Whittle, C. (2005). Crash Course: Imagining a Better Future for Public Education.

[Hannah Bell]

If you support the notion that publicly run, publicly controlled, public education is the imperfect, yet essential, public business that may be our best institutional tool for realizing a democratic republic in America, then you are likely to find plenty to disagree with in Chris Whittle’s vision (or is it a nightmare?) for turning schools into companies, companies that are to be paid for with tax dollars. With $400 billion annually at stake, the public schools are, by far, the juiciest prize for a new type of corporate welfare known as the EMO (education management organization). Chris Whittle’s new (2005) book, Crash Course, lets us look down the sights as he takes aim at his biggest target yet...

What qualifies Whittle for such a far-reaching educational vision? For starters, he has a history of entrepreneurial education endeavors. Since the early 90s, he has effectively burned through several hundred million dollars in various failed ventures, including a scheme to offer textbooks with the same colorful Skittles and Snickers ads that became the hallmark of Whittle’s first big educational venture, Channel One...

By 1995 Whittle had turned that idea for a mass-market alternative to public education into Edison Schools, Inc... By 1999 Whittle was ready to go public with the company, even though Edison posted a net loss of $50 million in the previous year.

To make a long story short, by 2002 the stock was in free fall... By the following year, in a sweetheart deal that is even shocking by today’s standards of corporate crony politics, Whittle had found a benefactor in the State Pension Fund of Florida.

With the support of Jeb Bush, the pension fund, whose largest constituency, ironically, happens to be public school teachers, not only bought out the failed company but also allowed Whittle to retain control, doubled his salary while offering him new stock options, provided loan extensions to repay debts, and gave more loans to keep the outfit afloat...

http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev442.htm


Bushes - again.

[LWolf]

1. Eidson schools were onto the Charter movement early.

And they provide abundant evidence of why turning schools into companies is a really bad idea.

We don't need CEOs. We need educators leading the way.