Jeb Bush Charterpalooza Is Back!

For over ten years, Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), these days going by the nom de reform of ExcelInEd, has sponsored a Grand Gathering of reformsters, an annual Big Wet Kiss to privatization. All the big names are there, and while the budget here at the Curmudgucation Institute does not allow me to attend, it's always interesting to take a look at the schedule to get a sense of where the movement's head is these days.

The National Summit on Education convenes the nation’s leaders in education policy to share what works, what doesn’t and what’s next in education policy. Join us as we host more than 1,000 legislators, state superintendents, policymakers and advocates at the 2022 National Summit on Education in Salt Lake City, Utah, at The Grand America Hotel.

Right off the bat, one notices that this doesn't sounds as chartery or privatizy as it has in years past (like just back in 2017, when Betsy DeVos was the big guest speaker)

So here we go, to the National Summit on Education 2022.

Jeb! kicks things off with the first keynote. There's a lunch keynote about 21st century skills, then a first day wrap-up session with Axios explaining how to do better PR. The second breakfast keynote is Emily Hanford (still billed as a journalist and not an advocate) and a Science of Reading panel, followed by an international update on pandemic recovery. I'll save the final big presentation till later.

In between, there's an assortment of breakout sessions to choose from. Those include:

How states are building stronger teacher pipelines.

There are, of course, no teachers involved here. But you can learn secrets of building that pipeline from representatives of Indiana, Florida, and Tennessee (Commissioner Penny Schwinn). Not sure these are the states to listen to on this subject.

How test-based accountability helps students far beyond the classroom.

Lordy. Tom Kane, Aimee Guidera and Eric Hanushek are going to peddle the same old bullshit about how results on the Big Standardized Test correlate to future life outcomes. Prediction: nobody will present any evidence that getting a student to raise her BS Test score will improve her life outcomes.

Power to the Parents.

Derrell Bradford (50CAN) moderates a panel not, as you might have guess/feared, about how to ban books and ga teachers, but about "unbundling," an old reformster favorite in which families shop for education piece by piece. This panel is about the newest school choice options, and there doesn't seem like much to see here.

Designing choice programs for impact and sustainability

Mysteriously, this panel includes a rep from New Hampshire, where the new choice system has not had a chance to prove sustainability and has mostly had the impact of steering tax dollars to families that already had children enrolled in private schools. Arizona, another place where vouchers have mostly given funds to rich folks who were never in public schools in the first place, is also represented. moderated by Shaka Mitchell from Betsy DeVos's American Federation for Children

Innovative Learning, in and beyond the classroom

A panel moderated by Adam Peshek, senior fellow at Stand Together (formerly the Charles Koch Institute) with reps from Utah, North Dakota and Idaho on getting credit for learning outside the classroom. 

Oh, and some folks from Tennessee are going to explain their new funding formula, maybe, sort of.

This is all good old reformy stuff. For each of these explicitly reformy topics, there are sessions about fairly pedestrian topics-- retaining high quality teachers, literacy, getting more post-secondary degrees, math success strategies, broadband access, education-to-workforce pathways. All of these topics are being addressed by various reformy types, but their inclusion typifies the lack of any real core to today's disruption movement. Much of the old standards-- charter schools, high stakes testing, states standards--are now part of the status quo, and this sort of gathering may be a bit too tame for the burn-it-all-down-and-give-the-money-to-private-Christian-schools crowd. 

Nevertheless, the closing lunch keynote features "Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, Governor Kevin Stitt and education visionary Sal Khan, founder & CEO of Khan Academy, for an inside look at the education innovations unfolding in Arizona and Oklahoma." Ducey is getting the ExcellInEd's Excellence in Education award for all the hard work he's done to trash public education in Arizona. The award, the program announces in a swell non sequitor, "recognizes the trailblazing contributions of visionaries who are transforming education and elevating student achievement. Prior honorees include Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, Success Academy’s Eva Moskowitz and Khan Academy’s Sal Khan." 

It is emblematic of this gathering that it happens on a Thursday and Friday, thereby insuring that it is not attended by people who actually work in education. Sponsors include the Walton Family Foundation, Western Governor's University (an online competency-based college that failed its federal audit), the Bezos Family Foundation, College Board, Donors Choose (bummer), Stand Together, edChoice, plus a host of other reformster groups and a bunch of businesses as well, like Pearson and NWEA and edmentum. What's not in sight is any serious number of actual educators.

But then that's not really the point. The point is to get policy and business joined to crack open the big taxpayer education piggy bank. I can believe that many of these topics are being discussed by people who have a sincere interest in the education aspects of them--but then why not have actual educators there? In the end, Jeb's big gathering is like a bunch of lawyers getting together to discuss the best techniques for appendectomies, or a bunch of teachers sitting down to hash out the best way to run a multinational corporation, or economists talking about anything. Can't wait to hear how it all turns out. And there's still time to register before this kicks off November 16-18 in Salt Lake City, and the participants enjoy "an unparalleled forum for exchanging results-based solutions and strategies that can shape public policy so critical to transforming education. This unique conference serves as a catalyst for accelerating student-centered education solutions across the nation. Join us as we ignite ideas and inspire change." Ka-ching.