RE:FORM SCHOOL in NYC is a call to action in education reform on the part of a community of artists organized around the title REDU (Rethink, Reform, Rebuild Education).  Whether the project will generate any significant change in education policy, I doubt, but the marketing of the project is beautifully realized and the intention, noble. 

There is a predictable appeal on the part of organizations like REDU,  for government to enact the positive, social changes their programs seek.  In fact, the primary objective of many like projects is to raise public awareness of a cause to a tipping point, wherein enough calls or emails to our elected officials may alter public policy.  This approach doesn’t seem to work very well. This approach has delivered us to our current place.  Even after electing a president, who is perhaps the greatest agent for change our generation(s) has ever seen, this past year saw more money spent by lobbyists than ever before in our Nation’s history.  So why should social organizations continue to appeal to our government (federal and local)?  The system’s incentive structure is flawed. Why not use the principles of micro-finance to change the system independently? Why not entertain some of Milton Friedman’s ideas about privatizing education? Why not figure out how to make a lot of money in socially responsible school privatization, so that we might have the equal attention of lobbyists? I’m not saying that I know how to do this, but I wonder if the biggest mistake we (educated, socially liberal people) make is assuming that the way the other guys play the game is wrong or beneath us. Just a thought.  Redu and RE:FORM SCHOOL is a great idea and the video is visually appealing; I just wonder if there’s an approach to reform that’s not even being permitted at the lunch table.  

JNOMICS