Common Core and Uncommon Profits
The US education market has always been huge, but it has also always been highly fragmented. That fragmentation made it largely unprofitable and not worth the attention of huge multinational corporations. When you consider trying to sell to 50 idiosyncratic states, each of which contains (on average) 300 school districts, and each of those mostly autonomous districts contains (on average) 380 schools broken up by student ages between elementary, middle and high schools, further divided by the demographics of various communities, you can see that it is not a coordinated market that can make billions for someone with a “one size fits all” product line.
“Education reform” has changed that. Pearson has been able to change that. “Common Core” has brought some predictability and uniformity to a chaotic marketplace. If you doubt that Common Core was wired for Pearson, this Politico investigation should disabuse you of that notion.
Family Feud?
So they are basically as creepy as the dude that kissed each and every female family member on the lips for almost a half second too long…
irony
this smells to me of all that same stuff ALEC was doing. cookie cutter legislation…just now cookie cutter education. I wouldn’t be surprised to find them having some relationship with their lobbyists or something to that effect.
If you look at the states they have done well in…extremely well…AZ and FL both have quite a history with ALEC I believe
so sad…
Thanks for the charity comments Dude, but I’m really okay.
Well, the Bushes, particularly Jeb, were up to their eyeballs in this textbook/online stuff. Two of the boards from which Jeb resigned to run for Prez are education-related.
These guys have a way of creating policies that then help them to fill the ol’ coffers.
don’t feel bad jason (“charity comments”) I’ve been trying to bring attention to this one for some time.
nobody cares.
Rupert Murdoch (who has a hand in this too):
“When it comes to K through 12 education,” Murdoch said in a statement about the Wireless Generation purchase, “we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching.”
I read the article god damnit! and they do reek of ALEC!
So after the corporate pigs get their take is the system better or worse?