StickWithANose

It is a tough time to be an advocate for public education. The movement to relegate the institutional mandate of public education to the private sector that began in the 1980’s and A Nation at Risk has now become mainstream policy. As is to be expected in the American system, the free marketeers of educational reform employ the language of the “free market” and the “innovation” of the private sphere. However, in reality, the educational marketplace envisioned by the oligarchs bears little resemblance to the utopian dreams of standard neoliberal economics. The educational marketplace being shaped by the education lobby and compliant government policy is the utopian playground of corporate welfare and the predictable profit-taking sure to follow. When the corporate hogs feed at the government trough, corruption and political machinations are never far behind.

Like many large cities, Nashville has a number of charter schools operating in its district and the state’s decision to lift the cap on the number of charters in the state will surely lead to an increase in their numbers. The problem is that Nashville’s charters have yet to produce the significant gains promised. To tackle the problem of the charter program, the metro school board created a working group to study the charter school program and offer recommendations. The key recommendation to emerge was to create an “executive director of charter and private schools” to act as a regulator of the charter program, and the fun was soon to follow.

No sooner had the job been created when school board member Alan Coverstone resigned from his position on the board in order to apply for the new position that he just helped create. And, despite having a flimsy resume that would call into question his qualifications for the school board let alone the position for which he was applying, Coverstone was able to beat out other, let us say more qualified, candidates. Shocker, I know. This guy has a future in the education lobby for sure… either as a useful tool in government or in the private sector as a lobbyist/spokesperson.

From the Tennessean:

Former Metro school board member Alan Coverstone beat out a top Metro administrator, a top Murfreesboro schools administrator and a former charter school assistant principal for a school district position that he helped create.

As the Hillwood-area school board member, Coverstone headed a study group that brainstormed ways to improve the district’s charter school program. One of the group’s recommendations was to appoint someone who would oversee the department.

The district released finalists’ resumes Tuesday, a week after Coverstone was named Metro’s first executive director of charter and private schools. Coverstone, who spent 14 years as the academic dean at Montgomery Bell Academy, said he got the job because of his knowledge of charter schools.

I’m sure that Coverstone will bring the needed expertise to the position to ensure the expansion of Nashville’s charter program without having to produce tangible results all the while singing the praises of the tough reforms he’s overseen. This will all end in tears.