THE ALEC-LED PUBLIC EDUCATION LAND GRAB CONTINUES: KAHN ACADEMY TEAMS UP WITH COLLEGE BOARD, Posted: March 7, 2014
(McKinsey, Pearson, Gates and ALEC colonizing
the K-12 to college arena)
Kahn Academy is
the darling of education “reformers” and entrepreneurs, spearheading the
movement to provide online instruction in lieu of bodied and interactive
learning, to the tune of millions of dollars.
Hailed by Forbes and others as the public face of the “flipped
learning” movement, Salman Kahn believes that basic learning should be done by
video before a pupil arrives in class. “Khan envisages pupils being taught
in ‘super-classes’ of 100 with three or four teachers, and has called for the
abolition of separate subjects and even the summer holiday break
(Here’s) the man Gates has described as a ‘true education pioneer’”.
Kahn’s vision
is not without his criticisms. Former Kahn employee Karim Kai Ani suggests,
“Officials might see them as a cheap replacement for teachers.” He says, “It
reminds me of tackling the obesity epidemic. We need to exercise and eat better
but instead people go on the Atkins diet. This is the educational equivalent of
the Atkins diet.”
But it’s
financial success is no surprise considering that Salman Kahn who was a senior
analyst for venture capitalist firms before created Kahn Academy, knows how to
game a system for financial gain. From 2003-08 he was a Senior analyst for Wohl
Capital Management; from 2008-09 he was a Senior analyst for Connective Capital
Management and from 1998-99 he was a Senior product manager for Oracle
Corporation.
And he’s had
help from Bill Gates, himself a self-proclaimed educational expert who believes
(in his non-existent knowledge of developmental and pedagogical theories) that
100 children seated in front of computers qualifies as meaningful learning.
Khan Academy
received large grants from Google ($2 million) and the Bill and Melinda Gates
foundation ($1.5 million) to help with his latest “venture”- public education.
David Coleman
announced that College Board would revising the existing SAT’s and partner with
Kahn Academy to provide delivery/training/support for the new and “improved”
version of the SAT’s. It’s simply an extended version of Common Core. For more
“nonsense” on the SAT “reboot” itself read Paul Thomas.
Privatization is
on the move.
McKinsey
strikes again
The global
consulting firm McKinsey and Co has had a deep hand in the direction that
education reform has taken over the last several years. A mere handful of their
connections with predatory reformers in public education include:
Louis Gerstner
(co-chair of Achieve-the group that helped sponsor Nation Common Core), Rajat
Gupta (financial backer of the Harlem Children’s Zone), Marshall Lux (on the
Board of the Harlem Children’s Zone), Andrés Satizábal (Harlem Charter School),
Michael Stone (Chief External Relations Officer at New
Schools for New Orleans), Terrence McDonough (English Teacher and
Department Chair at Edward W. Brooke Charter School and
5th Grade Teacher at Teach for America), Luis de la Fuente
(with the Broad Foundation, who develops and manages a portfolio of grants to
school districts, charter management organizations, and innovative
non-profits), Shantanu Sinha (COO of Kahn Academies), and Jerry Hauser ( who
served as the Chief Operating Officer at Teach For America). This list could go
on ad infinitum. But one final player of note is Bobby Jindal, former
McKinsey consultant, and now Governor of Louisiana. He is forming policies
to privatize public
education for the
entire state of Louisiana.
But suffice to
say, David Coleman, leader in the Common Core initiative, Sir Michael Barber,
CEO of Pearson (now delivering PARCC and Common Core materials), and Lou
Gerstner the co-creator and CEO of Achieve all hailed from
McKinsey and Company. Indeed, the stars are aligned now that Kahn Academy will
have a hand in the tests that will replace SAT and ACT. And Salman Kahn’s
right-hand man, Shantanu Sinha, formerly an Associate Principal for McKinsey
& Company, is now President & COO of Kahn Academy. Shantanu and
Sal were former high-school math competitors in New Orleans, freshman-year
roommates at MIT, and long-time friends.
Many of the
other current leaders in Kahn Academy also worked for McKinsey.
It’s worth
noting too that the Head of Finance for Kahn Academy served as the CFO for New
Schools Venture Fund.
What a tidy
little web, considering that our new Undersecretary for the the U.S. Department
of Education will be Ted Mitchell who was formerly the CEO for New Schools
Venture. BFF’s!!!
According to The Nation: “Mitchell’s NewSchool Venture Fund
also reportedly partners with Pearson, the
education mega-corporation that owns a number of testing and textbook
companies, along with one prominent for-profit virtual charter school,Connections Academy.”
Coleman makes
it all sound so “nice.” You know, free access to test prep materials and free
college applications for “poor kids.” But….Phillip Morris can make the
Marlborough Man look pretty hot too. According to the CNN report: “To prepare students for the test, the
College Board will partner for the first time with Khan Academy to provide free test preparation
materials, starting in spring 2015. Afterward, income-eligible students will
receive fee waivers to apply to four colleges for free.”
Question: Did
we really need Kahn Academy to make test prep and college applications freely
available to poor kids? Never mind the wealth of documentation out there that has rightly challenged
and debunked Kahn’s myth of success. It’s kind of like “the Texas Miracle” 2.0
Never mind
about the facts. It certainly fits the agenda for Ted Mitchell who some predict will, “advocate for more
federal promotion of online learning, ‘blended’ models of instruction,
‘adaptive learning’ systems, and public-private partnerships involving
education technology.”
This plan fits
nicely into ALEC’s scheme as well, with their “Course Choice Program Act”,
which allows third-party private companies (i.e. Connections Academy and Kahn
Academy) to be paid to “deliver” educational materials online IN SCHOOLS:
“The Course
Choice Program created by this Act would allow students in public schools and
public charter schools to enroll in online, blended, and face-to-face
courses not offered by the student’s school, and would allow a portion
of that student’s funding to flow to the course provider.”
WHO are the course providers to be?
Hmmm..what a mystery!
The Act adds: “Course
Provider shall mean “an entity that offers individual courses in person
or online, including but not limited to online or virtual education providers,
public or private elementary and secondary education institutions, education
service agencies, private or nonprofit providers, postsecondary
education institutions, and vocational or technical course providers, and have
been authorized to provide such courses by the State Department of Education.”
Kahn Academy
itself has sat at the ALEC table of bribery and secrecy itself. As part of the
“2011 Philanthropy Roundtable” where many of ALEC’s funding foundations, think
tanks and others including Kahn Academy met to discuss philanthropic activities
for 2012.
Bob Sloan reflects:
Consider that
ALEC’s corporate members include companies manufacturing and selling the
software for long distance learning, companies that provide internet access
services, computer companies and companies involved in privatizing public
transportation. Each one has an interest in increasing sales and profits,
and otherwise benefitting from a “front” organization such as the Khan academy.
Hell, if we
can’t close ALL the schools and make them come to charters, then gosh darn it
we will come to them!
Source:http://educationalchemy.com/2014/03/07/the-alec-led-public-edcuation-landgrab-continues-kahn-academy-teams-up-with-college-board/
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