The Broad Prize Demise
No Way ESEA
By Cynthia Weatherly, 3D Research Associate
The Eli and Edythe Broad
Foundation released a two-paged statement today explaining that after 13 years
of distributing the $41 million Broad Prize for Urban Education that has been
awarded to public school systems demonstrating “outstanding achievement in
performance” while addressing “narrowing gaps among low-income students and
students of color,” they will not be
awarding this prize this year. They are
choosing to “pause” the granting of the award while the Foundation updates the criteria to “better reflect
and recognize the changing landscape of K-12 public education.”
“Over the past decade, public school systems have evolved to include public charter management organizations, alternative system like New Orleans’ Recovery School District and Tennessee’s Achievement School District and ‘portfolio’ districts that include a mix of traditional and charter schools. Many of these districts, with support from The Broad Foundation, are creating innovative governance models that give families high-quality school options and empower teachers and school leaders to do what is best for their students.” [bold added]
It is noted that the “pausing” of the awarding of the prize
as “further precipitated by sluggish academic results from the largest urban
schools of the country.” Could this be because so many of these large school
districts have embraced the charter school and community education movements
that The Broad Foundation has rewarded in the past?
Bruce Reed, president of The Broad Foundation,
explained that “The rise of a new
definition of public school systems, coupled with more rigorous standards and higher expectations for our public
schools [emphasis added]” have compelled the Foundation to re-evaluate their
prize’s parameters.
There is only one way that a “new definition
of public systems” will be effected: the passage of the “Every Child Ready for College or Career Act of 2015.” Czar Lamar (Alexander) and his Capitol Hill
Gang have set themselves against the majority of parents and teachers who have
taken it upon themselves to understand where these new definitions and
administrative changes in our schools will lead us. These “new” efforts will
change our relationships to those who have been held legally responsible for
the direction of education in our schools, as well as for the use of our tax
dollars.
While our state legislatures are being led to pass matching wording and definitions in state-level bills, Alexander, Kline and their committees in Congress push passage of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (“Every Child College or Career Ready Act of 2015”), ill-conceived as it was, to cement those very restrictions into Federal Law. With the wording in both Federal and State laws, making changes in educational administration and practice can be implemented overnight.
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| http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/eleemosynary?s=t |
Broad’s “pausing of the prize” should ring
an alarm bell in every school district in the country. The Broad Foundation,
and perhaps other eleemosynary (in the “Broadest” sense) organizations, will
withhold their imperialistic philanthropy until our schools have conformed
themselves to the “Every Child Ready” mold—with those who are allowed to chose
college to have further access to life choices, while those who are “career
ready” will be set on a “life path” the State will impose from ninth grade
forward.
While we await the actions of Congress, The Broad Foundation has taken its marbles and gone home.
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