Thursday, October 1, 2009

Compiling more on the Broad Institute

I was sent a link this morning to this website .
The author (a bit vitriolic) writes from Oakland, which has had a series of Broad Institute-trained administrators. Broad graduates are now throughout the country, including, of course, Worcester's new superintendent, Melinda Boone.

I've been concerned by the views expressed by Eli Broad...he's certainly part of the billionare push to privatize, charterize, and otherwise undemocraticize education in this country (leading in part to mayoral takeovers of public schools in New York City, Chicago, and Boston, for example). I've also been concerned by what I've heard, not from Superintendent Boone herself, but from those from the Broad Institute that have been brought in (during the School Committee retreat, for example, with the emphasis on enforced consensus and that infamous "making cars" factory model). Centralization of power (vested, in mayoral control cities, in the chancellor [Klein in New York, Rhee in D.C.]) which by MA state law resides (largely) in the school committee (dismissed as not having "time or expertise" to make correct decisions) is also a troubling direction.

Note, here, that those messages came from the Broad presenter himself, not from Boone. How much of this is her belief remains to be seen. Also, it remains to be seen the level at which Broad itself will continue to be part of our system; the pattern elsewhere is a heavy level of involvement.

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