If Bush was the earthquake for the privatization/destruction of public schools, then Obama is the tsunami.
This
important article speaks the accelerated pace of investment and
profiteering on the backs of our students and school workers.
And, what many activists on the ground have not yet recognized, that brought on not only by your Republicans,
….. BUT also …
- by the local Democrat Party clubs (as well as national and state),
- most of our AFT/UFT/AFL-CIO/SEIU business unions (national & locals), and
-
their ubiquitous "lefty" non-profit/Community Based Organization
astro-turf fronts, who will don their militant army jackets at times
(e.g.the CEJs or AQEs).
Gotta step up the organizing drives at each school for real fight-back independent
- union chapters
- high school/college student unions
- parent associations and
- community coalitions.
…and that are free of these forces that partner with the Wall St -1% ers' charter/privatization agendas.
By Nancy Hanover
Angel
World Socialist Web Site
wsws.orgVenture capital explodes into the US education market
By Nancy Hanover
8 February 2012
The Obama administration’s education initiatives have been extraordinarily successful—not as measured by the typical metrics of student achievement, but as tallied on Wall Street by the flow of venture capital.
The
amount of private equity entering the education market nearly tripled
to $224 million in 2011, up from roughly $130 million in 2010.
‘Having
been in this space, covering it for more than a decade, I’ve not seen
this level of interest or supply of early-stage K-12 businesses in the
last decade by any stretch of the imagination,’ said Adam J. Newman, an
Education Growth Advisors (private equity firm) partner, according to Education Week. The 2011 investment level represented the highest transaction value into K-12 education in a decade.
In
2011, more venture capital entered the K-12 market than the higher
education sector for the first year since 2006. ‘Precollegiate education
historically has not been an easy market for venture capitalists to
break into,’ noted Education Week, as ‘venture capitalists generally look for high-growth opportunities.’
What
accounts for this sharp change in investment environment? Why are
high-risk, high-rewards capitalists convinced that so much profit is
there for the taking?
The
Obama administration has changed the face of education through its The
Race to the Top (RTTT) initiative. The resulting rule changes on the
state level have ensured a growing incursion of profit-taking throughout
the education industry.
States,
reeling from massive budget deficits, have enacted ‘reform’ legislation
enabling a growing privatization of kindergarten through high school
schooling. Last month, the state of Michigan removed the limiting cap on
charter schools; pending legislation in the state (Senate Bill 619)
would end the restrictions on 100 percent online cyber schools. With
Education management organizations (EMOs) running most charter schools
nationally, many ‘non-profit’ school districts are controlled by
for-profit entities. Michigan is already home to one quarter of the
nation’s for-profit charter operations.
Other
states have done likewise. Illinois lifted a cap on the number of
charter schools it allows, and Massachusetts made it easier for students
in low-performing schools to switch to charters.
The
list of additional jurisdictions that have expanded either their
charters, vouchers, cyber charters or made requirements to require
online coursework since 2010 include Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin,
Idaho, Maine, Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, Utah and Nevada.
Another
approach to the same end is awarding credits for ‘mastery’ of a
subject, rather than by students actually attending classes for a set
amount of instruction. The Florida Virtual School not only awards
credits this way, but the state legislature allocates funding based on
these types of credits. Thirty-six states have embraced alternatives to
meeting ‘seat time’ requirements (the Carnegie unit of instruction).
Such policies give incentive to online programs and testing companies,
aim to reduce expensive remedial students and, most fundamentally, point
to a steady reduction in education altogether.
For
decades, the for-profits and the right-wing opponents of public
education were stymied in their efforts to enact voucher legislation or
other mechanisms to take advantage of the education market. But RTTT,
under conditions of the systematic defunding of public education, has
radically changed the political dynamic.
RTTT
aims to dismantle the guaranteed funding programs established during
the 1960s such as Title 1, which assisted students in disadvantaged
districts, and instead rewards those districts that embrace
entrepreneurial models. Districts are rewarded for establishing
charters, cyber education and various other ‘reforms’ that involve
for-profit businesses.
These
structural changes being implemented by the Obama Department of
Education are clearly creating an unprecedented market opportunity, with
the cost of teaching America’s 77 million K-12 students estimated at
$1.5 trillion annually. These ‘opportunities’ benefit the venture
capitalists and Wall Street investors at the direct expense of students,
teachers and society at large.
These up-and-coming for-profit firms in the education business include:
•
Wireless Generation, a testing and instruction company is widely
utilized in low-income communities. In November, Wireless Generation was
acquired by News Corp. for an estimated $360 million, ‘an extraordinary
result for the entrepreneurs and investors,’ its news release states.
•
The NewSchools Venture Fund is a nonprofit “philanthropic” fund which
has transitioned from funding charter school companies to investing in
both for-profit and non-profit education organizations in their early
stages. It has provided grants to the following for-profit education
companies: Better Lesson, MasteryConnect, Junyo, Goalbook, LearnZillion
and Engrade. It recently announced the launch of a fund that will
provide support to entrepreneurs working to develop education technology
tools, applications, content, and services designed to improve
opportunities for children from low-income communities.
•
Acelero Learning, which starts up new Head Start programs, recently
added Philadelphia as a new market, joining Camden, Middlesex, and
Monmouth, New Jersey, as well as Clark County, Nevada. Acelero has
stated that it has reached such a significant scale it no longer
requires any additional capital from investors.
•
Revolution Foods, a NewSchools portfolio venture, recently added a
number of major new investors, including most prominently Oak Ventures, a
premier venture firm with a specialization in food services. Revolution
Foods is poised to expand to Houston in the near future. The addition
of top-line investors reflects great optimism in the company’s future
and demonstrates that as a company proves its model, ‘impact investors’
can be followed by more traditional investors that enable greater scale.
•
NewSchools recently joined Catamount Ventures as Series A funders of
Presence TeleCare, a start-up company that delivers services over the
Internet to students with special needs. Presence TeleCare uses
technology to replace speech therapists, demonstrating, according to
their advertisements, ‘the importance of using technology to improve the
quality of SPED services and drive down cost.’
Companies
like these join already hugely profitable education industry
operations. Knowledge Universe is a multinational, billion-dollar firm
that includes K-12 Schools, LeapFrog Enterprises, Nobel Learning
Communities, Knowledge Learning Corp., a leading operator of daycare
centers, and Unext, an online college and graduate business school.
Pearson,
another multibillion-dollar holding company, owns Connections
Academies, with cyber schools in 21 states and hundreds of other
subsidiary companies in publishing, including Penguin, Prentice-Hall and
Pearson Scott Foresman, digital instruction, testing and professional
instruction.
Angel Gonzalez:
"It takes a village to raise a child." … But what happens when the village & schools are pillaged by the 1 % Corporate-Vultures?
These Vultures then blame the teachers, parents & child for the poor results.
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