Reply #5: "cui bono - which means “who benefits"

[madfloridian]

From WP Answer Sheet:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/when-will-the-testing-bubble-burst/2011/04/30/AFMjA9VF_blog.html

Who benefits..

"Billionaire philanthropists and political leaders want poverty off the table as an issue needing attention. So instead of recognizing the crisis created by one in four children living in poverty, they have relocated our schools as the cause of the crisis, and accountability for test scores as the cure.

Politicians who wish to destroy teacher unions have also seized on this as a means of attacking them. Teacher unions must be resisting the removal of due process protections and seniority because they are trying to protect the “bad teachers” responsible for low test scores. Get rid of the unions, and then we can get rid of these lousy teachers and the scores will rise. At least that is the justification. And once the unions are weakened, pensions, benefits and salaries can be cut. Then there will be more money for tax cuts for the big corporations that provide the campaign dollars for the next election.

...."Test publishers are big winners. Though the use of low quality multiple choice tests discredited No Child Left Behind, the test makers have come up with a way to keep the bubble full, by promising vastly improved tests. These new tests will, of course, cost billions of dollars more, but their value will be inflated even more, because now they will supposedly measure critical thinking and creativity."

..."And recent news announcing the partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Pearson, a huge education company, reveals that any line separating philanthropists from profit-making test and curriculum publishers has been wiped out."