Politico.com reported that the National Urban League is aggressively supporting Common Core. Politico neglected to mention that the National Urban League has received more than $5 million from the Gates Foundation in recent years. Anytime that any group advocates for the Common Core, publications should report whether they are funded by the Gates Foundation. The oversight is comparable to giving the results of a study showing that smoking does not cause cancer, yet failing to report that the study was funded by cigarette companies.
Here is the politico report:
“URBAN LEAGUE STEPS INTO CORE WARS: The National Urban League is stepping up its advocacy in support of the Common Core with new radio and TV spots narrated by CEO Marc H. Morial. In one ad, an African-American student flips through a textbook and imagines great possibilities for his life, as images flash by depicting him as a judge, a soldier and an astronaut. “When we put our children first with Common Core, there’s no telling how far they can go,” Morial says. The other shows girls and boys of several races, ages and sizes lining up for a race – which, a bit perplexingly, they all end up winning, thanks to “equitable implementation of Common Core.” The ads were created by the National Urban League in partnership with Radio One, a media company that focuses on African-American audiences. Both will run through Nov. 22 on Radio One, TV One and REACH Media shows, which include broadcasts headlined by the Rev. Al Sharpton, Bishop T.D. Jakes and others. The ads: http://bit.ly/1DxlrfB”
Now what is sad about this is that there is zero evidence that the Common Core and the “harder” tests will reduce the achievement gap or help black students. In New York, where Common Core tests have been offered twice, a large majority of black students “failed” the tests. Eighty percent or more of black students in NewYork did not meet the state’s “proficient” standard. What will happen to them? Will they get a diploma? Will continued “failure” increase the dropout rates? According to this study, dropout rates are likely to double under Common Core’s “rigorous” demands. The study is called”Opportunity By Design,” but it might also be called Failure by Design.” Is this what the National Urban League wants?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
There is no way that the Common Core will increase student achievement and test scores. I test my students so many more hours this year. My actual teaching hours that I spent with my students will be severely reduced. We all have to remember that this is all part of their plan. They know what they are doing. The much harder Common Core curriculum (developmentally inappropriate) coupled with much less instructional time with my students = an educational disaster = their desired outcome.
I think this report does not include other payments tthat Gates has made to civil righrts groups that were channeled through Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors starting in 2008 with about $1.1 million to market college and career readines as essential for “students of color;” or a 2010 sum of about $.5 million for a “campaign for high school equity for students of color;” or a 2011 search for national, federal, and state grouips “representing students of color” and also friendly to the Gates’ version of reform–about $2.5 million for three years; or another $2 million in 2014 for the same purpose–to civil rights groups that like the Gates’ version of reform.
My source for this information is the Gates’ Foundation website with the key phrase Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA). RPA is a pass-through operation for foundations that don’t want a lot of publicity for their activities. RPA knows how to work the tax code so the money changing hands will pass muster with the IRS, and the actual reciepients remain out of public view. In addition to paying civil rights groups for agreeing with them, the Gates has provided operating support to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, $1 million in 2008, about $3.7 million in 2010, another $1 million in 2014.
Beginning in 2007 RPA also channeled Gates money to ramp up PR for “a crisis in American education” about $1.1 million; then creating news about K-12 public education reform” about $5. 3 million for that and between 2008 and 2010 about $14 million more in PR for education reform with college and career ready part of that campaign.
Beginning in 2011 and continuing into 2014, the Gates’ paid RPA to support the PARCC and SBAC tests as entry credentials for higher education and help pay for state implementation of these tests, while hammering away on the importance of “measures of teacher effectiveness,” about $8 million for those activities.
Here is one way that many foundations are laundering their money.
“ As a 501 (c)(3) public charity, RPA can act as a fiscal sponsor to charitable projects, enabling them to quickly and efficiently conduct targeted charitable activities, create grantmaking programs and receive U.S. tax deductible donations through the creation of a Sponsored Project Fund.
….”By establishing a Sponsored Project Fund, a project has an immediate mechanism for receiving contributions from many sources, and for disbursing grants and project-related expenses. Sponsored projects also benefit from RPA’s existing operational infrastructure and world-class philanthropic expertise. Our staff can provide program, administrative and management support as needed, in strategy and capacity building, finance, tax and accounting, human resources, risk/liability, and grantmaking and advisory services”….
“Fiscal sponsorships are an especially convenient vehicle for giving collaboratives and projects with a finite time frame”. http://www.rockpa.org/page.aspx?pid=297
This is an amplification on the tax code perks from the retiring lead officer of the Hewlette Packard Foundation.
“The tax code creates a divide between investments that seek financial and social returns by doing much of its work outside of a 501(c)(3) charter.
And two new legal forms of organizations have emerged to blend financial and social outcomes: the low-profit limited liability company (L3C); and the benefit, or B corporation, whose charter requires the company to adhere to socially beneficial practices.
He ends with this caveat: “It remains to be seen whether these boundary-crossing approaches increase social benefits or subordinate social benefits to profit motives.“ Excerpts from http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/a_decade_of_outcome_oriented_philanthropy
@Laura.. thanks for sharing this. You are such a wealth of good information!
The drug cartels would be proud of this money laundering effort. To think, here in Clark County, Nevada, the mob founded the casinos for that very purpose. Then the profits from gambling were so great they could afford to go legitimate. The government protected these interests and will not tax them to any extent in Nevada.
You know what floors me? We are adults with common sense. We are free to drink, though we know its bad for us and the surgeon general advocates against, or moderation, yet we are beat over the head with advertisements. Same with cigarettes. There are “pro” and “con” groups on each. Take the common core – the people who will benefit monetarily in a HUGE way are pro. The experts on the ground, however, have tried to put it into practice, and largely say it is inappropriate in so many ways.
When do we, as adults, all of us, parents, teachers, administrators, JUST SAY NO? No to the common core, no to abusive testing, no to test and punish, etc.
Groucho Marx is quoted as having said “Who are you going to believe, me or your eyes?” Truer words were never spoken with regard to edreform. They can keep pushing common core and the reform agenda, but the experience in the real world, in real life, on the ground and in the classrooms…..pretty much proves the reformers wrong. The only one benefiting from any of this is the men behind the push.
Those who fear for their jobs, I understand the reluctance to push back, but…..the less we do, the more harm the reformers do.
Keep getting the word out. Keep telling the truth. Keep giving examples of failed practices, failed and thieving charters, etc. Keep up the good work, kind people.
Punitive, high-stakes testing was a FAILED IDEA before The Common Core standards were shoved down our throats. No reformer in their right mind ever thought for one second that doubling down on this bad idea by simply making the tests much harder, was ever going to work. Assertive claims of “college and career readiness” and “higher order, critical thinking skills” were just a modern day snake oil sales pitch. Improved education was never the goal. Successful implementation of CC standards was never meant to be achieved. Shocking that so many professional educators have been duped. But not that surprising that so many are compliant. The force of law and threat to careers, livelihoods, and reputations was an essential ingredient in the reform plan. the time has come to just say no.
Head of urban league in Chicago is on the Chicago Public School Boardd
And they have received money from the Koch brothers as well.
Ignore “real” research and market bs. This seems to be the “way” of the oligarchs.
Follow the money is not just a cliché. Have Morial explain what the Common Core is, where it has been implemented and what happened and he can’t. He is the leader of a struggling (read: need money) organization, not an educator. I believe the Urban League took a stand against standardized testing several years ago. Money is not the root of all evil, the love of money is. And it causes you “many griefs”
NUL don’t drink the Kool Aid.
or the “Colemanade”, coined inadvertently(?) by Diane Ravitch as noted by artseagal.
“Don’t drink the Colemanade”
Stop! Don’t drink the Colemanade!
The Coleman Core that Coleman made
What Coleman aided has culminated
In public schools columniated
Ah the Bard of Ravitch Blog. Thanks for another fine bit of poetic (ir)relevance. Keep them coming!
@ SomeDam Poet… How about a new twist… “COALmanade”… now that sums up a drink that matches Coleman… inky black poisonous. Physcians for Social Responsibility describe the toxicity of coal:
“The toxic substances found in coal ash can inflict grave damage to the human body and the environment. These substances have been shown to escape from some coal ash disposal sites, contaminating the air, land, surface waters, and/or underground aquifers that feed drinking water wells…”
Here is my “twist”…. “The toxic substantances found in COALmanade COALMAN CORE can inflict grave damage to the human body and the environment. These COALMANADE POISONS have been shown to escape from ED REFORM BASTIONS, contaminating the PUBLIC SCHOOL air, PUBLIC SCHOOL land, and PUBLIC SCHOOL surface waters …”
Ms Cartwheel:
Ear elephant is relephant
To that which is an elephant
Irrelevant is relevant
To that which is irrelevant
artseagal.
I like COALmanade very much, but I think that is most apt for Koch, which sounds like “coke” (both a kind of charcoal and a drink) and relates to Koch investment in coal, tar sands and other carboniferous fuels.
This is nothing new, nationally or locally. In Chicago, the CEO of the Chicago Urban League, eldest in the USA I’m told, is Andrea Zopp. Zopp was appointed to the Chicago Board of Education by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in May 2011 and has slavishly followed his whims against the public schools, teachers, and the unions since. People have protested at the South Side Urban League offices after her vote(s) to close schools (many within a mile of her offices) and her other votes. Most recently, last Wednesday, Zopp voted, along with the other six Emanuel Board of Education members, to add another three charter school “campuses” to Chicago’s public school system — a year after she voted to close the 50 real public schools Rahm had demanded. Every month she delivers a sanctimonious comment or two, usually safely at the end of the meeting, about how righteous what the Board (i.e. the mayor’s minions) are doing is.
Reblogged this on Dolphin and commented:
…follow the money….