And The Wealthy Will Lead Us: Mark Zuckerberg Joins the Reformers

Wealthy people in the U.S. know what's best for public education. 

Mark Zuckerberg, for example. 

Mark founded a charitable (ah hem) foundation called Startup: Education in 2010.  The fund now has one billion dollars to work with. 

Some of the money was spent to fund "merit" bonuses for "high performing" teachers in New Jersey (NYT).  Go reform!

Mark, welcome to the cast of Father Knows Best.*  What took you so long?

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* You're not familiar with the show, Father Knows Best?  It's about a group of wealthy men who, clairvoyantly, know what's best for public education.  In the show, we watch these self-appointed seers spend billions to capture state and civic actors to buy their vision and impose it on the rest of us.  So much less messy than democracy.  After all, Father...Knows...Best.

Among the Reformers: Competition for Dollars

If you are an observer of the juggernaut called Reform, it's useful to follow competition among sectors within the for-profit education industry.  This industry is, after all, a powerful promoter of the juggernaut.

So, here's one very small example of one sector eating another sector's lunch:  A middle school in Mooresville, North Carolina, bought a lot of technology.  How did the school fund this?  It "quit purchasing textbooks several years ago to pay for the technology." Technology companies 1, textbook companies 0.

This is just one example from one town.  But since most school budgets are not growing, I'd warrant a guess that Mooresville's steal-from-Peter approach to funding technology is typical in thousands of schools across the country.

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A footnote for the Father Knows Best chronicles: 

Obama and Duncan visited the Mooresville school to highlight its "best practices" and to promote their federal "E-rate" technology initiative - a push to provide schools with fast Internet speeds and other technology resources.  The visit is a bit peculiar given that the Obama/Duncan initiative didn't actually pay for Mooresville's purchases.  Apparently, the E-rate program still needs funding.  No worries. President Obama plans to "redirect" federal money for the program."  Said Obama, "here’s the best news — none of this requires an act of Congress.” Father Knows Best.

Source:  New York Times, 6/6/13

Origins of the Common Core - Most Roads Lead Back to Bill Gates

Whether you're for or against the Common Core,  it's good to know where it came from.  The CCSS website implies that its origins are quasi-democratic, but in fact, it looks like most roads lead back to Bill Gates.  See reporting done by Mercedes Schneider.

ISO Honest Brokers of Information

Can we call the Gates Foundation (GF) an honest broker of information?

Based on the Foundation's mischaracterization of recent survey findings, the answer would be no.  The GF posted the following tweet stating that principals showed "strong support of the #common core."

Where'd they get that idea?   Read the findings as summarized by the organization that conducted the survey, the National Association of Elementary School Principals.



Let's look more closely:

• Could one interpret the high implementation rate of the CC by principals as support?  No.  Principals in states that took federal Race-To-The-Top (RTTF) money -- and that's most states -- must implement the Common Core. They don't really have a choice.  
• How about the finding that "slightly over one half of principals" said the CC standards "hold potential for achieving their intended purpose"?  Is "hold potential" and "strong support" the same thing?  Hardly.
• How about the fact that the 14 states sampled over-represented "states with reputations for strong common core representation"? Uh oh.
• Then, there's this little problem pointed out by the survey's owners:  "Because of the low response rates to the survey, we recommend that readers avoid generalizing to the entire principal workforce." Uh oh, again.

I could keep going.

So, is the Gates Foundation warranted in concluding that "principals [showed]...strong support of the #common core"?  No.

ISO of Honest Information Broker.

Follow the Money. NPR & Gates.

Gates, via his foundation, is giving money to NPR to increase its coverage of education.  For years, I worked for organizations that took money from foundations.  Based on this experience, I can't see how NPR will be even-handed in its coverage.  NPR Press Release, 12/15/13

Welcome! Why Education Firestorm?

Today, a firestorm is sweeping through public education.  Here are the major, national changes that are hitting all at once:

• new federal curriculum  (the Common Core)
• new federal testing regime (PARCC or SBA)
• new teacher evaluation regime

Simultaneously, these changes overlap with powerful movements to

• end teacher pensions
• weaken teachers unions
• privatize public education
• increase federal control over public education
• increase control of public education by foundations and wealthy individuals
• increase profits of companies in the education business

Have I forgotten anything?

In this block, I report on and evaluate this firestorm.