PND (4/25/2000) -- Harvard Establishes Center on Role of Corporations in Education Reform

Harvard University has announced the establishment of the David T. Kearns Program on Business, Government, and Education. Housed at the Kennedy School's Center for Business and Government, the program is designed to offer a balanced look at the role of corporations in education and education reform.

Kearns, a former CEO of the Xerox Corporation who served as deputy secretary of education in the Bush Administration, taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he remains an adviser to Dean Jerome T. Murphy.

"With the new shifts in the economy, education has become a central concern for the nation," said Murphy. "American education is undergoing enormous changes and the business community has played a key role in shaping new directions, from the introduction of school choice to the raising of educational standards. Perhaps the most significant development has been the new consensus that business leaders like David Kearns helped to forge among groups that had historically pursued the goal of improving schools separately."

Students participating in the program will be given a sense of the opportunities and risks posed by emerging partnerships among business, government, and education, as well as an opportunity to explore the new policy questions they raise. Through continuing research, the program hopes to bring a disinterested perspective to discussions that are often muddied by self-interest and ideology.

"Harvard Launches New Program on Business, Government and Education." Harvard University Gazette 4/7/2000.

FC003332