Prey for Profit:
The exploitation, bullying, marginalization, and/or abuse of people, animals, the environment, economies, and/or countries for profit and/or power.
Example:
Education "reform" for the purpose of the privatization of public education and increase of corporate profits and power. Who is exploited and/or abused? Students and teachers.
The Story:
Some corporations, CEO's and millionaires/billionaires are using their power and money to abuse children, marginalize teachers, destroy unions, take away people's rights, and exploit democracy (Citizens United, etc.) for power and profit. First, they purposefully compare test results between the entire
and extremely heterogeneous and higher rate of poverty, huge COUNTRY of
the US with the more lower rate of poverty and homogeneous CITY of
Shanghai and small country of Finland and in order to be able to say Education in America has Failed. Then, they use EVERY opportunity to scapegoat and demonize teachers
and say they, especially the more experienced
teachers, are the problem. I especially love their central propaganda
piece, "Waiting for Superman," in which they come in to "rescue" our country from our horrendously incompetent teachers and
school systems. Next, they lobby and create laws, policies and
regulations, while they put their corporate reform minions in place as
School District Superintendents, School Board Trustees and Federal and
State Legislators to help usher in their reforms, budget cuts, vouchers,
co-locations, merit pay, common core standards, increased testing,
union and collective bargaining busting, as they erode public education
and teacher's rights. Finally, they get their desired results: increased
corporate profits for charter and private schools...testing and
remediation companies...textbook publishers, etc.; dis-empowered or
broken unions; low-salaried, at-will employed teachers who have no
due-process rights and for whom they no longer have to pay much in
benefits. Notice that there is not one mention of students in this
scenario? Of course there isn't. Children were never really their concern. They threw teachers under the school bus while they used public-school children and education reform as
the cover for their battle for power, control and profits. Shame on the
corporate "reform" people for using our nation's children as human
shields. End the Use of Children as Prey For Profit.
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