Comments on: How did Kaplan beat us to it? Or, Who’s getting rich off education? http://learningischange.com/2009/01/16/how-did-kaplan-beat-us-to-it-or-whos-getting-rich-off-education/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:44:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Rick Tanski http://learningischange.com/2009/01/16/how-did-kaplan-beat-us-to-it-or-whos-getting-rich-off-education/comment-page-1/#comment-785 Rick Tanski Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:02:15 +0000 http://learningischange.com/?p=414#comment-785 Darn you, Wilkoff! You got me all fired up yesterday with this post and made me break my New Year's resolution to give up blogging ;-D. I went and made a post that takes into account the updates from the governor's budget cuts from today and end up accuse him of violating the "sacred trust" he claims he has with us: http://tinyurl.com/99fa9k. Darn you, Wilkoff! You got me all fired up yesterday with this post and made me break my New Year’s resolution to give up blogging ;-D. I went and made a post that takes into account the updates from the governor’s budget cuts from today and end up accuse him of violating the “sacred trust” he claims he has with us: http://tinyurl.com/99fa9k.

]]> By: Rick Tanski http://learningischange.com/2009/01/16/how-did-kaplan-beat-us-to-it-or-whos-getting-rich-off-education/comment-page-1/#comment-784 Rick Tanski Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:24:04 +0000 http://learningischange.com/?p=414#comment-784 What the commercial betrays behind a slick-sounding apology is that it’s a marketing attempt to generate revenue. They aren’t competing for the talent and edification of students; they’re competing for the students themselves. They couldn’t make those sorts of commercials without their student cash cows. Unfortunately, neither can we in public education. Our educational systems (especially in Colorado), however well-intentioned, rise and fall on the fickleness of tax revenues and varying budgets. Ultimately that’s where every mission statement of every district has an invisible * -as long as we have the $ to do it. Despite some pretty heated rhetoric of late about the importance of reestablishing the preeminence of education, it’s one off the first on the chopping block when times get tough. We need to look no further than the $222 million in proposed education budget cuts submitted to help the $600 million shortfall. Education in Colorado counts for $3.1 billion of the $19.2 billion state budget –about 16%. However, education gets to shoulder 37% of the deficit? Really?! It’s exactly times like this where clichés often prove themselves. Here, actions speak louder than words. I’m gradually becoming more convinced that the only people who really care about education are the educators themselves and then, not all of them. It certainly feels like we’re fooling ourselves, breathlessly hoping for a new day when collectively we’ll all unite for better education –for our kids, right? Right?! This has certainly digressed into a rather pessimistic rant and education hasn’t done itself any favors over the years, but I think we’ve lost our focus –and allowed our public to become lost as well. I’m reminded of a passage from Dr. Bill Cook’s book: “The purpose of education in a free society must be to liberate the full powers of the individual toward the common good…The common good is not served by the loss of any person…No democracy has any business accepting, much less supporting, any endeavor that does not hold the good of the individual and the good of the society to be the same…To put it another way, education must not be the means by which individuals pursue their own goals to the detriment of others…And it is not a contest to be won…it is on this point that democracy and capitalism collide” (p 129-130, Unencorporating Education). What the commercial betrays behind a slick-sounding apology is that it’s a marketing attempt to generate revenue. They aren’t competing for the talent and edification of students; they’re competing for the students themselves. They couldn’t make those sorts of commercials without their student cash cows. Unfortunately, neither can we in public education. Our educational systems (especially in Colorado), however well-intentioned, rise and fall on the fickleness of tax revenues and varying budgets. Ultimately that’s where every mission statement of every district has an invisible * -as long as we have the $ to do it. Despite some pretty heated rhetoric of late about the importance of reestablishing the preeminence of education, it’s one off the first on the chopping block when times get tough. We need to look no further than the $222 million in proposed education budget cuts submitted to help the $600 million shortfall. Education in Colorado counts for $3.1 billion of the $19.2 billion state budget –about 16%. However, education gets to shoulder 37% of the deficit? Really?! It’s exactly times like this where clichés often prove themselves. Here, actions speak louder than words. I’m gradually becoming more convinced that the only people who really care about education are the educators themselves and then, not all of them. It certainly feels like we’re fooling ourselves, breathlessly hoping for a new day when collectively we’ll all unite for better education –for our kids, right? Right?!

This has certainly digressed into a rather pessimistic rant and education hasn’t done itself any favors over the years, but I think we’ve lost our focus –and allowed our public to become lost as well. I’m reminded of a passage from Dr. Bill Cook’s book: “The purpose of education in a free society must be to liberate the full powers of the individual toward the common good…The common good is not served by the loss of any person…No democracy has any business accepting, much less supporting, any endeavor that does not hold the good of the individual and the good of the society to be the same…To put it another way, education must not be the means by which individuals pursue their own goals to the detriment of others…And it is not a contest to be won…it is on this point that democracy and capitalism collide” (p 129-130, Unencorporating Education).

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