Rifts in the Ownership Society

"Greed is good" at Fordham, but...

Why are Checker Finn, Rick Hess and the right-wing "greedheads" over at Fordham Institute suddenly railing against "self-promoters" and "snake-oil salesmen" out to make a buck off of Duncan's Race To The Top?

After all, admit the duo:

We're veteran champions of entrepreneurs, for-hyphen profits, out-sourcing, competition, deregulation, and kindred efforts to open public education to providers other than government and operators other than bureaucrats.We've served on boards on some of these organizations, advised them and generally supported them.

In short, according to the pair, "in K-12 education, we submit, greed can be good, albeit ugly."

But now, say the two Fordham think-tankers,

...the whole "Race To The Top" enterprise has become a red light district for lusty charlatans and randy peddlers. Big firms full of wealthy MBA types--people who earn in a quarter what teachers make in a year--have gobbled up the $250,000 per state that the Gates Foundation offered as part of its own generous consultant stimulus act," along with additional dollars that states have tossed into the kitty. In return, they're readying cool power points, nifty white papers, and jargon-littered plans, all geared to helping states persuade Secretary Duncan that yes, they are ready and eager to do his bidding.

Could it be that the conservative ed hustlers who made a killing at Bush's Reading First feeding trough are now being frozen out by this new group of politically aligned "greedheads?"

Closing the gap

National Journal Online asks its teacher-free panel of experts, what to do to close the achievement gap? The response from most is the usual blah, blah, blah. Monty Neill and Pedro Noguera, as expected, are on target. Andrew Rotherham, as expected, is the worst. He's still moaning over the collapse of Reading First, the great neocon reading swindle that nearly got past the investigators.

'Lies, damned lies..."

Skoolboy, posting on Eduwonkette, bids farewell to Bush and (hopefully) NCLB/Reading First B.S. reading program evaluations.

How did “44 of 50 States” report increases in the percentage of first grade students proficient in reading comprehension when, according to the American Institutes for Research compilation of Reading First Annual Performance Reports from 2003-2007, only 40 of the 54 SEA’s even reported reading comprehension proficiency for first grade students for two or more years?

Ownership Society quotables

Michael Abramowitz in the Washington Post:

This is probably not the ownership society that Bush had in mind.

Eli Broad:

“I think there’s a multiplier effect. What smart, entrepreneurial philanthropists and their foundations do is get greater value for how they invest their money than if the government were doing it.”

Diane Ravitch on the "business model" approach to schooling:

It appears that the purpose of the Broad research laboratory at Harvard is to continue the Broad Foundation’s campaign to bring business methods to the schools. What a strange irony that this would occur at the very time that our financial system teeters on the brink of disaster! Do we really want the same “data-driven approach” in our schools?

Maureen Dowd on the new "socialism":

Who would have dreamed that when socialism finally came to the U.S.A. it would be brought not by Bolsheviks in blue jeans but Wall Street bankers in Gucci loafers?

Conservative think tank targets SLCs

After years of supporting multi-billion-dollar Bush administration boondoggles like the scandal-ridden $4 billion Reading First Program, Fordham Foundation’s Mike Petrilli touts Bush’s hit list of programs he wants to cut from the new administration's DOE’s budget.

High on Petrilli list is the Smaller Learning Communities initiative that was launched during the Clinton years. The Republicans have tried unsuccessfully for years to shift spending away from SLCs, which offer the best alternative to top-down reform, to support for private schools and privately-managed charter schools and vouchers. This, despite resistance from educators and parents in large, overcrowded and dangerous high schools.

Among the other programs Petrilli wants cut are just about any and all relating to the arts, social justice, equity and multi-cultural education.

Thanks to Monty Neill for sending us the latest evidence of the complete failure of Petrilli’s pet program, Reading First, (“'Reading First' is a costly failure”).

The Change We Need in Washington

"I am not a Democrat who believes that we can or should defend every government program just because it’s there. There are some that don’t work like we had hoped – like the Bush Administration’s billion-dollar-a-year reading program that hasn’t improved our children’s reading."

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama—as prepared for delivery
Monday, September 22nd, 2008, Green Bay, Wisconsin