corporate and think-tank researcher

Education

Follow the Money, Part 1 — The Weston Family

27 Mar '14

You’ve seen him in television ads hyping President’s Choice dessert ideas, naming fake supermarkets after enthusiastic customers, sitting down with moms around the kitchen table and talking to President’s Choice farmers on their hormone-free farms. He’s Galen Weston Jr., executive chairman of Loblaw Companies Ltd. And while he, or his media handlers, hone the image …

Debunking the Fraser Institute’s Latest Crusade: Teacher Merit Pay

24 Jun '11

Most studies show scant link between student achievement and financial rewards for instructors. Fresh from the triumph of successfully promoting its fallacious school report card, this time in Alberta, the Fraser Institute is already scheming to peg teacher pay to student test scores and create a market for teachers. We should remember that the institute’s …

Eight Distortions and Other Problems in the Fraser Institute’s Report Card

08 Feb '11

The Fraser Institute says its report card is based on the Foundation Skills Assessment tests written by children in Grades 4 and 7 across the province. But is it really? 1. The actual FSA results account for less than half of a school’s ranking. The rest is based on the institute’s manipulations of the numbers. …

Reframing Public Education: Countering School Rankings and Debunking the Neoliberal Agenda

31 Jul '10

1. Introduction and study overview West Vancouver real estate agent Brock Smeaton thinks highly of the Fraser Institute‘s report card. “Independent assessments of educational institutions such as the Fraser Institute‘s annual ranking of BC schools consistently place West Vancouver schools in the upper echelons,” he wrote on his web site touting West Vancouver homes. Parent …

War On Public Schools Rages

29 Apr '10

Supporters of public education need to realize they’re in the middle of a war for its future, and they’re losing. The Fraser Institute’s school report-card program is merely the opening salvo in a campaign to strip public education of its funding and direct the resources to the private and nonprofit sectors. Every year the institute …

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Harperism: How Stephen Harper and his think tank colleagues have transformed Canada

harperism cover

Margaret Thatcher transformed British political life forever. So did Ronald Reagan in the United States. Now Canada has experienced a similar, dramatic shift to a new kind of politics, which author Donald Gutstein terms Harperism. Among its key tenets:

A weakened labour movement – and preferably the disappearance of unions – will contribute to Canada’s economic prosperity
Cutting back government scientific research and data collection will improve public policy-making

The success of Harperism is no accident. Donald Gutstein documents the links between the politicians, think tanks, journalists, academics, and researchers who nurture and promote each other’s neo-liberal ideas.

Donald Gutstein