Today, as the LightSquared and Solyndra scandals heat up, the Obama White House is rolling out yet another potential technological boondoggle. It’s called “Digital Promise,” and it’s supposed to “invest” in “breakthrough technologies” for school classrooms. The White House website rolls up a statement from Education Secretary Arne Duncan about it, here. The administration’s “fact sheet” is wildly optimistic about Digital Promise’s potential to transform education via technology. Among Digital Promise’s board members are a variety of tech CEO’s whose companies stand to benefit from the government’s classroom tech choices and decisions.
Less Government’s Seton Motley released a statement on Digital Promise today:
“Government allegedly ‘investing’ in the private sector is at best using American taxpayer money to choose winners and losers – and far more often than not losers over winners. These are decisions best left to American consumers spending their own money in the free market. And it is unconstitutional – the Founding Fathers did not design the federal government to be a venture capital firm.
“Government allegedly ‘investing’ in the private sector is at worst Crony Socialism, a wide-open door to Solyndra-esque corruption and political paybacks.
“The end result of ‘Digital Promise’ is as predictable as it is pathetic. If there is any way to stop this latest inevitable and inevitably colossal Obama Administration waste, let us by all means do so.”
The best ways to transform education are to jettison politically correct distractions, get back to basics, empower parents via school choice, and keep decisions as local as possible.
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