The Washington Post's Education Reform Agenda - Exposed: Strip Mining American Education

[Hannah Bell]

It was never exactly a secret that the Washington Post derives 62% of its revenues from its for-profit education subsidiary, Kaplan Education. Readers of the newspaper just somehow weren't aware of it. The Post proclaims itself an "Education and Information" company. It vehemently demands the expansion of for-profit providers in public education AT ALL LEVELS by legislative and executive mandates, under the banner of innovation, but it has presented itself as motivated only by disinterested public virtue in these campaigns.

Federal investigations this summer exposed fraudulant student loan scams, and revealed deep dishonesty and deception of both taxpayers and students by Kaplan Education. Several Kaplan facilities were shut down outright. The general public was thunderstruck when this expose of Kaplan suddenly blew away about 25% of the Washington Post's stock value, and sent investors into a paroxysm of stock-shorting. The Wall Street Journal and Business Week surveyed the wreckage last week, and links are posted below.

I'm returning to my Daily Koz diary blog to post these links and connect the dots, revealing the extent of the Post's for-profit penetration into national, state, and local school expenditures. Its shadowy subsidiaries have opened the budgetary veins of public school districts, with no oversight, public discussion, disclosure, or even awareness. From elementary schools, through middle and high schools, and on to public colleges: communities are unaware that their education budgets have been fast-tracked straight to the Washington Post's bottom line.

It is hard for defenders of public education to fight back against the Post's massive disinformation campaigns. Post editorial pages denounce any resistance as serving the status quo, and opposed to innovation. Until now, we have fought each struggle in the dark about their motives, but we are already making progress. California's community colleges have just extricated themselves from a "memorandum of understanding" which administrators signed with Kaplan last year, which allowed Kaplan to gouge students at ten times the public college tuition rates, for worthless online offerings. Who even knew...?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/9/6/899241/-The-Washington-Post-and-its-Kaplan-Education-Scams


Next topic:

What Really Happened to Public Education in DC, LA, Chicago, and NYC - and Why?

[Starry Messenger]

1. k & r

[Hannah Bell]

2. blatant corruption & self-dealing, reaching into *your* towns; does anyone care?

[Hannah Bell]

3. apparently not; they like to be screwed & robbed covertly.

[Hannah Bell]

4. nobody cares that the wa po, one of the big media outlets pushing school deform, gets

60% of its profit from school deform.

no, lets talk about some restaurant that banned screaming kids. now *that's* important for the future of the nation.

[Hannah Bell]

5. and the screaming kids' restaurant, for the 5th day running, is at the top of the heap.

cause screaming kids is a big issue for yuppies, who don't like them unless they're their own.