Two UNC professors come out swinging at Spellings and BCG $1.1 million study funded anonymously

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In an opinion piece written for the Raleigh News & Observer published yesterday, they had this to say:

Though Margaret Spellings doesn’t begin her tenure as the next president of the University of North Carolina system until March 1, she is already making decisions that give us a taste of things to come. And it’s a very bitter taste indeed.

There are many problems with Spellings’ appointment, not least of which was the Board of Governors’ shamefully secretive hiring process. But the core problem is that Spellings subscribes to a very troubling ideology, which holds that education is essentially a private and not a public good. Far from increasing efficiency, this belief risks transforming our state’s outstanding public university system into a second-tier institution, run by a handful of unaccountable millionaires with little regard for our citizens’ needs.




This is not the first time that wealthy individuals have used BCG to force their educational agenda onto the public. In 2012, BCG was paid $1.4 million for a study of the Philadelphia public school system, titled “Blueprint for Transforming Philadelphia’s Public Schools.” It subsequently received another contract worth $1.2 million. These funds, too, came partly from “anonymous donors” channeled through the William Penn Foundation and United Way. As a result, a plan of considerable public significance was contracted with minimal public scrutiny.

The subcontracting of education policy to a private, for-profit company is all the more troubling because BCG is hardly politically neutral. BCG embraces a highly partisan conception of education, one that is consistent with the views of Spellings, George W. Bush’s former education secretary. Specifically, BCG’s Philadelphia plan selected as many as 60 schools for possible closure, aggressively promoted charter schools, identified private companies that could replace the district’s unionized labor force and tied school success to inflexible “achievement goals.”

Dr. Michael C. Behrent of Appalachian State University and Dr. Altha Cravey of UNC-Chapel Hill are members of Faculty Forward, which works “to right the disparities that have lowered the bar in higher education.”



They end their opinion piece with this:

Yet again, Spellings has made it clear that she plans to end UNC as we know it. If UNC is to serve all our state’s residents and not just a few wealthy individuals who want to call all the shots, North Carolinians must write and call our Board of Governors and elected officials and tell them to terminate Spellings’ appointment.

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article54177810.html



I went a step farther with the LTTE that I wrote about this "study", which was to urge everyone to VOTE in 2016 to get rid of the Republicans who are responsible
for stacking the Board of Governors with like minded Republicans only looking for a way to privatize UNC (and make a buck for their friends and buddies) and then hiring this Rovian/Bush bot.

But I am encouraged to see faculty putting their names out there in no uncertain terms to call for getting rid of Spellings. I just hope they have their resumes polished, because even if they are tenured, you can bet Spellings will be hell bent on destroying them.

[pansypoo53219]

1. the 2% wants the whole pie. they are coming for the crumbs & crumb support system.

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2. My letter was published today!