Mercedes Schneider, one of Louisiana’s fearless and intrepid bloggers, has been conducting research into the groups that together propel the corporate reform movement.
In this post, she examines “Chiefs for Change.”
This organization consists of several state superintendents who are aligned with Jeb Bush and his ideas.
Who are these “chiefs”? What is their connection to Jeb?
Read on.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters in New York City has prepared the following report about threats to the privacy of children, families, and teachers.
She reports as follows:
“The Gates Foundation and Wireless Generation (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation) have formed something called “Shared Learning Collaborative,” which has now been turned into a new corporation called inBloom, Inc.
This corporation will collect confidential student and teacher data provided by states and districts across the country and will share it with software vendors and other commercial enterprises.
Your child’s data will be used to develop and market products.
Data will be gathered about students and teachers in New York City; Guilford County, North Carolina; Jefferson County, Colorado; Normal, Illinois and Bloomington, Illinois; Everett, Massachusetts; and Louisiana (the entire state).
In phase II, data will be collected in Delaware, Georgia, and Kentucky.
What will be collected and disseminated for marketing purposes?
Personally identifiable information, including student names, grades, test scores, disciplinary and attendance records, and possibly race/ethnicity and disability status.
The records will be stored in an electronic data bank built by Wireless Generation, a subsidiary of News Corporation. News Corporation is owned by Rupert Murdoch and is currently under investigation in Great Britain for hacking into private communications of individuals.
InBlooms Inc. will retain this information and make it available to commercial vendors to help them develop and market “learning products.”
All of this confidential information will be “put on a cloud managed by Amazon.com, with few if any protections against data leakage. inBloom, Inc. has already stated that it “cannot guarantee the security of the information stored…or that the information will not be intercepted when it is being transmitted” to third party vendors.
Haimson makes the following recommendations:
“1. Notify all parents of this impending disclosure, and provide them with the right to consent;
2. Hold public hearings for parents to express their concerns about the plan’s potential to violate our children’s privacy, security, and safety;
3. Explain how families can obtain relief if their children are harmed by improper use or accidental release of this information, including who will be held financially responsible;
4. Affirm that the privacy rights of public school children are respected more than the interests of the Gates Foundation, the Shared Learning Collaborative, News Corporation, inBloom, Inc., or any other company or organization with whom this confidential information may be shared.”
Haimson urges all parents to contact their PTA, their local school board, and their state board of education to protest “this unprecedented violation of the privacy right of children and families.”
The Center for American Progress is supposedly a liberal organization, but it is a cheerleader for corporate reform. It has published report after report endorsing the main ideas of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.
It just released a new report that lauds mayoral control.
Those of us who live in cities under mayoral control know that the primary result is not to improve education or to help struggling children, but to stifle the voices of parents, students, teachers, and community members. Under mayoral control, governance is transferred to the mayor and the power elite, few of whom have children in public schools or even attended one. Mayoral control snuffs out democracy.
The timing of this report comes just as the mayor of Chicago unilaterally decided to close more than 50 public schools, decimating communities and stranding thousands of children. Is this “reform” of public schools? It also comes as the third term of Mayor Bloomberg winds down, and the authoritative Quinnipiac poll shows that only 18% want more of the same.
Mayoral control has a predictable result: it undermines democracy and allows the rich ad powerful to privatize public schools for fun and profit.
If you read nothing else today, read this post by the blogger who calls himself Crazy Crawfish.
In a blinding flash of insight, he sees the pattern on the rug of the corporate reform movement.
I won’t say anything more.
Just read it.
Yesterday I ran a post about an editorial in the Chicago Tribune. The editorial touted the results of a poll which the newspaper conducted in partnership with the Joyce Foundation. The poll purportedly supported privatization, merit pay, evaluation of teachers by test scores, and every other failed nostrum of the Rahm Emanuel-ALEC crowd.
But a Chicago parent group called PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education) says that the Tribune poll is a fraud. It underrepresented parents of children who attend public schools and it underrepresented African Americans. Based on PURE’s findings, the poll shows what white Chicagoans think that the children of black Chicagoans need.
According to PURE’s analysis, the poll was skewed towards privatization and it did not report its own findings accurately:
Who responded:
Of course, the Trib claims that results were “weighted” to assure a mix consistent with city demographics…but then, like Mayor Rahm, most of the white people in Chicago send their children to private schools.
Key results the Trib decided not to tell you about:
How many times have you heard Arne Duncan or some corporate easer complain that they have to outsource jos because Americans lack the skills that their industry needs?
A new book by Wharton School of Professor Peter Capelli debunks th claim in his new book “Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs?”
Andrea Gabor reviews the book here. It sounds like a good read and sharp rebuke to those who continue to bash our public schools.
The mass closing of public schools in Chicago should be the lead story on every news channel tonight. It is not. The fact is that a dozen years of No Child Left Behind and three-plus years of Race to the Top has persuaded the American public that closing schools is “reform.”
It is not.
It is a dereliction of responsibility. It is an abdication of any oath of office that a public official in this country takes. It is a betrayal of any commitment to equality of educational opportunity. It is a capitulation to corporate interests. I wish I could be in Chicago on March 27 to stand with the teachers, parents, and students who have been abandoned by Rahm Emanuel and all those who carry out his shameful orders to close neighborhood public schools.
Here is the statement of Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union:
CHICAGO –The Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said the following at a news conference regarding proposed school closings:
“We are standing here today in the beautiful Mahaila Jackson elementary school in our city’s Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. This school was named for one of the greatest gospel singers in our nation’s history, a woman who sang at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral, a woman who was instrumental in our Civil Rights struggle. Unfortunately, we are gathered here today not to talk about this pioneer or even about how this school does an outstanding job of providing a great learning community for some of our special needs students. We are standing here because this school, along with scores of others, has been targeted for closure by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago Public School district….
“Closing 50 of our neighborhood schools is outrageous and no society that claims to care anything about its children can sit back and allow this to happen to them. There is no way people of conscious will stand by and allow these people to shut down nearly a third of our school district without putting up a fight. Most of these campuses are in the Black community. Since 2001 88% of students impacted by CPS School Actions are African-American. And this is by design.
“Closing 50 schools is not grand or glorious. This is nothing to celebrate or marvel.
“These actions unnecessarily expose our students to gang violence, turf wars and peer-to-peer conflict. Some of our students have been seriously injured as a result of school closings. One died. Putting thousands of small children in harm’s way is not laudatory.
“There is no safety plan. There is no transportation plan. The city has already raised CTA fares and now they expect parents to put their five-year-old on a crowded city bus in order for them to get to school, when they used to be able to walk to a school in their neighborhood. The way this is being done is an insult and it is disrespectful.
“The CTU is the bargaining unit for 30,000 of the district’s employees SEIU and Unite HERE represent thousands more. Yet CPS did not feel obligated to brief any of us in advance of today’s announcements. Instead, they called a few aldermen last night and then summoned principals this morning at 6:00 a.m. to spring the news on them. They had no consideration for their employees or our students—at all. They have no regard for our parents. They do not care about the children of their employees, many of whom also attend our public schools.
“I also find it extremely cowardly for the Mayor’s administration to announce these actions while he is vacationing out of town. They are also making this announcement days before people are headed into spring break. CPS has spun our entire district into utter chaos, a management model perfected on Clark Street where they are headquartered.
“This city cannot destroy that many schools at one time; and, we contend that no school should be closed in the city of Chicago. These actions will not only put our students’ safety and academics careers at risk but also further destabilize our neighborhoods.
“This is why we intend to rally, united and strong, on Wednesday, March 27 to send a signal that we are sick and tired of being bullied and betrayed. Some of us are going to put our bodies on the line—because a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And when we declare the victory, some of us will sit back and sing the lines of one of Mahaila Jackson’s songs—How I Got Over.
“Rahm Emanuel has become the ‘murder mayor.’ He is murdering public services. Murdering our ability to maintain public sector jobs and now he has set his sights on our public schools. But we have news for him: We don’t intend to die. This is not Detroit. We are the city of big shoulders and so we intend to put up a fight. We don’t know if we can win, but if you don’t fight, you will never win at all.
“The people of this city can no longer sit back and allow this mayor, his school board and his corporate cronies to run rough-shod over democracy. They’ve turned their backs on affordable housing; turned their backs on job creation; and, now they’re turning their backs on our students, their families and our schools. We are tired of playing their school reform games. But who are the winners and losers? Who made the rules? And what do they keep telling the losers to keep them playing their games?
“We do not have a utilization crisis. What we have is a credibility crisis. CPS continues to peddle half-truths, lies and misinformation in order to justify its campaign to wipe out our schools and carry out this corporate-driven school reform nonsense. CPS continues to peddle an ‘underutilization myth’ and ‘billion dollar deficit lie’ as justification for their actions. When research and the facts prove them wrong they simply reconfigure their talking points in order to further perpetrate their sham and to keep us playing their school reform games.
“For the past several weeks there has been a resounding cry against school actions from parents, students, educators and community stakeholders. The Mayor and the CEO have ignored these petitions for justice at these hearings and apparently have not listened to single word that was said. Parents have been direct, loud and clear. Students have been loud and clear. Principals have been loud and clear. Teachers, paraprofessionals and school clinicians have been loud and clear: DO NOT CLOSE OUR SCHOOLS! GIVE US THE RESOURCES WE NEED, RIGHT NOW, TO SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS AND GIVE THEM THE EDUCATION THEY DESERVE.
“Enough with the lies and public deception: School closings will not save money and taxpayers will not see costs benefits in two years. Why? Because vibrant school communities will be quickly transformed into abandon buildings, neighborhood eyesores and public safety hazards.
“This is the mayor’s 25% solution. Yet, who will be held accountable when one of our students is harmed as a result of these policy decisions? And, who will be the ones to ensure justice is served?”
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The Chicago Teachers Union represents 30,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools, and by extension, the more than 400,000 students and families they serve. The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third largest teachers local in the United States and the largest local union in Illinois. For more information please visit CTU’s website at http://www.ctunet.com.
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A reader in Tennessee comments on the steady advance of privatization in that state, starting with Memphis, then moving to other urban areas. And when the Legislature passes a voucher bill, the stage will be set to decimate public education and leave it as a remnant of what was once known as the portal to opportunity in America. Thanks to Governor Haslam, his compatriots in the Legislature, and Kevin Huffman, one of TFA’s finest products. Doing it “for the kids,” no doubt. Shameful. Shameful.
The reader writes:
“Memphis and actually the entire state of Tennessee is “all in” as it pertains to turning over our schools to private interests for profit. Memphis schools are being systematically dismantled. They are now run by a lawyer. Everyone with any sense in central administration has already abandoned ship. Non-profits and charter groups are basically being asked “which schools do you want”. Our bargained contract is being trampled in the process. Gates Foundation partner organizations are asking principals “who do you want to get rid of? We will help you.” Principals are being given the green light to surplus (lay off) anyone they want, regardless of their performance.
“Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga are next. They started with Memphis because that was the district with the highest poverty. They bet on the fact that the state and citizens of Memphis would basically give the schools to whoever was willing to take them. In steps the Gates Foundation and with that single agreement the demise of public education in our community was sealed. That bet will pay off to the tune of 1.4 billion education dollars per year in our county alone.
“Within 5 years TEA and all the locals will be relegated to cursory “remember whens” as the major population centers of the state no longer are in the business of educating their own children. Charters, vouchers and non-profits will have no union affiliates. This will bankrupt the state level organization and open the floodgates for private equity and hedge funds to capitalize off of public tax dollars. All the while those making these decisions have their children in elite private schools that would never take on the ridiculous data-obsessed practices brought to us from Bill and Melinda Gates. No, Mr. Gates, data does not hold the answers to the world’s problems.
“I was termed an “Irreplaceable” teacher based on my personal teaching performance last year. What a joke! We are all replaceable. An iPad or virtual classroom should do the trick. I hoped to spend my life’s work teaching children. Instead, halfway through a career, I am marketing myself to other industries and embarking on a total career change. There is no room for career educators in this process. Especially ones who can not compromise their professional ethics to jump through the hoops of fire required. I hope the career path I choose for the future pays well. I am going to need the extra money to pay for private schools. I would not wish this chaos on anyone’s children. I will not accept it for mine.”
It is a sad day.
David Sirota of Denver has been trying for some while to send a wake up call to the American public: billionaires and entrepreneurs are scoping out the schools as an emerging market for their goods and services. What they call “reform” has nothing to do with education and everything o do with money, power, control, and ideology. What they call “reform” is a shell game to hoodwink the public and divert attention from privatization.
As Sirota writes:
“…though it is rarely mentioned, the truth is that the largest funders of the “reform” movement are the opposite of disinterested altruists. They are cutthroat businesspeople making shrewd financial investments in a movement that is less about educating children than about helping “reform” funders hit paydirt. In that sense, they are the equivalent of any industry leaders funding a front group in hopes of achieving profitable political ends (think: defense contractors funding a front group that advocates for a bigger defense budget). The only difference is that when it comes to education “reform,” most of the political press doesn’t mention the potential financial motives of the funders in question.”
EduShyster has captured in one small post the essence of the classroom of the future.
We will go where no nation in the world has ever dared to go:
Schools where happy teachers (all of them Excellent) have classes of 100 or more students, each one enjoying a customized, personalized education on their own tablet.
Think of the savings! Think of the market! Think of the profits!
Watch the video embedded in the link and you may notice the delightful homogeneity of the children in the cafeteria-style classroom, each learning at his or her own pace, all well-scrubbed, well-clothed and very happy to have their very own tablet.
