Muppets protest, but Murdoch makes case for education reform

Though periodically interrupted by protestors dressed as Sesame Street characters, Rupert Murdoch told an otherwise supportive audience that “we need to tear down an education system designed for the 19th Century” and said Americans must approach education “the way my friend, Steve Jobs, approached every industry.”

The founder and chairman or News Corporation said the status quo is “unjust, unsustainable and un-American.”

“It’s especially galling because we have the technology to change it,” Mudoch said at the National Summit of Education Reform in San Francisco. 

It’s true, he said, that technology-infused education hasn’t always been as successful as some advocates believe.

But, he said, “Think of it this way: If we attached computers to leeches, medicine wouldn’t be any better than it was in the 19th Century.”

Likewise, he said, “you don’t get change by plugging computers into schools designed for the industrial age."

A half-dozen protestors donned Muppet masks at times throughout Murdoch’s speech. One, dressed as the purple-faced “Count,” suggested counting the number of corporations that own the majority of media outlets in America (he got to seven before being escorted out of the room by hotel security.)

Murdoch took the protestors in stride.

"It's OK, a little controversy makes everything more interesting," he said.