An article titled, Is It Time for a U.S. Department of Talent? over at The Atlantic is basically a blueprint for how one kills education dead in this country.

The basis of the article apparently comes from the new book by the  Lumina Foundation’s CEO Jamie Merisotis.

It’s no coincidence that the Lumina Foundation is one of the big financiers of Common Core, just like it is no coincidence Mersotis’ big idea is to use education as a taxpayer-funded training pipeline for business.http://wp.me/p14vwx-3DQ

“He doesn’t want to simply merge the Education and Labor departments. (That idea has been struck down before, and rightly so, he says.) Instead, he wants to combine the Education Department with the Employment and Training Administration at the Labor Department, the “talent recruitment functions” of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service at the Homeland Security Department and the Office of Head Start in the Health and Human Services Department.

Without getting too into the weeds here, the idea is to create cradle-to-grave (or, at least, productive adulthood) talent development. It would let schools work with college, which could work with workforce-development programs. And it would let the U.S. bring in workers where the country simply cannot produce enough talent quickly enough.”

Key Quote: “The idea is to create cradle-to-grave talent development”

Newsflash: Schools already work with colleges and community colleges.

What Mersotis is inferring is making this an an official way of doing it — everywhere.

This is not the purpose of education. Education is about opening up possibilities and opportunities of which the learner then decides which to follow.

The model Mersotis is advocating is just like the business driven and dictated system we see coming into view under Common Core. It’s not about choice or education for the sake of education, it’s about funneling kids into this silo or that one depending on what Big Biz thinks they want or need next.

This model is also data driven. And that’s no coincidence either.