Dive Brief:
- Education Post, a site aimed at encouraging more "respectful" and "fact-based" discussions on ed reform, will launch Tuesday.
- The site will focus on conversations in three areas: K-12 academic standards, high-quality charter schools, and how best to hold teachers and schools accountable for educating students.
- At the helm of Education Post is Peter Cunningham, Arne Duncan's former communications adviser. The site is financially backed with $12 million from the Bloomberg Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Walton Foundation, and an anonymous donor.
Dive Insight:
“At some level, it feels as if it’s people . . . just screaming at each other from across the aisle,” Cunningham told the Washington Post. “We can have differences of opinion about these policies, but they should be based on facts, not fear. An honest, open conversation is possible among people of good will. We want to elevate those voices that are not being heard and counter the voices that are misleading, either willfully or not.”
While the site claims to be bipartisan and aiming to create meaningful conversations around education reform, some aren't buying it. All of the foundations supporting the endeavor have a major stake in the direction education reform goes and the way it is perceived by the public. Even the chosen education topics seem to push a certain perspective of what is most important in education.
It would appear that those with differing opinions may not get the same size soap box as those who agree with the main ideas on the site. In fact, one commenter on the Washington Post article about Education Post said their comment had already been deleted from the site. "I find it interesting that the site claims to want to have a conversation, but has deleted every comment critical of what they espouse. I attempted to say this: I agree about the need for change and for a more productive conversation. We need to change education by getting rid of this toxic testing culture that is driving excellent, experienced teachers out of the profession and sucking a child's natural love of learning, creativity, and sense of wonder out of our students." According to the commenter, this was allegedly deleted.