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Friday, May 9, 2014

IRONY: Data Exposes the Data-Mining Investors in Corporate Education Reform [A Chronicle of Echoes] | Reclaim Reform

IRONY: Data Exposes the Data-Mining Investors in Corporate Education Reform [A Chronicle of Echoes] | Reclaim Reform:



IRONY: Data Exposes the Data-Mining Investors in Corporate Education Reform [A Chronicle of Echoes]

The sheer IRONY of using data to expose the data-mining investors in Corporate Education Reform is mind-blowing. Mercedes Schneider does precisely that in A Chronicle of Echoes: Who’s Who in the Implosion of American Public Education.
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Please do not think that a book that generously provides extensive data and sources is dry or boring; on the contrary, Schneider brings it all together in a high intensity, high interest amalgam of people and money. Names are named. This book reveals the factual, financial inter-relationships of Michelle Rhee, Rahm Emanuel, Joel Klein, Bill Gates, Jeb Bush, Eva Moskowitz, Wendy Kopp, Eli Broad, Arne Duncan, Paul Vallas, Jonah Edelman, Michael Bloomberg, the Walton Family, and more – including their tax free foundations. Key plutocratic names in the multibillion dollar Empire of Corporate Education Reform. Infamous names.
Notice that these are factual, financial inter-relationships; Corporate Education Reform is really all about the money.
How and where did she find all of this information? “I have researched books, newspaper articles, blog entries, email exchanges, interviews, web pages, advertisements, income tax forms, dissertations, conference materials, meeting minutes, video presentations, legislation and formal testimony.”
Mercedes Schneider’s research, articles, and blog posts are often cited by established journals and well known authors, such as Diane Ravitch. If she didn’t already have a PhD in applied statistics and data research, this book would be her eminently readable dissertation for a PhD. Her credibility is well established. Now, we are treated to an entire book of her own.
There are two wonderfully unusual things about A Chronicle of Echoes.
1) It need not be read from beginning to end. Pick and choose the elements you are most curious about.
2) It has 88 pages of endnotes citing the sources of every statement for those who wish to delve even deeper into the (annual) $800 billion Education Industrial Complex and its IRONY: Data Exposes the Data-Mining Investors in Corporate Education Reform [A Chronicle of Echoes] | Reclaim Reform: