me that the school board gave him this article to reassure him.

http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25920011&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Fblog%2F76%2F%3Fuuid%3D55244&cmp=eml-contshr-shr

The lead author used to be Rick Hess’ assistant at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. None of the three co-authors ever worked in a school, according to their online bios.

What expertise do they have in education?

Categories Accountability, Boston Consulting Group, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry

Seattle Parent: Emails Show How the Gates Machine Works

By dianeravitch
February 11, 2016 //
17

Dora Taylor, a parent leader in Seattle, has written a post about how the Gates machine has stepped up to protect the state’s fledgling charter schools that are not currently eligible to receive public funding. The highest state court in Washington state ruled that charter schools are not public schools, and of course the Gates team is working the legislature to do an end run around the court’s decision.

 

But as Taylor explains, the Gates team has quietly set up a deal where a small rural school district is paid to supervise the charter schools and keep them alive while Gates and company works the legislature.

 

This is how it went. The Gates Foundation, contacted the Washington Charter Association and had them contact the Mary Walker School District to discuss with the Superintendent, Kevin Jacka, the idea of taking on the charter schools that had opened in the state and placing them under the umbrella of the Alternative Learning Experience program (ALE).

 

The Mary Walker School District is located in Springdale, Washington, which is a rural community in the northeast corner of Washington State. The district consists of eight traditional and Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) schools.

 

The plan was to have the Mary Walker School District provide oversight for the charter schools scattered around the state and receive a percentage of the per student state allocation before sending the money onto the charter school therefore providing tax dollars to the charter schools.

 

According to the contract between the Mary Walker School District and Rainier Prepcharter school, the Mary Walker School District will receive 4% of the per student state allocation of approximately $6,000 per student and the remaining 96% will go to the charter school.

 

You see, when you are the richest man in the country, you don’t give up. You win. Unless the courts and the legislature intervene to protect public education. If Bill Gates wanted to give the charter students an education (there are fewer than 1,000 of them), he could open private schools for them at less cost than he is spending to lobby the state. But he wants to establish the principal that privately managed schools should get public funding, even though the public has nothing to say about how they are run.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Privatization, Washington State

TNReady Online Testing Crashes in Tennessee: Not TNReady Yet

By dianeravitch
February 9, 2016 //
24

Tennessee is still Racing to the Top although they are still far away. So, of course, the state switched to online assessment for its Common Core testing, at a cost of $108 million.

 

Yesterday was the first day, and the system crashed.

 

There was a “major outage.” The state commissioner, a huge fan of Common Core, blamed the vendor. She told schools to go back to the “worst case scenario,” that is, pencil and paper testing.

 

Since we learned not long ago that students who took the PARCC tests on paper instead of on a computer tend to get higher scores, this may have a bright side.

 

 

Categories Common Core, Education Industry, Tennessee, Testing

DON’T Watch This Video! Secrets of Charter Success

By dianeravitch
February 6, 2016 //
28

This is a hilarious explanation of how charter schools succeed. If you might be offended, don’t watch.

 

If you want to see a hotly debated issue presented in graphic form, then take a peek. Only 2 minutes.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Liberia Cuts Deal to Outsource Education

By dianeravitch
February 2, 2016 //
21

The new Minister of Education in Liberia made a deal with the for-profit Bridge International Academies to supply elementary education. The company’s investors include Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. (NEA is an investment company, not the teachers’ union.)

 

 

“The Minister who has been serving the position for less than a year instead of helping to fix has turned to outsourcing reform in the sector to a private institution with negotiations ongoing for the private entity to manage the primary and early childhood education for a period of five years. Bridge Academies which runs education projects in Kenya and Uganda has record of using android mobile phones in providing classroom lessons to pupils.

 

“Under the Bridge Academies project, the notes and other lectures materials are stored on an android mobile phone and the teachers use the phones to teach, a method where the teacher does not have to be sophisticated to teach. The institution charges US$6 per student per month in Uganda and Kenya as part of its project and also charges other fees for feeding and others. Some in Kenya and Uganda believe that $6 plus other charges by Bridge Academies is a lot of money for the millions in the two countries. In Uganda, many say the amount requires poor Ugandan families with many children to borrow in order to keep all their children in school or to choose which child goes to school.

 

“Despite charging fees, the World Bank through its sector investment arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) invested US$10 million in Bridge Academies in 2014 in order to increase the number of Bridge schools in the country and expand to three countries including Uganda. The IFC also approved a loan of US$4.1 million to Merryland High School, a private, fee-charging secondary school in Entebbe, Uganda in December 2014.

 

“Bridge continues to get criticisms from the Governments of both Kenya and Uganda for its method of using Android mobile phones to teach students where most of the teachers used only use what is placed on the phone as Bridge resulted to using teachers who are not qualified to teach since the teaching materials are placed on a phone and the teacher only needs to teach what is available. The entity teaching method is seen in the two countries as discouraging the employment of qualified teachers who will interact with the students while teaching instead of using fixed materials downloaded on a mobile phone.

 

“Current Education Minister Werner whom many described as reformer, instead of working to revamp the education sector, took off time visiting East Africa mainly Kenya and Uganda where he started negotiations for Bridge to come to Liberia and manage the primary education sector on a private-public partnership program. FrontPageAfrica has gathered that Bridge officials are in Liberia to conclude arrangement for a pilot project of the first 50 schools to begin using the Bridge project beginning school year 2016-17.

 

“As part of the project the PPP providers will design their programmes (curriculum materials, etc., from April to September 2017 while phase two will rollout contracting out the remaining schools over 5 years, with government exit possible each year dependent on provided performance- September 2017 onwards. Eventually the Ministry of Education is aiming to contract out all primary and early childhood education schools to private providers who meet the required standards over 5 year period. According to the tentative timeline the by February/March 2016 the memorandum of Understanding for the pilot 50 schools will be signed and by September 2016, the first 50 schools launch, with baselines and performance measures.”

 

 

Categories Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, International
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