Cuomo Adds Another Billionaire to 'Reimagine' Public Ed, Post- Pandemic; Beware

[appalachiablue]

'Beware! Cuomo Adds Another Billionaire to "Reimagine" Post-Pandemic Public Education.' The pandemic is turning into a grand opportunity for the foxes to raid the henhouse under cover of darkness. Diane Ravitch, Common Dreams, May 6, 2020.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that he has tapped a second billionaire to “reinvent” education in New York state after the pandemic. According to the New York Post, Cuomo sees distance learning as “the wave of the future,” so who better to enlist as his advisers than Bill Gates and now Eric Schmidt of Google.

Reporter Rebecca C. Lewis of "City and State" just tweeted this report:

Cuomo has announced the third billionaire to lead state efforts amid the coronavirus crisis: former Google CEO Eric Schmidt will be focused on new technology utilization. He joins Michael Bloomberg, who’s doing contact tracing, and Bill Gates, who’s doing education

Neither Bill Gates nor Eric Schmidt is an educator. They made their fortune selling software. Selling stuff to schools does not make you an education expert.

Obviously Cuomo thinks that the future of education is online. He 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...

Read More, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/05/06/beware-cuomo-adds-another-billionaire-reimagine-post-pandemic-public-education

[Igel]

1. The theorists are seldom able to be honest about the problem.

If you can't define the problem, you can't solve the problem. What happens is all the makeshift means of dealing with the situation as best as we can are swept away by a theory wrapped around an ideology.

When ideologues do not achieve their goal, they must choose: Either their ideology was wrong or the people implementing their ideology were wrong. If the implementers were wrong, it could be accidental or intentional. Eventually "accidental" is ruled out. Takes a decade or two to determine this, then things get truly nasty.

The ideological could be political, religious, or some other variety. It always ends badly if the ideology isn't cast down.

[whistler162]

2. I don't know....

at the moment in history, remote learning for many is an impossibility. Whether it is the need for broadband, or equipment, or the structure of a learning environment (how many students have not connected with a teacher since the closure?). I think we need to see who else is involved in the commission or whatever they call it and what the initial ideas are.

We are not Ready Player One ready for remote learning.