D.C. teachers are planning a rally outside the Washington Post on Friday to protest the newspaper’s link to a for-profit college and testing enterprise. With posters and megaphones in hand, the Washington Teachers’ Union says it will tell the Post that its relationship with Kaplan Inc. — the major revenue source of the Washington Post Co. — creates a conflict of interest that has slanted the newspaper’s coverage of D.C. education reform.
Kaplan’s for-profit colleges, test preparation programs and other offerings account for 62 percent of the Post Co.’s revenue.
Union President Nathan Saunders said teachers have been concerned for years that the newspaper’s editorial board exhibits a bias toward testing consistent with the goals of Kaplan, which runs test readiness programs and tutoring. This has caused the newspaper to “dismiss” the side of the teachers, who Saunders said prefer non-test-reliant reforms.
“Not revealing the association of Kaplan with the Washington Post creates collateral damage for education reform in D.C.,” Saunders said.
Test scores account for up to 50 percent of D.C. Public Schools teachers’ evaluations, which can determine their salaries.
At the rally, teachers will shout, “We’ll stop buying until you stop lying.”
Kris Coratti, a spokeswoman for the newspaper, said, “The Washington Post is entirely separate and independent from Kaplan. We believe our coverage of D.C. Public Schools speaks for itself.”
The Education Writers Association recently named Bill Turque, who covers D.C. school news for the Post, the best beat reporter in the nation.
After a USA Today report raised suspicions of cheating on D.C. standardized exams, Post bloggers called for the government to “subpoena everyone in D.C. cheating scandal — including [former Chancellor Michelle] Rhee” and said “USA Today series forces look at cheating.”
But teachers union officials said their concerns rest with the opinion section of the paper, saying editorial authors downplayed the reports as “much ado about nothing.”
“If you look at the reason why, you know that print media is going out of style real quick. The Kaplan testing makes the Washington Post profitable,” Saunders said.
In its annual report, Post Co. said it expects Kaplan’s profits to drop “very substantially” in 2011 amid a federal probe into for-profit college practices.
