Yesterday Peter Greene expanded on an idea
I’d put forth a few months back that Competency Based Education (and
really all digital curriculum) was a way of gradually turning
neighborhood public schools into charters from the inside out. I
encourage you to take a few minutes to read his piece “Charterizing From Within.”
I’m glad this proposition is making it out into the world and finding a
wider audience. However there are still many who doubt CBE /
Personalized Learning / Blended Learning etc. will ever take hold. This
despite the fact that adaptive “personalized” learning systems are
popping up all over the country each passing day.
Doubters say virtual schools and e-learning don’t “work.” So there;
it won’t happen. But therein lies the problem. Many assume that a system
that “works” is one designed to serve the needs of children and society
as a whole. The present system, however, is being increasingly twisted
to serve the interests of global capital markets. When you look at it
through that lens, the “failure” of CBE is actually “success.”
Succeeding by creating failure moves the ball forward for those who
seek to kill the old system and create a new educational paradigm, one
custom-built for profit. That is why global capital needs our schools
to fail. Comprehensive dismantling of public school districts across the
nation will throw open the doors to a new age of social impact
investing. If you’re not familiar with the the term yet, please set
aside time to read “Impact Investing and Venture Philanthropy’s Role in Sowing the Seeds of Financial Opportunity” carefully. Take the time. It’s important.
In the aftermath of the failure that has been intentionally created,
venture capitalists will install learning ecosystems in the place
of neighborhood schools. These diffuse networks of online and
badge-based learning opportunities will be structured for maximum social
control, surveillance, and behavior management (the nudge) as well
as financialization. Children will no longer be children, but rather
commodities to be monitored in real time (Internet of Things), bet upon
and securitized.
Below is a comment I left on Peter’s piece. I’ve shared it a few
places, and some found it helpful, so I thought I would blog it here
today. I fully anticipate New Profit will be a central character in the
drama that is unfolding. Below is a list of grants they’ve received
from the Gates Foundation since 2014, $23 million+.
When I taught in the Los Angeles Unified Schools, I openly opposed the Vietnam War and was critical of the system’s race policies. Fortunately, I was never threatened with dismissal, I belonged to a union. — Professor Rodolfo F. Acuña
Students Protesting Marshall Tuck's racist decision to kill Ethnic Studies. Photo by Robert D. Skeels.
Eli Broad's California State Superintendent of Public Instruction hopeful, corporate banker Marshall Tuck, has a long history of fostering institutional racism. It's well documented that he closed down Ethnic Studies Programs, Heritage Language Academic Programs, and research proven Dual Language Immersion Programs. It's also documented that he has been willing to target teachers of color who get too "uppity" for him and the wealthy white elite he works for.
As a white male myself, I cannot speak on behalf of oppressed students and faculty who suffered under Tuck's racist leadership. However, as a student of Freire, a founding member of the Southern California Immigration Coalition, and a member of many groups that are led by various Central American, South American, and Indigenous Peoples, I have had a lot of exposure to the concepts of colonialism and institutional racism. I was endorsed by both Unión del Barrio and Association of Raza Educators (ARE) Los Angeles during my school board run for a reason. It is my moral and intellectual responsibility as a scholar and an activist to challenge white supremacy at every opportunity.
So imagine my surprise when wealthy white Hollywood actor Dax Shepard (I didn't know who he was until I checked Wikipedia) decided he needed to 'splain me about racism and such. I was able to preserve this one exchange, but unfortunately he deleted the rest of the conversation. He had seen the title of my carefully researched polemic Marshall Tuck's Legacy of Bigotry and Failure and said I couldn't be more wrong on the bigotry thing. I responded by asking for an explanation of that stance in the light of Tuck's abject record:
@daxshepard1 Closing down Ethnic Studies, Heritage Language, and Dual Language programs isn't bigoted?
To which he replied (I'm paraphrasing since he deleted his tweet): "Given a choice I believe math and science are more important." To which I responded with an excerpt from Cheryl Ortega's powerful narrative within the Tuck piece:
I know he probably didn't realize what he was saying, but let's be clear — I want to undermine all forms racism, including what Shepard believes is the "real" kind. For a white male to deny that oppressions like cultural sterilization, colonialism, and denial of language rights are forms of "real racism" is not unlike males that have taken upon themselves to define what "real rape" is. Colorado activist and former Denver Board of Education member Andrea Mérida spoke some serious truth to Shepard's white power.
@daxshepard1@rdsathene Ever experience it yourself? No? Then you don't get to define it. Ever hear of institutional racism?
We need more people like Merida calling this out for what it is. While the cartoonish racism of buffoons like Donald Sterling dominates the headlines, the more subtle, insidious racism of Tuck and Shepard pervades our society. In the case of Tuck, it become the established institutional kind that corrodes students of color from the inside out. We can only hope that his billionaire backers don't get him elected, because we've already seen what Tuck's type do when in power — just look at Arizona!
"We had an African American woman walk up to us and say 'why do you need Ethnic Studies?', and we looked at each other and said, 'that's exactly why we need Ethnic Studies!'" — Santee Students speaking at PLAS protest.
It would be a mistake to think the absolutely tragic stream of bigoted and racist legislation flowering in Arizona is confined to Arizona alone. Sadly, one of the most egregious perpetrators removing access to ethnic studies and heritage language programs in this country isn't Michael Hicks, Tom Horne, or John Huppenthal, but a privately managed organization called Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (PLAS) founded by the vehemently anti-public education Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa.
PLAS' latest attack comes in the form of killing the only Ethnic Studies program at the culturally diverse South Los Angeles Santee High School. The announcement shook the community, given the program's popularity and importance in a community desperate to retain its identity and dignity. The following video was taken at a demonstration held in front of PLAS headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The protest was held by community activists in order to save both the Ethnic Studies program and the program's leader — Social Justice Educator Ron Gochez.
At the heart of the decision is a vindictive reprisal against Social Justice Educator Ron Gochez by Mayor Villaraigosa. Gochez drew Villaraigosa's ire by running for Los Angeles City Council District 9, and — as a principled social justice activist — by being a constant thorn in the Mayor's side. Gochez has been one of the activists instrumental in the Southern California Immigration Coalition and National Lawyer Guild's stand against the Mayor and his cronies seizing and selling the automobiles of undocumented peoples. We've even held demonstrations in front of the Mayor's lavish mansion. Here's an announcement of one such protest:
To protest the continued confiscation of undocumented people's cars. The police continue to use minor violations as a pretext to pull over undocumented drivers and take away their vehicles. Police have repeatedly targeted immigrant communities to establish patrols in areas that are designed not to deter traffic violations but provide a pretext for stopping suspected unlicensed drivers, including in front of schools as parents drop off their children. These stops are tantamount to racial profiling as they repeatedly target immigrants who in many instances have committed no crime.
Ultimately Mayor Villaraigosa's political payback effects not just Gochez, but his students, Santee High School, and the South Los Angeles community as a whole.
The initial decision was surreptitiously announced by one of Villaraigosa's education henchman, ex-Green Dot Schools Corporation flunky Marshall Tuck. Tuck has been PLAS' CEO since the privately managed organization began. Eliminating the only Ethnic Studies program at Santee High School is tantamount to cultural sterilization. Such politically motivated attacks are both racist and ethnocentric. PLAS' Marshal Tuck, Doc Ervin, Angela Bass, Joan Sullivan, and Ricardo Ruiz have a long history of these types of attacks on our communities.
The decision to rob Santee's impoverished students of color of their chance to learn about their culture and history follows on the heels of PLAS killing heritage language programs at two of their other schools. Four years ago they banned the Dual Language Program and the Academic English Mastery Program at Ritter Elementary School, and two years ago they banned the teaching of core subjects in Spanish at Roosevelt High School as they had had as a response to the activism of the famous East Los Angeles Blowouts in 1968.
I asked United Teachers of Los Angeles' Director of Bilingual Education, Cheryl Ortega, for full details on program elimination:
This is the first I've heard of eliminating ethnic studies at Santee, but it makes me think a lot about Tuck and PLAS banning the Dual Language Program and the Academic English Mastery Program at Ritter 4 years ago. Tuck and his people, Doc Ervin, Angela Bass and Ricardo Ruiz worked very hard to pit the Latino and the African-American communities against each other at Ritter instead of promoting unity. It was shameful.
Two years ago Marina Salas, chair of the Bilingual Ed Committee, and I visited Roosevelt HIgh, a PLAS school, at the request of the CC and the ESL teachers. They were outraged that they were no longer permitted to teach core subjects in Spanish as they had done for a generation. If an English Learner takes a math course, for instance, in Spanish, the student will receive credit for the A-G. The same student could take the math class in English and receive the same A-G credit if he/she passes the course which is unlikely because of the language challenge. So the EL student is put in a general math class which, although, is just a rigorous from a language perspective, is a lower level math class which does not generate A-G credit. So dozens of kids, many newcomers, perfectly competent to take algebra or chemistry cannot get graduation credit for those classes. PLAS has denied thousands of EL students access to core curriculum because of their limited English skills. The year before that, PLAS eliminated the Dual Language Program and the AEMP program at Ritter ES in Watts in spite of parent protests. The people that the mayor has running PLAS, Marshall Tuck, Doc Ervin, and formerly Angela Bass, are, at best, completely insensitive, and, at worst, purposely undermining the chances of student success in minority communities. I always felt that the mayor had distanced himself from the actual running of PLAS, leaving it in the hands of these people.
I would opt for they are "purposely undermining the chances of student success in minority communities." The elimination of the only Ethnic Studies program at the culturally diverse Santee is further proof of the cultural genocide that PLAS inflicts on the most needy children in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
Fighting this type of sophisticated racism is just as important as the struggle against the outright ignorant racism of Michael Hicks, Tom Horne, or John Huppenthal. PLAS is part and parcel Villaraigosa and his wealthy cadre of school privatizers' pet project. For a Latino Mayor, who is on record for rightfully criticizing Arizona for it's nativist bigotry, to allow the same thing to go on in his own schools is the height of hypocrisy.
Stop cultural genocide! Contact the following and demand that PLAS retain the Ethnic Studies program at Santee High School and that social justice educator Ron Gochez be restored to his position.
Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa
Mayor of Los Angeles
200 N. Main St. Rm 303
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 978-0600 mayor@lacity.org
Joan Sullivan
Deputy Mayor on Education
Office of the Mayor
200 N. Main St. Rm 303
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 978-0662 Joan.sullivan@lacity.org
There's a tendency to think in the U.S. just because a law says something that it's a big deal.
Bill's logic - about as reliable as any version of Windows - simply brushes aside the legislation. "I mean, it just says they'll kill/imprison gays. Doesn't mean they'll do it," is the translation of Bill's verbal meanderings. You're spineless, Bill, spineless.
But there's a different billionaire involved in education with pretty strong ties to the Uganda bill, or, at the very least, with a direct line to the Ugandan government.
Yes, the Imagine Schools CEO, Dennis Bakke, is pretty friendly with Uganda's President Museveni. The picture at the top, which is also printed in Bakke's "Joy at Work," shows Dennis and wife Eileen posting with the African leader, a man that helped Bakke's AES Corp. secure a $500,000,000 project to build a dam in Uganda (according to Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family, AES employee Christian Wright - a man Bakke claims was doing "God's work" - used some good ole' fashion bribery to seal the deal). Museveni is considered The Family's "key man" in Africa - and Mr. Bakke is clearly pretty high up in the Family.
Let's hope Bakke is using his influence (and money) to push Uganda to not pass anti-gay legislation, which, unfortunately, is about as likely as Bill Gates supporting real public schools. So let's be real: Bakke is a wingnut fundamentalist, a "cultural imperialist." His lack of action - at least publicly - to come out against the Uganda bill is just as, if not more, appalling than Billionaire Bill's refusal to stand up for the rights of all human beings.
These are men with money and power. Hell - a simple Twitter posting from Bill would go a long ways, but he doesn't care about laws. Just 'cause they say something - like gay people should be killed - doesn't mean it's a big deal, right Bill?
