Pearson Education Group is making big money from creating standardized tests, writes Gail Collins. She says that Pearson, the world's largest for-profit education business, has a $32 million five-year contract to produce New York standardized tests. This is small potatoes compared to the profits that it is making in other states. "Pearson has a five-year testing contract with Texas that’s costing the state taxpayers nearly half-a-billion dollars."
Pearson is just one part of the picture, albeit a part about the size of Mount Rushmore. Its lobbyists include the guy who served as the top White House liaison with Congress on drafting the No Child law. It has its own nonprofit foundation that sends state education commissioners on free trips overseas to contemplate school reform.
An American child could go to a public school run by Pearson, studying from books produced by Pearson, while his or her progress is evaluated by Pearson standardized tests. The only public participant in the show would be the taxpayer.
If all else fails, the kid could always drop out and try to get a diploma via the good old G.E.D. The General Educational Development test program used to be operated by the nonprofit American Council on Education, but last year the Council and Pearson announced that they were going into a partnership to redevelop the G.E.D. — a nationally used near-monopoly — as a profit-making enterprise.