Who determines how America’s democratic public schools are run? Is it the Americans, Democrats, and Republicans, who elect a school board to democratically represent their community?
Why do nonprofits working with corporations get to decide the future of our public schools? What gives them the right to determine what teachers should teach and how schools should run?
It may have gone unnoticed, but Education Secretary Miguel Cardona recently said to “tune in” to The Future of Education meeting. He claims that the future of education is bright, acknowledges those who do the heavy lifting surrounding public schools, but the sponsor of the meeting and the many speakers tell a different story.
I can say with full confidence that the future of education is bright thanks to the commitment of educators, students, parents, administrators, and the Biden Administration. Tune in: https://t.co/VHulSyd0hU
— Secretary Miguel Cardona (@SecCardona) March 17, 2022
Collaborative for Student Success
The Collaborative for Student Success, whose executive director is Jim Cowen, sponsored the program. Find Cowen’s profile on the Education Post. He has degrees in public policy and business.
With regional and national foundations, the Collaborative’s funders include:
- Bloomberg Foundation
- Carnegie Corporation of New York
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
- The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation
- The Walton Family Foundation
According to Influence Watch, it’s a nonprofit that advances policies supporting Common Core State Standards, a project of the New Venture Fund, a dark money organization primarily funded by the left.
In 2020, the Gates Foundation gave the Collaborative $4 million.
Influence Watch notes that the Collaborative has been a strong force behind the Every Student Succeeds Act which replaced No Child Left Behind.
In 2019, responding to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results, the Collaborative for Student Success, signed a “Call to Action” supporting a standardized curriculum and focused on academic standards. Here are the signers.
- Achieve
- Alliance for Excellent Education
- Education Trust
- Fordham Institute
- Learning Heroes
- Literacy How
- Military Child Education Coalition
- Nation Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)
- National Council on Teacher Quality
- National Urban Alliance
- National Urban League
- Collaborative for Student Success
The Collaborative works with the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), another anti-public-school nonprofit whose funders include:
- Abt Associates
- Barr Association
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Collaborative for Student Success
- Carnegie Corporation of New York
- Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
- Colorado Education Initiative
- Colorado Succeeds
- The Joyce Foundation
- New Schools Venture Fund
- Oak Foundation
- St. Louis Community Foundation
- TNTP
- Walton Family Foundation
- Washington State Charter Schools Association
- Wend
They mention the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, another nonprofit claiming to identify innovative education using federal recovery funding.
Edunomics Lab Funders include:
- Laura and John Arnold Foundation
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Building State Capacity & Productivity Center
- Center on Reinventing Public Education
- Comprehensive Center Network
- Council of Chief State School Officers
- Institute of Education Sciences
- Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
- New America Foundation
- Raikes Foundation
- Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho
- Smith Richardson Foundation
- Walton Family Foundation
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation
- TNTP
- The Education Trust
- National Parents Union
- The Rural Alliance
- John White, Former Louisiana State Superintendent and from Teach for America
- EdAllies
- The Data Quality Campaign
- New America
- The George W. Bush Presidential Center
- New Leaders
- K-12 Policy Expert and AssessmentHQ Author, DC Strategies
- The Southern Regional Education Board
What do they have in store for America’s children and youth?
High-Stakes Standardized Testing
The Collaborative for Student Success defends aligned assessments and high-stakes testing. Here
They claim that opting out isn’t the answer and promote Common Core State Standards.
It’s unclear, easy to get lost in the wordiness, but they emphasize data collection and highlight Assessment HQ with data collected across the country with Assessment HQ.
The Future of Education Speakers
Gov. Chris Sununu is for school vouchers.
Stephen L. Pruitt is the sixth president of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) for 16 states. This organization claims it knows what works for schools.
It’s hard to identify funders for the SREB, but they received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (p. 10) Their goals?
- Benchmarking State Implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
- Educator Effectiveness
- Literacy Design Collaborative and Math Design Collaborative
Rey Saldaña CEO of Communities In Schools. His accomplishments include acting as Chief Engagement Officer with KIPP San Antonio Public Schools.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis claims he’ll invest in education in Colorado. An entrepreneur businessman and former State Board of Education member, he’s the founder of a charter school network.
Lindsay E. Jones, Esq. CEO of CAST connected to Universal Design for Learning is about online instruction for students with disabilities.
For years, many worried that UDL was pushing online learning as the end goal.
- Creative Commons
- The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Intel Education
- George Lucas Educational Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- New Profit, Inc.
- New York Community Trust
- Oak Foundation
- Poses Family Foundation
- Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation
- Barr Foundation
- Eastern Bank
- US Department of Education
- US Department of Defense
- US Department of Labor
- State of California
- State of New Hampshire
- Commonwealth of Massachusetts
There were more speakers representing nonprofits, and a few who may be for public schools, but the meeting showed that the Future of Education doesn’t appear to be in the hands of most educators, parents, or local communities.
It’s also hard to see how it’s genuinely about students, teachers, and schools.
Sounds like a good article for Valerie Strauss among others. We should all be tired of being patted on the head before the “adults” go off and decide our fate. Their agenda has little to do with the actual actors in public education, students, parents, or teachers but rather how they can profit from their meddling.. Always in the calculus is the profit for the planners. Why is their blatant self interest ignored?
That’s a great (but sad) way of putting it! It is interesting how they promote each other.
Nancy,
One feels overwhelmed at the amount of money and power represented by these interlocking organizations whose varying agendas run far and wide.
That is why we at EEC decided to go directly to the issue that will provide the best and quickest results: more boots on the ground, what we sometimes call “the grandparent effect.”
By reaching into the rich treasures of wisdom and experience of retired teachers, and offering a way for them to be involved with current teachers and their students, we feel we can best create positive outcomes for all those engaged in public education. This can best be done by allowing them to choose what days and hours they want to work and with whom, and then simply invoice our organization for their time.
If some of all this money going in so many different directions, could be focused on our retired teachers who can be trusted to contribute in the best ways they know to help students and relieve teachers from their overwhelming duties; I know we could move this system into better waters. or smoother skies.
Will Bronson MA, MTS, DMin (retired Delta Airline pilot)
Founder EnlightenEducationCo-op.org
Thanks for sharing. Ouch! Gotta get these charlatans out of our schools!
And there were MORE!
Of course, most of these televised sound bites of crazy local school board meetings contain the most outrageous, loud parents (if they really are parents), so they get all of the attention. My question is–how should school boards vote on issues if half of their constituents favor one side, but the other half favor the opposite side? What if one of those sides is extremely vocal & passionate about their point of view, while the other side is just quiet & logical while expressing their views? And how many parents can actually attend, or even speak at these meetings? Who should the board listen to? Parental involvement is wonderful and important, however parents need to understand that just because they want certain policies enacted or changed, it doesn’t mean that they automatically get their way. Board members were elected to use their best judgement to formulate policies that are best for the majority of students. No decision will please every constituent, so we all need to learn & understand that our elected officials were elected to make decisions that may not always please everyone, but ultimately we all have to accept those decisions & if we don’t like them, go vote in the next election.
It’s not only for parents. Everyone in a community can voice their concerns.
I’d suggest breaking into smaller groups. That’s how we get to know one another. Throw in a few experts on both sides of any issue with the promise of civility.
Now and then, serious issues come up, as we’ve seen recently, but school board meetings aren’t always so loud and disagreeable.
And you’re right. Not everyone is pleased by decisions, but they get to voice their opinions. Like voting.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is about being able to voice their opinion. It is about getting their way.
Well, sure. You’re right. I mean I spoke in front of school boards and wanted to get my way. Although unlike some of what we’re seeing today, I spoke respectfully. I also didn’t get my way.
But what’s the alternative? Hand over school decisions to outsiders? Or privatization where parents may or may not have some say.
I still think when it comes to difficult decisions small groups might be the answer. When you actually get to know those you disagree with, it might be more meaningful, then shouting in front of a huge group. Just a thought.
I always figured that our democratically elected school board really had the best interests of all our kids at heart. “Loud voices” don’t seem to speak for the same broad constituency.
I have had some experience with the small group approach, which can be used to collect/hear a lot of opinions. However, they can also be used to control the narrative. I watched those in charge pool the group input to fit the narrative they wanted to push. I know there were some voices that got lost in the way they summarized the information from the groups. Opinions got diluted when aggregated. That being said, it could eliminate the aggressive tone too many meetings take these days.
I’m not sure if there is a perfect plan. It’s a messy process.
Like you, I fondly remember when the school board made frequent visits to see our new program for students with disabilities. They seemed vested in what we were doing. I appreciate that more looking back.
Here’s hoping things will settle down.
Thanks! I always appreciate your thoughtful comments.
This is in response to speduktr. I know exactly what you mean by this: “those in charge pool the group input to fit the narrative they wanted to push. I know there were some voices that got lost in the way they summarized the information from the groups. Opinions got diluted when aggregated.” That is exactly what used to happen when the RI Department of Ed held public meetings about key concerns like standardized testing. There is a name for that strategy, but I can’t think of it right now. It’s meant to deceive people into thinking they have input, but those in charge manipulate the process to achieve the result they wanted in the first place.
Exactly. I can’t remember the name either. 🙂
The name of the technique just popped into my head: The Delphi Technique.
http://www.vlrc.org/articles/110.html
Yes! Thank you.
My thanks to NPE.
https://networkforpubliceducation.org/blog-content/nancy-bailey-the-future-of-education-who-decides-how-our-public-schools-run/
Public Education: Stick a fork in it, it’s done.
Corporatism gone wild.
This is one of the most disturbing education posts I have ever seen.
A failure of imagination and duty allowed this to happen.
All 50 state education departments should have sued the federal government
over the No Child Left Behind act. It was clearly an unconstitutional law due to
a requirement that was impossible to meet (100% proficiency in math and ELA by 2014).
Failure to defy the NCLB act opened the door to CCSS, RTTT, and the NCLB Duncan waiver.
And this post is the result.
It was disturbing to review and write about. Like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia when all the brooms (nonprofits) kept multiplying. One group leads to 10 more. Schools are run by nonprofits only no one in them is doing face-to-face work with the students.
Your point is well-taken. So many understood the damage of NCLB and the rest that you mention. Like math, they had equally structured goals for reading–every third-grader would be reading by 2014! And now there’s the Every Student Succeeds Act which is equally disturbing.
I like to write and research, but like you, it’s becoming more difficult to see the light when it comes to public ed.