Dive Brief:
- Education historian Diane Ravitch is urging Congress to investigate Bill Gates' relationship with the Education Department, arguing that his hand in rolling out the Common Core State Standards feels like the philanthropist is staging an education "coup".
- Ravitch's call to action comes on the heels of a recent Washington Post article documenting Bill Gates' role in the funding, creation, and marketing of the standards, specifically focusing on allegations that Gates purchased the support of interest groups on both sides of the political aisle.
- Ravitch wrote in the Post, "The idea that the richest man in America can purchase and — working closely with the U.S. Department of Education — impose new and untested academic standards on the nation’s public schools is a national scandal."
Dive Insight:
In the editorial, Ravitch says she does not support the Common Core because it was created and imposed in an undemocratic fashion. Most striking to Ravitch is the fact that the standards were mostly written by representatives from test companies, and once completed, no attempts were made to pilot or test them. Rather, states were urged to adopt the standards if they wanted any chance of winning Race to the Top funding.
Ultimately, Ravitch's article returns to her core argument, the Common Core diverts attention from the root causes of poor academic performance: poverty. She questions why states and schools are being forced to spend so much on testing and the Common Core instead of finding solutions to these other very real issues.
"Who decided to monetize the public schools? Who determined that the federal government should promote privatization and neglect public education? Who decided that the federal government should watch in silence as school segregation resumed and grew? Who decided that schools should invest in Common Core instead of smaller classes and school nurses?" are the questions Ravitch ends with — the questions she wants Congress to ask.
