Rupert Murdoch, who once referred to grades K-12 as a "$500 billion sector", is having some of his education-for-profit fantasies crushed...
The presidents of both the NYC Teachers Union and the NY State Teachers Union have co-written a letter to the Board of Regents Chancellor, the Commissioner of Education and the State Comptroller, urging them to drop a $27,000,000 contract with a Murdoch-owned 'education' company that 'tracks student data'.
From Joy Resmovits at The Huffington Post:
New York should drop a $27 million contract with Wireless Generation, a Rupert Murdoch-owned student data tracking company, in light of News Corporation's alleged wrongdoings, teachers' union leaders wrote in a Thursday evening letter to state officials.
...
According to the unions' letter, parents and teachers have begun questioning the "wisdom of a News Corp.-owned company" having "access to the personal data of students all across New York." Beyond issues with News Corp., union leaders wrote that the contract itself is "under a cloud" because it did not go through the normal bidding process.
"We couldn't sit back and say nothing as we're about to hand over the personal information of 1.1 million students to a company embroiled in an international scandal alleging that they've been gathering personal information about people to use for their own means," Mulgrew (NYC Teachers Union Pres.) said.
link to full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
This hasn't fully discouraged the dirty digger and his new 'education investment adviser' Joel Klein, however. Plans are still full-speed-ahead for a (don't laugh) News International Academy somewhere in the UK:
From The Independent:
Rupert Murdoch's News International has plans to sponsor an academy, with a possible location in east London, near the media company's Wapping headquarters.
A Murdoch academy in the UK is likely to focus on developing pupils' technology skills.
link: http://www.independent.co.uk/...
Technology skills? Perhaps we now know who will be building Murdoch's drones.
Lastly, as alluded to in the excerpt above, it appears the New York education contracts were obtained by Murdoch under hightly sketchy circumstances. Not only were they no-bid contracts, which is unusual if not illegal, but they were approved while Joel Klein was still the NYC schools chancellor! As NYC Teachers Union President Mulgrew said in The Huffington Post article:
"While he was chancellor of New York City, he [Klein] was funneling money to the work of this company, Wireless Generation. Then Rupert Murdoch buys the company, and Joel Klein takes a job there. Something's not right."
ACTION: Call or write NYSED (New York State Education Department) and tell them you don't want a Murdoch-owned company 'tracking' student data:
email: emscurric@mail.nysed.gov or
FWA@mail.nysed.gov
phone: (518) 474-3852
and/or call the New York City Dept. of Ed.:
phone: (212) NEW-YORK (639-9675)
or send a direct message to the current NYC schools chancellor:
http://schools.nyc.gov/...
(Title of diary changed from
NYC & NY State Teachers Unions Urge Cancelling of $27mil. Murdoch Contract
at approx. 9:45pm, as I feared it didn't accurately convey the official nature of the request.)