Vultures of ESEA
As it becomes increasingly apparent that our public education system is reaching a breaking point of sorts (see: teacher shortages, fed-up students and parents, andprincipals who have apparently lost their minds), a potential reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary School Act sits on the desks of our elected officials in Washington.
“The purpose of this act is to restore freedom to parents, teachers, principals and other school leaders, States, Governors, and local communities so that they can improve their local public schools,” the Senate version states.
How kind of them to finally think of us.
Too bad it’s a bunch of baloney.
Read what Morna McDermott of United Opt Out (and creator of this incredible flowchart showing Common Core’s countless corporate connections) has to say about the Trojan horse inherent in the rewrites in this blog post that has made its way to the National Education Policy Center.
Now check out the playbook corporate consultants have developed for a behind-the-scenes looks at the way state power afforded by the new ESEA will be manipulated to the liking of corporate profiteers.
No really – there’s an actual playbook, developed by a consultant group called Bellwether Education, whose client list includes… well, everyone you’d expect it to include.
If you’ve read any of my previous blog posts, you know that I’ve argued elsewhere that one of the real purposes of the Common Core Standards is to unleash a multi-billion dollar market by joining forces with a “competency” (proficiency, mastery, customized) based model of learning that is meant to bring about a massive expansion of “personalized” (digital and online) learning. Savvy investors have been counting on this unbundling for at least a decade. See below:
To that end, Bellwether has provided its clients with a set of policy strategies to be enacted on the state and local level that will ensure that their products make Vultures of ESEA | Save Maine Schools: