[WSMDiscuss] Beware! Cuomo Adds Another Billionaire to "Reimagine" Post-Pandemic Public Education

Sat May 16 08:02:47 CEST 2020

Dear comrades:

As a life-long internationalist now tasked with heading up the truly
world-wide network of "peace studies" scholars, researchers, practitioners
and students - but also as someone professionally based in New York City
for many decades - i must add my "two cents" here:

There is ABSOLUTELY NO "new way to go forward— a way that combines, and
funds, the best practices of traditional education and the new realities of
technology in education" which the current pandemic or post-pandemic vision
which NYS Governor Cuomo wants us to imagine...which has not already widely
been envisioned and begun to be put into use, for quite some time in
innovative schools across the City, State and elsewhere. This is in no way
to denigrate and in fact instead to thank our dear Estelle Fein, who
brought us this important new piece by Diane Ravitch. It is simply to
sharpen our discussion and add FYI: I was one of quite a good number
(including Diane's life partner and an old mentor/friend of mine, Mary
Butz) who took part in a near-thirty-year experiment, creating literally
hundreds of "alternative schools" in what became by far the largest
publicly- funded experiment in innovative, technologically relevant,
community-centered, multicultural and critically oriented education in US
history. Though it has rarely been documented, i am intimately involved in
working to get that story, and the story of its destruction, out there into
the world.

Second, our dear Jai adds that because of the fear that "where if New York
falls, so will many other jurisdictions…and so...this move needs to be
opposed tooth and nail." The problem here, quite sadly, is that "this move"
has been at the centerpiece of US educational "reform" for well over a
decade now, has had significant fight-back...with most of that fight-back
fully lost. The entirely of the 12 years of the NYC Mayoralty of Michael
Bloomberg was about exactly what Jai writes of: making the NYC K-12 school
system, with the City University and State University systems not far
behind, a national model of privatization, top-down administrative and
curricular mandates, and the use of computerized programs and the web NOT
to teach young folks the tools of a new century but rather to
compartmentalize, monitor and control the work of educators, especially
enlightened and potentially rebellious ones. Today, Cuomo appears as a
national hero in the US (for one thing, despite MANY flaws as a poster-boy
of the last gasps of neo-liberal US imperialism, it is hard not to credit
Cuomo with actually saving some NYS lives AND for another, it is not too
difficult to look like a hero in the US today given what the rest of "our"
national leadership looks like!). In this instance, as Diane's article
points out, the current crisis is being used as a fantastic opportunity to
fast-track a part of the agenda which a "bipartisan" arena of folks, led by
Bill Gates and many others, have been pushing for and implementing for many
years. There is not that much "new money" to be made within an empire in
decline...but the US cash spent annually on public education - well into
the trillions of dollars - is a final frontier of capital to be plundered
by private companies and fully enclosed in newly-privatized "local"
structures.

I wish that the possibilities for future education within the US context
was better...just as i wish the same for politics and economics. And it is
true that the current crisis could lead to a level of rebellion unlike
anything we've seen in our lifetimes. But that is what it will take to turn
around the educational and other crisis...not a slightly better NYS team
advising Cuomo. We love, need and appreciate Diane for exposing every
indiscretion and egregious error...but we must understand that our
movements, in these cases, require much more than simple reform.

All the best,
MattM
*Matt Meyer*
Secretary-General,
International Peace Research Association;
IPRA United Nations Main Representative (NGO/ECOSOC)
Chair, International Fellowship of Reconciliation Financial Advisory
Committee

War Resisters International
Africa Support Network Coordinator

PM Press, Africa World Press author and editor

Senior Research Scholar, University of Massachusetts/Amherst Resistance
Studies Initiative, umass.edu/resistancestudies/node/799

On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 3:57 PM Jai Sen <jai.sen at cacim.net> wrote:

> Friday, May 15, 2020
>
>
>
> Hi Estelle
>
>             Thanks very much for this post, and – as an educator of long
> experience - for pointing out what you have, that
>
> … educators must take into account the actual value of online  learning
> We need a new paradigm for education
> We need to imagine a new way to go forward — a way that combines, and
> funds, the best practices of traditional education and the new realities of
> technology in education
>
>             All this rings true – but the problem surely is also of Cuomo
> – or anyone - handing ‘Education’ over on a platter, lock, stock, and
> barrel, to big business (and not just to ‘big’ business but to the
> biggest...), and where educators, families, and society at large have no
> say at all ?
>
>             So yes, educators, must take into account the value of online
> learning – but they must remain in the saddle, not big business.  Surely
> you would agree ?   Because what Cuomo is doing here is not just about
> education; it’s something much, much bigger… and is horrendous.  And he’s
> doing this at this point in history not out of ignorance, but as a member
> of that class, that can collectively see the huge chance that is there…
> And where if New York falls, so will many other jurisdictions…
>
>             And so where while I see your point, I still think that this
> move needs to be opposed tooth and nail… and so where yes, families and
> educators should then pay attention to what you have said.  But the first
> thing is to remain in control.  Let’s not miss this the wood for the trees.
>
>             Jai
>
> On May 15, 2020, at 11:51 AM, Estelle Fein <leef at cruzio.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Everything that Diane says is true
> But educators must take into account the actual value of online  learning
>
> We need a new paradigm for education
> We need to imagine a new way to go forward — a way that combines, and
> funds, the best practices of traditional education and the new realities of
> technology in education
>
>
> Link:
> https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/05/06/beware-cuomo-adds-another-billionaire-reimagine-post-pandemic-public-education?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=email_this
>
>
>
> --
> Shared via Shareaholic
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
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> ____________________________
>
> Jai Sen
>
> Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of
> International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of
> Ottawa
>
> jai.sen at cacim.net
>
> Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on
> unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900)
>
> CURRENT / RECENT publications :
>
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>
> Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – *The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us
> Move ?* (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration
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> Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – *The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us
> Move ?*.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and
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> Forum.  Join in ! **
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