The American Enterprise Institute, Common Core, and “Good Cop”
In my research on Gates’ Common Core State Standards (CCSS) spending, I came across this unusual grant to the pro-reform group, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI):
Date: June 2012
Purpose: to support their education policy work in four distinct areas: Exploring the Challenges of Common Core, Future of American Education Working Groups, Innovations in Financial Aid, and Bridging K-12 and Higher Ed with Technology
Amount: $1,068,788 [Emphasis added.]
Purpose: to support their education policy work in four distinct areas: Exploring the Challenges of Common Core, Future of American Education Working Groups, Innovations in Financial Aid, and Bridging K-12 and Higher Ed with Technology
Amount: $1,068,788 [Emphasis added.]
Gates paid AEI one million, in part to “explore the challenges of Common Core.” If Gates really wanted AEI to critically address problems associated with CCSS, it would not have paid AEI to do so two years following CCSS completion.
No, no. This is no critical appraisal of CCSS. This is CCSS promotion.
Given its timing (two years following CCSS completion), the Gates-funded task for AEI is better read as
Exploring the Challenges of Selling the Common Core.
What we have here is a version of Good Cop, Bad Cop.
By way of Scholar Frederick Hess (yes, he really refers to himself as “scholar”), AEI offers the appearance of critical appraisal of CCSS.
Thus, Hess appears to be the “good cop” to the outspoken CCSS proponents’ “bad cop.”
However, “good cop” is an illusion.
Consider this December 13, 2013, excerpt from Hess’ blog. Hess plays the neutral