NCLB: Spell it Corporate G-R-E-E-D

[teacher gal]

From http://www.pbs.org/nbr/index.html (Nightly Business Report website)


Education: The Next "Hot" Investment Sector?
posted by Jack Kahn, Director of Program Development at 5:36 PM on 02/08/08

As far as the Stock Market is concerned, there’s no longer a question as to whether the U.S. economy is in a recession. And that presents a quandary for investors: with most stock sectors moving down, where is a relatively safe place to ride out the economic downturn?

The answer may be in a largely-ignored class of stocks: education-related companies. The statistics tell the story: total education spending in the U.S. is now close to $1 trillion -- more than any other service sector except healthcare. And like healthcare, education spending is largely immune to the ups-and-downs of the economy.

Of course, education is largely dependent on government funding. And if you’re a skeptic, you’re probably saying: “but isn’t there a risk that the new President -- or Congress -- could tighten up on the education purse-strings, in the interest of fiscal responsibility?”

Well, that’s always a possibility. But as Signal Hill Senior Analyst Trace Urdan notes, politicians don’t get elected by cutting back on education. And Urdan says while some of the Presidential candidates have been critical of the No Child Left Behind law (the catalyst behind much of the rise in school budgets), their main beef is that even more money needs to be spent to meet its objectives.

So if education emerges from the current economic/political situation unscathed, then providers of which educational products and services stand to benefit the most? In NBR’s upcoming series and Presidents’ Day program, “The New Business of Education,” we’ll look at four possible areas:


* Testing

* Tutoring

* Charter schools

* Educational technology


And if that isn’t enough, we’ll even do some of the homework for potential investors, by noting the leading firms in each of these areas.

Clearly, education is an industry that isn’t going away. (If you’re still skeptical, consider this: in 2010, the number of school-aged children will just about match the 81 million Baby Boomers). So if you’d like to get in on the action in this growing and seemingly recession-proof business -- or if you’re a parent with a vested interest in it -- be sure to tune into NBR on the nights of February 11-14 and February 18.

3 Comments.
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Comments

This is a very well-done and well-researched report!
Indeed Education always has been a terrific sector to invest.
Interestingly, however, we cannot avoid asking the question about the relationship between the perception of public schools as "failures," thus the need for reform and restructuring them with new curricula, new training, newer tests, etc., and the good investments and gains in economic terms due in not small proportion to these very same reforms and restructuring projects.
posted by Dr. Jaime Grinberg at 12:08 PM on 02/20/08

I was totally shocked and dismayed when I saw this program. Public schools are being attacked on all fronts in the name of accountability. However none of these four "growth areas"...testing companies, tutoring companies, charter schools, and educational technology companies are held accountable in any way for the huge sums of money they receive from the public. The private sector has wanted to get their hands on education funding for a very long time, and NCLB has paved the way. I completely agree with Kate. This anti-child, for-profit agenda is stripping our schools of valuable resources. The students in my school no longer have art, music, reading specialists, nurses, school psychologists, and support staff. They now have tests. Lots and lots of poorly written, developmentally inappropriate tests, which guarantee failure, thus ensuring future customers for private tutoring companies, charter schools (where students do not take the same standardized tests that hold all public schools accountable), and huge profits for testing companies. It's a vicious, mean-spirited cycle. Our children are most definitely being left behind.
posted by amy at 9:49 PM on 02/19/08

Didn't it even slightly disgust when you suggested investors should make money by sucking it from our children's educations? There may be a lot of money to be made in the "education-sector" but it is morally and ethically reprehensible.
posted by Kate at 10:31 AM on 02/19/08
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[teacher gal]

1. kick

[teacher gal]

2. thump, bump, kick

I do toot my own horn, don't I?

And I can take constructive criticisms, BTW!!

[teacher gal]

3. Can I get some help here?

[margotb822]

4. I'll help

Oh, maybe they could invest in Robot teachers' aides to help the overstretched teachers (my mother being one of them).

So, if people start investing in this, will they start blocking legislation to change NCLB? My guess is: Yup.

[teacher gal]

5. Thank you!

We're trying to kill the monster. Please see petition at www.educatorroundtable.org and sign if you are willing. Let your mom know!

[LiberalAndProud]

6. Any mention of Neil Bush in that study?

Or Jeb?

[teacher gal]

8. Neil Bush

To find out more about his profiteering through NCLB, Google Ignite and COWS...Curriculum on Wheels. What a scam!!

And don't miss this http://www.schoolmatch.com/articles/ftu2006Aug3.cfm about the Bush connections to the McGraw's, of the giant test publisher McGraw-Hill.

[LiberalAndProud]

10. Thanks for that info.

Before I posted I googled "Bush curriculum". I thought Neil would be somewhere in the top ten, but Jeb's name was all over the first page. Wow! He's big on "changing the curriculum" isn't he?

The invasion of Iraq and NCLB = many $$$ for Bush's friends and family.

[teacher gal]

12. Yes indeed

[girl gone mad]

19. Wasn't he involved in the Edison Shools fiasco..

somehow.

And I seen to recall another textbook company that's basically a scam where you have to pay hundreds for one-time use software. Speaking of which, E-textbooks will be the next load of nonsense pushed on students and parents. Forget about reselling and reusing books. They'll make it cheaper for a few yearsm and then once the technology is widely adopted and printers are out of business, they'll jack up prices. They see every used textbook as a loss.

[teacher gal]

20. don't know

I agree textbook companies are giant rip-offs.

[kickysnana]

7. K & R n/t

[teacher gal]

9. another boot n/t

[The Straight Story]

11. I didn't like it when the dems pushed it

and I don't like it now either.

[teacher gal]

14. Both Dems and Rep

are up to their eyeballs in it.

[The Straight Story]

15. Indeed

back in the day (the 90's) it was called OBE.

Screw em all :)

[dysfunctional press]

13. companies that print books that teach evolution might not be a good bet, though...

at least not in this country, and especially if economic times get rough.

[teacher gal]

16. What is being done to public education

simply mirrors the larger corporate hijacking of our entire nation.

We need grassroots rebellion from ordinary people.

[teacher gal]

17. kick n/t

[teacher gal]

18. Here you can find

a 23 part series on NCLB profiteering. It's a little dated now but it gives you some history of the law's sorry and underhanded origins.

http://www.diatribune.com/bush-profiteers-collect-billions-nclb

[teacher gal]

21. last kick for the night

but I'll be back.....scary huh?

[Karenina]

30. Hal-lo!!!

:hi:

[teacher gal]

22. good morning kick n/t

[demmiblue]

23. I really don't know what to add...

your posts really say it all about our current system. Our public school system is in jeopardy. Charter schools and "choice" schools (which are on the rise, exponentially) do nothing but create a further divide between the haves and the have nots. These schools may be "free," but there is always a cost, whether it be financially or time-wise. Many families cannot afford this, especially in low-income areas. In fact, it may be as simple as not being able to take your child to school because of a work schedule (lack of busing to charter or choice schools). Not to mention the fact that the "undesirables" are not so readily welcomed (i.e. special ed). Corporations getting involved in the public educational system only exacerbates the problem we already have. If we add vouchers onto that, then we are screwing a hell of a lot of people. Damn... what have we become?

Sorry, teacher gal... I think I deviated a little from your post! But I know that you, from reading your posts, can understand my angst!

:pals:

[Reader Rabbit]

24. An excellent companion piece to...

...Why is Corporate America Bashing Our Public Schools?

It's kind of ironic, in that PBS doesn't seem to have intentionally skewered the motives of the pro-NCLB set.

[doni_georgia]

25. a kick from another teacher

:kick:

[Reader Rabbit]

26. I left a comment for the producer/director.

He probably won't give a damn, but it sure felt good to unload!

Your view of America's public school students as potential assets upon which to make money is obscene. Throughout history, there have been societies which dehumanized minorities in order to oppress them, but I believe the contemporary United States is the first nation in history to do so to its own children.

It would be nice if we as a nation cared about the children in our schools--in their education and well-being—as opposed to simply caring about how lucrative it might be to invest in charlatans peddling the latest equivalent of educational snake oil.

However unintentionally, your program "The Business of Education" has pinpointed the true reason for the passage of NCLB and our government's pigheaded refusal to rescind it: It benefits Big Business, who in turn make donations to the coffers of our legislators. That's America--the best democracy money can buy.

[teacher gal]

27. Wow - kudos to you!

Well said Reader Rabbit!! If you'll go back to the site, you'll see we've ruffled the feathers of the Director who posted that crap, Jack Kahn. Take a look if you haven't already.

[teacher gal]

28. kick n/t

[Reader Rabbit]

29. I dinged him again.

We'll have to see if he responds to my latest missive.

Mr. Kahn,

I suspect the flak you are catching for this segment comes primarily from those intimately involved in the learning of young people. It is no exaggeration to say that teaching is a calling. Those of us in the profession do it because we care; we do it because we love learning and children; we *certainly* don't do it for money. As altruists with a higher purpose, we take great offense toward those who view the cause to which we have dedicated our lives as simply an opportunity to profit monetarily.

Unfortunately, such a mercenary outlook is all too common in our country. It should come as no surprise that education and learning are not valued in America. America values only that from which a profit can be made. Is it any wonder that Asian countries, where education is sacrosanct and teachers are revered, are so far ahead of the United States in education, despite having a fraction of the resources that we do?

As you say, you *are* just the messenger in this instance. Your report merely mirrors the materialistic values of American society. But if no one takes responsibility for his or her own actions, will these ugly flaws ever be corrected? In the movie "Gentlemen's Agreement," Gregory Peck's character notes that it isn't the bigots who are the problem in the perpetuation of anti-Semitism. It is the "good" people who never speak out against them.

In the ongoing war between the corporatocracy and public education, if only teachers speak out. will the suffering of our students at the hands of those who put the accumulation of money first ever end?

[teacher gal]

31. Yes, I saw it

Way to go. You say it well.

I dinged him again also (I'm the special education teacher).

He got his feathers ruffled, and I'm waiting to see what other excuses he can offer for big corporations profiting from "trends in education" while public education for the common good is literally being destroyed.

Good job, RR.

[Reader Rabbit]

32. There's some bozo spouting the "Teachers are money-sucking leaches" line.

I'd answer him, but when someone is that ignorant, there's really no point wasting the time, is there?

[nealmhughes]

33. Think teachers have it bad? Try being a commie symp terrorist enabler porn pushing l*brar*an!

We get the kids after school and on weekends. The ones who think that Google is a primary source and ask "What is a Turabian? This computer only has Word on it and the teacher says we have to use Turabian to write this."

Irate Mother: "You let my ten year old leave the library and go buy a soda, crossing the street by himself! He has ADDH and can't have sugar!"

Librarian under breath: "Sorry, I wasn't on Little Larry watch today. Maybe you ought to keep him under your own eyesight. This is adult reference, by the way, not kiddie tale time."

Librarian Aloud: "Sorry, but our policy, which is clearly posted, states that no children are to be left unattended under the age of twelve, unless they have parental permission or attending a story time. You must be responsible for your own child's safety, although we do try to keep an eye out on them, as there might be a greater chance for them getting into trouble alone than with an adult supervisor. Now pardon me, the mystery crapper has struck again on the animal psychology section floor. I have to break out the antibiotic spray and deodorizer and try to rouse the custodian and block off a most popular browsing aisle."

County Commissioner 1: "I don't understand why we have to shell out another penny for that fire trap over on Elm St. nobody uses it but some old men doing Civil War uniform research and a bunch of kids to copy out of the World Book."

County Commissioner 2, aside: "But Buck, Old Slick Jones has got the contract for the new additional parking space, and you know he kicks back real good!"

Commissioner 1: "Strike remarks from the record please."