On ESSA and Party Crashing
I Can’t help but think of good ol’ Tom Vander Ark tonight.
Back in 2010, Vander Ark wrote the following in a blog post on why he believed, at the time, that the reauthorization of ESEA should hold off just a few more years:
“The world will be different a year from now: 20 states will be well into Race to the Top implementation, hundreds of i3 grantees will be hard at work, the Common Core will have been adopted and new assessments will be in development. The Department has the biggest boldest grant program in history. They should let it reshape the landscape before attempting to adjust the law that will frame the next decade. “
Sure enough, as Vander Ark has been busy investing in charter, online, and digital learning companies, giving presentations on how to unbundle the billion-dollar education market, and advising the Foundation for Excellence in Education and ALEC on policy plays to bring his dreams to fruition, the landscape has indeed shifted.
Just in time for today’s passage of ESSA, most state departments of education are now thoroughly under the thumb of corporations and related billionaire-controlled foundations.
“It will unleash a flood of excitement and innovation and student achievement that we haven’t seen in a long time,” said Senator Lamar Alexander said in today’s article in the New York Times on the passage of ESSA. “But it will come community by community, state by state, rather than through Washington, D.C.”
If by “flood of excitement,” Senator Alexander means investors slapping each On ESSA and Party Crashing | Save Maine Schools:
