Ponder This: Privately-Paid Advisors Embedded in NYS Dept of Ed.....

...literally *sitting* in public agencies. Their job, in essence: to tell State Ed Commissioner and his on-paper boss, NYS Bd of Regents, what to do.( The Bd of Regents is selected by the NYS assembly , btw. Do a google search of "corruption"+ "NYS Assembly". Yes, it's THAT BAD.)

Is this what its come down to? Could Marx and Engels have come up with a *better* example with which to illustrate the sham represented by "representative democracy"?

What, on Earth, is going on here? How is this different than just turning over an entire state public school system to billionaires? Because their agents are paid thru "foundations"?


>>>Albany

A team of two dozen well-paid analysts embedded in the State Education Department is having a dramatic impact on a reform agenda that's causing controversy throughout New York.

None are public servants.

Supported with $19 million in donations from some of the nation's wealthiest philanthropists, the Regents Research Fund team makes up a little-known think tank within the education agency. It is helping drive reforms that affect the state's 3.1 million public school students and employees of almost 700 school districts.

The three-year-old operation, which now comprises 27 full-time staffers and a half-time intern, is unique in public education systems nationwide.

The group is an institute charged with helping the state Board of Regents and Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. find ways to improve student performance and ensure graduates are ready for college or careers.

Barely heard of outside education circles and a mystery even within them, the "Regent fellows" are paid from entities such as the Gates Foundation and some salaries approach $200,000 a year. The arrangement is stirring concern in some quarters that deep-pocketed pedagogues are forcing their reform philosophies on an unwitting populace, and making an end run around government officers.>>>>>>>
http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Wealth-backs-reform-team-5006670.php?t=5abf8544d7