The curious case of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce's upcoming Education Summit
January 31, 2014
Who is sponsoring the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce's upcoming Education Summit, and why are their names no longer listed on the official promotional piece for the event?
The original announcement for the Summit included Target, General Mills, and Thompson Reuters among the handful of groups and businesses sponsoring the Education Summit. However, as of Wednesday, January 29, the list of sponsors had been removed from the Chamber of Commerce's announcement for the event. When contacted about this, a Chamber of Commerce representative said the sponsors' names were removed because displaying them "wasn't doing anybody any good."
However, controversial education reform purveyor Michelle Rhee will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Summit, and her pending appearance, along with the Chamber's national support for the Common Core State Standards, sparked protest from some local and national advocacy groups that organize against corporate education reform movements. Word quickly spread through social media, and some of the local groups, such as Minnesotans Against the Common Core and Save the Kids, organized a call-in protest to the Chamber of Commerce and the event's corporate sponsors. These groups are also planning a "Stand for Kids" rally at the Summit.
The details of the Summit, which will include not only Michelle Rhee's speech but also an appearance by former Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak, among others, were also brought to the attention of the Minnesota Badass Teachers Association (MN BATs), which is the local off-shoot of the National BAT Association, started in 2013. Their Twitter account, as well as that of other local education Tweeters, includes information about the Summit and appeals to Target, in particular,
