Why education activists are furious at ExxonMobil’s CEO
Some education activists are furious at Rex Tillerson, the chairman and chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, for remarks he made about public schools — and one activist teachers organization is calling for a boycott of the petroleum giant.
Tillerson’s 2014 comments were part of a new Fortune magazine article about the Common Core State Standards, titled “Business Gets Schooled,” that details the involvement of big corporations in the Core initiative, saying, “In truth, Common Core might not exist without the corporate community.” In the article, Facebook founder Bill Gates is described at one point as attempting to persuade Charles Koch to stop funding right-wing groups who were fighting the Core — an expression of how surprised business leaders were when the right began to oppose the Core.
The article, by Peter Elkind, is subtitled “When Exxon Mobil, GE, Intel, and others pushed for the education standards, they incurred the wrath of Tea Party conservatives and got a painful lesson in modern politics.” It says in part:
It was a strange thing indeed to hear Rex Tillerson, CEO of Texas-based Exxon Mobil, bemoaning his impotence at a 2014 panel discussion in Washington, D.C. But such is the frustration of serving on the frontline in this war. Like other CEOs engaged in education reform, Tillerson sees high national standards as a “business imperative.” Companies simply can’t find enough skilled American workers.But Tillerson articulates his view in a fashion unlikely to resonate with the average parent. “I’m not sure public schools understand that we’re their customer—that we, the business community, are your customer,” said Tillerson during the panel discussion. “What they don’t understand is they are producing a product at the end of that high school graduation.”The Exxon CEO didn’t hesitate to extend his analogy. “Now is that product in a form that we, the customer, can use it? Or is itWhy education activists are furious at ExxonMobil’s CEO - The Washington Post:
Dear Mr. Tillerson of ExxonMobil: ‘Please leave our children alone’
Here is a letter to Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil’s chairman and chief executive, from veteran educator Carol Burris, in response to remarks he made about public schools, which are described in full in the previous post.
The remarks were included in a Fortune magazine story on the Common Core entitled, “Business Gets Schooled,” in which author Peter Elkind chronicles in detail the involvement of big business in the development of the Common Core State Standards, as well as the lengths to which prominent individuals, including Bill Gates, have gone to sell the Common Core to politicians and the public.
In Elkind’s story, Tillerson emerges as a new character in the Common Core battle, one who threatens politicians who do not support the Common Core.Tillerson, who will be mandated to retire within the next few years, refused to speak with Elkind.
Using Tillerson’s public remarks, Elkind attributes the following to the CEO:
“I’m not sure public schools understand that we’re their customer—that we, the business community, are your customer,” said Tillerson during the panel discussion. “What they don’t understand is they are producing a product at the end of that high school graduation…Now is that product in a form that we, the customer, can use it? Or is it defective, and we’re not interested?” American schools, Tillerson declared, “have got to step up the performance level—or they’re basically turning out defective products that have no future. Unfortunately, the defective products are human beings. So it’s really serious. It’s tragic. But that’s where we find ourselves today.”
Here is the letter Burris wrote in response to these comments:
Dear Mr. Tillerson,Please leave our children alone. We do not need you to develop them as products. They are neither kerogen nor shale.Your Dickensian thinking has been “outed” and this holiday season, you are as welcome as the ghost of Christmas past. The common-folk for whom the Core you adore was designed, do not like it—only 24 percent of public school parents want it used in their school. And they certainly do not like to hear their children referred to as “defective products.” Mr. Tillerson, you have made the mommies and daddies mad.I understand their reaction must confound you. In a world in Dear Mr. Tillerson of ExxonMobil: ‘Please leave our children alone’
