“JUST ABOUT TIME HE TOOK A WALK!.,” original caption, The American School Board Journal, July 1921.
The O’ Jays – “For The Love Of Money” (click to listen or download)
This is the first in a new series on AMPS: Blasts from the Past. It will be devoted to historical materials that comment on or illuminate contemporary issues in education. I’ll usually also post some links to recent, related things and often a song too. I’m a historian by training, so I feel compelled to say that historical analogs should always be carefully examined, developments in the past are never identical to developments in the present. Both continuity and change should be assessed. In this series the emphasis will be on continuity, but I realize that’s only part of the picture.
The inspiration for this series came earlier this week when I stumbled upon full volumes of the American School Board Journal in Google Books. For my dissertation research I went page-by-page through over 30 years of that journal, I know these will provide much material for this series, but I’ll also be looking for other sources.
Some links on educational profiteers in 2012 (so many possible that I am just posting a handful of links).
- Jersey Jazzman, “What Education “Reform” Is Really About: $$$” (be sure to watch the video).
- For background on Entertainment Properties profiteering see: Ken M. Libby, “Entertainment Properties Trust and Imagine Schools: the St. Louis Situation.” Imagine has pursued similar practices in Ohio (see: “Public Good vs. Private Profit: Imagine Schools, Inc. in Ohio”), Indiana (see Karen Francisco. “Charter schools and vultures”), Florida (Florida Imagine Charter Schools pay huge leases to a company owned by…Imagine Charter Schools.) Nevada and elsewhere (for an overview from the New York Times, “For School Company, Issues of Money and Control.” There is a local Madison angle to all of this too; it was Joe Robert, Kaleem Caire’s former employer and mentor, who initially set up these arrangements.
- Lee Fang, “How Online Learning Companies Bought America’s Schools.”
- Abby Rapoport, “Education Inc.: How Private Companies Profit from Public Schools.”
- Alan Singer, “Cuomo, Common Core and Pearson-for-Profit.”
- Noah Davis, “Rupert Murdoch Will Now Take Over The World Of For-Profit Education.” See also Joel Klein’s (Murdoch’s education front man) recent self-serving defense of the profiteers.
- Stephanie Saul, “Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools.”
- Tamar Levin, “Senate Committee Report on For-Profit Colleges Condemns Costs and Practices.”
AMPS 