There is a revolution going on, America! It's called "education reform," and it features a series of kick-butt, take-no-prisoners leaders coming in and cleaning up the mess in our public schools.
So who are these education super-heroes?
Are they passionate, bleeding-heart teachers like the kind we see in movies like "Stand & Deliver" or "The Freedom Writers" -- people who inspire low-income kids to reach for their dreams?
Are they baseball bat-wielding principals like Joe Louis Clark, who inspired the film, "Lean on Me," and was known for being an autocratic, fearsome leader?
No, they are neither. They are, mostly, businesspeople. Very few of them have any teaching experience at all -- and many of them stand to profit hugely from exactly the reform that they are promoting: charter schools and testing accountability.
Only 2 of the people noted as the top ten influential education reformers of 2010 had ANY teaching experience at all.
Here are some of the big names (as identified by Tom Vander Ark, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...)
1. US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
-- ran the non-profit education foundation Ariel Education Initiative (1992-1998), which helped fund a college education for a class of inner-city children under the I Have A Dream program.
-- helped start a new public elementary school built around a financial literacy curriculum, the Ariel Community Academy
-- served on various education boards and won education awards
-- served as CEO of Chicago Schools for 7 years
-- NOT A SINGLE DAY OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2. Joanne Weiss, Chief of Staff to the United States Secretary of Education
-- Director of the Race to the Top Fund
-- prior to this, Partner and Chief Operating Officer at NewSchools Venture Fund, a venture philanthropy firm where she focused on investments and management assistance for a variety of charter management organizations
-- prior to this, Chief Executive Officer of Claria Corporation, an e-services recruiting firm that helped emerging-growth companies build their teams
-- spent twenty years in the design, development, and marketing of technology-based products and services for education.
-- began her career as Vice President of Education R&D at Wicat Systems, where she was responsible for the development of nearly 100 multimedia curriculum and assessment products for K-12 schools.
-- NOT A SINGLE DAY OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
3. Jim Shelton
-- current assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement for the US Department of Education
-- prior to this, served as a program director for the education division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
-- a partner and the East Coast lead for NewSchools Venture Fund and co-founded LearnNow, a school management company that later was acquired by Edison Schools.
-- spent over four years as a senior management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Atlanta, Ga., where he advised CEOs and other executives on issues related to corporate strategy, business development, organizational design, and operational effectiveness.
-- Upon leaving McKinsey, he joined Knowledge Universe, Inc., where he launched, acquired and operated education-related businesses.
-- NOT A SINGLE DAY OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
6. Paul Pastorek
-- recently named as chief counsel for European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. (EADS)
-- hired as Superintendent of Louisiana Department of Education to rebuild schools after Hurricane Katrina
-- oversaw creation of Recovery School District in New Orleans, which now has over 70% of all students in charter schools
-- prior to this, was a career lawyer
-- NOT A SINGLE DAY OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
7. Joel Klein
-- lawyer who worked in Clinton's Justice Department
-- current Chair of Education Reform Now, an advocate organization for charter schools
-- former Chancellor of NYC Department of Education
-- after resigning, became executive VP of News Corp
-- appointed by Murdoch to oversee the phone hacking scandal
-- NOT A SINGLE DAY OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
8. Joe Williams
-- named Executive Director of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), a PAC supported largely by hedge fund managers favoring charter schools, merit-pay tied to test scores, high-stakes testing, school choice
-- writes about education and the New York City schools for The New York Daily News.
-- covered education for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
-- NOT A SINGLE DAY OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
So what do you think?
Should we have a Secretary of Education that has no teaching experience whatsoever?
Or is education reform better handled by business and law experts with management experience?