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*** LINKSEpistemology---Think TanksEducation think tanks exist only to advance capitalist interestsBerliner & Glass 14—David C. Berliner, former professor and dean of the Teachers College at Arizona State University, PhD in Educational Psych from Stanford, authored more than 200 articles, books and chapters on education policy, co-editor of the Handbook of Educational Psychology, former president of the American Educational Research Association, member of the National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education, and Gene V. Glass, former professor in Educational and Policy Studies at Arizona State, senior researcher at the National Education Policy Center and a research professor in the School of Education at University of Colorado Boulder, 2014 (“Chapter 1: Myths, Hoaxes, and Outright Lies”, 50 Myths and Lies that Threaten America’s Schools: The Real Crisis in Education, Teachers College Press, Kindle Edition) Where do the myths come from and who perpetuates them? Some myths about schooling and how to improve it are part of folk wisdom, acquired through personal experience and observation unaided by reliable techniques of producing justified beliefs. The history of education is strewn with these myths, many of which have been discarded. Once in the past it was common knowledge that very intelligent youngsters faced a difficult adulthood: “Early ripe, early rot.” “Spare the rod and spoil the child” once held sway in grown-ups’ minds. Folk wisdom is as often wrong as right. Although a few of these folk wisdom myths are still prevalent, modern myths about schools (e.g., private schools offer superior teaching and learning compared with public schools) are likely to be articulated and communicated by organized private interests—by various think tanks and organizations that stand to gain from widespread belief in the myths. Think tanks are a relatively modern invention. And they overwhelmingly represent politically conservative interests. There was a time not long ago when the federal government in particular was peopled by mainly progressive or liberal civil servants. This was no surprise since the greatest growth in the federal government took place during the four terms of Franklin Roosevelt. But after World War II and the Korean conflict and the turmoil of the 1960s settled down, political conservatives awoke to the fact that they were largely without a voice in public affairs. The scales fell from the eyes of the conservatives when in 1971 one Lewis F. Powell, Jr., a lawyer and member of 11 corporate boards, sent to the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce what has come to be known as the Powell Manifesto. (Powell was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court within a year of his having transmitted his manifesto.) In brief, Powell urged conservatives to adopt an aggressive stance toward the federal government, to seek to influence legislation in the interest of corporations, and to enlist like-minded scholars in an attack on liberal social critics. These scholars should be brought together in well-funded think tanks to do their work. According to Hedrick Smith, the Powell Manifesto influenced the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Among the second generation of Right-wing think tanks, one may count the Heartland Institute, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the Goldwater Institute, and several others. These conservative think tanks are sometimes richly endowed and are dedicated to the promulgation of conservative ideology in multiple areas—education, environment, crime, to name only a few. They adopt a tone of scientific inquiry and publish policy briefs and appear in the media. Significant amounts of their budgets are spent on public and media relations. It is fair to say that many of the myths that most threaten our nation’s system of public education, that seek to slash its funding and turn a formerly egalitarian institution into a bifurcated system of elite services for the rich and meager services for the poor, have their origin and draw their staying power from the nation’s conservative think tanks. The most recent PDK/ Gallup poll of citizens’ opinions of K-12 education gives testimony to the power of the conservatives’ efforts to shape public perceptions. Even though the only credible studies of charter school effectiveness show them underperforming traditional public schools, and even though charter schools increasingly are run by private, profit-making companies extracting many millions of dollars of public funding from the U.S. education system, almost 70% of adults favor the idea of charter schools. Sixty percent would support a “large increase” in the number of charter schools; and a majority believe that “students receive a better education at a public charter school than at other public schools.” Notwithstanding the abysmal record of online schools—virtual schools or cyberschools—the majority of persons polled favor high school students earning credits online (Bushaw & Lopez, 2013). The Powell Manifesto spawned the powerful American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Formed in 1973, just 2 years after the Powell declaration, ALEC has been without question the most powerful influence on education policy in the United States during the past 3 decades. ALEC’s mission in education scarcely hints at the radical agenda of free-market reforms that animates its efforts: “The mission of ALEC’s Education Task Force is to promote excellence in the nation’s educational system, to advance reforms through parental choice, to support efficiency, accountability, and transparency in all educational institutions, and to ensure America’s youth are given the opportunity to succeed.” The “Private Chair” of its Education Task Force is an employee of the Goldwater Institute. By the mid-2013 legislative season, 139 ALEC-authored bills affecting education had been introduced in state legislatures around the United States. Working at the state legislature level, ALEC lobbies politicians to attach free-market reforms to state education laws. Favored legislation includes union busting, voter ID laws, stand-your-ground, and zero-tolerance. ALEC is funded almost entirely by corporations. Its successful pursuit of stricter penalties for law breakers has elevated the private prison systems into one of the most successful businesses in the country. Oregon now spends more money on prisons than on K-12 public education. ALEC hands legislators drafts of the bills it wants passed. Of the 1,000 model bills it causes to be introduced each year, about 20% actually become law. Member legislators who do ALEC’s bidding are treated to all-expenses-paid vacations for themselves and their families. Although education represents a minor interest of ALEC—prisons, tobacco, and health insurance rank higher in ALEC priorities—nonetheless the similarity of free-market reform bills introduced by ALEC members from state to state across the United States speaks clearly to their origins. ALEC’s corporate and foundation donors include the Koch brothers, Phillip Morris, the Coors family, Corrections Corporation of America, and dozens of other large entities. Connections Academy, a vendor of online education to K-12 charter schools that recently was acquired by the publishing giant Pearson, once co-chaired the ALEC Education Task Force. To add insult to injury, ALEC is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a “nonprofit charity”; thus, it pays no taxes and is not required to disclose its contributors or the legislators who are the recipients of its largesse. ALEC is the most effective communicator of many of the 50 myths that are dealt with in what follows. James Meredith, the heroic young Mississippian who was the first Black student to graduate, on August 18, 1963, from the University of Mississippi, spoke candidly and with passion at the 2013 commencement of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education on the occasion of his acceptance of the school’s Medal for Educational Impact. “America’s public schools are being hijacked and destroyed by greed, fraud and lies,” he opined. The civil rights issue of our time is to stop unproven so-called education reforms from totally destroying our children’s public education and to get parents, teachers, community leaders and elders, the whole “Family of God,” to take back control of our children’s education from politicians, bureaucrats and for-profits, who have turned our public schools into pawns in a game of money and power. It is time we as citizens arm ourselves with the best evidence and information and take back control of our schools. (Quoted in Ravitch, 2013) Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 1.3 Mb. Share with your friends:
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