The Metamorphosis of American College of Education

Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The Metamorphosis of American College of Education (from stophehcorporateplundering.blogspot.com)
Before there were "Academic Partnerships" (HEH partnerships) within publically funded universities, Randy Best's vision focused on the American College of Education (ACE) as the first national college of education. The Dallas Morning News, in May, 2006, featured native son, Randy Best's dream for an educational empire.Since 2006 Best's plans have expanded to include the concept of academic partnerships with public universities, embedding ACE within the public higher educational system. Public institutions should be forewarned: Best's aspirations are grand:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/052906dnmetbestplans.d8b4622.html"When ACE officials met with Texas regulators last fall, they produced a document titled "The Big 'To Do' List." It outlines the company's plans to expand, including offering a full bachelor's degree program.Then comes an expansion "in all 50 states" and a broadening of ACE into other subjects, from engineering to law. The final step on "The Big 'To Do' List," the only item in bold print: "Expand everything internationally."In addition, ACE has hired two lobbyists from the Dallas law firm Locke Liddell & Sapp to work on its behalf in Washington, particularly on the Higher Education Reauthorization Act. The version of that bill passed by the House in March includes $300 million in federal grants for teacher training programs – many of which ACE could be eligible for in partnership with states and school districts." Three points should be noted: First, Best plans to expand his company's services to include 4 year bachelor degrees. Second, Best plans include expansion to international markets. Since his plans for ACE have been morphing into embedded "Academic Partnerhip" private/public partnerships, will we soon see public universities allowing HEH to commandeer their 4 year degrees and programs targeting international students? After all, that's apparently the target population for Best's profit machine.Third, note Randy Best's practice of hiring "big names" to further his cause. Does the name Arne Duncan ring any bells? Prior to his new job running the federal Department of Education, Duncan was superintendent of Chicago Public Schools and a big supporter of Randy Best and ACE. Am I the only one alarmed at the discussion of Best's lobbying efforts to capture federal grant funds to support his venture capital projects? Remember, the Dallas Morning News article was written in 2006. Since then Arnie Duncan, has been placed in a position to be of great assistance to Randy Best. Cronyism?

Randy Best Has a Plan

Sunday, April 5, 2009
Randy Best Has a Plan (from stophehcorporateplundering.blogspot.com)
Public colleges of education are under assault. For decades, under the auspices of free market economic theory, public education in the U.S. has been portrayed as a failure. Of course this portrayal has been heavily promoted by policy makers with a very public agenda to privatize public education and create another marketplace for profiteers. It was just a matter of time before higher education would be tapped as another source of revenue by private industry. What is surprising, however, is that the blatant manipulations of Randy Best have been successful in light of his very recent history of corruption with Reading First and his commercial reading program Voyager. As a matter of fact, he sold Voyager at the height of congressional investigations into charges of conflicts of interest, cronyism, and corruption and turned his attention to colleges of education. He used the profits from the sale of Voyager to launch Higher Ed Holdings and enter the wide open market of higher education.Randy Best is not an educator. He is an entrepreneur. He does things in a big way. It would be hard to overestimate the magnitude of his quest. Higher Ed Holdings represents the newly formed Whitney International University -- a network of for-profit online colleges for international students; Early College for high school students; and the American College of Education (ACE), a for-profit online college. In 2006 Best declared: "Our dream is to be truly the first national college of education."http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/052906dnmetbestplans.d8b4622.htmlRandy Best's most problematic efforts have been reflected in his infiltration of established universities, by contracting with them to provide a "delivery platform" for online programs in exchange for their NCATE accreditation. It's unbelievable that universities would fall for such an obvious ploy with the potential for wreaking havoc with faculty, students and stakeholders. University of Toledo successfully, through faculty and student action, prevented the signing of a contract with HEH. Arkansas State University's faculty members were not so successful. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/24/hehHEH represents a threat to universities and any stakeholder in public education. Randy Best has a track record of making profit; however, as he did with Voyager, he has a track record of having little regard for integrity and accountability.