A Broad View
Submitted by Frank Murphy, April 25, 2011
In Philadelphia the heads of local citizens are spinning from a whirlwind of events that are keeping their school district in constant turmoil. A massive budget shortfall, charter school corruption, anticipated school closingsand scandal, are but a few of the problems that are plaguing the district.
Chaos seems to be the new normal in Philadelphia Schools. In the view of Eli Broad this is a good thing. Broad is a billionaire philanthropist. He along with Bill Gates is one of the most influential advocates of the educational entrepreneur reform movement that is currently shaping the future of America’s public school systems.
Broad believes that public schools should be run as though they are businesses. He advocates for the continual reorganizations of schools, staff firings, and experimentation in order to create chaos or churn. The Broad view sees this as a productive strategy in that it weakens the ability of communities to resist change. In