Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Schools Matter: Biblical Capitalists and Philanthropods in Crusade to Destroy Public Education

Schools Matter: Biblical Capitalists and Philanthropods in Crusade to Destroy Public Education:


Biblical Capitalists and Philanthropods in Crusade to Destroy Public Education

From AlterNet:


AlterNet

The DeVos Family: Meet the Super-Wealthy Right-Wingers Working With the Religious Right to Kill Public Education


By Rachel Tabachnick, AlterNet
Posted on May 6, 2011, Printed on July 19, 2012
http://www.alternet.org/story/150868/the_devos_family%3A_meet_the_super-wealthy_right-wingers_working_with_the_religious_right_to_kill_public_education

Since the 2010 elections, voucher bills have popped up in legislatures around the nation. From Pennsylvania to Indiana to Florida, state governments across the country have introduced bills that would take money from public schools and use it to send students to private and religious institutions.


The Gates Techno-twits and Data Miners Are Ready to Ruin the University, Too

The NYTimes has an extensive piece today on the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT), which is now bringing to campus the same kind of algorithm-driven-peering-over-your-shoulder creepiness that now suffuses any visit to Facebook or Netflix.

With money from Gates and his Gang at ED, things are moving quickly.  Since 2009 when things were put in gear by a Gates grant, the philanthrocapitalist machine has become much more efficient, as evidenced here witha piddling grant to Missouri that demands matching funds and that gets into 14 state colleges in one whack.

From NYTimes:


. . . .This is college life, quantified.
Data mining hinges on one reality about life on the Web: what you do there leaves behind a trail of digital breadcrumbs. Companies scoop those up to tailor services, like the matchmaking of eHarmony or the book recommendations of Amazon. Now colleges, eager to get students out the