[blind-democracy] COVID-19: Cuomo & Gates Plan-Seizing on Pandemic to Privatize New York Schools-Raises Ire
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- Date: Fri, 8 May 2020 21:50:00 -0400
COVID-19: Cuomo & Gates Plan-Seizing on Pandemic to Privatize New York
Schools-Raises Ire
May 7, 2020
Advocates for public education are denouncing the plan by the New York
governor and the billionaire founder of Microsoft to "reimagine" the state's
school system, Julia Conley reports.
Governor Andrew Cuomo tours Northwell Health Core Lab in New Hyde Park,
N.Y., April 19, 2020. (Kevin P. Coughlin, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Flickr)
By Julia Conley
Common Dreams
Public education advocates on Wednesday rejected New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo's pledge to work with billionaire entrepreneurs like Microsoft founder
Bill Gates to "reimagine" his state's school systems once the coronavirus
pandemic subsides.
In his daily press briefing Tuesday, nearly two months after ordering
schools throughout the state to close and millions of children began
attending classes remotely from home, Cuomo said New York must "take this
experience and really learn how we can do differently and better with our
education system in terms of technology and virtual education."
Cuomo said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has partnered with the
state of New York to develop a "Blueprint to Reimagine Education."
The Covid-19 pandemic, the governor said, offers an opportunity to
"revolutionize" New York's schools in ways that Gates, a school
privatization proponent, has promoted for years.
Bill Gates, wearing his LSE cap, waves to students as he leaves the London
School of Economics after speaking at the inaugural Global Poverty Project
2012 conference. (LSE in Pictures, Flickr)
"Bill Gates is a visionary in many ways and his ideas and thoughts on
technology and education, he's spoken about for years," Cuomo said. "But I
think we now have a moment in history where we can actually incorporate and
advance those ideas."
Critics including New York State Allies for Public Education, Class Size
Matters, and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy were wary of handing
the state's education system over to Gates, who previously launched - among
other "education reform" projects - a $1 billion initiative in three states
to improve "teacher effectiveness" which policy think tank RAND found did
"more harm than good" for students.
"Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation have promoted one failed educational
initiative after another, causing huge disaffection in districts throughout
the state," wrote the three organizations in a letter to the governor.
"Whether that be the high-handed push by the Gates Foundation for the
invalid Common Core standards, unreliable teacher evaluation linked to test
scores, or privacy-violating data-collection via the corporation known as
inBloom Inc., the education of our children has been repeatedly put at risk
by their non-evidence based 'solutions,' which were implemented without
parent input and despite significant public opposition."
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Cuomo's announcement of his partnership with the Gates Foundation came two
weeks after the governor warned that without the federal funding New York
State needs to confront the Covid-19 pandemic, school budgets could be cut
by 50 percent next year. Earlier in April, legislators passed a state budget
in which education spending was flat compared with last year's budget.
The Education Law Center wrote in 2018 that Cuomo had spent his entire term
as governor proposing "woefully inadequate" aid increases for public school
students.
Jamaal Bowman, a former middle school principal in The Bronx and a
congressional candidate in New York's 16th district, suggested Cuomo "try
fully funding [schools] for once" rather than "reimagining" them.
Other progressive advocates in the state, including longtime public
education activist and former gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, also
spoke out against Cuomo's proposal on social media.
Diane Ravitch. (Czar, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Education historian Diane Ravitch wrote at her blog that Cuomo's interest in
enlisting powerful billionaires to remake New York's public systems in the
wake of the pandemic does not end with Gates. The governor has called on
former Google CEO Eric Schmidt to advise him on "technology utilization" for
schools while former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will oversee a
large-scale contact-tracing effort. Schmidt has also been named to lead
Cuomo's Blue Ribbon Commission aimed at "reimagining New York State's
current systems of health and education."
"The pandemic is turning into a grand opportunity for the foxes to raid the
hen house under cover of darkness," wrote Ravitch. "Parents, teachers, and
students want a safe and orderly return to real education taught by real
teachers in real schools."
The governor, Ravitch added, "seems oblivious to the eagerness of parents
and students alike to return to real live teachers in real school buildings.
Parents want to return to work, students want to see their teachers and
their friends, and they want to return to their activities and sports.
Teachers want to see their students. No one but Cuomo-and probably Bill
Gates and Eric Schmidt-wants remote learning to become permanent."
Since remote learning became commonplace across the country in March,
children's advocates have warned of the safety and privacy risks associated
with students spending several hours per day using online learning programs.
"Since the schools were shut down in mid-March, our understanding of the
profound deficiencies of screen-based instruction has only grown," wrote the
three groups in their letter to Cuomo Tuesday. "Along with many other
parents and educators, we strongly oppose the Gates Foundation to influence
the direction of education in the state by expanding the use of ed tech."
"Instead, we ask that you fund our schools sufficiently and equitably, to
allow for the smaller classes, school counselors, and other critical
services that our children will need more than ever before, given the myriad
losses they have experienced this year," they added.
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