For those who missed it, Education Nation was effectively a two and a half day-long meeting of the minds for those who see privatization as the last word in fixing America's public schools. They are known as the "reform" movement.
The "reform" line of thinking goes like this: The main problem with the schools is that the teachers have no incentive to work hard, and they are protected by a union; if we remove the union, teachers can respond to individual financial incentives and great things will become possible. That, wrapped in a powerful emotional package, with clever cartoons and brilliant editing, is the message delivered succinctly to the general public in the new film, "Waiting for 'Superman' ".
It occurs to me that this is a rather convenient storyline for the recession. Just as millions are losing their homes and facing endless months of unemployment, along comes a "movement" of billionaires -- Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Mark Zuckerberg -- fighting for "justice". The rich, you see, are altruistic. They're high-minded, they don't think about themselves, just the children. Meanwhile, the teachers, so the story goes, are the greedy ones. The teachers are selfish and self-interested. Really, it's a wonder we trust them around children at all...
...Here we have a message honed to perfection... for the wealthy: the unions are the problem; the teachers need to be cheaper; give me money now for a few beautiful schools that can help break the unions and open up the education market; but don't worry, we don't want too much; we certainly don't want what your children have.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-jones/what-i-learned-at-nbcs-ed_b_748152.html