The Plot Against Public Education                                                          (Politico October 6, 2014)

This article is an adapted excerpt from Bob Hebert’s new book Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America (Doubleday), out Oct. 7. 

In the article Bob Herbert provides details on Bill Gates $2 billion, 9-year failed small-school initiative, charter schools leaving behind the most disadvantaged children, the 2000 K12 Incorporated ‘virtual schools’ venture (Goldman Sachs banker Ronald Packard, junk-bond king Michael Milken, Oracle founder-billionaire Larry Ellison, Secretary of Education and Drug Czar William Bennett – results – math, reading, graduation poor; attrition high), Pearson’s enormous influence in Texas politics, and the Bloomberg-Klein failed reforms of the New York City school system.

You can access the full article here.

The two final paragraphs sum up his findings:

“The amount of money in play [in American education] is breathtaking. And the fiascos it has wrought put a spotlight on America’s class divide and the damage that members of the elite, with their money and their power and their often misguided but unshakable belief in their talents and their virtue, are inflicting on the less financially fortunate.

Those who are genuinely interested in improving the quality of education for all American youngsters are faced with two fundamental questions: First, how long can school systems continue to pursue market-based reforms that have failed year after demoralizing year to improve the education of the nation’s most disadvantaged children? And second, why should a small group of America’s richest individuals, families, and foundations be allowed to     exercise such overwhelming—and often such toxic—influence over the ways in which public school students are taught?”

Tom