David Welch is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who is spending millions of dollars in legal fees to try to strip teachers of any due process rights or job security.
Who is he and who are his allies?
This investigative report provides some answers, though no one can truly explain the animus towards teachers that blames them for poverty, inequitable funding, large classes, poor leadership, racism, incompetent administrators, and myriad factors beyond their control. Even the most expert, dedicated teachers will lose if Welch wins.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sometimes I wonder if people like David Welch had a bad experience with a teacher as a child. The animus runs so deep, and is so illogical, maybe he’s carrying a grudge because his 2nd grade teacher embarrassed him for not knowing how to spell Mississippi, or some such.
It’s just plain greed-Nothing more. He has no shame.
I urge you and your readers to watch the first 20 minutes of this and download the article. http://billmoyers.com/episode/the-deep-state-hiding-in-plain-sight/
While it doesn’t address “reform” head on, it shows that “reform” is a piece of a bigger puzzle…
Thanks for that link. Great Bill Moyers show. They describe the groupthink which runs throughout the corporate and monied interests, where protecting the corporate and political power structure seems to be the primary theme.
The animus against teachers is easily explicable: they, and particularly their unions, are the biggest institutional obstacle to taking over and privatizing the schools.
Neutralize (largely done, thanks to Randi Weingarten) and then bust their unions, turn teaching into temporary, at-will employment, and the greenfield opportunities for edu-profiteers are limitless.
Co-opt, not neutralize. That’s what the deformers have done to the teachers’ unions.
It’s really sickening and sad. The two institutions that should be leading the fight against the deform of K-12 education are led by collaborators.
The teachers’ unions in the United States do not deserve the name of unions. They are mere instruments of the oligarchs and of the state. They have ceded real tenure. They have ceded the right to strike. They have ceded the right of local communities of teachers to make their own decisions about standard, curricula, and pedagogy.
The teachers’ unions are a disgrace. It’s time for teachers to take them back or to start alternatives.
And it’s time for real union action in “right to work” states. Go ahead. Strike. They can’t arrest or fire you all.
Also, haven’t the teachers themselves given up? Everyone seems to be worried about their own job or retirement. Do you think the more modern generation of Americans are too self-centered? I wonder if it is a generational change?
I think that is a great idea. How do you start an alternative union?