In an earlier post, I referred to ConnCan, the organization that was the inspiration for 50CAN and lots of state CANS. I said it was founded by hedge fund managers. Leonie Haimson then wrote in and corrected me, saying it was founded by Jonathan Sackler. Now comes Jonathan Pelto of Connecticut to set us both straight. He says we are both right. Here is the story of the origin of ConnCAN:
Jonathan Pelto writes:
Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, Inc. (ConnCAN) was formed in 2004 by Jonathan Sackler, who served as the founding chair. However, the role of ConnCAN’s Board Chairman was then transferred to Brian Olson, the co-founder of Viking Global Investors. Viking Global Investors is a hedge fund which currently manages over $10 billion. In addition to being a long-time member of ConnCAN, Olsen presently serves on the Leadership Council of the Newschools Venture Fund.
Following Olson’s tenure as the Chairman of ConnCAN, the position was given to Will Heins, the former Senior Vice President of Greenwich Capital Markets.
Of the twelve present members of ConnCAN’s Board of Directors, at least nine are or were “hedge fund managers,” including Art Reimers, a former partner and managing director of Goldman Sachs.
Three months after Sackler and his allies formed ConnCAN, they also incorporated Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Advocacy, Inc. (ConnAD), which was originally designed to be the lobbying and public relations arm of ConnCAN. The number two spot at ConnAD went to Alexander Troy, who lists his occupation as “private investor.” Troy worked for the hedge fund, Perry Partners during the 1990s and eventually created his own hedge fund company called Troy Capital in 2003.
The primary players behind ConnCAN and ConnAD were also the individuals who financed the creation of Achievement First Inc. in 2003. Achievement First Inc. is the charter school management chain with schools in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Achievement First Inc. was founded by Stefan Pryor and Dacia Toll. Pryor now serves as Commissioner of Education under Connecticut’s Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy and Dacia Toll is Achievement First’s CEO. Achievement First, Inc. collects significantly more public funds from Connecticut taxpayers than any other charter school or charter management company.
Achievement First’s incorporation papers were signed by Greenwich businessman William Berkley (who remains the Chairman of its Board of Directors) and Jonathan Sackler. Achievement First’s initial Board of Directors also included Alexander Troy.
Today, ConnCAN’s Board Chair, Will Heins serves on the Board of Achievement First’s Elm City College Preparatory School, ConnCAN Board member Andy Boas serves as the Board Chair of Achievement First’s Bridgeport Academy and Alexander Troy serves on the Board of Achievement First’s Amistad Academy.
ConnCAN, ConnAD and a successor group called A Better Connecticut were the leading funders in the record breaking $6 million lobbying and PR campaign to support Governor Malloy’s “education reform” initiative in 2012.
Sackler also is the individual who formed 50CAN and ConnCAN’s Chief Operating Office, Marc Porter Magee, became 50CAN’s President. 50CAN’s Board now includes Sackler, Dacia Toll (Achievement First) and Richard Barth (Kipp Charter Schools and spouse of Wendy Kopp), as well as others.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for sharing this post
ConnCANs former head, Alex Johnston, has been on the mayoralty appointed New Haven Board of Education for a number of years. He now heads the “Policy Innovators in Education” assisting philanthropists in their quest to change education. Plenty of charter schools and TFA have arrived in New Haven while he has been on the board.
Why not just call themselves a charter school advocacy organization? That’s what I don’t get.
Nearly the entire board is composed of charter school promoters and advocates. Why always present this as about “public education” as if that includes all public schools?
If there’s a complete absence of advocacy on behalf of ALL public schools, can I reasonably conclude they’re a charter school advocacy organization, despite the broad language that is always, always “public education”? I think so.
There’s nothing wrong with acting exclusively as advocates for charter schools. I think it’s a big problem if you’re hired to RUN a public school system (as some are, obviously, which is a problem for me) but it’s not a problem if you’re an advocacy org. Why not just come out and say it?
http://www.50can.org/who-we-are/board
Chiara,
Honest would not serve the Hedge Fund fake education reformers agenda, because they know that across the nation local schools are highly rated by the parents of the children who attend those public schools. The decades the fake education reformers have been bashing the public schools hasn’t eroded that number but it has created a false impression among parents that there are serious problems in the public schools but just not in the schools their chileren attend.
To understand why the truth is not what these hedge fund billionares want out there you may want to see this PDK/Gallup 2013 Poll of the public’s attitudes toward the public schools:
62% had never heard of Common Core
Only 22% thought increased testing helped school performance
58% rejected using student test scores to evaluate teachers
72% had trust and confidence in the men and women who were teaching their children in the public schools
66% feared for the safety of their children playing outside in their own neighborhood but 88% felt their children were safe at school
In addition, it’s obvious that the public’s perception that “Charter” schools are somehow better than the public schools is obvious and I’m sure that is due to the huge amount of cherry picked and misleading PR being pumped out by the fake education reformers.
Click to access 2013_PDKGallup.pdf
Diane , Do you know anything about 2revolutions. they came to visit my school with a new program for improving schools. Rodel of course. I asked them many questions and made them nervous ! Like where do you get the only, who supporting you. union friendly. My district is not happy with me. I don,t care the young teachers were glad I spoke up.Please post if you have information,.
Thank you.
Achievement First would like to correct a few aspects of Mr. Pelto’s description. Amistad Academy, which led to the creation of Achievement First, was founded by a broad group of community members from the public, social and private sectors, and not just Pryor and Toll. Achievement First is a public, non-profit 501(c)3 organization that is funded on a per-student basis, just like all other public schools, charter or otherwise. Although we run 10 public charter schools in Connecticut and teach the largest number of charter school students in the state, we receive less per-student funding than our traditional district counterparts. Finally, the list of board members you’ve included is accurate with the exception of Alexander Troy, who no longer serves on any of our boards. The board members you list are all wonderful people who have been generous with their time and support over the years in providing access to a great education for all of Connecticut’s children.