In Dallas, billionaire John Arnold is supporting an initiative to turn the whole district into a “home rule district” or a “charter district.”
The organization that is collecting signatures has a typical reformer name: “Support Our Public Schools.” When today’s reformers say they want to “support our public schools,” it usually means the opposite. Buyer beware.
But what is a home rule district?
Wade Crowder, a veteran Dallas teacher, explains that the goal is to remove the elected school board and replace it with an unaccountable appointed board. As is usual with today’s corporate reforms, the prelude to a sweeping plan for deregulation is claims of failure, failure, failure.
Actually, the supporters of the home rule district have been vague about their goals.
But Julian Vasquez Heilig says that what is happening is a “hostile corporate takeover.”
If you open the link in Julian’s blog, you will see the names of the extremely wealthy people who are behind “Support Our Public Schools.”
None of them has a record for having supported public schools in the past.
They have contributed to school board races, but not to Carla Ranger, who is the most outspoken supporter of public schools on the Dallas school board.
Early indications are that voters are suspicious of the motives of the monied clan that wants to control the public schools their children attend.
Julian writes:
“Home Rule is an emerging story currently flying under the radar in the national and statewide Texas media. Millionaires and billionaire(s) are quietly funding a “Home Rule” hostile takeover attempt of all public schools in Dallas, Texas. Yes, that’s right… ALL OF THEM.”
And he adds:
Who is Support our Public Schools?
Who are the behind-the-scenes players in the Home Rule takeover proposal?
Who is John Arnold?
What are the steps to the Home Rule takeover in state code?
What “rules” will Dallas not be “free” from as a Home Rule Charter District?
What “rules” will Dallas be “free” from after a Home Rule takeover?
Is the Home Rule takeover really necessary?
Is a charter district takeover more democracy and local control or less?
Have a politically appointed school board and mayoral control been a successful approach?
Have charters outperformed traditional public schools across Texas?
How does the Texas and Dallas investment in education compared to peers?
If not Home Rule, what reforms should DISD and SOPS commit to?
Some of the questions addressed in the brief are more specific to the Dallas community. However, several have import for the state of Texas and public education nationally such as: Who is John Arnold? and… Have a politically appointed school board and mayoral control been a successful approach?
Keeping up with the billionaires and millionaires’ education privatization hobby is a lot of work. Maybe we could suggest to them that they get a regular hobby like N-scale model trains or do more snow skiing?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Aren’t there laws to protect the public against false advertising?
GOOD COMMENT. There are laws to protect the public against FALSE ADVERTISING. There is also a FED. laws, which state that PARENTS have the ultimate right re: their child(ren)’s education. But, with all the misinformation and bullying by the $$$$$ grubbers and control freaks wanting to take down public education, all stops are pulled. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY at the cost of our country. Think: Kahn. Think: MOOCS. Think: No ice-cream or popsicles for those children whose parents opted out their children from those repressive, badly written, and invalid tests. Would love to know what the ERROR MEASUREMENTS ARE as well as the RELIABILITY. Forget about VALIDITY of those tests…they are not VALID. I suggest you look at them.
How’s it going?
“Throughout the meeting, attendees blamed the divisiveness on Support Our Public Schools, which has refused to disclose much about its campaign. It has released the name of only one of its financial backers, billionaire John Arnold of Houston, who gave $150,000. Audience members also lodged accusations, including that the group’s leaders want to take away blacks’ voting rights.
“This is not what I had in mind,” said Jeronimo Valdez, a board member of the group who attended the meeting. “Maybe naively I thought people would come together and have a dialogue.”
Valdez said that several of Support Our Public Schools’ large public meetings about home rule haven’t transpired like he had expected. The group has met resistance from frustrated parents, teachers and residents.
“We wanted to start a conversation, and we have done it,” he said. “The media haven’t seen the smaller meetings where there has been dialogue about how this could be a game changer.”
Valdez said those meetings have been held in law offices and business groups and were not open to the public. He said the only productive public meeting he attended was limited to 30 to 40 people interested in discussing home rule.”
The meetings go great when they’re held in “law offices and business groups” but apparently not so great when the public is permitted to attend 🙂
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20140408-dallas-isd-home-rule-dialogue-is-mostly-verbal-combat.ece
Many have confused “Support our Public Schools” with “Save Our Public Schools” and there is a very simple reason this PR firm did not use the word “save.”
In 2007 this same firm orchestrated a deliberately confusing campaign to support the building of a six lane toll road in the floodway of the Trinity River through downtown Dallas. Their slogan was “Vote No, Save the Trinity” which then confused people all over Dallas into thinking that “No” was a vote to eliminate the toll road and preserve this last natural area for a central park in Dallas. The opposite was true.
A vote clarification campaign was started and “P’s” were made of the exact same color and pasted over the “S” in “save” so that the slogan read “Vote No, Pave the Trinity.” This clarification was very helpful, but we still lost the vote by two percentage points.
“Pave our Public Schools” may not have the exact same meaning, or does it?
What is the name of the PR firm? It wouldn’t hurt to start a grass roots public campaign against them. And, secondly, when they roll-out their deceitful practices to other states, it can be anticipated.
For more info on John Arnold.
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20140328-billionaire-john-arnold-explains-support-for-disd-home-rule.ece
I don’t fully understand the logic in eliminating an elected school board. The reasons stated in the article above holds true for practically every elected office in the US -perhaps their plan is to start with appointing school board members and continue until all public offices are appointed?
I know I am not as informed as some of these reformers, but I do my homework before all elections and I don’t want my vote taken away. ;(
I live in Dallas and this is a movement that I have been following closely.
Firstly, the reason that they want an appointed board is because our Broad Superintendent is getting pushback from a few. He actually manipulated his aid into getting on the board ( TFA, 2 years, at an easy high income school in Social Studies…weren’t TFA supposed to be for the disadvantaged?). The “democratically elected” Miguel Solis, who supports our Broad Superintendent, was bank rolled by the far right, the mayor, and our Sup. He moved to the area and lived in an apt that was paid for by financial backers, until he could run.
They want to add more like him.
Also, the teachers are leaving in droves. Sup Miles has publicly stated that “fresh” teachers with no more than 5 years experience are what he wants. After five, he states, “it is time to hit the road.”
Morath, a board member who is also behind this, works for an IT firm which does Education software. So Broad sup has two board members in his pocket: he wants more. Our CEO of Pizza Hut Mayor is only too happy to get lots of charters in Dallas: his son runs a charter chain.
It is so disgusting, the rampant lies and manipulations.
Finally, this is what I got in my inbox today. Our Home Rule meeting will be called when teachers are all working…
____________
Education-focused meeting on April 16
will help you understand Home Rule and more
Will the Home Rule initiative for the Dallas ISD benefit your children … or not? Do you believe your city leaders should be more involved in DISD matters … or less involved?
An important meeting at Dallas City Hall this week offers you the perfect opportunity to acquire details and form an opinion on these and other issues vital to the education of Dallas children.
Education Meeting Details
Morning Session
Date: Wed. April 16, 2014
Time: 9:00 am – 12 noon
Place: Room 6ES, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
This morning session will feature presentations, an open microphone for citizens to air their questions, and a short briefing by City Manager A.C. Gonzales
Afternoon Session
Date: Wed. April 16, 2014
Time: 1:30 – 4:30 pm
Place: Council Chambers (6th Floor), Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
This afternoon session will include a presentation about the Home Rule initiative from City Attorney Warren Ernst, a Destination 2020 briefing from DISD Superintendent Mike Miles, a brief speech from DISD Board Chair Eric Cowan about the challenges the Board of Trustees faces, and comments and questions from city council representatives.
“Keeping up with the billionaires and millionaires’ education privatization hobby is a lot of work. Maybe we could suggest to them that they get a regular hobby like N-scale model trains or do more snow skiing?”
They have the money to pay others to do their dirty work. Until we find a way to strip these people of their stolen bounty, the rest of us will be run ragged while we work full time and have to do most of the leg work for ourselves….. But isn’t that the point?
Thanks to Diane and a few others, at least we are now made aware of many of the brush fires before they turn into infernos.