Conference on World Affairs

Overall Impression:This panel did an interesting job of covering some of the ways and reasons corporations get money into schools, and why schools need the money. They also mentioned a couple of ideas about we can fight back. Alas, the topic is much deeper than one panel and this is but a small sampling of ideas. The Future of Education might be a good overall Conference theme one year.

Bill Clifford

Bill showed up dressed entirely in corporate logos. He noted that the goal of corporations is to create wealth for shareholders. Corporations then engage in philanthropy to soften their image.

David Bernknopf

David talked about vending machines in schools. Institutions want the corporations their because they have money trouble. [from spending too much?] A possible compromise is to allow Coke to put the vending machine on campus, but that it can only be stocked with water and juices, both items that exist in Coke's stable of beverages.

Achim Ködderman

• Philanthropy is possible, but you have to trick them. Dead people don't want their money back.
• Education is our highest social good and should not be for sale.
• It may be possible to sex up a "sacrifice area." German Public Television as a 20 minute slot (not sure if per hour, per show, per ?) set up for corporations. The rest of the time is uncompromised. If you limit corporate funding in schools to certain areas (sports) it might work.
• Before corporations religions ran the schools. Certain parties are interested in indoctrination.
• Freedom in schools is needed and corporations are a form of slavery. allowing corporations in gains money, but reduces choice.
• People need to orient themselves. They may need to find a direction other than the main direction. The purpose of a good education should be to "reorient for what we don't know." (Check Kant's theories of Moral Education for more details.) As opposed to brainwashing that goes on in many classrooms.)

Barbara Thompson

Barbara had a couple of observations. Three key points started it off. Schools are underfunded. Teachers are doing a great job under the circumstances. And every parent thinks their kid is the next Einstein. This makes for a difficult educational environment.

The Religious Right seems motivated by pure intentions. They have taken over several state school boards. They are not educators, but have been elected to positions of power by being able to focus their energies on a single purpose. [I noted this because many people are not able to organize and focus their energies and hence their views get lost. Corporations can focus their energies with money.]

Lastly she commented on the lack or robustness in marketing. People have been trained to think, or is it accept, that they have a choice between Coke and Pepsi. That is not a choice. They are the same product. Coke or Milk is a choice, however many in the herd do not see that.

QUESTION PERIOD IDEAS

• Do we have the resources to avoid bad resources? How do we know when we are buying a lemon? (For example a lemon drink with no lemon.)
• Corporations can be out to "own them young." Ethics is a combination of character and habit. The problem is that habit comes before the development of reasoning skills. That can make bad habits learned young, harder to undo.
• What about schools as corporations? (Private corporations running schools, for example.) This can create an environment more like training, than like education. Of course getting an MBA via training might be okay if you are only going to use it while working in a bank.
• It is what you do with the money that matters.
• We listen to our wallets. For example, we need to be able to appreciate our education's long term impact on our wallets.
• Parents need to be able to force transparency on schools. That way we can maximize choice. For example we need to really know how the money is being spend, wherever it comes from.