CURMUDGUCATION: James Blew: Pushing More Headscratching Arguments for USED
James Blew: Pushing More Headscratching Arguments for USED
These days, James Blew's official title is Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the US Department of Education. He's held that job since the Senate confirmed him in July of 2018.
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| This guy. |
That confirmation was a narrow 50-49 party line vote, perhaps because Blew's previous history is focused on dismantling US public education. He was director of Student Success California, part of the 50CAN reformy network, and he served a stint as president of StudentsFirst, the national reform advocacy group founded by Michelle Rhee, former DC chancellor and ed reform's Kim Kardashian. He was the director of the Walton family Foundation's K-12 "reform investments" for 11 years. His background is, of course, not education, but business, politics and "communications."
In short, he's a solid part of the team of foxes guarding the US education hen house.
In late July, he showed (virtually) up at the annual national (virtual) seminar held by the Education Writers Association. The session underlines the current batch of talking points being used by the department, in particular capturing some of the serious cognitive dissonance and headscratching involved. Beth Hawkins covered the interview, and did a handy job.
Blew joined in the declaration that Covid-19 highlights the need for choice, because parents might CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: James Blew: Pushing More Headscratching Arguments for USED