In her appearance on the Steven Colbert show, anti-union activist Campbell Brown refused to identify the names of her donors. One of her organizations is called, ironically, the Parents Transparency Project.
Veteran journalist David Sirota writes:
“As Brown keeps the identity of her financial backers under wraps, her organization describes itself as a group “whose mission is to bring transparency” to education policymaking.
“Politico has reported that under current law, Department of Labor rules require unions to “disclose more than many political groups about their internal operations,” funding and expenditures. By contrast, many political groups seeking to limit teachers unions’ workplace rights and replace traditional public schools with privately run, union-free charter schools have been able to keep the identity of their benefactors shrouded in secrecy, though periodic leaks have shed at least some light on the funders.”
“For example, the most prominent opponent of the teachers union, Students First, has rejected requests for a list of its donors. Yet thanks to a Pennsylvania lobbying disclosure law, the Huffington Post in 2012 was able to report that “New Jersey hedge funder and Romney backer David Tepper and the Texas-based Laura and John Arnold Foundation [are] among the largest donors” to the organization. Additionally, the board of Students First includes hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, News Corp. education-technology executive Joel Klein, and Dan Senor, Brown’s husband, who previously served as the Bush-appointed spokesperson for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
Likewise, in New Jersey, WNYC reported that a group called the Committee For Our Children’s Future spent millions on ads promoting Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s education agenda, while the funders of the ads remained anonymous. WNYC later reported that television station filings revealed that the group used the “same ad buyers Christie used for his 2009 campaign for governor,” and that the contact address for the group could “be traced back to Kevin F. Feeley, a Christie donor whose son has worked for Christie as an intern.” The radio station also reported that the documents linked the ads to a Republican consulting firm that had done work for former GOP presidential nominee John McCain. Christie has pushed for more privately run charter schools in New Jersey.”
Who are these shadowy groups who hide their names as they seek to eliminate academic freedom for teachers? Why do they never explain why teachers in our highest performing schools are as likely (or more likely) to have due process rights as teachers in low-performing schools? In an era when media pundits and celebrities claim to be experts about how to reform schools while teachers’ voices are silenced, you can bet we are headed in the wrong direction.
I still think the funding issue is just going to tell us what we already know. . .groups with lots and lots of money who are anti-union are trying the same tricks all around the country.
I think it’s better to put energy into fighting it than it is to keep harping on the funding thing. It is stalling the fight, I think. Just let the fact that nobody knows be a factor in the equation, but not THE factor in the equation.
It is perfectly acceptable for a donor to a symphony to be anonymous. Or a donor for a school for new lights and sound. Who decides when anonymity is sinister? The subject of the fight is more important.
If you’ve got nothing to hide, you hide nothing.
Ms. Brown claims that both she and her anonymous funders should be immune from suspicion, criticism, or concern, as to
— what their true motives and intentions are;
— what their past actions towards unions are;
— how they may benefit financially should Ms. Brown achieve their goals, etc.
CAMPBELL BROWN: “Oh, hey, American people… you don’t need to know the individuals and groups funding our efforts to ‘reform’ education… Just trust on this—they’re all really super, wonderful noble, well-intentioned folks and organizations who really care about the educations of poor and middle class children. Again, just trust us. They’re donating millions to our gropu with no ulterior motive at all, and won’t stand to benefit from any of our reform efforts. That’s all you need to know, and that’s all we’re going to tell you. You don’t really need to know any of their actual names. Really… you don’t.”
That’s patently absurd.
Might they open a Charter and call it “ISIS in New York?” Isn’t this kind of “investment” a subversion of our rights to see where our taxes go??
You are close, Joe…Bloomberg did open an all Islamic school in NYC with all Islamic personnel, on the taxpayers money. So much for separation of church and state. And equally egregious, he permitted an all Chasidic school. ISIS could indeed be next.
Look at the Gulen Charter Schools mainly taught by, and all run by, Middle Eastern men living here on green cards. We should be spending our writing catharsis time contacting all the media around the US and giving them the easily accessible facts that they are NOT reporting.
We have been totally Balkinized by these billionaires and their legislative puppets.
And I agree with Joanna, that we spend too much time and energy telling each other the problem instead of being in the streets trying to stop the Rheeformers.
What’s the all-Islamic school that Bloomberg opened in NYC?
And what’s the all-Hasidic school that Bloomberg permitted?
Gee Flerp…at it again. If you don’t know how to use google and/or bing and other search engines, you really should learn. This info is easily accessible online. You really should not ask others to do homework for you.
I see this site as full of teachable moments and I have learned a great deal from folks like Bob Sheperd, Arthur Camins, Robert Skeels Krazy TA, Chiara, Joanna, etc…..but some here want it all spelled out so as not to have to even do a fact check. Tsk, tsk.
I saddens me when educated people, even some teachers, forget so quickly what was major news only a few years ago. Even 60 Minutes reported on these religious affiliated public schools. And I did not even mention the many parochial Catholic schools who charterize on the public dole, yet still teach catechism.
The Chasidic school is in Brooklyn so maybe Diane Ravitch can comment on this since she lived there for many years.
Apologies, I had assumed that you might know and wouldn’t refuse to answer if asked.
I couldn’t disagree more Joanna. Your comparison is ridiculous! What billionaire would every try to hide the fact that they are donating to a school or an orchestra. Trying to end due process in the teaching profession is sinister and making the public aware that the group “Parents for Transparency” is in reality a small group of billionaires shows that the whole thing is a sham. Why else would Campbell Brown try to hide her backers and when would the teacher’s union ever try to hide the causes that they support?
Arts…teachers are wearing blinders and are only worrying about tenure when that is tangential to the greater assault.
We the People are rapidly losing all our freedoms with the Newest World Order, ALEC, in charge of every avenue of our lives, from birth control to Citizens United and McCutcheon, to Vergara and Harris v. Quinn, to the monopolies like Verizon stealing our personal info and turning it over to the CIA…(and then being let off the hook without even a wrist slap, and encouraged to this decision by Dem Obama and by Repubs, equals, one and the same), by SCOTUS which has a majority of reactionary judges who are determined to make us a permanent oligarchy ruled by Wall Street.
If you are religious pray for Ruth Bader-Ginsburg to stay healthy. And pray for Elizabeth Warren to run against the devious Hillary Clinton. I say these thoughts to Oden every day.
John Arnold’s name pops up again..he is not only one millionaire corporate reformer who wants to get rid of public pensions by donating 100,000 last year to RI Treasurer who wants to be governor in November, Gina Fraudmondo’s campaign but now the privatization and Jeb Bush backer of the Republican playbook of education feels it’s ok to back another secret organization with no transparency just like the coward was a member of engage RI the coward group that he and Ann Nolan from Crossroads were afraid as cowards are, to identify their fellow rich corporate member donors of engage ri—
Favorite line…..”One of her organizations is called, ironically, the Parents TRANSPARENCY Project. “
A clear example of Newspeak and Doublethink. Perhaps that is why 1984 is being dropped as required reading in favor of technical documents,
Let me rename her organization:
“The Privatizer’s In-Transfer Piracy Project”
And CB stands for what? Canny Barbie!?
I think we should just proceed, prima facie, that Paul Singer et al. Are the patrons of her vendetta against unions, until she states otherwise.
I’m reposting this here because I think it’s the best explanation for the renewed vigor of the attack on tenure. The deformers other key policy initiative is slowly going down in flames.
One thing worthy of note is that since the American Statitical Association came out against VAM, the latest and most damning in a long series of empirical arguments against it, it is now officially a zombie policy, totally dead but obviously still walking on the legs of its masters funding and influence. The level and type of evidence that exists on the fatal flaws of VAM make the success of wrongful termination lawsuits all but assured in the absence of corruptable judges. This to me is the primary reason that the attack on tenure has been resurrected, it is the only operable weapon left to be brought to bear against the teaching profession and teachers unions. The fact that the opening front in this assault is the court of public opinion is telling. When the botched Vergara decision is overturned which is what I suspect it’s proponents expect to happen, their only way forward is through legislation driven by the rancor of a deceived public. This is why the deformers are rapidly pushing ahead with lawsuits in NY and elsewhere, they want to beat the reversal of Vergara taking hold in the public eye. We already know that the deformers have great access to the political class and can offer them the bribes of campaign contributions. Some public support is also needed for this to have legs.
The initial response to Whoopi being tricked into jumping on the band wagon was inappropriate, so we need to politely reach out to her and to any other celebrities that deformers manage to co-opt. Having celebrity “champions” speaking the truth to power on our behalf would be a great thing to get done, especially if we can explain just how badly they have been played to one or more who were against tenure in the beginning. As we have seen, our strongest supporters are those who first bought into the lies and then were outraged at how they were fooled into acting against their own best interests. These are our ways forward.
Long story short, the “fire at will” resulting from the loss of tenure is the replacement for the constant churn of firings due to VAM. Deformers still insist on only blaming the teachers. They ignore the harm to students of teacher churn because cutting salary costs are the only thing they care about.