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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Jersey Jazzman: Joel Klein On the Fainting Couch

Jersey Jazzman: Joel Klein On the Fainting Couch:


Joel Klein On the Fainting Couch

The EduShyster is fast becoming one of the real reform movement's all-stars. Here, he skewers corporate edu-vulture Joel Klein:
What’s that haters, you’re still not buying it? You think that Mr. Klein is nothing more than a glorified snake oil salesmen peddling techno gimmickry to schools in order to sop up tax payer money? Jeez, go easy on the brother, haters! It turns out Mr. Klein doesn’t think much of you either:
The critique that really ignites a response in me, however, is the idea that education companies are motivated only by money. Like any other business that invests its capital to develop and market products or services, educational businesses need to secure a return on their investment. But there are no guarantees for educational entrepreneurs, just like there are no guarantees in other fields. You take a risk and hope for a return. But that doesn’t mean that entrepreneurs are motivated solely by profit. If you have any doubts about that, just ask the people at Facebook or Twitter, who surely want to change the world (but won’t be able to unless they can provide their investors a return). This kind of attack on motive—i.e., that profits are all that innovators care about—is not only wrong, it’s frankly deeply offensive. [emphasis mine]

Quickly, someone get Joel the fainting couch! He is deeply offended that anyone would ever question his