The Néw York Post, owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch (who has contributed millions to charters), ridicules the idea that Wall Street hedge fund managers have motives other than kind-hearted philanthropy for pouring millions of dollars into pro-charter lobbying. The chief editorial writer attributes these suspicions to the teachers’ union and Zephyr Teachout.
Let’s see. Readers of this blog know that hedge fund money is pouring into state and local elections to support candidates who favor privatization, who want to eliminate unions, who love the Néw Orleans model of wiping out public schools and replacing experienced teachers with Teach for America recruits (who won’t stay around long enough to qualify for a pension).
You never hear them complain about budget cuts or segregation. They think that charters will counter poverty even though charters perform no better than public schools when they enroll the same students. They don’t care that high-performing charters do not “backfill,” meaning that they don’t replace kids who leave and they end up with a small graduating class.
They pour millions into lobbying for charters (and in some states, vouchers) because they are kind.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t know for sure, exactly how much money he received, but Cuomo met with Wall Street bankers in Buffalo for an “Education Reform ” meeting not one educator was present. He was said to have received $6 million from them. This why he has the largest fund of any governor in the nation, or in the history of the country. He is a slimy person. It is almost impossible to find out who has donated and how much money they have given. So much for transparent government. Prett take a good look at the Charter School donations and the selling of the New York State Public Schools. This will be Cuomo’s legacy.
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How dare you question Rupert Murdoch with his “impeccable” record. After all, the reason he lost his newspapers in London England was not because he disobeyed the laws. He most certainly could have got a license to foist his “truths” in Canada where they have no laws prohibiting putting out as news that which is lies and distortions. Of course not. AND obviously no great reporters quit the Wall Street Journal refusing to work for him when Murdoch bought it.
He only created fear in every politician in London from Margaret Thatcher to the present because he owned the newspapers where he could print what he wished.
Yes, Murdoch is a “GRATE” man. He has earned our respect.
BUT
Fox “news” which he owns and presents his version of “news” is by a great many Americans the soul of truth. Many of my good friends really believe that. Fox “news” is the only source of “news” upon which one can truly believe.
Critical thinking? Not in the lexicon of things to be taught by the charters who wish to make out tests created by the corporate CEOs, graded by them, and teachers, schools graded on how well students can regurgitate their “facts” on written tests. Way to go!!!!! [But where is go – do not pass go, do not collect $200. – or much more.
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I wrote a stinging response to the NY Times saying we must not forfeit the “progress” that has been made in education. I doubt they will publish it; not something new, often they won’t publish my comments. The push by none other than Jeb and his pack of NWO, neocon, corporate raiders have public ed. in their cross hairs. When the PARCC test results come out, that will be the final nail in public schools, teachers and worst of all, the kids of America. I hope everyone will read Jeannie Kaplan’s latest expose of the Denver Public Schools. It is the poster child system for all the evil that has invaded our former system of education. You can find it on her, “Kaplan for Kids” blog. Well worth the read!
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“Naked Truth”
The Murdoch has no clothes
And man, it is a sight
That children shouldn’t behold
It really isn’t right
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You know, it’s interesting. I would take a different approach, mostly because there are hedge fund folks in my life whom I love, but with whom I disagree on the charter issue.
In life we put our energy and resources towards things we believe in and we hope for a good return, often in terms of it impacting someone else’s life positively or the longevity of our community. When we see poor families who struggle purchasing big sound systems and TVs and we know they are not buying books or subscriptions to Highlights or Ranger Rick, or taking their children to museums in the summer, etc. and we hate if for them because we know they are not helping their cause in the long run.
If we view the pouring of Hedge Fund money into charters in a similar way, we can, perhaps, cut down on the ire and bitterness so that meaningful conversations can ensue. My experience is that when hedge fund folks read the responses like I’m reading here, they don’t care. Just as a person who resents paying into the welfare system only to see its recipients using what they do have on frivolous purchases (sub woof bass speakers in their cars with rims that spin, etc) is told to not feel the ire when they evaluate their attitude towards having a welfare system, I think we should be careful not to get so angry that we can’t see. If hedge funders want to invest in charters, I think they are throwing their money away and not investing in something that will give them a big return. Maybe they don’t care. But being angry at it won’t change it, will it?
I understand in my state we haven’t seen school closings and so I imagine the ire is greater and well-justified in a place like New Orleans. But can a calm conversation about return on investment, such as one you would have with a poor welfare recipient who has purchased a new speaker system instead of paying for their child’s summer care, transpire? Can we speak their language in terms of what they really will get from investing in charters in the long run? How can we paint that picture? That’s what I would ask.
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Joanna,
Unlike you, I have no hedge fundies in my inner circle. I do, however, have a ring side seat to the Newark Circus. I give my heartfelt thanks to the Walton Family Foundation for their generosity in funding TFA in Newark and their honest efforts to end my career and the careers of other veteran teachers. Your analogy comparing welfare recipients and entrepreneurial philanthropists misses the mark in my book.
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Fair enough. I am looking for discussion on it, so I thank you for replying. I did qualify that because I haven’t been hit by it, I am likely less prone to the understandable ire.
I just don’t know what the way out of this tension and hostile takeover of public ed is. And I want to know. I want to help figure it out.
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Joanna, by using the phrase “hostile takeover of public education,” you yourself have validated the criticism of Wall Street’s backing of charter school proliferation, since the term originates in the finance industry.
If hedge funders and others in finance (which would include Eli Broad and others not affiliated with hedge funds) care so much about education, then let them pay their taxes (and not constantly lobby to have them reduced) and support the public schools. Otherwise their claims and actions are transparently self-interested and hypocritical.
As for the “tension” you refer to, you’re damn right there’s tension: there’s always going to be tension and conflict when some use lies and subterfuge to take away what people have fought for and earned (salaries, benefits and working conditions). In fact, what is needed is less “tension” and a lot more whupp-ass of these privateers.
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Joanna,
Ask the hedge fund slime you know to review the financial sector’s role in dragging down U.S. GDP. Ask them to read, Matt Taibbi’s article, “Looting the Pensions”.
The money guys, who legally rob workers, avoid taxes and subvert democracy, by buying politicians, can not be trusted. Check your wallet after spending time with them.
I agree with you, they don’t listen. It takes money dangled in front of them to get their attention.
The assault on the public schools, is merely, their highest-visibility treachery.
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Stereotyping poor people or people on what’s left of welfare is the usual ploy of the right wingers. Reagan slammed the Cadillac driving welfare queen……a zombie myth. I’m more concerned with the corporate welfare kings.
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What would you say if you had a chance to sit down with one and discuss? (a corporate welfare king?)
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Well, the first thing I’d ask is, “What makes you think your money gives you the right to undermine a fundamental public good and institution, and destroy the livelihoods of millions of people?”
The second thing I’d ask is, “What do you produce (aside from absurdly high fees charged to your clients) that is of any use whatsoever to the rest of humanity, and why should I thus not consider you a parasite?”
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Forgive me for not caring if someone chooses to buy a subwoofer. Greed begins in the penthouses of the powerful & wealthy not on the streets of the poor.
Thanks to magnanimous hedge fund managers my state retirement benefits are being cut, my home has lost 30% of its value (most of my lifelong investment), my 401k’s have yet to recover and never will, and my teacher’s salary has not seen a real increase in 25 years.
I feel ire every time I think of how hedge funders stole untold billions of public wealth & were bailed our with public money. But that’s never enough to feed their bloated desires – now they want our schools.
Here is what a critic gets for having a civil conversation:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/a-whistleblowers-horror-story-20150218
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thank you for sharing.
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I don’t anyone is against investing. However, when corporations lie, cheat and steal their way into domination; that is where I draw the line. The corporate led “reform” movement has done everything in its power to undermine public education. They have conducted character assassination on the nation’s teachers and their bargaining units. They have funded tons of faux research to justify their actions. The same unethical, if not illegal tactics, used to take over small companies, strip them of their value, and pick their bones are being used against schools in cities across America. Their control of the media has silenced the supporters of public schools. In areas near major cities, they are creating “designer” schools for their own children while they amass large sums of tax write off money in the school account. At the same time they drain the public school budgets dry. Hedge fund managers spend their days looking for opportunistic ways to hide money so their clients can avoid paying taxes, and the middle class can pick up their slack. Hedge funders are an American tapeworm. They grow fat when they weaken the rest of us.
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“In life we put our energy and resources towards things we believe in and we hope for a good return, often in terms of it impacting someone else’s life positively or the longevity of our community.”
I don’t understand how this statement relates to a hedge-fund managers (or their subordinates). It’s an industry defined by high-risk investments for sophisticated investors; employees are paid by % of rate of return to client, & % of net value of the fund. There is no room in there for lofty social ideals.
If I had friends working in that industry, their kids would probably be in my kids’ public school system (it’s a wealthy town/ district so that could happen). So I would challenge them on how it made any sense to do business that undermined our local schools. I’d press them a little on that to glean whether they only care about the dozen yrs their own kids are in the system. I’d also want to understand the big picture: do hedge-funders really believe there’s a lot of money to be made off education, or is this more a case of– whatever the nice phrase is for making a quick buck before moving on to something else.
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Makes sense. But there are groups who want to change the focus of investing—-and if you can paint the picture that public schools are a better investment than charters, isn’t that progress? If they listen?
http://www.croataninstitute.org/about-us
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Joanna, the group you link to has nothing to do with public education, so to offer it as a possible justification for the behavior of hedge fund operators in education is a non-sequitur.
As for your final point, “they” will never listen, precisely because public education by definition has limited profit potential. Privatizing schools and monetizing children, on the other hand, can provide almost infinite opportunities to profit, and that’s why they’ve infested the schools.
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Michael–
my point in the link is that investing can grow in a positive direction, which might eventually include realizing the need for public school. I think there is such a void right now in connecting the notion of sustainability with public school. But I believe sustainability in communities does depend on public school and that smart investors will soon realize that. It’s a matter of time.
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“I just don’t know what the way out of this tension and hostile takeover of public ed is”
The first thing is to realize that it is indeed a “hostile takeover” and those doing the takeover have no intentions of dialogue or debate. They must be defeated, plain and simple as anything less is more destruction of children. This is not time to “play nice”. When they punch us in the gut we need to gouge out their eyes and kick em in the crotch (rhetorically speaking at the moment, hopefully it never gets to the literal).
The “tension” can be used in a positive way to motivate oneself to never give in to those who seek to destroy public education so that they may make more than a pretty penny while disregarding the welfare of the most innocent in society, the children.
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Duane, define the “punches in the gut” and “they.”
If the legislature in a state follows reform pathways, like modeling legislation after Florida, for example, is the legislature “they,” and is that a “punch in the gut?”
It seems like there are so many things that could be considered punches, that it can be hard to sort them out. What’s a punch, and what’s a measure of educational improvement? I have come to the conclusion that any legislation that directly affects classroom practice might be legislative overreach, but I can’t really find anyone who wants to discuss that (so far).
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Carlin tells it only like he could:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMqJvhmD5Yg
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Joanna,
Was posting the Carlin clip while you posted your response to me.
I thoroughly agree with your thought of legislative overreach. Do the legislators do the same to engineers, lawyers, nurses, dentists, docs??? Of course not.
I’m currently putting together all the state constitution rationales for public education and it is quite interesting to look through all fifty. Wyoming probably has the greatest overreach, just look up its constitution concerning education, ay ay ay!
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Ah cool. I’d like to see that.
Ok. So doesn’t the conversation everywhere need to shift to legislative overreach?
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I seriously doubt that there are hoards of welfare recipients purchasing high price sound systems. Some hard factual information is in order. That being said, let’s talk about people who generally have to live paycheck to paycheck and/or depend on some sort of assistance. On that rare occasion where such individuals might find themselves ahead of the bills, is it not understandable that some people will spend it on something they will never have otherwise? Extra cash does not lay around for long. Food, clothes, housing, transportation, healthcare will eat it up real fast. There are no savings for the future in their lives. Is it so wrong for them to want what we take for granted? From another perspective, I believe that as a percentage of income church congregations serving poor communities give a larger percentage to mission than their wealthier counterparts. I grew up in a community where your worldview (overstatement, I know) was the norm. The myth of the welfare queen has been debunked; it is patently unfair to characterize welfare recipients in such a way no matter how poorly we think they manage their meager finances. Since I suspect that neither one of us has ever come close to experiencing abject poverty I suspect that both of our views do not come close to encompassing the reality of living in poverty. I am sorry if I sound holier than thou. I don’t intend to do so. It has taken me a long time to form these opinions, and I am not sure what it means to act on them.
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2old, that’s not my world view. I am offering up discussion points.
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Joanna, unlike you, I don’t stereotype ALL hedge funders as being like the cheaters in the Galleon Group getting rich from insider trading even though I suspect that the billions made by those kind of “rule bendings” among people who work at hedge funds is far more than is spent by welfare recipients on purchasing “big sound systems and tvs”. There are rich, poor, and middle class people who make bad choices in how to spend their money, but most of us do make good choices, just like most welfare recipients do. I am sure you don’t think most hedge funders are like the Galleon Group or many of the other hedge funds where the “low-level” employees somehow managed to make tens of millions of dollars via insider trading without their bosses knowing it. Or is that your point? It makes me question your desire to start a real conversation. I also wonder why you are so certain that the same poor folks who purchase big screen tvs are not ALSO taking their children to museums. Frankly, your post is offensive — you may not have meant it to be, but it was.
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I did not stereotype hedge funders; I based the premise of my argument on the post and previous comments.
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NYC, did not mean to offend. Trying to discuss based on points I hear from various sources. None of them mine, really.
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Joanna, how about your ask your hedge fund friends why they support the charter schools that don’t educate the students most failed by public education? You do realize that a high % of your hedge fund friends’ donations go to a charter school chain that routinely gives out of school suspensions to Kindergarten and first graders — but only the poor ones, you will be happy to know. And that is spending millions of dollars to open schools in middle class neighborhoods to “compete” with decent public schools for the students of affluent college-educated parents. And that do NOT give any lottery priority to the students they claim to care about — low-income students with only failing public schools. It’s hard to understand the “charitable” mission of those donations, but I suppose if you consider that undermining a decent neighborhood school is a charitable endeavor, then I suppose you can credit your hedge fund buddies for that.
I understand that if your friends gave their money to a charter school that actually does keep all their students and tries to educate them — even those pesky students who struggle academically that their favorite charter school counsels out — they won’t get to go to fancy galas and hear celebrities like Jeb Bush and Campbell Brown speak and praise them for their donations. And if your hedge fund friends gave money to the charter schools that actually give PRIORITY to the low-income students who are most failed by public schools it wouldn’t do much to undermine the good public schools would it? Because they’d be helping the students who had FAILING public schools, and apparently, that’s just not that important to them when they can donate to a charter school chain that wanted to open a THIRD school in the wealthiest school district in Manhattan (District 2) before opening a SECOND school in District 7 or District 9 in the Bronx! Because you know, they already have ONE school in each of those Bronx districts, so their job is done! And now it’s important to focus on midtown Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn to “help” all those affluent kids.
I doubt it bothers you that the charter schools that get the millions in donations are NOT the ones most focused on educating the poor students failed by public education. But since you castigate their parents as wanting to buy television sets instead of taking them to museums, I assume you, like Eva Moskowitz, have decided that those kind of families are just “not your kind” and it’s up to the public schools to deal with them. They have “better” families to appeal to, right? But then, you didn’t mean to offend, did you?
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SCENE: A grandfather and grandson are fishing in a river.
GRANDSON: Yesterday Daniel Loeb said I was prejudiced.
GRANDFATHER: Do you know what prejudice is?
GRANDSON: No.
GRANDFATHER: Well, prejudice is when you react to someone because of their religion, or their color, or whether they pool capital from a number of investors and invest capital that in securities and other instruments.
GRANDSON: But I don‘t do that.
GRANDFATHER: Who is Daniel Loeb?
GRANDSON: He is my hedge fund friend.
GRANDFATHER: Then you are prejudiced, because you think of Daniel Loeb as your hedge fund friend, and not your friend.
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NYC Parent,
you have me characterized all wrong.
I said that I did not agree with charter school hedge fund investing. I said that from the beginning.
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FLERP—
that’s ridiculous.
I qualified that I know people who work in hedge funds. That is not the only way I identify them, but for the purpose of DISCUSSION, I did because that’s what this post is about. If I notice someone is a teacher, does that mean I’m prejudiced because I notice they’re a teacher? Since when did becoming pro-public education mean that you have to believe everyone in finance is evil and if you qualify a person by what they do, you are prejudiced.
In my opinion, everyone who is reacting to my comments with emotion doesn’t want discussion. They just want to shout and echo stuff. They want pats on the back that they are right and they want empathy. No harm, no foul. I want discussion. We want different things from the blog experience.
I want discussion. I don’t want to say, “oh, they are evil but we are good.” Or to say, “I don’t notice anything about anyone because then I would be prejudice.”
I want to find answers. I do. And I won’t apologize for that or for the fact that I know people in various circles, including hedge funds. I thought this blog was a place to find discussion that leads to answers. ????
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Just a joke, Joanna. The phrase “hedge fund friends” struck my funny bone, and reminded me of the old public service announcement about prejudice. (If you don’t remember it, the money line in the ad was “Jimmy is my Jewish friend.”)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG1xIjtutqI
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You did hit a sore point that unfortunately has spilled over on you, but hedge fund managers have really had plenty of time to see that charter schools are not fulfilling their promises if their goal is to support quality educational opportunities. Their whole model of investment makes them suspect. Schools are not something to be flipped for a profit. Plus, when charters are so heavily pushed that public schools are stripped of resources, human and material, one really has to question whether they care about the children as much as they do about profit. If they want to do good, then let them do what the rest of us do: write a check to their charity of choice or go volunteer. I understand the desire to help the kids who are easiest to “get up to speed,” but is it really fair to do it at the expense of those who need more support? If their motives are pure, why not provide services that will impact those least able to care for themselves instead of indirectly encouraging the diminishment of such services by taking resources from already strapped public schools? It is really a game to them. Unfortunately even when they win, we can lose. I have really not heard anything that would lead me to believe that they support public schools. If you have, I would like to hear it. I suspect that some of those charter school hedge fund people live in my community and may even send their kids to our top notch public schools. We don’t have charters.
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OK, got it, FLERP. 🙂 I do find you generally level-headed and not emotional, so glad to see I can still characterize you that way. FLERP, the non-emotional-possibly-open-for-discussion frequenter of the Ravitch blog towards which I am totally prejudiced because I like discussion.
I’m a preacher’s daughter, remember? hate the sin, but not the sinner. That was, really, my point in my original post. I had just come from church, afterall (yesterday was Sunday). AND I had just finished the chapter in SYCAMORE ROW where the father of the two boys killed by Simeon the drunk driver forgave him. And it was beautiful and I wanted to share the emotion.
More whup-ass, as Michael put it. For me, as a southern female, whup-ass means you listen a lot. I wanted to listen to what others thought, and instead I got a lot of mocking and taunting and emotion.
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Thank you, @NYC public school parent. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
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Link to the article is broken.
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It’s a class based club that has been becoming the new ruling class. No longer WASP or even simply an “old boys” network, it is a new ruling class of meritocratic excellent elite who know nothing than their own subcultural “Ghetto of the Mind.”
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RICHES, n.
A gift from Heaven signifying, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”
—John D. Rockefeller
The reward of toil and virtue.
—J.P. Morgan
The savings of many in the hands of one.
—Eugene Debs
To these excellent definitions the inspired lexicographer feels that he can add nothing of value.
From The Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce.
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Great job opportunity in Fullerton California for a Superintendent who wants to work in one of the best districts in the nation. Please apply. We do not want to repeat the same mistakes of Florida. We are just beginning the testing process and we have a Governor who is on record of NOT BEING IN FAVOR OF NATIONAL TESTING.
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Looting the Pension Funds: All across America, Wall Street is grabbing money meant for public workers
(By Matt Taibbi)
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“They pour millions into lobbying for charters (and in some states, vouchers) because they are kind.”
Do not weep, fair maiden, for corporate education reform is kind.
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Codename applied to Murdoch and the Wall Street:
S.D.I.(Sick, Delusional, Ignorant)
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