The Dangerous Politics of Ed-Tech
The Secretary of Education Linda McMahon will speak at the ASU+GSV Summit next month.
The conference makes no mention in its blurb promoting the Secretary's appearance of what happened last week: President Trump's executive order to dismantle her department. There's no mention of any of the other actions that this administration has taken since January to undermine public education: defunding federal programs, firing federal employees, suing colleges, withholding funding, undermining civil rights initiatives, slashing university research, targeting trans students and athletes, arresting and deporting foreign students and professors. No mention at all of any controversy or crisis. Just this: "Guided by our North Star of unity, the ASU+GSV Summit brings together leaders shaping the future of learning and work—because when all voices are heard, innovation thrives to improve education and access for ALL."
And that, my friends, is some bullshit.
The ASU+GSV Summit, held every year since 2010, is one of the go-to events of the year for entrepreneurs and investors, a gathering place for those seeking to reform (read: privatize) education. The only "unity" I've witnessed at the event – both in person and from afar – has been in the conformity of its attendees to a neoliberal vision for a technological future of individualized achievement.
(Several years ago, I wrote an article in The Baffler on what I observed there – one of the most stomach-churning conferences I've ever attended, and kids, I've been to events at Y Combinator.)
I guess I'm supposed put some sort of disclaimer – "hashtag not all attendees" – in that paragraph up above. But at this stage, with what we know about ed-tech's history and trajectory, I figure if you're still involved in these events, you're cool with the direction things are headed.* I mean, that's the great thing about a call for "unity," right? All aboard.
Indeed, it's quite telling that many who work in and with education technology seem awfully amped about what's going on – the cooing about the possibility of more technology now that the Department of Education is being gutted, not to mention, of course, the non-stop narratives about the inevitability, the promise of AI in schools – impossible not read as a threat alongside DOGE's plans to "unleash AI" across the public sphere. All this should underscore that education technology is an industry, a field that appears quite comfortable with its complicity in this autocratic move away from democracy and towards fascism.
"Not me!" perhaps you're spluttering. "That's not what I think." "That's not how I use technology." "That's not what my school is doing." "That's not the product we're building." But I'm not sure how long people can keep saying this when ideology, when evidence, when procurement not just points but pushes in another direction.
It's akin to Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's description of the enigma of "racism without racists": funny how we have woken up in techno-fascism without anyone being techno-fascist.
See, ASU+GSV isn't some weird outlier. It is ed-tech. And the most powerful voices in ed-tech have, for some time now, called for the end of public education, the end of teachers' unions, the end of local school boards, the end of democracy.
This isn't some recent or radical takeover of ed-tech either – folks, the fascist phone-call is coming from inside the building. It's been ringing off the hook for decades now.
