Corporate consortium will fund study on CA public school funding

Peter Schrag wants us to believe that a new study, which will be funded entirely from corporate foundation money, will give us the answers to what makes schools 'efficient' among other things. I'm now convinced 'efficient' is code for 'one more reason to bash public schools'.

The guy who heads up the commission responsible for the study, Ted Mitchell, is also head of New Schools Venture Fund, a group wanting to accelerate funding charter schools. Here's the mission statement. Donors are the usual suspects: Anne Casey Foundation, Broad Foundation, Walton Foundation, Gates Foundation.

Schrag says the results of this study will be 'independent' of this committee, which does not make me feel any better.

My question is why Schrag needs to be a mouthpiece but I suppose the SacBee is not generally the place to look for critical analysis.