On October 10, I posted a column about John Arnold, a billionaire who supports charter schools, TFA, and similar projects. I noted that he was giving $10 million to keep Headstart centers open during the government shutdown. In that column, I quoted investigative journalist David Sirota, who said that Arnold was trying to buy good will to divert attention from his efforts to cut the pensions of retirees (aka, pension reform).
A lawyer contacted me on behalf of Mr. Arnold and asked me to correct factual inaccuracies in that post. Arnold did not leave Enron with $3 billion. He left before the firm collapsed with $8 million, which a judge later reduced to $4 million. According to his lawyer, he made $3 billion as a hedge fund investor after he left Enron.
So, I apologize for saying that Arnold left Enron with $3 billion and that he “fleeced” Enron investors. He did not.
We disagree about education reform and pension reform.
I always strive for accuracy and am quite willing to correct any errors I have made.
I am delighted to learn that John Arnold reads my blog and hope that he will continue to do so.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane, thanks for the correction.
Arnold’s exit from Enron prior to collapse and “only” with $4 million still has me saying, “Hmmm….”
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Who said you can’t take it with you when you go? Look’s like Arnold has $4 million that says otherwise to that old axiom…
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That’s wonderful that he earned 3 billion in hedge funds. Wish he understood that his prosperity has no bearings on his qualifications to mess with the public education system. To paraphrase
Victor Hugo, his prosperity does not suppose capacity in any area other than hedge funds.
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Wonderful response!
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Mr. Arnold, how about using your wealth to endow a struggling school with a state of the art library and technology resource center, a parenting center, a health and social services clinic, a day care center, science labs, a theater, music facility and art gallery? Provide funds for class trips! Create a community garden at the school and give classes on healthy nutrition and eating habits! Reinvest in industrial arts and vocational training! Then sit back and watch these kids thrive. Twelve years of corporate education reform have failed. Put your money to better use.
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Jacman, there is no money to be made by authentically helping other people. What kind of investment would that be? There is money to be made, however, by creating chaotic churn and public education is such an “easy in”.
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So, Arnold did not make his billions at Enron.
However, the company was a criminal enterprise that stole billions from consumers – by manipulating electricity rates in California, for example – and a court forced Arnold to return half of the millions he left with before its collapse.
Do he and his lawyer really expect us to be convinced of his good faith regarding so-called pension and education reform (which in fact are other forms of theft)?
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“Do he and his lawyer really expect us to be convinced of his good faith regarding so-called pension and education reform (which in fact are other forms of theft)?”
Perhaps he and his lawyer really wanted us to understand how powerful they are? You know, a staff trolling the internet and other media looking for mentions of him , lawyers on retainer to contact anyone who posts, writes, says,anything with which he takes issue. Pretty powerful.
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Word yourself! Excellent observation!
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The purveyors of CC and high-stakes standardized testing and privatization of public education: word salad because winning $tudent $ucce$$ isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
Common coin of the realm on RheeWorld.
The owner of this blog: holds herself to the same high standards she holds other to because she would “Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.” [Sophocles]
Modeling the behavior you request of others: one of the most valued—if often scarce—items on Planet Reality.
“Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” [Mark Twain]
Color me gratified and astonished.
😎
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I don’t think we should make 4 year olds depend on the charitable impulses of billionaires.
Head Start is a public program and it should be funded out of public dollars, and administered by elected officials.
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The head start program does give public funds to private organizations, a practice often criticized by posters here.
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I honestly disagree with this approach to funding public programs. I think it’s fraught with problems and all kinds of conflicts.
Carnegie built libraries. He didn’t choose the books.
The fact of the matter is, they’re buying enormous influence with these gifts. I don’t even blame them. It’s just a fact. They have a much, much larger voice in public policy than an ordinary person.
I want to look a gift horse in the mouth. I think real caution and prudence is called for here. I’m not seeing that prudence and caution, not from the donors, not from the people who accept the gifts on behalf of others, and not from politicians. There is risk here. Ordinary people stand to lose control and influence regarding public entities and programs.
I think we’ll pay for these gifts.
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Do you ALWAYS get it backwards, TE? It seems that way. And you’ve certainly gotten it exactly backwards here.
We’re not criticizing—at least not right at this moment—where the Head Start money gets SPENT; we’re questioning WHERE IT CAME FROM—and the agenda of the folks who are spreading it around.
Like the neighborhood smack dealer…the first one is always “free”.
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I forgot about that post Diane, thank the lawyer for reminding me,
There is something almost hilarious about a lawyer contacting you to make sure you clarify that his client left Enron with “only” 4 million dollars. Was 4 million was a typical take for an Enron employee? How many Enron employees lost their entire pensions?
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Exactly 4 million is an unfathomable number to a teacher and single mother. Heck, 4 HUNDRED would make me feel like I’d won the lottery!
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Word.
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“How many Enron employees lost their entire pensions?”
Most of them: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/energy/2002-02-06-enron-pensions.htm
Unfathomable hubris that John Arnold, who left Enron with “only” $4 million while most Enron 401ks and pensions evaporated, is now on a crusade to weaken pension protections for working Americans.
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Poor guy, only FOUR MILLION $$$$$. How will he survive on that paltry sum? In the meantime, those greedy teachers with their gold-plated pensions, how dare they. (sarcasm alert)
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I feel really sorry for John Arnold too. Poor guy.
First, he has to leave Enron with a mere $4 million as the final payment for the fine services he performed while he was there; all of which, I’m certain, were in the public interest.
And, then the poor guy manages to scrape together another $3 BILLION and instead of people being happy for his success and recognizing the very hard work he must have done, 24/7 to acquire all of that money, we publicly humiliate him by assuming incorrectly that he got the $3 BILLION from Enron, instead of acknowledging what is undoubtedly true for EVERY hedge fund guy: He EARNED it; every cent of it, by the sweat of his brow. My God, think of the overtime the man must have put in!
I’m so glad that saintly figures like this John Arnold guy exist. Without his gambling—eh, I mean “Extreme Discipline, Diligence and Adherence To A Strong Work Ethic!”—we would have never known about his absolutely deserved success and monetary rewards.
God bless The Enron Veterans and The Hedge Funders. I shudder to think where America, and the world, would be without them!
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Imagine how grateful Grandma Millie must have felt the day she learned John Arnold was running a hedge fund!
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Note that Mr. Arnold’s lawyer had not a thing to say about the larger issue here: Mr. Arnold’s extraordinary efforts to undermine the pensions of teachers and other public employees. I documented them here: http://edushyster.com/?p=2874 Does it matter whether Mr. Arnold is funding these efforts with the $8 million he took home from Enron or the $3.5 billion that he was reported to be worth when he retired from natural gas derivatives trading at the age of 38? Diane erred in saying that Mr. Arnold fleeced investors; he’s real aim is to fleece retirees.
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Also, can we dump the word “reform”?
Between “reforming” pensions and “reforming” entitlements and “reforming” education I’m starting to think “reform” actually means “cut and then privatize”.
Time to retire this word. It’s lost all meaning.
What, exactly, does Mr. Arnold plan to do with public pensions? I’m sure it’s complicated, but I’ll skip the marketing term “reform” which means nothing and he can explain it.
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It was not only the Enron employees who lost their pensions. Many retirement oversight organizations had invested public employee funds in Enron. Mine was one…and within weeks of the Ken Lay act of contrition, this huge chunk of our savings was gone.
And then we in California had to face the traders cackling about how many California grandmas they had fleeced…as the other Arnie from Austria got the ball rolling to impeach our Gov. Gray Davis…and thereafter the shock of having this Terminator as our leading, lying, incompetent in Sacramento.
That was the gift/shock that kept on giving…to this day. Finally we are almost back to balancing our State budget…but much of it on the backs of fired teachers, suffering students, and greatly diminished public education..
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Reminder to friends here…my pseudonym is from my collie who lent it to me…but I am really Ellen Lubic.
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Well since he “only” made 4 Billion off the Enron heist, I suppose we all owe their right-wing foundation an apology. After all hedge fund managers make their money the old fashioned way—they exploit it.
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