As someone who has responded many times to Democratic Party fund-raising appeals on the Internet, I now get daily requests to give more. For the past few weeks, I have been responding that I will not give another penny until President Obama renounces Race to the Top and replaces Arne Duncan with someone who supports public schools. I thought I was the only one doing that, but then I got this letter from John Ogozalek, who teaches in upstate New York.
He wrote, in response to a similar appeal:
” Hancock, New York 13783
August 18, 2014
“Dear People Sitting in Fancy Offices In Charge of the Democratic Party,
“Why, why on Earth would I send a donation to politicians who seem intent on harming my family and our kids’ school?
“What a HUGE error the Democratic Party brass has made attacking public schools and teachers. What a bunch of dummies kissing off the support of millions of MIDDLE CLASS voters. (Does the corporate cash mean that much to you??)
“Tell Barack Obama and Arne Duncan that they have FAILED the Democratic Party….they’ve FAILED our children.
“Race to the Top? Farce to the Top!
“Governor Andrew Cuomo is a sellout, too. I’ve voting for Zephyr Teachout September 9 in the New York State Democratic Primary and will strongly encourage every Democratic I know to do the same
“When Democratic leaders are ready to stop sucking up to big corporate money….when Democratic leaders are ready to stand up for families and their schools…..let me know.
“And, no, I will not use my own first-class stamp on your pre-addressed, money grovelling campaign contribution envelope to “help us save much-needed funds”. How many times do I need to tell you that?
John Ogozalek”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’ve been doing this ever since RTtT passed. It stopped the appeals for the last 2 election cycled but I’m getting them again for the upcoming election and I’m writing the same kind of response: until the Democratic Party stops bashing teachers and public schools and kissing up to corporate reformists I am giving my money, time, and vote to Green Party candidates. No more supporting my own destruction!
The Democrats managed to knock the Green Party candidate for governor off the ballot in Illinois. (The Republicans didn’t succeed with the Libertarians.) We are left with a faux Democrat and a Republican plutocrat who wants to be known for his philanthropy while he hides money offshore to avoid taxes. He suggested (and quickly qualified) we lower the minimum wage to the federal minimum to encourage business development. I don’t know what minimum wage earners are supposed to live on now. Air?
I’ve been doing the same. A recent “poll” from them asked for my top issue–and I said the removal of Arne Duncan.
Oh my god, that is awesome. I’d just been ignoring the emails since RttT, but I do love that response, I believe I shall steal it.
I’ve made a similar response but I doubt that anyone reads it.
❤❣❣❣
Where does that leave voters? I sure can’t vote for any Republicans. They support Citizens United. And then there are the Tea Party types. And the anti-science crowd. I live very near the Creation Museum and Ken Ham. They are building a replica of the arc. They teach kids that men walked with dinosaurs. They believe the Earth is 6000 years old. People here write letters to teachers against teaching anything about climate change or regulating pollution from businesses. They panic if an answer to a math problem is 666. They believe in carrying automatic weapons at Chipotle. They think public schools are socialistic. This is a Republican part of Ohio.
So what to do? I am astonished at RttT. But I can’t vote for Kasich or his legislative cronies. I can’t vote for Boehner. Argh.
Primary challenge any school board member, councilperson, or state legislator who voted fin favor of teacher bashing legislation. Until these paid-off puppets feel the threat of losing their elections nothing will change. Shaming them doesn’t work. Primary challenges do.
Ha – yep, I’ve been doing similar things. I sent back a DNC survey with “Fire Arne Duncan” written on it in black Sharpie. I send back emails and tweets with the same. The Democratic Party left me behind when they blindly capitulated to the rhetoric in No Child Left Behind. I have noticed a decrease in my mail lately….perhaps I’ve been removed from their mailing list. But right now I will only support my WA state legislators who voted against tying teacher evals to student test scores.
I have asked to be removed from mail from several of them but all they do is send me the same stuff from another Democrat! Is there a way to opt out of all Democratic emails at one time?
Mark it as spam. I’ve had very little problem since I did that.
I’ve done the same thing with the exact same message.
In fact, beyond the e-mails I sent to several senators, I also mailed old-fashioned paper letters to some of our California representatives through the old fashioned U.S. postal service with a 1st class stamp. I wrote one letter, then changed the names and addresses for each rep I mailed a copy to.
I’m sure the letter on paper got more attention than one e-mail out of hundreds or thousands that may hit a state reps in-box daily.
I even included the fact that I’m seriously considering throwing my vote away for a 3rd party candidate, because voting for a Democrat, who might be out to destroy the democratic public schools, is even worse than throwing a vote away for a 3rd Party candidate from the Greens. I would never vote for a current Libertarian or Republican candidate because both groups are dedicated to destroy democracy and replace it with something that would benefit a few and harm the many.
In addition, I sent many of the democratic beggars to my SPAM folder, because the scare tactics to give them money I didn’t have—-unless I was willing to starve to death—was a daily downpour filling my in-box.
Here’s the really funny part. Several Democratic senate candidates in red states are actually running away from Obama, refusing to defend the Affordable Care Act, for example. Meanwhile, Dems in solid blue states, like Cuomo, act like Republicans. We are reaping the whirlwind of “entrepreneurial politics,” in which every candidate runs only for himself or herself and the almighty fundraising dollar rules. Will Rogers could joke about it (“I don’t belong to any organized political party; I’m a Democrat.”), but as long as the Dems keep stabbing working people in the back after campaigning as our friends, we’d be fools to keep sending them money. Alternatives needed. Hope Teachout pulls off the upset.
Is this an accurate depiction of what transpired in 2009? I wasn’t aware of it- I’m not in education and in my opinion education is somewhat “siloed” in the US – closed off from voters.
If it is true I better understand the anger from public school supporters towards the Obama Administration. Do most of you feel they were actively dishonest at the outset?
“The reformers’ arrogance is best on display when Brill gloats about the charade of appointing anti-reformer Linda Darling-Hammond to lead Obama’s official post-election education planning, while DFER, with funds from Eli Broad, wrote a secret memo for the “informal yet real education transition team.” Jon Schnur organized the effort and strove to calm his nervous fellow-reformers, assuring them that the Darling-Hammond appointment was only a sop to a faction that would have no real influence, while DFER’s secret memo set forth the Administration’s actual policy – including the naming of key Gates Foundation and Teach for America operatives for crucial administration policy posts, and calling for use of student test scores to evaluate teachers. It is disclosures like this that make Brill’s book something less than the unambiguous morality tale he aimed to present. Had the reformers been a little less sure of themselves, they might have less to answer for when their program, as it certainly must, eventually implodes.”
http://www.epi.org/publication/grading_the_education_reformers/
Yes. At first I thought Duncan was a political pick, figurehead, who would step aside and let educators run DoEd. Then I read TN’s Race to the Top Grant and woke up to the bait & switch pulled off by Obama. What surprised me was how slow both national teacher’s unions were to react with any level of clout to the Dems privatization games.
“Tough Luck Charlie”
Barack Obama’s Lucy
Democrats Charlie Brown
Einstein’s def of insanity:
“Hoping the ball stays down
jcgrim –
Here’s why the national unions were slow to react:
“In its 2009 Annual Report (Page 10), the Broad Foundation said,
‘Teacher unions have always been a formidable voice in public education. We decided at the onset of our work to invest in smart, progressive labor leaders like Randi Weingarten, head of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City for more than a decade and now president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). We partnered with Weingarten to fund two union-run charter schools in Brooklyn and to fund New York City’s first incentive-based compensation program for schools, as well as the AFT’s Innovation Fund. We had previously helped advance pay for performance programs in Denver and Houston, but we were particularly encouraged to see New York City embrace the plan.’
Weingarten attended the Broad supernintendo book club in 2002. For more hair-raising adventures, see: Ken Derstine’s excellent post “Who is Eli Broad and why is he trying to destroy public education?”
http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/
There’s also another eye-opening post on Paul Toner, who was just succeeded by Barbara Madeloni to head up NEA in Massachusetts.
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/07/paul-toner-and-turncoats.html
I’m right there with you John. I’ve been sending similar replies for about a year now. If the NSA would just turn over my Facebook posts and twitter feed to the Obama administration, they’d have a good start at a plan to move forward with education policy that actually helps instead of harms. Heck, they’d even have contact information for actual education experts. lol 🙂
If I were a Republican political strategist, I’d be licking my chops over the wedge the Dem’s have handed to the GOP. Seriously, Dem’s can’t really be this stupid, can they? I suppose they’re operating under the principle that in politics, “it’s the economy stupid!” decides more elections than “What’s going on in education?”
They’re really bullet-proof though, because Republicans are hostile to public education, too.
“Bipartisan” is over-rated. There’s nothing that says Republicans and Democrats can’t join together on absolutely horrible ideas. Iraq is an example and so is deregulating financial systems and products. Democrats and Republicans agreed on those too, and we’re all still paying for it.
In fact, it would be healthier if there was political pushback. That’s a check on dumb ideas and reckless actions that is missing here.
We have a long tradition of bad “bipartisan” crusades. The idea that if all of DC agrees on something that “something” is then a good idea is just not true. Why would it be true? Is there any evidence to think it’s true? I think the evidence points in the other direction, that we should be MOST vigilant when they’re all singing the same tune.
I think they know which is why they’ve adopted a softer tone and employed the political/messaging team (Democrats for Public Education, the back-pedaling on testing, etc.)
I think the good cop/bad cop aspects of ed reform are horribly patronizing and manipulative. I resent it. It doesn’t make any sense outside of a marketing frame. The Common Core is a good example. For the brief period where they were rolling out the tests everyone working in public schools went from mediocre losers to hard-working well-intended saints. I thought I’d get whiplash listening to the change in tone. These are the same public schools and the same employees we were all bashing prior to the test roll-out, right? What happened? When did they all get so smart?
I hate to be so cynical but I can’t help but notice the kumbaya coincides with both the midterm elections and the fact that the first round of CC testing is in the can.
I don’t think it’s true of all of them. I think the specific policy area people aren’t involved in the PR and political messaging, but the rhetoric and narrative just screams “message managed” to me. I am aware that we’ve all been scolded on “tone” but, sorry. Not buying it. 🙂
I went through the same thing. I gave money to some Democratic candidates, which was not a lot but still a hardship for me because I have $0 in disposable income. Then I discovered they voted to support charter school expansion, so I signed off the DNC list. I still kept getting the emails though and signed off again repeatedly and it took several months before I was finally taken off all of their lists.
Then, a couple weeks ago, I got a letter by snail mail from THE big kahuna. Yes, the return address said simply, “Barack Obama.” And, once again, it was all about asking for money.
Will Democrats ever learn that when you take money from banksters, Wall Street and billionaire supporters of privatization, and back them with impunity while blowing off the rest of the constituency, you have lost your base and you cannot expect them to ever donate to you again?
Chi-town Res,
Respond online to all those requests for money. If they get enough complaints about their education agenda, they might notice.
Now if teachers could only DEMAND that their unions refrain from supporting any candidates without input from their constituents – the teachers. I was very irate that my teachers union rushed to support the Obama reelection campaign without ever consulting teachers. I WOULD HAVE NEVER SUPPORTED OBAMA FOR REELECTION UNTIL HE CHANGED HIS RTTT/COMMON CORE and choice for Education Secretary!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The pre election phase was the time to argue for change…. or else! A good number of fellow public school teachers would have been right there with me over this.
Diane is correct.
Respond to those emails by expressing your anger and disappointment at these so-called Democrats. Every time I receive an email from them, I click the reply button and I let them know that they would not get a penny from me. I’ve told them that I am a retired teacher who strongly believes in public education and believe that every child is entitled to a good education. I have express my decision to vote for only those politicians that respect teachers, listen to parents, and fund equitably all public schools.
If we all do this, those faux-democrats will get the message that we mean business and will not hesitate to vote them out of office.
I would guess that replies go to some unmanned box somewhere and never get viewed. They don’t want feedback and they have no intention of hearing it.
I receive would feels like endless requests for money from ‘the party’. each one i reoly: ‘” I will give not a penny until the Presidents fires Arne Duncan”. I never receive a reply. In response to an email from Senator Elizabeth Warren, I wrote a detailed reply re why I would not send a dime. No response. I guess that’s the way it goes. I will keep exerting “The power of purse”.
@ john a… The sad part of the “power of our purses” comment is that all the money we have collectively together is not equivalent to what many of this new century’s mega-billionaires have. This coupled with a lack of campaign finance reform makes for an ever-weakening democracy because our politicians are now “bought”.
art, I agree and go one step further: the politician’s are cut from different patterns of the same ideological cloth, So, we do what we can do in our communities, work to support people who are on our side and withhold support, material or otherwise, from those who do harm. this may not be the functional ‘political’, lesser of two evils perspective, but it allows us to make real choices and to look at ourselves in the mirror in the morning
I am surprised by this revelation. I know I sent many similar messages over the last several years to Obama, Clinton, and Howard Dean. I assumed thousands of teachers were doing the same. I hoped that this would eventually cause them to rethink their strategy of alienating one if the largest support groups for the Democratic Party at a time they needed us most. But, as we see now they have enough large wallstreet donors that they believe they do not need us. Time will tell.
I have been doing the same. Hillary has lost my support because of her support of Cuomo and Rahmonster!
Sent from my iPhone
I’ve told the telemarketers every time they’ve called in the past year that I will not vote for Democratic candidates again until the Obama administration renounces their current education reform policies. They seem completely flabbergasted when I say that, too. That message isn’t getting to Washington, I’m afraid.
My last telephone conversation with a Democratic Senatorial Campaign caller lasted a half hour.
I was told the call would be monitored since I had not made a contribution in over two years, and he was calling to ask if I would be willing to do so again.
The caller argued back and forth with me about how Obama is helping his kid pay for Harvard (as if that would excite me) with secondary education funding support.
He was obnoxious and completely ignored my complaints about Arne Ducan, DFER, and RttT. I told him that the Democrats were losing a large portion of their support base in public school teachers. He tried to convince me how much he supported teachers as a parent himself.
I told him that, even if I felt the Dems were on my side, I couldn’t afford a contribution because of the legislative reforms impacting education that have been siphoning off my pay. I told him that I had to take out a loan for expenses that my salary could not cover after 17 years in my career.
He got more and more agitated as I continually refused to agree to a contribution citing that my failure to do so would “let the Republicans win.”
I told him, with “friends” like these in the Democrstic party, who needs Republicans?
He promised to take me off the call list, and he did.
P.S. The caller even played the Cory Booker card with me since I live in NJ, and I told him what a travesty Booker’s education politics in Newark were. Booker is the new darling of the party. Nobody in that party wants to see him as a villain. I truly hope that my message was passed on, but I somehow doubt it.
I write every time “Fire the incompetent basketball player, and then I might think about it.”
Maybe we could make a “another teacher who thinks Arne Duncan needs to go back to basketball” bumper sticker?
I love it!
Why were there no democrats speaking out against all aspects of “Race to the Top”. the notion of “top” implies a piling on and crushing of everyone except the person on top.” What is the top? Well it is clear in Arnie’s world it is a simplistic arrogant narrow minded view that is anti-democratic. Demo rates should be mortified that this vile program is part of the democrates legacy. We all should be cringing. I donated to the Obama campaign in 2008. My husband and I now only donate to individual candidates.
In CA we do need to support Democrati-esque Tom Torlakson and Democrat Jerry Brown. Vigorously! Their opponents, Marshall Tuck and Neel Kashkari, disrespectively,, would try to turn CA into FL, TX or NC education-wise.
Yes, California is still different in many ways from the rest of the country, thank the gods! Since Jerry is 20 points up on his opponent, I think we can still remind him that the public schools have not recovered from the Great Recession, though passing Prop 30 two years ago stopped the free fall. California still lags most of the nation in per pupil spending. And whatever folks can do to make sure Tom Torlakson is re-elected as Superintendent of Public Instruction over his opponent, a very smarmy reformer, is doing good work. Send a check, make phone calls, walk a precinct. It all helps.
Love Brown, but did you see the debate? He did a lame job defending his appeal of Vergara, bragged about the new teacher dismissal bill that makes it easier to fire teachers and indicated that it doesn’t go far enough. I will cut him some slack though –even for teachers it’s hard to give an persuasive defense of due process when the majority of Americans do not enjoy this benefit. And of course he’s infinitely better than Kashkari.
Brown’s opponent has NO CHANCE of winning. However, when the rest of the nation toys with the idea of dumping CCSS, California may be the last to follow suit.
I responded to “DINO” Dan Malloy’s request for money in similar fashion. Any other Nutmeggers planning on writing in Jonathan Pelto’s name on the November ballot?
I’ve been doing this every time I get an email from the Dems, but they just keep sending them. Is anyone bothering to “close read” the emails as David Coleman would like? They’re certainly not getting the message!
When I am asked by the dem party for my top priority, it is always fire Duncan and stop trying to get rid of public schools and public school teachers. This isn’t right for kids!!!
I’ve made the same point with Democratic Party reps on the telephone… now they don’t call me…
I am so glad I am not the only person who writes this sort of thing on the national Democratic Party, Obama, DCCC and DSCC appeals I routinely get . . and on the phone too. If enough people do it maybe they will wake up– til then candidates like Baraka, Teachout, Wu will have to do for me. And Jason Carter in Georgia– public education (and funding public education) the centerpiece of his campaign . . . and he’s got a chance. https://carterforgovernor.com/
When I unsubscribed to Democratic party emails, I received a survey about what issues I’m most interested in. On a list of 10 issues, PUBLIC EDUCATION WAS NOT ON THE LIST! That’s exactly why I unsubscribed.
I began writing similar responses a week ago.
Hi Christine Langhoff:
Thank you very much for two wonderful links. It is recommended to read for all of educators and all union members in AFT, NEA.
Here are two links and few important paragraphs from these links that give all readers a very good explanation and answer as why AFT is COMPANY UNION.
1) http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/
2) http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/07/paul-toner-and-turncoats.html
Who is Eli Broad?
So who is Eli Broad and why does he want to destroy public education?
Eli Broad was born in 1933 in the Bronx and raised in Detroit.
In 1953 (20 yrs old), he bought his first plot of land at the age of 20.
He graduated in 1954 (21yrs old) from Michigan State University, where he majored in accounting with a minor in economics. He became the youngest Certified Public Accountant in Michigan
In 1957, (24 yrs old) he co-founded Kaufman & Broad with Donald Kaufman, a homebuilder related to his wife. They borrowed $25,000 from Broad’s in-laws and became one of the nation’s biggest homebuilders, supplying baby boomers with affordable housing.
In 1971 (38 yrs old) he bought Sun Life Insurance, a family owned insurance company for $52 million.
In 1999 (66 yrs old), he sold Sun America to American International Group for $18 billion.
In 2012 (79 yrs old), Broad’s book “The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking” was published. The inside flap of the book has this quote from George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.
“The UNREASONABLE one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.”
Therefore,
“all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.”
George Bernard Shaw was speaking of fighting for social justice. As always, Eli Broad is speaking about what makes a good businessman.
As can be seen from this list, top management of the Broad Foundation is overwhelmingly made up of people from the political community, the business community, labor leaders, and only a very few from the administrative end of education; who are reaching the end of their career path. They take highly paid positions and bring their expertise and connections from their prior careers into the world of corporate education reform. Only a few have any actual teaching experience in K-12 public schools.
The Broad fortune is based on the speculative capital made possible during the deregulation that began under the Reagan administration. Taking public controls off of private capital set the stage for
“the wealthiest one per cent in American society to amass enormous personal wealth and use that wealth to lobby and legislate the radical redistribution upward of wealth and income over the next thirty years. It is this ideal of deregulation that Broad holds up as a metaphor for public education.”
The only way to do that is “to hand over public institutions to the private sector” . As is being seen with the unfolding disaster of school closures, applying private sector methods to public institutions ignores economic and social reality.
Looking at the toolkit of resources for trainees on their website, you find such things as their 2009″School Closure Guide: Closing Schools as a Means for Addressing Budgetary Challenges”. This 83 page Guide gives a detailed breakdown and timelines of how to manage school closures and community opposition to the closing of community schools. A favored tactic in various cities has been to announce a proposal for closing a large number of schools; hold community meetings to give the appearance of democracy, but actually for the purpose of using the information gained to hone their tactics for carrying out a list of community schools to be closed despite community opposition. Then they take a few schools off the closing list to give the appearance that they are listening to the community. This is a form of the common practice in labor negotiations where management proposes some draconian cuts, and then, when a compromise is reached with the union leaders, the rank-and-file is relieved that the cuts are not as drastic as first proposed and votes to accept the contract even though it is less than they deserve and need. The difference with school closures is that there is no relief for the majority of communities where schools will be closed if just a few schools are taken off the closure list. This school closure method has been used in New York, Chicago, and Detroit, where large numbers of community schools have already been closed. The closings are done in phases to transform large numbers of public schools into a private system run by charter management companies over a period of years.
They believe that “PRIVATIZING schools” will turn out a select number of students for their business needs and also give them another huge source of “PROFIT”
In 2011, Parents Across America described the management method of Broad Superintendents like this:
“Broad and his foundation believe that PUBLIC schools should be run like a BUSINESS. One of the tenets of his philosophy is to produce system change by “investing in disruptive force”.
Continual reorganizations,FIRINGS OF STAFF, and experimentation to create chaos or “churn” is
believed to be PRODUCTIVE AND BENEFICIAL, as it weakens the ability of communities to resist change.”
The Broad Foundation and the unions
The Broad Foundation Mission Statement states that one of
its goals is the transformation of labor relations.
The Broad Foundation is not anti-union. Rather, it seeks
to transform unions into a form of COMPANY UNION.
A company union is a union located within and run by a company or a national government, and the union bureaucracy is incorporated into the company’s management.
This opens up the workforce to unfettered EXPLOITATION for PROFITS of the owners.
Many right-wing governments INTENTIONALLY use company unions to SUPPRESS worker struggles against LOW LIVING STANDARDS.
In 1935, during the labor struggles of the Depression, the National Labor Relations Act was passed which outlawed company unions in the United States.
On March 11, 2009, in an article in the NYC education website Gotham News, in the article “Eli Broad describes close ties to Klein, Weingarten, DUNCAN”,
Broad described his education philosophy and his collaboration with Klein, Weingarten, and DUNCAN.
The article did not state that Weingarten’s relationship with Broad dates back to at least 2002.
It is extremely sad to acknowledge that all barbarous tycoons use money to ruin and run American Public Education from Elementary to Post Secondary Education into DISASTER OF the POINT of NO RETURN.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, as all educators recognize that cancer happens within the body. Similarly, the ruin of Public Education only happens within the body of education system and public administration system.
I hope that someone will agree with me that everyone stands or moves around on THE FEET, not THE HEAD. Similarly, all communities’ economy is established by manual workers. Any nation that abuses labor force, will likely become savage and soon extinct.
To me, the head (government/leaders and tycoons/employers) is upper class, mouth (politicians, media owners) is upper-middle class, hands (union leaders and teachers, lawyers…) are middle class, feet are working class (parents and students). How long and how much hands can do all tasks by feet. Therefore, if the head manipulated and use mouth (politicians and media) to persuade hands (union, and teachers) to harm feet (parents and students), or feet against hands, then its body will be self-destroyed. Yes, other body (other nation) will take over and abuse the head with ease. Communist and fascist love to do experiment on the rich and snobbish expertise PhDs. History has shown us all evidences in the past two world wars I and II.
Good Deed returns Good Deed – Evil follows Evil. Karma is the absolute and universal TRUTH that applies to all sentient beings on Earth. Back2basic
Hi Christine Langhoff:
Thank you very much for two wonderful links. It is recommended to read for all of educators and all union members in AFT, NEA.
Here are two links and few important paragraphs from these links that give all readers a very good explanation and answer as why AFT is COMPANY UNION.
1) http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/
2) http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/07/paul-toner-and-turncoats.html
Who is Eli Broad?
So who is Eli Broad and WHY does he want to destroy public education?
Eli Broad was born in 1933 in the Bronx and raised in Detroit.
In 1953 (20 yrs old), he bought his first plot of land at the age of 20.
He graduated in 1954 (21yrs old) from Michigan State University, where he majored in accounting with a minor in economics. He became the youngest Certified Public Accountant in Michigan
In 1957, (24 yrs old) he co-founded Kaufman & Broad with Donald Kaufman, a homebuilder related to his wife. They borrowed $25,000 from Broad’s in-laws and became one of the nation’s biggest homebuilders, supplying baby boomers with affordable housing.
In 1971 (38 yrs old) he bought Sun Life Insurance, a family owned insurance company for $52 million.
In 1999 (66 yrs old), he sold Sun America to American International Group for $18 billion.
In 2012 (79 yrs old), Broad’s book “The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking” was published. The inside flap of the book has this quote from George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.
“The UNREASONABLE one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.”
Therefore,
“all progress depends upon the UNREASONABLE man.”
George Bernard Shaw was speaking of fighting for social justice. As always, Eli Broad is speaking about what makes a good businessman.
As can be seen from this list, top management of the Broad Foundation is overwhelmingly made up of people from the political community, the business community, labor leaders, and only a very few from the administrative end of education; who are reaching the end of their career path. They take highly paid positions and bring their expertise and connections from their prior careers into the world of corporate education reform. Only a few have any actual teaching experience in K-12 public schools.
The Broad fortune is based on the speculative capital made possible during the deregulation that began under the Reagan administration. Taking public controls off of private capital set the stage for
“the wealthiest one per cent in American society to amass enormous personal wealth and use that wealth to lobby and legislate the radical redistribution upward of wealth and income over the next thirty years. It is this ideal of deregulation that Broad holds up as a metaphor for public education.”
The only way to do that is “to hand over public institutions to the private sector” . As is being seen with the unfolding disaster of school closures, applying private sector methods to public institutions ignores economic and social reality.
Looking at the toolkit of resources for trainees on their website, you find such things as their 2009″School Closure Guide: Closing Schools as a Means for Addressing Budgetary Challenges”. This 83 page Guide gives a detailed breakdown and timelines of how to manage school closures and community opposition to the closing of community schools. A favored tactic in various cities has been to announce a proposal for closing a large number of schools; hold community meetings to give the appearance of democracy, but actually for the purpose of using the information gained to hone their tactics for carrying out a list of community schools to be closed despite community opposition. Then they take a few schools off the closing list to give the appearance that they are listening to the community. This is a form of the common practice in labor negotiations where management proposes some draconian cuts, and then, when a compromise is reached with the union leaders, the rank-and-file is relieved that the cuts are not as drastic as first proposed and votes to accept the contract even though it is less than they deserve and need. The difference with school closures is that there is no relief for the majority of communities where schools will be closed if just a few schools are taken off the closure list. This school closure method has been used in New York, Chicago, and Detroit, where large numbers of community schools have already been closed. The closings are done in phases to transform large numbers of public schools into a private system run by charter management companies over a period of years.
They believe that “PRIVATIZING schools” will turn out a select number of students for their business needs and also give them another huge source of “PROFIT”
In 2011, Parents Across America described the management method of Broad Superintendents like this:
“Broad and his foundation believe that PUBLIC schools should be run like a BUSINESS.
One of the tenets of his philosophy is to produce system change by “investing in disruptive force”.
Continual reorganizations, FIRINGS OF STAFF, and experimentation to create chaos or “churn” is
believed to be PRODUCTIVE AND BENEFICIAL, as it weakens the ability of communities to resist change.”
The Broad Foundation and the unions
The Broad Foundation Mission Statement states that one of
its goals is the transformation of labor relations.
The Broad Foundation is not anti-union. Rather, it seeks
to transform unions into a form of COMPANY UNION.
A company union is a union located within and run by a company or a national government, and the union bureaucracy is incorporated into the company’s management.
This opens up the workforce to unfettered EXPLOITATION for PROFITS of the owners.
Many right-wing governments INTENTIONALLY use company unions to SUPPRESS worker struggles against LOW LIVING STANDARDS.
In 1935, during the labor struggles of the Depression, the National Labor Relations Act was passed which outlawed company unions in the United States.
On March 11, 2009, in an article in the NYC education website Gotham News, in the article “Eli Broad describes close ties to Klein, Weingarten, DUNCAN”,
Broad described his education philosophy and his collaboration with Klein, Weingarten, and DUNCAN.
In conclusion, it is extremely sad to acknowledge that all barbarous business tycoons use money to ruin and run American Public Education from Elementary to Post Secondary Education into a DISASTER at the POINT of NO RETURN.
To me,
the head (government/leaders and tycoons/employers) is upper class,
mouth (politicians, media owners) is upper-middle class,
hands (union leaders and teachers, lawyers…) are middle class,
feet are working class (parents and students).
How long and how much hands can do all tasks that feet do?
Therefore, if the head manipulated and use mouth (politicians and media) to persuade hands (union, and teachers) to harm feet (parents and students), or feet against hands, then its body will be self-destroyed. Yes, other body (other nation) will take over and abuse the head with ease. Communist and fascist love to do experiment on the rich and snobbish expertise PhDs. History has shown us all evidences in the past two world wars I and II.
Good Deed returns Good Deed – Evil follows Evil. Karma is the absolute and universal TRUTH that applies to all sentient beings on Earth. Back2basic
I have sent a similar message with less eloquent language. Martha Bridge Denckla, M.D.
Do you ever receive a reply? To date, after numerous refusals to fund sent to the various Democratic Party functionaries, I have yet to receive a reply; and this includes from my Senator the otherwise estimable , Elizabeth Warren. Oy vez mir!
john a
I have received e-mail replies from Fienstein and Boxer, but I suspect that are canned replies sent out be staffers.
I also received an e-mail reply from the Obama White House when I sent an e-mail letter to that internet address that’s available on the White House site. In that reply, Obama mentioned he is working with his partners to reform education and ignored my concerns, and the e-mail was signed by him but I don’t think he wrote it. His staff probably did from a cookie cutter list of replies that can be slightly altered to fit different concerns.
Lloyd, Basically, zero replies. The Democratic Party is both stupid and moral idiots.Where is Eugene Debs, now that we REALLY need him? The state of the Democratic party is deplorable….and that is using words that can be printed.
John a,
Have you tried the old fashioned snail-mail letter in addition to an e-mail at the same time both with the same content?
Sometimes, persistence pays off. And maybe you could get people you know who think like you to sign your letter as a show of support.
The only thing that holds me back from being more persistence than I already am is time and energy.
There’s only so many awake hours in a day and eventually the energy well starts to run dry around 7 to 8 PM.
:o)
You may also use a technique I learned while earning my BA in journalism and later more learning from the MFA in writing.
Sandwich your complaint/concerns.
That means start out with some sort of positive statement then segue into the complaint and concerns and end with another positive statement that offers a solution. That strategy has worked well for me for decades—not with everyone but with most. For instance, it worked well with Ford Corporation, but didn’t work with AT&T.
llotd, thanks for the suggestions. as the grateful dead once said, i will “keep on truckin'” you, too!
Hi Lloyd:
I really love your technique “Sandwich your complaint/concerns.”
Please, everyone tries to apply this wonderful technique:
“That means start out with some sort of positive statement then segue into the complaint and concerns and end with another positive statement that offers a solution.”
For example:
To me,
HEAD (government/leaders and tycoons/employers) is the RULING class,
MOUTH (politicians, media owners) is UPPER-middle class,
HANDS (union leaders and teachers, lawyers…) are MIDDLE class,
FEET (white and blue workers: parents and students ) are WORKING class.
How long and how much hands can do all tasks that feet do?
Therefore, if the head manipulates and uses mouth (politicians and media) to persuade hands (union, and teachers) to harm feet (parents and students), or feet against hands, then its body will be self-destroyed.
Yes, other body (other nation) will take over and abuse the head with ease. Communist and Fascist love to do experiment on the rich and snobbish (harm humanity) expertise PhDs. History has shown us all evidences in the past two World Wars I and II.
Suggestion: it is time to reconsider to help the learners (students = future gate/peace keepers) with a true learning in their first short span of 13 years (K-12), such as:
SPORTS (simple soccer, bowling, swimming, basket-ball, baseball) to strengthen BODY;
MUSICS (simple singing,playing guitar)), languages (all major LANGUAGES from global business partners) , classic literature (relate fables’ lessons to current society to get out the best solution), simple finance lessons (sensible responsibility in earning vs spending + sharing and caring) and STEM to strengthen CREATIVE MIND; and
CONVICTION IN HUMANITY through participation with local/community charity to strengthen SPIRIT.
If all children have a solid foundation of body, mind and spirit in their first 13 years of education, then the next phase of their higher education will positively bloom and proper.
As a result, people live harmoniously, and country will be well protected from barbarous mind. Yes, I am the simple human with simple mind. Back2basic
see also great post by NY teacher: http://bit.ly/1lRwzP2 Open letters do get run as Op-Eds a lot and worth doing– people are waking up and spreading pro-education/anti-nonsense material . . . good