Common Core and the press have pointed out that the Partnership for 21st Century Skills’ staff is made up of people with a lot of knowledge about publicity and salesmanship and almost no knowledge about education. P21 finally has added a staff page to their website, so now you can see for yourself. The page lists eight staffmembers. Seven are pr experts. The eighth is a lobbyist.
The lobbyist position is P21′s newest. They call it “national policy director” but the job description makes its purpose clear:
[R]esponsible for representing the interests of the Partnership’s Strategic Council before the Administration and Congress and to cultivate strategic alliances with other educational organizations in the nation’s capital.
It is surprising to see a lobbyist’s job description rather brazenly appear on a non-profit’s website. The job is occupied by Alan Knapp. According to his bio, Knapp has no experience in education, but he does have a whole bunch of experience (and contacts) on Capitol Hill:
Before joining e-Luminate Group, Alan worked for over 10 years on Capitol Hill, most recently as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director to U.S. Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) and before that as Legislative Director to former U.S. Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI).
And, no, neither member Knapp worked for has served on the House’s Education and Labor Committee.
We’re once again reminded that education isn’t P21′s raison d’etre. It is to help create policies at the state and federal levels that will sell the products produced by members of its Strategic Council (Dell, Disney, Apple, etc.).
Perhaps that’s P21′s idea of “content.”
James Elias and Lynne Munson
As said before, I come here as a friend of the ideas of Common Core. But if you’re gonna shoot yourselves (and your mission) in the leg, why here’s the ammo.
Looking at Common Core’s staff bios, one would expect to find those who have used a solid liberal education to achieve something in industry or war. Persons like former NEA Chair Dana Gioia who for years served as VP and helped General Foods develop and market affordable foods, who used his mother’s love of poetry to inspire and inform others through his life. Or General David Petraeus, whose studies of History at West Point led him to a PhD in International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. And subsequently to solve the tidy little problem of the insurgency in Iraq.
Common Core of course has that type of well and rounded learned persons at the helm, right? Like astronaut Julie Payette (BSEE) who plays piano, speaks five languages, and has sung with the Montreal Symphony and the Piacere Vocale in Switzerland, yes?
Well, I’ll leave it to Lynn and James (BS Philosophy, 2008) to critique their own bios. And perhaps to take the point that columns like the above are no road forward.
If Common Core is to make progress, they need to not just criticize, but embrace positive action. They also need associates who by example can prove the value of truly broad education–including things like operations research and quantum uncertainty. Not just humanities as seen by humanities specialists.
Ed,
Are you saying that P21 is NOT a lobbying group for tech companies?
Ben, I’m saying that criticism (personal criticism at that) does not suffice for leadership.
Speaking of Dell, I couldn’t help but notice this add:
http://content.dell.com/us/en/k-12/d/k12/21stCenturyLearning.aspx?dgc=DC&cid=51298&lid=1327093
which linked from here:
http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2010/01/rttt-half-of-states-post-applications-online.html