Nervous Pearson (Mis)Education Responds to Protests

Pearson (Mis)Education faces an assault on its operations from major British and American labor union pension funds. They plan to challenge company management at its general stockholders meeting on April 29, 2016 in London. The opposition group holds 40,000 voting shares and includes UNISON, one of Britain's largest trade unions with 1.3 million public service industry members, the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund, Trade Union Fund Managers, and 130 individual shareholders. The coalition will enter a resolution at the stockholders meeting calling on Pearson to "end its over-reliance on the education testing programme in the US, which has been affected by a recent change in the law and is also becoming increasingly unpopular."

The move has apparently unnerved higher echelons in Pearson (Mis)Education. They felt compelled to respond on the company website, promising to give the resolution "due consideration." Of course, before any "due consideration," Pearson dismissed the claims. Management argues the benevolence of their actions, that "Pearson has an important role to play in assisting public, private and other partners in improving outcomes." It also promises to continually review its business strategy so they can provide "better educational products and services around the world."

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