Thread by @karamballes

🧵This wave was brought to you by the lobbyists of the GBD and Dingwall

SAGE advice is being ignored, but the GBD has gotten nearly everything they wanted

Considering ministers backgrounds it looks like lobbyists have taken over the government

https://twitter.com/NafeezAhmed/status/1413132705856851970?s=19

We're dealing with a dangerous combination of corruption and ideology which doesn't believe in accountability.

What we are dealing with looks like a particular type of corruption, State Capture

Issue with state capture is that its often not illegal because its about changing laws and regulation and the awarding of positions.

They are also using culture war as an excuse to insert ppl linked to the party into every state institution.

Does the result of every consultation, trial, tendering, recruitment seem predetermined?

Is Gov willing to break the law to further a political project?

Are there repercussions for breaking the law?

Its quite interesting to see it said that Hungry is under state capture.
The role of the media is important, Trump was also a state capture risk, however separation of powers and more non coopted media sources hindered this.
We don't have this in the UK.

UK Gov outsourced policy development to opaquely funded think tanks years ago, they benefit from the policies, they get appointed to regulators, institutions and the Lords, becoming advisers and ministers, they write the manifesto

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1199011316037500929?s=19

Goves Education reforms, academisation, appointment of regulators, regional school commissioners etc have all the hallmarks of State Capture.

When a new initiative is announced we know who will be consulted and the favoured faces who will get a slice.

https://twitter.com/BylineTimes/status/1410944889949413387?s=19

Goves reforms gave us CEOs and Executive heads from venture capitalists to hedge fund managers, Tory donors and Tory peers taking up positions of power and gaining control of billions in public money.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1193323390460997632?s=19

MATs are accountable to boards of trustees, but there is little oversight of the trustees, so in some cases we end up with leaders being accountable to family, friends, business associates, even themselves

https://twitter.com/warwickmansell/status/1409804941074395136?s=19

Ofsted can often seem to be a tool to support the political project rather than focused on supporting schools to improve students education.

https://twitter.com/warwickmansell/status/1413062680072671232?s=19

The chief ofsted inspector has of course charted the now typical career path to reach her position,
Finance➡️MAT leadership➡️regulator

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1335193493933871105?s=19

So its no suprise so few voices in education apart from the unions are speaking up to challenge government corruption or their reckless approach to covid safety kn schools.

This from former Ofsted boss Wilshaw

This is how you end up in a situation where the Children's Commissioner isn't loudly calling out Gov withholding the choice of vaccination from parents or demanding proper ventilation, instead we she praises them for dropping safety measures.

The Children's Commissioner post is designed to hold the Gov to account for the impact of its policies on children, where are her questions about @LongCovidKids?

Her former post was MAT leadership.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1276454783818387458?s=19

Another major headache in education is that we have a couple of weeks left and we can't plan properly for September because we still have no idea about next year's exams, flexibility and mitigations have been mentioned but we've seen nothing yet.

Exam uncertainty is one of the

the things that's had greatest impact on student wellbeing, lack of DfE planning is apparent, but don't expect the new Ofqual boss to hold Williamson to account

https://twitter.com/antiacademies/status/1408669824029446150?s=19

In case you don't know Lord Nash

Venture capitalist➡️Opaque think tank➡️Tory Party➡️ Donor➡️ Peerage➡️ MAT

A path well travelled

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1336008913687339013?s=19

For a decade education has been squeezed by austerity and academisation, initiatives are announced with fanfare that don't fill the gaps from successive real terms funding cuts but inevitability the contracts end up in the hands of the favoured faces that helped create the system

With Gove a central figure in this Gov, those of us who have followed the impact of his reforms arent suprised by the brazen way covid contracts have been awarded to close associates.

Including the contract to Public First that was judged to have been awarded unlawfully by the High Court.
Public First run by Rachel Wolf who was in the DfE with Gove and set up organisations including astroturfers to promote the political project

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1335175573505761280?s=19

Similarities between education and pandemic policy are plentiful
Opaque funding,think tanks, coopted experts prepared to twist evidence and encourage attacks on reputations of opposing voices with astroturf organisations amplified through supportive media

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1344943178839953409?s=19

The media have made fringe views like "hybrid immunity" mainstream while those questioning the political narrative are treated as fringe viewpoints while they face abuse and attacks on their reputation.

Coopted voices do not face the same scrutiny

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1409639156595060740?s=19

Think back to 2010
Create an enemy, The Blob, Enemies of progress etc refraining their opposition to misepresent their views, question their objectives and agendas.
Take up their energy fighting against the fake image so there isn't time to pull apart the policy.

We're seeing this with how the scientists warning against Gov Covid strategy are framed and interviewed,those questioning gov policy, particularly on schools are treated as fringe opinions, their agendas questioned while GBD don't face the same treatment

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1411931474111127553?s=19

It's why we see an increase of culture war stories in education. Its a continuation of creating division and enemies, and its incredibly successful in forcing people into having to fight against misconceptions rather than policy

Its dangerous division

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1272607966601056256?s=19

Found it fascinating on #edutwitter during the pandemic to see which accounts haven't criticised the Gov on lack of safety or mentioned ventilation at any point, a small number of combative but popular people.

Last time I said something there were the typical sub tweets

If ppl have time for mud slinging over mobile phones and uniform policy but not the Gov briefing "hybrid immunity" which will probably require millions of children to be infected when it might not even achieve herd immunity then sorry, I don't get it,

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1410319541914243075?s=19

Above thread is part 1, mainly focusing on Labour Party and campaigners, there is plenty of blame to go around, there are too many divisions and not enough focus, can't cut through the political narrative and get more ppl to understand like this.

So where next for State Capture in UK Education, deregulation led to a wild west of MATs expanding rapidly, some collapsed with funds going missing, others shifted funding from satellite schools to their showpiece school before dropping the schools which are now avoided by other

MATs, these have gained the name Orphan schools, abandoned by trusts or the remains of collapsed trusts, these schools are left struggling on their own, unable to rejoin the LA because this has been banned by DfE.
Now MATs, mainly linked to the Tory Party have been able to

established themselves as "brands in the market" we are about to enter the consolidation phase where schools will be forced into MATs.
The idea of academisation for creating variety for parental choice and freedom from central control was a lie that too many ppl bought.

As with other privatisations (and academisation was a form of privatisation transferring control of £70b into private hands) in a poorly regulated market we're going to see MAT mergers and take overs,and the Handbook change is designed to allow single academies to be swallowed up

When these academies need to select a new head they will have to involve the Regional school commissioner. Its an erosion of the board of trustees independence. DfE says it wants all schools in MATs by 2027, its a fundamental change of who holds power

https://twitter.com/SchoolsWeek/status/1408364596876959746?s=19

The lack of attention to what has been happening in education is proven by how few people know what a Regional Schools Commissioner is
When academies came out of LA control the DfE became responsible for them, realising they couldn't manage the whole of England they created RSC

I think there are 12, they oversee sponsorship of schools, they make big decisions about their futures and were also put in charge of overseeing regional decisions during pandemic.

Major regulators they lack transparency and accountability.
tes.com/news/lack-tran…

There have been many controversial decisions, RSCs can ride over the opinions of parents and communities making a mockery of the promise to empower parents.

https://twitter.com/SchoolsWeek/status/1229050347555082241?s=19

State Capture is partially about revolving doors, RSC have little accountability lots of power and they seem to keep coming from MATs or getting appointed to MATs.

Serious conflicts of interest.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1193313323330277377?s=19

Lots of revolving doors, see what I mean when I say it now resembles banking
schoolsweek.co.uk/former-regiona…

And whats the easiest way for a school to be forced into a take over?

A bad report from Ofsted, the other regulator, run by a former MAT boss from finance sector

Would they fail schools on minor things to force the issue?

https://twitter.com/alicewoolley1/status/1224756447294246923?s=19

Would they provide preferential treatment like prior warning as the RSCs are accused of to the Govs favourites?

They wouldn't try and help out someone close to Gov who they might end up appointing as Childrens commissioner, would they?

https://twitter.com/warwickmansell/status/1336727459480227843?s=19

Regulators focused on advancing the political project of giving control to lobbyists rather than raising standards does sound a bit State Capture doesn't it?

What about NSN set up by Wolf of Public First calling for financial incentives and profit making?

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1190625376751570944?s=19

One of the suggestions looks a lot like very expensive PFI, and who do they recommend should be in charge of this?

Regional School Commisioners!

What could possibly go wrong?

Other initiatives and changes that are underway involve the training of teachers.

We had teaching hubs set up, with many questioning the decision process. Hubs are particularly popular, we get Maths Hubs, Behaviour Hubs etc

schoolsweek.co.uk/tsc-head-defen…

Rather than provide schools with the funding they need, they plough money into initiatives, and these in the main have a tendency to end up going to the usual favourite faces.

Also means they end up creating the standards and policies which others will be expected to adopt

Sharing good practice is great, but consistency and inevitability of these initiatives..

Now they have announced a massive overhaul of teacher training in the middle of a pandemic, and the University sector is passed off, with threats to not engage in the proposed schemes