Wednesday, April 2, 2014

PEU Boys Want to Profit from Publicly Financed, Private Education


The greed and leverage boys, also know as private equity underwriters (PEU), want to "save education" via corporate machinations.  It's bad enough education has imitated poor management practices that pit people against one another and result in widespread cheating, a.k.a. fraud. 

It's our PEU world, where politicians Red and Blue love PEU.  Predictable public money flows are tantalizing to modern day Robber Barons, thus their interest in education, health care and infrastructure. 

Diane Ravitch, Assistant Secretary of Eduation under President George W. Bush changed her mind on privatizing education after studying the issue in depth:

What surprised me the most, quite frankly, was the lack of any leadership in the democratic party to say no. And as I saw the amount of campaign contributions in state after state going to both parties, as I realized that anyone who wants to run for president has to go to Wall Street, it became very frightening to think that there might be a political way to actually stop this movement to destroy public education and to monetize public education.
Once the monetization starts it becomes a cycle of flipping, with each buyer looking to make their fortune on the backs of the affiliate's customers and its next buyer.

When I see a status quo that's controlled by the wealthiest people on our country in alliance with the political power in our country, it makes me want to rail against it. And I'm railing against it as best I can.
I resonate with her motivation, which was in part why I started PEU Report seven years ago.  Unfortunately, the toxins have spread.  I hate to think how education and health care will further distort in our PEUbiquitous world.