| Abstract |
In the spiritual home of capitalism, what role does business play in schools? Peter Curran stops off in Las Vegas and Los Angeles to find out, as he continues his road-trip across the fascinating landscape of American education. In Las Vegas, Peter visits a McDonalds McTeachers Night and follows a class of elementary school kids as they go on a business sponsored field trip to a casino. The next stop is a school run by Edison, a company operating state schools for profit, where he learns about their mixed financial and educational success. Peter then travels on to LA to meet the hugely wealthy Lowell Milken, who together with his brother Michael, the 80's junk-bond trader, are now making a name for themselves in education. They are involved in California Virtual Academies, a group of privately run, publicly funded online schools, and they ve helped set up High Tech High, a technology-rich school and one of the best equipped in the US. |
