Pearson Allows Me to Quote 400 Board-meeting Words
At the American Enterprise Institute in March 2014, billionaire Bill Gates explained why the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are necessary above and beyond individual state standards that might be better:
You get more free market competition. Scale is good for free market competition.Individual state regulatory capture is not good for competition. [Emphasis added.]
In economics, “scale” involves decreasing costs as a result of the ability to mass produce.
Gates sees “scale potential” in the national standardization of public education– i.e., CCSS.
He believes such is “good for free market competition.”
Not true.
The national standardization of public education does not promote economic health for small (local) businesses. Instead, it feeds monopolies– like bloated, incompetent Pearson.
I have read and written much about Pearson. My conclusion: Pearson is very bad for American public education.
Pearson has an established history of finding itself on the defendant end of lawsuits, including those related to copyright infringement, misuse of a nonprofit, and faulty reporting of results.
Nevertheless, Pearson is involved in all aspects of American public education. It is tied to curriculum, assessment (including assessment of teachers in training),professional development, and data collection (and here).
Pearson is huge (“consisting of three worldwide businesses”), and becomes even larger by acquiring smaller companies– companies that one might be Pearson Allows Me to Quote 400 Board-meeting Words | deutsch29: