Today the president meets with business leaders and Colin Powell about education.

[madfloridian]

The snip from the White House agenda for today does not list any educators being present.

President Obama official schedule and guidance, July 18, 2011.

Later in the afternoon, the President will host an education roundtable with business leaders, Secretary Duncan, Melody Barnes, and America's Promise Alliance Chair Alma Powell and Founding Chair General Colin Powell to discuss what the business community can do to ensure we have a skilled, educated and competitive US workforce. This meeting is closed press.

Also included is Melody Barnes of the Domestic Policy Council who works to link education to what businesses want and need in their workforce.

For Barnes, education, above all else, is the linchpin for economic and domestic policy.

“It’s a big mistake not to recognize education as an economic issue,” Barnes said. “We have seen a real loss in the as a result of not applying the same kind of education reforms that some of our global competitors have.”

She and her team have made a priority of marrying funding for education programs with what business executives and economists say is needed in the workforce.

“We have a realistic understanding of what the private sector is really looking for, and we’re looking to align education with what’s needed in the real world,” she said.

Americas Promise Alliance is a group led by Colin Powell and his wife.

Americas Promise Alliance

Go to Bat for America's Promise Alliance

We are part of the State Farm® Go To Bat Promotion! Please help support Grad Nation -- Go To Bat for us and have a chance at a trip to the 2011 World Series.

We are actually seeing education become a tool for businesses to train their employees during their school years.

Remember that some companies are already putting their agenda into charter schools.

Walmart offers job training during school day in some Detroit schools

The Detroit Public Schools have teamed up with Walmart Stores to provide job training and entry-level, afterschool jobs to students at four high schools.

Detroit International Academy for Women and Henry Ford High will also participate.

Students will get 11 weeks of job-readiness training during the school day and 10 high school credits for the class and work experience.”

The education "reformers" are billionaire business people...people like Eli Broad who famously admitted he knows nothing about teaching or education.

From the Indypendent:

The faces of school reform

Eli Broad
Net Worth: $5.4 Billion

Broad, a Los Angeles-based billionaire who made his fortune in insurance and real estate, has been at the forefront of the school restructuring movement over the past decade. Using the foundation that bears his name, he has pushed aggressively for schools to be run more like businesses. The Broad (pronounced like “road”) Foundation has seeded charter schools across the country, including in New York. It has also developed a number of programs to train school administrators, including the Broad Superintendent Academy, which instructs business, nonprofit, military, government and education leaders in how to manage urban school districts. A number of top officials at the New York City’s Department of Education have received Broad training. Speaking at the 92nd Street Y in New York City last year, Broad summarized his approach: “We don’t know anything about how to teach or reading curriculum or any of that. But what we do know about is management and governance.”

That is not education, that is training a workforce. They have managed to denigrate teachers enough now to get their agenda.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Rec = 0

I sit here and watch the destruction of education in this country.

Education is the foundation of all further learning..
The foundation is being built on sand and tests
Obama and duncan seem to know little of education until it comes to their children


I usually do not comment on rec. I reced and it went all the way to 0

[demmiblue]

3. I recced to 0, as well. Sad, really. n/t

[madfloridian]

4. It's a pattern. Happens from the moment I post anything.

It really doesn't matter, just seems it happens so quickly.

[Reader Rabbit]

65. I suspect Arne Duncan has a posse of interns whose job it is to lurk & unrec.

:hi:

[Jakes Progress]

It actually goes to show how much the real DU

supports you. Your posts always end up with high positive recs. Even with their slimy unrec army and their auto unrecs on your name, the dozen or so My-President-Right-or-Wrong group can't keep the masses of DU members who actually think and who actually know what is going on from reading your posts, reccing them, and appreciating your efforts.

DU is better than the dirty dozen would indicate and represents a higher degree of progressive, liberal thought and preference than the centrists and their blue-dog NeoDems that clog the threads.

[demmiblue]

2. FFS... I just don't know what to say about this anymore.

It is unbelievable what is happening under a dem president.

:puke:

[Autumn]

5. Got it to 1

This is all so surreal.

[madfloridian]

6. Yes, it is.

surreal that is.

[madfloridian]

7. More about who is at the meeting.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/07/ceos_answer_obamas_call_to_don.html

"Today, President Obama hosts a meeting at the White House with CEOs to try to raise private cash for K-12 education.

Already, three companies are announcing new pledges totaling $66 million toward education initiatives: $50 million from Bank of America for programs targeting low-income students; $15 million from Microsoft Corp. for research into initiatives such as game-based instruction; and, $1 million from the Nike School Innovation Fund to improve schools in Oregon. (Interestingly, the shoemaker's innovation fund website isn't very current, as its top story is from 2010 and touts the leadership skills of ex-Atlanta Public Schools chief Beverly Hall, who is now embroiled in a cheating scandal that has enveloped her former district.)

In addition to the three corporate pledges, America's Promise Alliance Grad Nation Community Impact Fund announced it will raise $50 million to help deal with persistent, high dropout rates. America's Promise was started by former U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and now chaired by his wife, Alma J. Powell.

The dollar amounts aren't as eye-popping as, say, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million donation to the Newark Public Schools in New Jersey. Of course, Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder, has his own foundation, which invests heavily in education. But cash-strapped states and school districts will surely appreciate any extra money they can find."

Where are the educators?

[chervilant]

70. Not only that,

WHERE is all this money?! Which students and/or schools stand to benefit from all this largesse?

My personal research motivates me to ask about the ginormous elephant under our nation's living room rug: how are teachers expected to 'educate' this generation, many of whom believe that the earth is irretrievably polluted, that politics benefit only the uber wealthy, and that the global economy is about to tank? What about those students who are SURE the earth will end on December 21, 2012? WHO is brave enough to do a study of the level of depression among our understandably disenfranchised youth?

AND, what about the sizable number of young people who are totally--narcissistically--focused on consumerism? How many teachers repeatedly adjure their students to 'turn off' their cell phones, or 'stop texting' in class? How many teachers repeatedly discipline students for using their cell phones or ipods during class? How many teachers BEG these students to 'pay attention' in class, because 'this subject is very important for your future'? (WHAT future?!)

Furthermore, teachers must contend with a host of 'mental disorders' that make 'learning' difficult, if not impossible, for far too many students. Oh, but we mustn't talk about this issue at all, right? We can't possibly discuss the young girl pushed on to the next level of math, even though she can't tell her teacher that 14 minus 8 equals 6, without slowly counting it out on her fingers, taking a full five minutes of her tutoring session just to write the answer to this problem on the board. She repeatedly tells her teacher that 'a' and 'x' are not numbers, and cannot get past her righteous frustration to learn these complex algebraic concepts. Indeed, how can she learn algebra, when she hasn't been successfully taught the basics of math? (During regular class time, students like this are completely lost, and become ever more frustrated the further behind they get...)

Yeah, clearly, ALL of this is the fault of us bad, greedy teachers. Off with our heads, they say. Kiss public education good-bye, I say...

[tk2kewl]

8. Tomorrow he meets with oil companies and Ronald McDonald to shape his environmental policy

:mad:

[hfojvt]

9. education has always been a tool of business

I coulda sworn I learned that in radical history. It was a tool to teach kids to a) show up on time, b) sit at a workstation (desk) all day except for two recess breaks and a lunch break, c) perform boring tasks as ordered by the supervisor, d) listen to instructions and learn to follow orders.

As far as that goes, my brother's senior year in 1983 involved a half a day of working his job at K-mart as part of a class called DECA. Not something that I did, I took college prep classes, but his hotel management degree from a 3rd rate private college has sure outperformed my liberal arts math and economics degrees from State Universities. He still doesn't know much about all the trigenometry that I have forgotten but he makes about four times what I do.

[madfloridian]

10. But those programs were by choice.

And there was no talk of turning the whole of education over to business.

Where are the educators? Where are the teachers?

[hfojvt]

17. different meetings at different times

just because the President meets with business people "to discuss what the business community can do to ensure we have a skilled, educated and competitive US workforce." does not mean that education is being turned over to business.

It looks to me like trying to get help from business people. Why not, since ultimately they are gonna hire, or not hire, many of the graduates of said schools? When you are asking businesspeople for help, why do you necessarily need teachers there?

[madfloridian]

18. Yes, they are. Recruiting business people. That is just what I said.

Then I said where are the educators.

You obviously don't think they need to be in the fray necessarily....that is your right.

[hfojvt]

32. I don't think they need to be at this meeting

the fact that they are not involved in every meeting, and the example here is of just one meeting, does not mean they are shut out of the whole debate.

[checks-n-balances]

37. Bullshit

I thought teachers were "the key factor in the academic success of our students." If so, why aren't they (and the public) being included in this meeting under the radar from the press?

Oh wait...this has nothing to do with STUDENT SUCCESS. It's about SUCCESSFUL transfer of ownership (i.e., theft) from the American Public to CORPORATE AMERICA.

[madfloridian]

42. Amen

To all that. :hi:

[bread_and_roses]

58. 2nd that (n/t)

[chervilant]

73. Really?

Can you name ONE meeting (with Obama OR Duncan) that has included teachers?

I'm not holding my breath...

[MadHound]

79. That's the problem in its entirety,

For far too long everybody but educators have made education policy. The fact that we have followed this policy for so long is one of the major reasons why education is so screwed up.

You wouldn't put anybody but a doctor in the Surgeon General's spot, so why do we continue to put non-educators in the Sec of Ed. spot?

At every single level of education, local, state and national, we have the same situation. The vast majority of school board members, state leaders, and national policy makers are not educators. I'm sorry, but non-educators simply cannot make wise and reasonable decisions when it comes to education policy, they don't have the training or experience.

[YvonneCa]

24. I could agree with you if...

...I could find evidence that he was also hearing from educators...not just union reps...EDUCATORS. The voice of teachers is missing in the current debate...sadly.

[roxiejules]

47. The problem is they are going to run and own the schools

with taxpayer money......and there will be no one powerful enough to stop their agenda once the unions are completely castrated.

Goldman Sachs, Murdoch, Gates, Walton...there are billions of dollars to made in the schools.

Many are predicting the next bubble will be in Education. Poof! There goes our money again.

[bread_and_roses]

57. reply # 37 sums it up - and why are we looking for "private $" for edu?

These are OUR children and OUR schools and OUR educational system - why are we soliciting private money? "Bidness" doesn't give anything away. They want control. And with our President happily supporting Charter Schools, turning teachers into automatrons, treating our children like widgets, I guess that's just fine with him.

Do I read correctly that the meeting is closed to the Press? More transparency?

[icarusxat]

54. educators? not invited

no sense confusing the issues with facts

[Tom1960]

67. Let me just say a couple of things...

I was considering teaching English in 1984. I was a religion major and when I decided not to pursue the priesthood, I needed a fallback plan. I thought teaching would be the way to go.

Long story short, even in 1984, at the University of South Florida, Tampa Campus, we were discussing the idea in a philosophy of education class whether or not we are to educate versus train students. The discussions were heated but there was a great concern nearly 30 years ago that education was being twisted to meet the needs of business.

Somewhere along the line, humans have been redefined as economic beings and that our whole totality consists of economic activity.

[alsame]

11. k&r

[somone]

12. Recommended

[Starry Messenger]

13. k&r

[Solly Mack]

14. Colin Powell can teach about Team Torture and how to equivocate.

[StarburstClock]

19. and how to lie to the U.N and conspire to commit war

Oh, but if Powell says he's pro Obama all will be forgotten by loyalists.

[Solly Mack]

41. That would be science! lol 'Now, class, shake your little vial thusly.'

[JVS]

21. And about how covering up massacres can help you advance your career as a toady.

[EFerrari]

23. He must be next on the list for a Presidential Medal of Freedom. n /t

[Solly Mack]

40. With public speaking classes in "I was just doing my duty"

[Yon_Yonson]

56. We must be talking about My Lai massacre

Powell was on the wrong side of history on that one and his political career comes with a liar label. Now he is an expert on education, what a frigging joke!

[suffragette]

45. True, that!

:hi:

[lutefisk]

15. I admit I didn't appreciate how "good" we had it with Bush and Spellings overseeing education policy

This is really turning into a nightmare.

Professional, trained educators- teachers, administrators, and academics- have been almost completely marginalized and silenced. WTF is happening to this country?

[madfloridian]

16. There are 6 full pages of Alliance Partners....

http://www.americaspromise.org/partnerships/alliance-partners.aspx?page=1

They include among others the Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts, Walmart, Teach for America, and the following chosen at random.

National Academy Foundation
National AfterSchool Association
National Alliance of Faith and Justice (NAFJ)
National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health
National Assembly on School-Based Health Care
National Association for College Admission Counseling
National Association of Basketball Coaches Foundation
National Association of Chain Drug Stores
National Association of Charter School Authorizers
National Association of Community Health Centers
National Association of Counties (NACo)
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of School Nurses
National Association of School Psychologists
National Association of Secondary School Principals
National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE)
National Black Child Development Institute
The National Black Church Initiative
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
National Campaign to Stop Violence
National CASA Association
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University
National Center on Time & Learning
National Children's Museum
National Civic League
National Coalition for Exemplary Schools
National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education
National Collaboration for Youth
National College Access Network
National Conference of State Legislatures
National Council for Community and Education Partnerships
National Council of La Raza
National Dropout Prevention Center/Network
National Education Association
National Educator Program
National Endowment for Financial Education
National Fatherhood Initiative

[CrispyQ]

20. WTF?

“We don’t know anything about how to teach or reading curriculum or any of that."

We are going to end up a nation full of automatons who never question anything.

As always, Mad, thanks for your informative posts.

[eppur_se_muova]

22. Next up: President meets with vampires about blood shortage. nt

[YvonneCa]

25. ...

... :7

[drokhole]

dupe

[drokhole]

29. Ha! Followed by the zombie lobby about neurosurgery.

[progressoid]

60. +1

[TheKentuckian]

26. When will he be getting with teachers, parents, and students?

You know, where the rubber meets the road?

[madfloridian]

44. Good question.

Neither he nor Arne have done much of that at all. They always visit charter schools, they seem unaware that teachers and parents are angry.

I have to think they don't care.

[chervilant]

74. Actually,

they PATRONIZE those they feel are 'less educated' and 'less informed' than they. In fact, WHY do we question their noble efforts? Surely, we understand that they are MUCH more aware of what needs to happen to 'reform' public education?!

(Recall that Mr. Obama asserted that we teachers are upset because we're 'resistant to change'!)

[drokhole]

27. Sure wish Sir Ken Robinson would have a seat at that table (along with actual educators)...

Changing Education Paradigms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Do schools kill creativity?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

[Dappleganger]

28. 11 weeks for Walmart job training. The race to the bottom is complete--America wins!

[icarusxat]

55. 5 weeks traing to be a teacher

and 11 to work at walmart...am I dreaming here?

[Initech]

30. Business =/= education. That's the problem right there.

[blindpig]

31. Get your priorities straight and remember who owns this country.

The Business of America is Business.

k&r

[bvar22]

33. I have NO problem with Private (Charter) Schools,

as long as they don't receive a Gawddamned Nickle of Taxpayer Money.

Other things that should NEVER receive any Public Money:

*Armed Private Contractors (Mercenaries)

*Private Intelligence Gathering Agencies (Secret Domestic Spies)

*Private Vote Recording and Tabulation Corporations

*Private Health Insurance Corporations

*Private (Charter Schools)

*Faith Based ANYTHING

In ANY of the above exist in YOUR country,
AND are receiving ANY Public Funds,
your "democracy" is seriously at risk.

[mmonk]

34. Of course. They are education professionals.

A meeting is scheduled tomorrow to meet with teachers and public education administrators to discuss foreign policy and business matters.

[4_TN_TITANS]

35. Great... ask everyone but real teachers....

[girl gone mad]

36. k & r

[Michigan-Arizona]

38. K&R n/t

[Jefferson23]

39. Yea, but I read today this is all the fault of the "far left"..poor Obama. K&R.

[dflprincess]

43. Any meeting Obama has with Powell should include Eric Holder

and Powell's attorneys as they discuss plea deal for Powell if he agrees to testify against Bush & Cheney.

[suffragette]

46. The thing about "align(ing) education" with what the private sector seeks

is that the private sector is given to sudden shifts and discarding workers trained in the old tech or old way.

[Sportsguy]

48. Wish I Could Figure Out Why He's Doing This

:-(

[roxiejules]

49. Cause Goldman Sachs, Bill Gates, Bloomberg, Waltons, Third Way ...

and Wall Street in general told him to?

Maybe Rahm, too.



http://www.indypendent.org/2010/01/29/faces-of-school-reform/

[madrchsod]

50. what? he`s not sitting down with bill ayers?

[Doctor_J]

51. Maybe next time they'll invite teachers

or the time after that

[lib2DaBone]

52. WTF? He's going to meet with Colin Powell? Who lied about WMD's?

Oh.. that Colin Powell. I'm sure Obama is a Republican.

[Lasher]

53. What, he snubbed Jeb Bush?

Oh the humanity, what an outrage!

[WinkyDink]

64. Part of the farce for the public.

[bread_and_roses]

59. "Teaming up with WalMart" - for their union-busting indoctrination too?

is that just fine with President Shiny Shoes too?

[izquierdista]

61. What the business leaders want

I hope everyone has seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHd_jXtp4Rs

If you haven't, commit it to memory as 100% true.

[femmocrat]

62. K&R Not a surprise that he is snubbing educators, again. n/t

[WinkyDink]

63. "Strong backs for warehouse work. No Liberal Arts."

[Reader Rabbit]

66. The billionaires want a nation of drones.

They'll be awesome test takers, but won't have the critical thinking skills to realize that they have been made into wage slaves by the co-opted education system. They'll be too busy watching American Idol and Jersey Shore.

Public education in America has become a capitalist wet dream.

[russspeakeasy]

68. Michael Vick is coming to train my dog. It should be fine

don't you think ??:toast:

[Reader Rabbit]

69. He wants them to do for public education what they did for the economy?

:shrug:

[WinkyDink]

71. Exactly. LOOT.

[Jakes Progress]

72. No rich person left behind. More Obama strategy.

[saras]

75. They seem to be setting up the kind of education Irving Kristol advocated

"There are different kinds of truths for different kinds of people. There are truths appropriate for children; truths that are appropriate for students; truths that are appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults, and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn't work." - Irving Kristol

As http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1516541">the DU discussion over the definition of "middle class" made clear, there's a wide divergence of opinion on what the word means. I'm with the poster because I think we need a word to articulate that concept, and if we want to use "middle class" to mean something else, then we need another word that separates those who work for bosses and customers from those who manage the resources for the ruling class.

So, for the purpose of parsing the quote, "middle class" means those who direct the means of production and make decisions. Those who work for salary or wages are "working class". If you really dislike the terms, substitute "froobits" and "greeroy". If you have to work, and especially if others tell you what to produce (even if you own, on a local scale, the means of production), you are in the middle class as far as Kristol's quote is concerned. (an example - a contractor who has to build what houses their customers order is working class, even if they own the general contracting business. A contractor large and powerful enough to design and build developments that dictate to the house buyers how they shall live, is middle class. They are helping the ruling class shape the culture in a way the other contractor isn't.) If you are in the upper class, you, your family, and the institutions that sustain you own so much that your living is utterly automatic - the mere activity of others surviving on, or in the vicinity of, your property guarantees their success. And all these middle-class people fall into Kristol's "educated", not "highly educated". They don't need to understand the world in a political or philosophical sense. Just the highly educated upper class does.

I expect that, like many third-world countries, the middle class will shrink to a size reasonably proportional to the size of the upper class. America's dream of a middle-class country is over, and the vast majority are somewhere in the process of having their middle-class jobs vanish. The future middle class are the only ones who need a competent technical education, or literacy, really.

The group Kristol doesn't mention, as we rarely mention them in America, is the working class, or the poor, depending on how much work there is. They don't need any education beyond the reading of signs and visual icons, and basic grooming. Little or none of the research we've done into work over the last fifty years has been into improving the quality of experience for workers, only their economic value to employers. If you don't have a job, if you have a service job, if your job is becoming increasingly dumbed-down and restricted in scope, if your job is a replaceable unit in a corporation, you are working-class, not middle-class, and you and your children don't need even the education that students (i.e. prospective middle-class members) need.

[Enrique]

76. why NOT turn over our education to the "job creators"

why not do turn EVERYTHING over to the job creators. Gotta keep them happy, otherwise they might stop creating jobs!

[Freddie Stubbs]

77. God forbid we educate students in a manner which will help them become employable adults

[stevenleser]

78. This is a good thing. The way to undermine the far right's destruction of public education is to

engage the business sector, whose interests are aligned with those who want to promote public education.