A judge in Douglas County, Colorado, ruled that the school board had violated the state fair campaign practices law by hiring two conservative commentators to write papers praising the district’s privatization agenda.
One paper was produced by Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute and the other by conservative activist William Bennett. Hess was paid $30,000 (half from district coffers) and Bennett was paid $50,000 ( by a private foundation).
Although there was no fine, the district plans to appeal.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Every journalist, board member, whoever should pay attention to this.
Just imagine the bottomless pit of money the other side is spending to impose CCSS and undermine public schools–$50K to Bennett to write praise for one school district, $30K to Hess. Economists sometime call this “loyalty rent,” or how much does it cost for an org or enterprise or agency to make sure it’s hired hands do the job required no matter how inhumane, dishonest, unethical, repulsive, embarrassing, or just plain dangerous(like putting out oil well fires). In neoliberal times like these, with labor under attack everywhere, loyalty rent is lower, like the recent pay cut to NYC police and the modest wages to smoke jumpers who risk all parachuting into forest fires–except for the big enchiladas like Bennett and Hess whose names have so much social clout they can command the big paychecks. The world is upside down, apparently, not slightly out of whack.
ira shor: a base-clearing home run!
Understanding, of course, that you are writing about the situation here on Planet Reality. On an alternate plane of existence known as RheeWorld, Frederick Hess and William Bennett are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, “it’s all for the kids,” and the pittances they were paid, well,
“Some people are born into $tudent $ucce$$, and others have $tudent $ucce$$ thrust on them.”
Makes ₵ent¢, right?
😎
That bottomless pit of money to the edu-shills is coming from our sociopathic business class. This same PhD for hire scheme was at the nexus of the 2008 financial meltdown. It was common practice for the cannibals of Wall St to purchase academic cover for their business practices. The rot in the financial industry was propped up by academics paid to conduct research results that were friendly to the industry, followed by press releases. The documentary “Inside Job” exposed some of the most influential, Wall St friendly economists. The NYTimes revealed today that Wall St has been doing the same by justifying regulating the commodity markets. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/12/28/business/academics-who-defend-wall-st-reap-reward.html?hp=
Bennett & Hess are just the first of many to be exposed.
correction: The NYTimes revealed today that Wall St has been doing the same by justifying DEregulating the commodity markets.
Wow. How wonderful to have a court ruling that confirms what defenders of public education have been saying all along –that those who seek to privatize schools purchase glowing endorsements and think tank white papers, in order to influence the public and obtain outcomes that further their agenda, including school board elections. Too bad the person who filed the complaint did not ask for damages, so that fines could have been imposed on the miscreants.
The way the privatizers “purchase” the glowing endorsements and white papers is more deceptive than just forking over cash in an envelope thus making it more difficult to challenge the legality. But ethically, it’s just as damning.
Examples like our State Superintendent ‘s MOU with CREDO providing personal student data for a study of the phoney success of the state’s Recovery School District charter takeover. While CREDO wasn’t paid directly by the state for its bogus results, it evidently received grant money via the money laundering services of NSNO.
And a direct cash deal isn’t always the payoff as when our State Superintendent turned over personal student data to a university in Arkansas which yielded a bogus research report that purported to show that our voucher program did not negatively affect deseg orders in many Louisiana school districts. The same student data presumably that White would not turn over to the Justice Dept. who has had to file a lawsuit to get it. At least I have not found any payment for the study, done by grad students no less.
There are numerous other examples I am collecting. Because there are federal grants (taxpayer money) and other funding tied to some of these studies and reports (such as our School Performance Score data), there needs to be an investigation to expose those that are illegitimate and to hold the initiators legally responsible for whatever misappropriation of public funds are made.
“The Most Interesting School District in America?” -violated the law!
Good for the judge!
I think it would be helpful, and could be very effective, if the Network for Public Education had a legal arm that encouraged similar kinds of lawsuits across the states.
I guess editorialization is as easy as writing a check nowadays . . . . .
Elizabeth Celania-Fagen is the School Supt. in Douglas County, she was supt in TUSD, Tucson, AZ. She was into “first choice” schools and had TUSD schools competing among ourselves for students, by having schools adopt programs such as Montessori, Emilio Reggio, etc.etc. She left after two years, thankfully.
Hess appears to be a popular blog topic on December 28:
Here’s one:
And here’s another:
Be sure to read the full-text article posted by Ellen Lubic in comments. Hess co-authored an article with none other than LAUSD Super John Deasy in which they PROMOTE THE iPADS.
Here is my question.
Rick Hess is big here amongst our Dougco leaders. Our super sat on a panel of his around common core etc.
But now, with a strong Tea Party group here in Dougco, the board before elections, came out opposing common core.
In reality they just renamed the actual common core. Liz Fagen likes to state common core is common floor. In other words common core standards are not good enough for Dougco.
How do we make this crystal clear to Dougco? How do we help parents first of all realize that same standards and even if they are a little more. . . .”rigorous” (hate that word) they are still for the purpose of testing and labeling our children?
How do we reveal the boards deception when they are so good at doing just that – deceiving!!
This happened here in Portland Oregon. We had a superintendent a few years back that remodeled the district, changing the majority of poor neighborhood schools into K-8s. A fiasco that, to this day, P.P.S. still suffers under. Then she hired a reporter to write about how it is wonderful, and everybody is loving it (Sounds a little like the Common Core?). Three years into her tenure, she up and resigns, taking a job with Bill and Melinda. Shortly after her departure she was bestowed the illustrious nickname, “Hurricane Vickie.”
If you don’t have the facts, get out the checkbook, and buy some!
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina and commented:
anyone think DE isn’t doing this?
This is just the beginning of what we are facing in Douglas County. The District issued a media release full of misleading statements to try to combat the negative press on the judge’s decision and to bully the parents of Douglas County. I believe the media is FINALLY realizing that they too have been duped by these self-serving individuals. We are not backing down. This makes us stronger, more resolute and more powerful than ever before. We will not stand by and watch these people destroy public education and our children’s important school years. It is on! We must initiate this fight throughout the country.
Good for the Judge. Pay attention Douglas County residents, you are being duped and your children are the victims.
When I read this all I can think of is the term “prostitution”. Some people can be bought – if you can come up with the right amount of money.