Recession marketing

Taking it on the road

First there was free marketeer Milton Friedman who looked at Hurricane Katrina as "an opportunity" to bust unions and privatize public schools. Then there was Arne Duncan telling us that the global economic collapse offered us a "magical opportunity to invest in best practices." Now school bosses/consultants Paul Vallas, Joel Klein and others are turning disaster politics into a road show about making the most of the depression. Sponsor Edweek calls it Powering Through the Recession, with stops in Jersey City and Newport Beach (can I go to that one?).

"Recession Buster" workshops include:

• Walk The Line: Maximizing Human Capital
  
• Leveraging the Stimulus: How to Turn Federal Stimulus Dollars Into Lasting Benefits
• The Fierce Urgency of Recession: How and What to Cut

Translation: human capital is what they call teachers these days; "maximizing" means firing teachers and closing schools; "leveraging the stimulus" means supplanting state funding with federal dollars; "lasting benefits" means boosting your outside consulting business, I suppose.

You got to love the "fierce urgency" of cutting. Hmmm, I wonder where they got that? Sounds a lot like McDonald's new Appetite Stimulus Package to me.

And where's Michelle Rhee? Shouldn't she be the keynoter?