ABSTRACT
The rejuvenated relationship between education and the military and corporate sector of the United States has recently become more pronounced despite the Enron and WorldCom debacles and the lingering concerns over national security since September 11. Just consider the growing number of Americans putting stock in the revitalized practice of regarding military and corporate institutions as hallmarks of achievement and success, embracing them as welcomed models for guiding the transformation of the nation’s public schools. Evidence of this trend can be readily identified in: (1) the renewed popularity of Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC); (2) the expansion of the Edison project, the for-profit education company now running charter schools in over twenty states; (3) the widespread and enthusiastic support for President Bush’s national initiative to recruit military personnel and businesspeople to fill administrative and teaching posts at the elementary and secondary levels; and (4) the increasing number of “nonprofit” colleges and universities following the for-profit, University of Phoenix model of marketing a nofrills education specifically for consumers on the run. From preschool-K to graduate school, those in charge are turning with greater frequency to the values, strategies, and
organizational structure of the military and corporations to rescue education and, in so doing, “leave no child (read consumer) behind.”
