Frederick Hess: Duplicity Personified
Frederick Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute. He has a blog on Education Week called Straight Up.
On June 11, 2015 he posted this column on his blog:
5 Thoughts on Nevada’s Landmark School Choice Law
In the article Hess praises the newly enacted Nevada law that makes Education Savings Accounts (vouchers) available to all families for a hodgepodge of education choices if parents want to flee the funding and resource starved public schools. The bulk of his article sings the praises of disaster capitalism as a means to promote privatization of public schools.
He concludes his article with the astonishing statement:
Finally, per usual, I'm puzzled as to why teachers aren't embracing this kind of reform and all the possibilities it holds for them. Instead, Nevada State Education Association president Ruben Murillo has denounced the bill, arguing that taxpayers should not be helping families to attend "private school interests. Now, I’ve met Murillo (Nevada NEA President). He knows that plenty of teachers in Nevada are frustrated with testing, disciplinary issues, teacher evaluation, accountability systems, and more. And the opportunity for families to choose the kinds of teaching and schooling that will best serve their children means more kids will be in different kinds of schools—which gives teachers opportunities to work in schools that aren’t wired into the system of state-mandated evaluations and accountability, if they wish. After all, many of those “private school interests” will offer a very different school culture and approach. Seems like a win-win to me. I hope Nevada’s educators proceed with that possibility in mind.”
On February 5, 2015 Hess moderated four hours of panels at the American Enterprise Institute. The theme of the conference was “Is the ‘new’ education philanthropy good for schools? Examining foundation-funded school reform”. The main purpose of the conference was how to promote standardized tests for teacher evaluation.
For a synopsis of the conference, see:
Talking to the Choir: AEI panels discuss their attack on public education
Apparently the “starve the public schools, feed the charters” tactic of corporate education reformers to make charters appealing to parents is evolving into “flee from the public schools to escape standardized testing” (which corporate education reformers initiated and are promoting).
Duplicity – deceitfulness in speech or conduct, as by speaking or acting in two different ways to different people concerning the same manner; double-dealing.
Also see:
Privatization Primer
Curmudgucation - June 20, 2015
Investors Ready to Liquidate Public Schools
Life at the Intersections - November 9, 2014
It's over half a year old, but this article captures the corporate education method.
The real Obama education legacy
The American Enterpirse Institute - September 21, 2015
The American Enterpirse Institute's Frederick Hess with the neocon view of Obama's education legacy.
Also see:
Randi Weingarten: Sleight of Hand Artist - Part 2
Defend Public Education - April 22, 2015
This article was posted on
Schools Matter - June 22, 2015