10
By Michael Chamness
IASA Director of Communications
Suhail Farooqui watches and listens in
amazement as reformers and the media tear down
public education in America. Growing up in Mumbai,
India, Farooqui viewed the United States as an
educational destination.
“I came here because America continues to be a
beacon for education and opportunity. I was inspired
by engineering and I wanted to be a space shuttle
astronaut. When I read NASA’s fine print, it said you
had to be an American citizen,” said Farooqui, who
earned his undergraduate degree in Electrical
Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
and attended the graduate program in Electrical
Engineering at Yale University.
He also became a naturalized citizen of the
United States and has become one of the staunchest
defenders of one of our nation’s cornerstones, public
education. The founder and CEO of K12 Insight,
Farooqui will be the headline speaker at the general
session of the IASA Annual Conference Thursday
afternoon, October 9. Fittingly, the title of his
presentation is “If We Don’t Stand Up for Public
Schools, Who Will?”
“What I have learned about America is when
something that’s important to you is at risk, the
American way is to fight for it,” said Farooqui,
acknowledging that the odds are stacked in the
current environment of public schools being starved
financially and battered by the media and reform
groups.
“School superintendents have to fight the big
dollars from some of the reformers. They may be well
-meaning and think they are contributing to
educational improvement, but what they are doing
could dismantle public education. There is a rush to
build more charter schools, but this is not about
Farooqui issues call to defend
public education, rouse silent majority
