Archives for category: Education Industry
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How to Get a Docile Workforce

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2013 //
32

Some people have wondered what happened to the much ballyhooed film “Won’t Back Down.”

Recall that it was featured on NBC’s “Education Nation,” which is the showcase for the corporate reform movement; one of its stars was interviewed on “Ellen”; it had an elegant opening party at the New York Public Library; Michelle Rhee hosted showings at the two national political conventions.

Should have been a big hit, right? Wrong.

It opened in 2,5000 theaters and disappeared within a month. Hardly anyone wanted to see it.

But it lives! The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is showing it around the country to business organizations, to convince them that the local public schools are awful and that they must support charter schools. Think of it: Schools where children learn to obey or get kicked out.

Here are the events planned for this week in Birmingham, Alabama, where businesses are still looking for the best way to train their workforce:

 

“Greetings,

On behalf of the Birmingham Business Alliance, I would like to thank each of for agreeing to participate in our panel discussion next week in conjunction with our “Breaking the Monopoly of Mediocrity in Education” tour.  As we continue to work towards providing all students in the state of Alabama with quality education options and creating a dynamic workforce, it is important to have dialogue with those who are not only advocates for better education but, who are also actively working to bring about change.  Attached you will find the final agenda as well as talking points for each panel.  Within each panel, if there is an issue that you feel should be addressed, please don’t hesitate to send your suggestion.  A more detailed email will be sent on Tuesday of next week and will address any concerns or changes that are brought to my attention by panel participants.  Again, we are excited to have each of you participate in this interactive forum.  Please feel free to forward the invitation and registration link to any of your contacts or distribution list who would be interested in attending.

Thank you and we look forward to your participation.

L. Waymond Jackson, Jr.
Director – Education and Workforce Development
birminghambusinessalliance
THE CHAMBER FOR REGIONAL PROSPERITY
505 20th Street North, Suite 200
Birmingham, AL 35203
(205) 241-8117 (office)
(205) 324-2560 (fax)
www.birminghambusinessalliance.com<http://www.birminghambusinessalliance.com/>

On January 24th and 25th please join the Birmingham Business Alliance, the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and the Institute for a Competitive Workforce as we kick-off their national tour “Breaking the Monopoly of Mediocrity in Education.”  The tour will focus on the various methods of education reform, business community involvement and engaging the community to become catalyst for change in education and workforce development.  Most recently, this tour has visited cities such as Memphis, Indiana, and Phoenix to name a few.

Day one consists of a screening of the movie “Won’t Back Down” featuring Academy Award Nominee, Viola Davis (The Help), immediately followed by a networking reception and opportunity to discuss the education reform issues addressed in the film.

Day two features a panel discussion comprised of area business and education leaders sharing ideas regarding education reform and how best to align the workforce needs of industry with K-12 , post-secondary, and higher education.  Topics to be discussed include, The Importance of Pre-K and Early Childhood Education, and How to Achieve a Ready to Work and Engaged Workforce.

Registration for this event is free and due to limited seating we encourage you to register before the event.  For a complete listing of panel participants please view the attached agenda; to register click on the link below.  Also, included in your “free” registration on Thursday, January 24th are popcorn, drinks, and hors d’ oeuvres and breakfast and lunch are included on Friday, January 25th.  Thanks and we look forward to seeing you next week.

Categories Accountability, Alabama, ALEC, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Unions

NYC’s Biggest Tutoring Company Under Investigation

By dianeravitch
January 22, 2013 //
6

Ah, those private companies sure know how to do it right, don’t they?

In New York City, the city’s biggest provider of tutoring services is under investigation for inflated bills and other little financial issues. Since 2006, the company has collected $87 million from the city.

The tutoring company was founded in 2005 by a 22-year-old college graduate. The firm has been investigated and sanctioned for previous financial misbehavior but the city Department of Education, controlled by Mayor Bloomberg, awarded it a new contract last November. The City Comptroller refuses to honor the contract.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, For-Profit, New York City, Privatization, Testing

The Corporate Reform Movement Vs. Dr. MLK

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2013 //
1

Reader Mike Dixon commented on a post about Martin Luther King Jr.‘s definition of the purpose of education:

A cynical person might suspect that corporate education reform is intended to promote exactly what MLK warned about.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization, Segregation , Racial Isolation and Integration, Testing

Oregon Accuses Online Charter Founders of $20 million Scam

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2013 //
15

The state of Oregon accuses two men of scamming the taxpayers by inflating enrollment figures in their online charter schools.

The schools–at least ten of them–were opened in conjunction with local school boards.

Apparently no one was supervising their claims.

The state wants the pair to repay $17 million plus nearly $3 million in costs and damages.

This is the danger of deregulation. There may be superintendents who would steal if they had the opportunity but they are watched by too many eyes. Maybe they get away with some thousands, but never millions.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, On-Line Education, Privatization

Can You Do This?

By dianeravitch
January 19, 2013 //
62

A reader comments:

* *

What do the following major problems have in common?

1. Severe budget cuts to schools, bashing of teachers, lack of a broad based curriculum for developing critical and creative thinking students and cheating scandals?

2. Allowing civilians to buy assault weapons that can be used to murder innocent children and adults?

3. Inadequate mental health services?

4. Unaffordable health care services and millions of uninsured?

5. High rates of poverty?

6. Global warming, climate changes with bizarre weather patterns and allowing the destruction of the planet?

7. The crash of 2008 that led to a severe economic crisis?

8. Extreme materialism and money as top priority?

9. Special interest groups and corporations having greater influence on politicians than the people?

10. High crime rates and overcrowded prisons?

All of these problems reflect a deterioration of human values- the type of values which are humane and indicative of the ideals of humanity. Values such as kindness, caring for others, love, integrity and compassion make us good human beings. These values are the antidote and solution to many problems in the world today.

Certainly there are many people who display these values, but many more people with human values are needed if we are to reach a tipping point. For us to create a world that reflects love and caring for all it must begin with each individual. To reach critical mass the consciousness of more people must be raised so that the problems mentioned are unacceptable and not tolerated.

It is for each of us to get in touch with our humanity and with others to positively influence our leaders or replace them with people who will lead with human values. Are we as a human family willing to put into action those values which will create a better world for everyone? This is a question for each of us to answer.

Raymond Gerson

Categories Accountability, Budget Cuts, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Poverty

EduShyster Celebrates the Annual Liftin’ O’ the Cap Rituals

By dianeravitch
January 16, 2013 //
11

EduShyster continues to set the gold standard for reformy humor.

In this post, she describes the annual campaign by charter operators in Massachusetts to pressure the state legislature to lift the cap so they can open more charter schools.

She notes that the students most involved in demanding more charter schools are already enrolled in one. She notes that they are bused to hearings and miss school to demand more charters.

This happens often in New York City. When there are hearings about school closings, there are usually bus loads of charter students and parents in identical tee-shirts, demanding more closings of public schools and more charters.

When I first saw this, I was puzzled. Why would they want more charters if they already attend one? How many schools can one student attend? Would a public school principal be allowed to hire buses to take students to a public hearing? Or to do it during school hours? Of course not. He or she would be fired.

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

Oprah: Don’t Participate in This Fraud!

By dianeravitch
January 15, 2013 //
42

A teacher in New Orleans sent this letter to me. My promise to him or her: we will all use whatever tools are at our command to stop the destruction of public education and the exploitation of students to benefit corporate interests. We will not give up.

I wanted to bring to your attention the trailer for the upcoming Oprah network series about John McDonogh high school here in New Orleans.

http://www.oprah.com/common/omplayer_embed.html?article_id=41375.

It is a vicious misrepresentation of what is going on at the school- merely propaganda for the brand new charter management organization that makes our students out to be thug primitives who need taming by clean cut out of towners.

Last night, a meeting was held by a coalition of concerned citizens and organizations to discuss the stripping away of the public from our public schools and some important action steps to re-frame the narrative of New Orleans schools. Parents mentioned this very video and will be protesting a screening at the school tonight.

Meanwhile, this series plans to do exactly what the corporate reformers here have been doing all along and what those folks last night are contending with- an extreme narrative that is completely out of touch with the truth, and has troubling privatization and profit motives.

In the wake of these reforms, our schools have shut out holistic learning, critical pedagogies, whole child concerns, etc. and have become militaristic nightmares- the opposite of the safe spaces schools should provide, especially for students in the impoverished situations many of the students depicted in this program come from.

Our students feel the walls closing in on them as young white teachers (I am one of them) stand in front of their classroom telling them all they need to do to get to college is work harder so the students can be successful just like them! To put them on camera in that experience is the grossest form of exploitation I can think of.

The propaganda this show is prepared to deliver across the country is both predictable and terrifying. Narratives are powerful and the allies of privatization are winning.

We need to start an information campaign to discredit this work, as happened with “Won’t Back Down.” Your voice in that movement is of course key, and I look forward to your input and feedback.

Sincerely,

A concerned young educator in New Orleans

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Louisiana, New Orleans, Students

Connecticut District Devoured by Edu-Vultures

By dianeravitch
January 14, 2013 //
45

Jonathan Pelto has unearthed a shocking story of a school district in Connecticut that is being pulled apart, privatized, and spit out by pseudo-saviors.

Windham, Connecticut, was in academic trouble so the state board of education appointed a “special master” to oversee school reform and the legislature appropriated $1 million per year extra. The district of 3,500 students has many who are impoverished and/or non-English-speaking.

Of the $2 million allocated in the first two years, some $750,000 went for the salary and benefits of the “special master” and his personal staff. More money went for consultants. Charters will open , one run by a group with the amazingly candid name “Our Piece of the Pie.” Among their sterling credentials: they run a charter school with six (6) students.

It is not clear that any of the new money will directly benefit students, such as, hiring another social worker or providing after-school programs.

Is anyone in Connecticut paying attention? Does anyone care?

Categories Budget Cuts, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization

Equity Investors See Big Profit$$ in Education

By dianeravitch
January 13, 2013 //
14

This is the end game of the current reform movement: financializing public spending on education.

Education is now seen as an emerging market, ripe for the picking.

Time to get in on the ground floor.

You don’t need to know anything about education.

What an opportunity!

Categories Education Industry, For-Profit, Privatization

Who Is SFER?

By dianeravitch
January 13, 2013 //
9

An organization called Students for Education Reform is popping up on various campuses to advocate for corporate reforms.

This article by George Joseph in The Nation explores who they are and who funds them.

It is hard to understand why students would demand more standardized testing and why they would support a movement that attacks teachers and wants teachers to be held accountable for what students do. Shouldn’t students be held accountable for what students do?

All around the nation, brave students are saying “no” to the corporate reform movement that wants to turn them into standardized data points.

But not SFER, which is an offshoot of the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ group called DFER. They want to be standardized. They want to be data points. They want more tests. Please, won’t someone test them and publish their scores?

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Students
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