Business in education via politics

While it's the infuriating quote from Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson that is getting all of the attention--

“I’m not sure public schools understand that we’re their customer—that we, the business community, are your customer,” said Tillerson during the panel discussion. “What they don’t understand is they are producing a product at the end of that high school graduation.”
The Exxon CEO didn’t hesitate to extend his analogy. “Now is that product in a form that we, the customer, can use it? Or is it defective, and we’re not interested?” American schools, Tillerson declared, “have got to step up the performance level—or they’re basically turning out defective products that have no future. Unfortunately, the defective products are human beings. So it’s really serious. It’s tragic. But that’s where we find ourselves today.”

--I would recommend reading Fortune's article about how business got involved in the Common Core learning standards. It isn't as driven by the level of conspiracy-theorizing that has characterized some coverage, while also being honest about who is behind which parts.
It also concludes that, due to the level of implimentation, we're probably over most of the flips, which may have implications for the Massachusetts ballot question