This article develops in considerable detail the current corporate and right-wing influence on issues related to public education, and their use of cultural products such as the recently released film, "Waiting for Superman" to further their agendas. While the article produces a lot of substance, it could benefit greatly by editing and formatting it for an internet audience.
Beneath its discourse of urgency, altruism and political purity parading in a messianic language of educational reform and a politics of generosity are the same old and discredited neoliberal policies that cheerfully serve corporate interests: privatization, union busting, competition as the only mode of motivation, an obsession with measurement, a relentless attack on teacher autonomy, the weakening of tenure, stripping educational goals of public values, defining teacher quality in purely instrumental terms, an emphasis on authoritative modes of management and a mindless obsession with notions of pedagogy that celebrate memorization and teach to the test.
