Friday, January 15, 2016

Common Core targeted in video suggesting money as motive | NewBostonPost

Common Core targeted in video suggesting money as motive | NewBostonPost:

Second Common Core video released as Mass. considers ballot proposal to dump the standards

Project Veritas undercover video depicts a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt executive describing Common Core as a way for publishers to boost sales. (Image from Project Veritas video)


BOSTON – A second undercover video portraying Common Core as an exercise in profiteering by publishers including Boston textbook giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt surfaced Thursday, showing an executive of the company saying such education initiatives are “never about the kids.” The video, from Project Veritas, a nonprofit journalism outfit that on Tuesday released similarly damning footage, may prompt some remarks by Republican presidential hopefuls during planned debates Thursday night. At least, that appears to be the hope of James O’Keefe, the group’s founder:











The latest video shows a woman, Amelia Petties, identified as a Houghton account executive, saying that education initiatives like Common Core are “never about the kids” and that they present lucrative business opportunities for companies that produce textbooks, training and other curriculum materials.
“There’s always money in it,” Petties says in the video. “And slapping a new name on it, which my my case, I hope they do.”
“Then I can sell a (expletive) ton of training around whatever you’re calling it,” she says.
Petties has worked for Houghton for a little more than a year, according to career networking site LinkedIn, and is responsible for “strategy, project plan and execution of HMH professional development and professional services proposals for the K-12 market.”
A phone number listed for Petties has been disconnected. There was no immediate response to an email sent to her at Houghton.
As with any video, there’s no easy way to tell how much it has been edited or manipulated, or to judge the context of what is being shown.
Dianne Barrow, a Houghton sales executive depicted in the video released Tuesday, told the Washington Post that she was fired the same day, because she had cast a “bad light” on the company. Barrow said the comments she is seen making on the video had been taken out of context and wer
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