Teachers Protest Rupert Murdoch At School Summit

SAN FRANCISCO -- Teachers in the San Francisco Bay area picketed Thursday outside an education conference that features News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch as a keynote speaker, saying they believe he and other business leaders want to profit from reforms discussed at the summit.

More than 100 demonstrators marched outside the Palace Hotel, which was hosting the two-day National Summit on Education Reform. The protesters, joined by activists from the Occupy Wall Street movement, chanted, banged drums and held signs with pictures of Murdoch and slogans such as "Hey Murdoch! Our Schools are Not For Profit."

The educators said they believe the business leaders were seeking to profit from digital learning that they were promoting as a way to improve public education. Murdoch was expected to talk about the role of technology during his keynote speech Friday morning, said Jaryn Emhof, a spokeswoman for the Foundation for Excellence in Education, which organized the summit.

"We don't think education is their concern. We think that profit is their only concern. And we don't trust them near our children," said Dennis Kelly, who heads the San Francisco teachers union.

Last year, News Corp. acquired Wireless Generation, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company that provides software and services to K-12 schools. In August, New York's comptroller rejected a $27 million contract with the educational technology company because of the phone hacking scandal in Great Britain.

Foundation for Excellence in Education is chaired by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and champions school vouchers, charter schools and performance pay for teachers, which are controversial among educators. Speakers expected during this year's conference include philanthropist Melinda Gates and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as Bush.

Emhof said the San Francisco summit was a chance for "lawmakers and policymakers to learn proven policies and innovative strategies to improve student achievement."

 

 

Comments

[Kimpeach]

09:26 PM on 10/17/2011

Murdoch is involved in education to make money. He wants tax-payers money to get richer. He should be thrown out the country!

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

11:16 PM on 10/16/2011

Hasn't California suffered enough? First, the development office at CSU-Stanislaus graciously paid Sarah Palin $75,000 to babble to a hand-picked crowd of doting conservatives. Now, Murdoch may descend upon our state.

[WRP64]

06:01 PM on 10/16/2011

Murdoch is the undsiputed master of using technology to indoctrinate people. But the point of education is to get people to think for themselves. Not really a great fit for Murdoch's skill set.

[cdterm47]

02:49 PM on 10/15/2011

Since the teachers do not like Murdoch wanting a profit nor those designing better methods of teaching to make a profit. How about the TEXT BOOK corporations.? How about the corporations who provide desks, paper, copier machines and on and on and on? Without such entrepreneurs there are no Teachers because there are no taxes. OH and those teacher's who say we pay taxes too. Well, all you are doing is taking the taxes which support your salary and sending it back to local/ State/Fed. Govt. to redistribute to others. It is only the for-profit organizations which are the foundation of the largess you receive. AND then you criticize such profit oriented organizations from doing so. Teachers are the epitome of either HYPOCRISY, or an abysmal deficiency in understanding the Free Market system .

[Davey Johnson]

08:45 PM on 10/15/2011

Still confusing Bill O'Reilly with Jesus, eh bud?

[teacher39years]

09:06 PM on 10/15/2011

Well said.

[cdterm47]

10:25 AM on 10/16/2011

Davey Johnson

Not at all confused!!! However, your own comment validates my points.

[beebster]

10:06 PM on 10/15/2011

I am always amazed by people like you.

[cdterm47]

10:28 AM on 10/16/2011

beebster

You really should be amazed. People like me pay people like you your wages. Yet, as I said you have the audacity to condemn the very system that feeds you. Incredible, simply incredible.!!

[cdterm47]

02:25 PM on 10/15/2011

Remarkable, the NON-Producers (teachers) are protest the PRODUCERS (Murdoch). The NON-Producers (those who get salary from the tax trough) then accuse the Producers of being profit oriented and profit oriented people are not needed in education. Well they certainly are needed in the private sector or their would be very few NON-PRODUCERS The t eachers retirement programs depend on PROFIT for a return. Apparently, we have a majority of teachers not only incapable of understanding the Capitalist system, but completely incompetent to explain the benefits of the Free Market System. AND people wonder why Education Has failed in the U.S.

[beebster]

10:10 PM on 10/15/2011

Defend the fox culture of corruption all you like. You are on the wrong side of history.

[cdterm47]

10:30 AM on 10/16/2011

beebster

This is economics 101. I do not expect you to recognize it for the reasons I have noted above. Fox culture has NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. PHEW it is tragic that you have such a dim bulb .

[navigio]

11:02 AM on 10/15/2011

wait a minute. so we have an ANNUAL conference on school reform? is this because we just assume reform must alway happen and is never finished? maybe it should be renamed the annual conference on privatizing public education.

[Helloise]

01:09 PM on 10/15/2011

Wonderful point! Having studied education, I happen to think that the current trends are woefully misguided, but as a professor of mine, a former superintendent, pointed out, the problem is less that schools systems are tasked with making frequent changes, than that no one ever bothers to follow up with the appropriate evaluation of their efficacy before dashing off to implement yet another sweeping change. Naturally this creates a ripe environment for profit based "reformers" to leap in and sell their wares.

[Auldskul]

10:52 AM on 10/15/2011

This would be the Bizarro world conference on education....no other explanation is possible.

[RockyMissouri]

10:51 AM on 10/15/2011

Weren't we warned that we'd come to regret changing the rules and allowing him to become a citizen...?!$&@£%€£¥

[whyus]

07:30 PM on 10/14/2011

Thank you San Francisco teachers for protesting! He's not the way to promote anything in the education system. Unless he just gives schools the money they need, with no strings attached, and of course, that'll be the day.

[Helloise]

01:11 PM on 10/15/2011

Quite right, the man dumbs down everything he touches.

[cdterm47]

03:18 PM on 10/15/2011

whyus

AH!! The MANTRA of the teacher's union "GIVE US MORE MONEY"!! Frankly,you have not earned it. Instead, the teacher's and administrators have turned education into an enterprise which if run in the private sector would be bankrupt.t

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

11:07 PM on 10/16/2011

I am saddened when folks who have never taught in public schools continually blame teachers for what is a complex of negative influences on the learning process today. After devoting at least four years of their lives to earning teaching certification, the average lifespan of a newly-minted teacher is about five years, suggesting that there are forces affecting learning beyond the instructor.

[ThomasPaine1776]

12:57 AM on 10/17/2011

You think the way you do because of your public education. You are very good at communication in this forum, which requires reading and writing, both of which a teacher patiently taught you. You should thank them. And, while you're at it, thank all teachers. Then, pour yourself a nice double bourbon and Coke on the rocks, put on some Perry Como, sip that nice cool mind-soothing concoction down and think of the things that make you happy, and go to sleep.

[Gavin Saunders]

06:03 PM on 10/14/2011

His son failed at running a telco, his online paper is losing money, his executives are resigning in droves due to unethical practices, criminality and corrupting police officers, he makes bundles from hard core pornography and he's giving speeches to do with technology and our childrens' education.

What a joke!

[Gavin Saunders]

06:06 PM on 10/14/2011

Sorry Rupert, I forgot about the mySpace debacle.... don't want to be selling you short.

[Helloise]

01:17 PM on 10/15/2011

He bought Joel Klein, who I'm sure wrote his speech, from Bloomberg and wants to get his money's worth. Public education is one of the cornerstones of our democracy; with some exceptions even the robber barons of the Gilded Age realized the importance of an educated work force and built schools and libraries on their own dime. To see education as another place to impose free market principles is reprehensible.

[den1953]

03:45 PM on 10/14/2011

Maybe the students could teach him some personal values and the understanding between right and wrong!

[cdterm47]

03:20 PM on 10/15/2011

den1953

Maybe the teachers should teach the students the basics of the free market system. Regrettably, the teachers cannot because the only free market they know is to negotiate for more money to subsidize miserable performance.

[beebster]

10:14 PM on 10/15/2011

Why dont you try being a teacher? Until then, you dont know what you are talking about.

[justoneguy60]

10:19 PM on 10/15/2011

Just out of curiosity, did you take economics in high school? That was one of my requirements to graduate. Many elements which include the free market system. You should check out your local school and see if economics is taught, then ask the teacher if the basic of the free market system is part of the program. If not, bring it up the to principal. Complaining on here doesn't do much good, but going to the source will give you the answers you need. I was a teacher and didn't negotiate my pay, that was done through our union. Lastly, as for my performance in teaching, I felt I did the best I could and so did my principal. Please don't assume all teachers are terrible or margin able. There are a lot good teacher out there, and they work hard for their pay. There's times that many of us spent hours on end at home, with no extra pay; not like a factory worker that was done at the end of the day.

[Jerseytime]

03:26 PM on 10/14/2011

Remember when business leaders did things out of "noblesse oblige"?

[Dan Hydar]

03:35 PM on 10/14/2011

Hmmm..... so the "problem", according to the teachers union, &c. is that "business leaders were seeking to profit from digital learning that they were promoting as a way to improve public education"? Funny thing, that. The teachers' unions are *constantly* promoting ideas that will line *their* pockets.

I wonder if they still teach about the concept "irony" these days....

[Jerseytime]

10:39 AM on 10/15/2011

Hmmm. Never mind irony. Can you say "conflict of interest"? The businessmen are pretending to be "concerned" about education, all the while lookiing for a sale of their product, which just so happens to be the "fix" they promote as a "boon to education".
Think defense contractors with "great new products"making pitches to the military.
Your comment about the teachers has some merit, but don't forget that most of their "demands" are made in the context of labor negotiations, and their job of their unions is to promote their interests, and everyone involved in the process knows why the demands are made. Now, if you could make a cogent argument about proposals made by teachers that are masquerading as "good for eucation", while really being about benefits to the teachers alone, then you might have something there...

[Helloise]

01:29 PM on 10/15/2011

You obviously are not acquainted with any teachers, who are primarily concerned with educating their students and yes, they care about being able to do that while helping to support their families. The latter is the sole purpose of union membership. Unfortunately, they are not in charge of making changes to the curriculum; that is left to management. So your premise is completely off base. Further, while most teachers I know are gradually introducing technology into their classrooms, depending on the resources they are given and the resources available to their students, many complain that it sometimes comes at the expense of teaching and cementing the foundations their students need in basic skills. Recently, a friend of mine, who met with a corporate mediator hired by a district to help the administration figure out why test scores were going down, said that the primary complaint she heard from corporate CEO's in the field was that they were seeing too many candidates who were tech savvy and qualified in most ways with one glaring exception, they couldn't write a coherent sentence. You would be wrong to confuse your feelings about unions, in general, with teacher's objections to certain kinds of curriculum.

[marknez21]

03:26 PM on 10/14/2011

I taught he is behind bar.
Unleashed Murdurerdock.

[clearthinker16]

03:18 PM on 10/14/2011

Ruppie Turdock should not be asked to speak anywhere except in prison to rally the inmates not to return to their life of crime

[bcarb]

03:05 PM on 10/14/2011

You would think they could find someone more appropriate than Rupert to talk about "technology." I mean, did he present that phone hacking isn't evil and that News Corp/ Fox has been doing it for years??

[RockyMissouri]

11:35 AM on 10/15/2011

You'd think they would use their brains......

[Dan Hydar]

05:23 PM on 11/13/2011

Um.... when did Murdoch *ever* say that "phone hacking isn't evil"? I mean, it's cute that you hate Emanuel Goldberg and all, but what does that have to do with ideas for improving the educational stystem?