Ken Derstine is a blogger in Philadelphia:
Divide and Conquer: The Philadelphia Story
By Ken Derstine
Everyone concerned about corporate education reform and the influence of various venture “philanthropists” in their drive to privatize public schools should be following the Democratic primary on May 19th for the next mayor of Philadelphia. Neoliberal and conservative financiers, in a drive to make Philadelphia public schools like the New Orleans school system, are investing millions of dollars in the mayoral race.
Most prominent is the Susquehanna Investment Group (SIG) that is funding state Senator Anthony Williams. SIG made an initial investment of $250,000 for television ads at the beginning of his campaign. In the final weeks of the campaign, they have boosted their funding to $800,000 per week.
The Susquehanna Investment Group makes no bones that their goal is the privatization of public schools in Philadelphia. For a full description of SIG see #Hedgepapers No. 11 – High Frequency Hucksters
The other major contender in the Philadelphia mayoral election is Democratic City Councilman James Kenney. Kenney has no problem with the expansion of charters as long as the state reimburses for their cost.
Williams backers, beside the outside financial interests investing millions in Williams campaign, include Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity, and union leadership of sheet metal workers, laborers, operating engineers, and transit workers.
Kenney has been endorsed by much of the Democratic Party machine in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia local AFL-CIO leadership, including the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and a carpenters union, State Representative Dwight Evans and a coalition of African American leaders.
The splintering of Philadelphia’s labor movement is in marked contrast to 1973, when the PFT was on strike for 7 ½ weeks, the teachers union leadership and dozens of PFT members were jailed for contempt of court without bail, but the strike ended with a victory for the teachers as the city labor movement was preparing a general strike in support of the teachers.
On April 30th, Philadelphia political activist Helen Gym who is running on the Democratic ticket for a City Council-at-Large seat, criticized the Susquehanna billionaires for trying to buy Philadelphia’s election. Gym was viciously attacked at an April 30th rally by Antony Williams for “duplicity” and a personal attack was made on some of her supporters. Williams was joined in the attack by School Reform Commission member Bill Green. Green is a former Democratic City Councilman who was appointed by former Governor Corbett to the SRC. Rather than administer the beleaguered School District, he is taking sides in the mayoral election to promote his privatization agenda and his attack on Philadelphia teachers. See Bill Green’s Education Agenda: Hidden in Plan Sight | Defend Public Education
On May 3rd, Williams was endorsed by the Editorial Board of the Philadelphia Inquirer. They said the deciding factor was Kenney’s union support. Critics of the endorsement pointed out that the Inquirer is owned by Gerry Lenfest who is strongly pro-charter, a supporter of Teach for America, and corporate education reform as a whole. Reports are that the endorsement caused a lot of dissension on the staff at the Inquirer. Asked if she was concerned, Williams campaign spokeswomen Barbara Grant said in a statement “that Kenney and his allies will learn that both the Inquirer editorial board and voters don’t think that Kenney’s union supporters “need a seat in the mayor’s office.”
Both State Senator Williams and State Representative Evans support the Education Improvement Tax Credit Program. This program is a form of voucher that gives businesses a tax credit for providing scholarships for students to attend private or parochial schools in lieu of paying state taxes that would be going to public schools. This method of circumventing the Pennsylvania Constitutional mandate which says government cannot fund sectarian schools was pioneered by Florida Governor Jeb Bush after vouchers were declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court. Funding for Florida’s Corporate Income Tax Credit Scholarships program has risen dramatically since its inceptions.
Both Williams and Evans are on the board of the Black Alliance for Education Options. Its founder, former civil rights activist Howard Fuller, has been a promoter of vouchers and charters in low-income communities since August 24, 2000. Among its funders are the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Institute for the Transformation of Learning, and the Walton Family Foundation.
On February 5, 2015, Fuller participated on a panel at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute during which he said, “We (BAEO) wouldn’t exist without John Walton and this is one of the reasons I love that man.” Fuller is indifferent to the fact that the money given to BAEO by the Walton Foundation comes from the low-wage exploitation of Walmart workers!
The state takeover of the Philadelphia School District in 2001 grew out of a civil rights lawsuit in1998 in which the city of Philadelphia charged that Pennsylvania funding practices discriminated against non-white students. In retaliation, the legislature passed Act 46 that set up a School Reform Commission that eventually took over the School District in 2001. The city withdrew the lawsuit when it was given two of the five seats on the SRC. The architect of the Act 46 was Philadelphia Representative Dwight Evans who was chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
Both PA Representative Dwight Evans and PA Senator Anthony Williams are on the board of the Black Alliance for Education Options. On the BAEO website it says:
“In Pennsylvania, the support and leadership of BAEO board members Representative Dwight Evans and Senator Anthony Williams were crucial to the creation, protection, and expansion of the tax credit and charter programs. They were also instrumental in passing the law that led to the state takeover of the School District of Philadelphia, which has led to an increase in quality educational options for poor families.”
Like Williams, Evans has tried to start charters schools while he voted on education legislation as a Philadelphia Representative in Harrisburg. In 2011 he came into conflict with Broad Foundation board member Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman over which charter company should take ownership of Martin Luther King High School. The clash led to a chain of events that lead to Ackerman’s resignation as Superintendent.
Early this year a pro-charter, anti-public school political organization descended on Philadelphia. Philly School Choice has appeared to counter-protest rallies of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and to organize parents with children in charter schools to speak at SRC meetings in support of charter expansion. It does not reveal its funding sources, but it’s leader, Bob Bowden, is well known in right-wing libertarian, corporate privatization circles.
On August 30, 2014 Bob Bowden interviewed Senator Anthony Williams about his agenda. State Senator Anthony Williams Discusses School Choice with Bob Bowden | Change the Game (video)
Many of the American civil rights leaders of the ‘60’s, like Howard Fuller, have followed in the footsteps of Booker T. Washington, and made their peace with the 1%. They promote a corporate education reform that undermines the civil rights gains of the ‘60’s. National leadership of groups like the National Urban League and NAACP have sold out for a price to the 1% and joined the promotion of the privatization of public schools. The Broad Foundation has trained urban superintendents, many from minority communities, to turn urban school districts over to private interests. (See “Who is Eli Broad and why is he trying to destroy public education?”)
The National Urban League has received $5,286,017 from Gates over the last few years.
Gates Foundation Awarded Grants
Put other organizations, like BAEO, NAACP, AFT, etc., in the search window to see what they have received from the Gates Foundation.
The infusion of corporate and hedge fund money into all levels of government for the purpose of privatizing public education is a grave danger to democratic rights in the United States. Recently twenty-five civil rights groups joined Arne Duncan and endorsed the continuation of standardized testing in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA). This is a direct response to the burgeoning Opt Out movement where parents are saying they do not want their children to be used in the national social experiment being undertaken by corporate education reform.
As part of her collaboration with corporate education reform, Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers has endorsed the call for annual testing in ESEA. On a panel at the recent conference of the Network for Public Education, Weingarten said of standardized testing (47:04 in the video):
“We are fighting for a reset to get rid of high stakes. The civil rights community and the President of the United States of America is fighting very hard to have annual tests for one purpose. They have seen in states for years that if they didn’t have them that states would ignore children. They agree with us now that they have been misused, but they fought very hard in the last few months to actually have annual tests as opposed to grade span (in ESEA).”
A few days after the NPE conference, Weingarten spoke in support of Common Core at event sponsored by supporters of Common Core.
It is not necessary to torture children with standardized testing in order to see if a school needs funding. All you need to do is look at the income level of families in a school and you will know what funding is needed to meet the needs of students at that school. In addition to testing company profits, standardized testing is used by corporate education reformers to decide which public schoolsshould be “turned around” to charters to advance a privatization agenda.
Based on the experience of the oppressive conditions in many urban areas, the explosion in Baltimore against police repression to those fighting the oppression is causing many youth to reject the social and political forms that have been holding them down. The fragmentation of the Democratic Party in Philadelphia is a harbinger of great changes coming nationally. Nature abhors a vacuum. A political party with a program that meets the needs of the 99% needs to be built out of the struggles on which the youth have embarked so we do not descend into a social disaster.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Again, I would draw your attention to the DemocracyNow program today, Friday, on charters. You might even pass the info around. It is on the internet, accessible and contains a lot of information gleaned from extensive research.
The Democracy Now! program on charters:
As Obama Admin Seeks More Funding for Charter Schools, Questions Raised over Billions Already Spent
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/8/as_obama_admin_seeks_more_funding
I live in Philadelphia. For 12 years, I worked for the School District of Philadelphia, first as a teacher and then as a special education liaison. While I would like to believe otherwise, I fear the future of the District as a sovereign entity is bleak.
The PFT is emasculated. Every budget relies heavily on subsidies from the state. City Council wrestles annually with how to patch holes in the budget. Enormous amounts of back taxes lie in limbo instead of being applied to the District’s problems. Charters are bleeding money from what scant budgets exist.
Meanwhile, public support is threadbare. Decades worth of reform efforts have resulted in precious little progress among students. Schools can only fix so much. The worst schools serve disenfranchised residents who have little voice and often choose not to use what voice they have.
I’ve held the opinion for several years that the District in its current form may die before 2020. In truth, it might be too large to function the way it is funded. Several smaller districts might work, but the tax structure to support them would be difficult to determine. What seems more likely is a gradual growth growth of privatization that eventually takes over the majority of the city’s schools. The charter movement in Philadelphia is heading that way.
A form of privatization is happening now with the District. Union therapist positions are being outsourced to private contractors. One could easily see this extended to almost any other position—including teachers. PFT members are already forbidden from striking. Future negotiations could lose some bite if the District is able to replace vast numbers of union positions with private scabs. There would be no shortage of takers.
Before such a gutting takes place, charters might simply take over by volume. They’re expanding every year. A true replacement of the District by charters could be limited logistical issues, though. Tax support might be the biggest barrier. Infrastructure (bussing, facilities maintenance) would be, um, interesting with dozens of disparate charters. Some that are funded by massive companies would succeed, but others might be too small and mismanaged to survive.
If logistical issues could be overcome, the city might get to find out what city of charter schools would be like. A few charters in Philadelphia do a wonderful job. These tend to be the ones with big corporate backing. Others are miserable. Chances are, if this happens, a few companies will run the whole show. What I wonder is how much worse this will be than the current School District of Philadelphia. Doing worse would be difficult.
Once again, it’s not a drive to privatize — that would mean converting public schools into private schools.
It’s a drive to monetize public schools while keeping the taxpayer cashflow flowing — flowing like an open artery without a tourniquet. Without the infusion of public dollars it’s not really worth their investment, or else they could just invest in bona fide private schools.
It’s not privatization, it’s piratization.
Two years ago Jersey Jazzman had a post about this:
U.S. Census Bureau: Most charters not “public schools”
It’s official: according to the US Census Bureau, most charter schools are not “public”:
“Charter Schools
The data in this report include only those charter schools established and administratively controlled by another government entity (e.g., universities, cities, counties, or public school systems). The data for these “public charter schools” are collected as separate, individual units, or are included with the data for their chartering government. Charter schools that do not meet the Census Bureau criteria for classification as a government entity are considered “private charter schools” and are not included in this report.
In order for a charter school to be classified as a “public charter school,” it must meet the same requirements as any other government. It must be an organized entity, with substantial autonomy, and governmental character. Typically, if the school board is appointed by public officials, then the charter school would be classified as governmental. A few “public charter schools” are run by public universities and municipalities. However, most charter schools are run by private nonprofit organizations and are therefore classified as private. [emphasis mine]”
– See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/05/us-census-bureau-most-charters-not.html#sthash.smOndbyE.dpuf
I agree with your overall point, but would make one correction/distinction:
The “privatize” in school privatization refers to the non-elected school boards, and corporate style of management that mirror private sector corporations. Things like hire and fire at will, merit pay, with a focus on outcomes such as test scores, as opposed to inputs like a teacher’s experience, or degree level come from the “private” sector. It does not refer to private as in a private school.
Privatizing and monetizing are the same thing, and I agree they are like pirates, or Vandals busting open markets for the booty and plunder . It is an aggressive corporate raid of a public trust.
What they are seeking is a sweetheart scheme analogous to the Defense Industry Model (DIM).
We do not speak of “privatizing the military”, for all the public dollars that are sucked up by the private, obscenely profitable corporations of the Military Industrial Complex. The armed forces labor pool itself operates on the pay and benefit scales of slave labor, forbidden by law in the “National Interest” from unionizing. That is what will become of the teaching troops.
Meanwhile, funding policy and strategic decisions are made entirely behind closed doors with nothing but the most insulting token joke of “Oversight” by prostituted “representatives” of the Public.
Thank you Jon, It is worth to repeat and pass around to remind each other, your wise expression:
“It’s a drive to monetize public schools while keeping the taxpayer cashflow flowing — flowing like an open artery without a tourniquet. Without the INFUSION OF PUBLIC DOLLARS it’s not really worth their investment, or else they could just invest in bona fide private schools.
It’s not privatization, it’s PIRATization. Back2basic
Actually, privatizing large portions of the military through private contracts such as (formerly) Blackwater is a goal as is privatizing prisons.
The economic guru for the privatization of public education is the late economist Milton Friedman. His theories are the basis of much of corporate education reform. See his paper: Public Schools: Make Them Private http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-023.html
See Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine to see what implementation of his theories have done to much of the world. http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine
You are 1000% on target here Jon. They have no desire to run a major school system. They just want to leech off it. A lot of the moola and none of the accountability.
Links for this post can be found at Defend Public Education! at:
http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/divide-and-conquer-the-philade/
Phil: Great point re: Friedman. However, there is no better book regarding the impact of Friedman on education that “The Origins of the Common School: How the Free Market Became Public Education Policy.” There is a whole chapter analyzing Friedman and education and points out how Friedman’s ideas are the well-spring of what he considered “fee market” education reform. If there is a better one let me know because I want to read it.
Thanks!
The residents of Philadelphia must vote for Helen Gym with the hopes she can restore some sanity to the conversation. Supporters of public schools should call for a moratorium on charter school expansion which, from all accounts, has failed to deliver on its promise.
You’re right: monetization is the more accurate term. A complete replacement of a school district the size of Philadelphia couldn’t happen without public money. Charters in the city could conceivably outnumber publics and become a default district of their own, but they could only do so while funded by something resembling the existing tax structure.
But if they contract out every service they’ll lower wages across the board and save a lot of money. You won’t necessarily get better services but each employee will be paid less.
They could actually make teachers independent contractors, which is the next race to the bottom step. Contractors don’t even have the legal protections that come with employee status. In 2010 ed reformers in the Ohio House quietly inserted an independent contractor provision in a STEM charter bill- the (alleged) reason was they could pull employees out of STEM fields and into teaching. It disappeared from the bill as mysteriously as it appeared when it was discovered.
I actually think contracting out services a vicious cycle, because people who don’t make any money don’t have any money to spend, but it will “work” for a while. They’ll have “public services” and they’ll have a budget. By the time anyone figures out they’ve reduced the total income in those neighborhoods. this batch of politicians will be in the private sector.
Great post and happy to read such detailed and informed information. Who is getting the word to a broader audience than Choir members of the Ravitching rebels reviewing reformative ridiculousness? And we ourselves are a “highly effective” bunch. Thanks to you Diane!
The education system will be collateralized for Wall Street trading. Imagine bundled securities of taxpayer funded schools, derivatives and leveraged debt on such, risk being managed on assets complete with Moody ratings. Unregulated hedge funds need to get those returns, somehow. It really is genius considering Wall Street is watched closer on the mortgage markets. Bad for schools, though. Corinthian could just be a canary in the mine like LTCM or Brooksley Born was for finance markets.
These Wall Street guys didn’t change the tune, they just play now in a different key.
Excellent paragraph of analysis, MathVale. Yes, the stock and the bond markets will come up with CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) and probably other forms of derivatives to couple Pearson and Apple (and their like) as in LA, and Standard and Poor’s plus Moody’s will give FALSE triple A ratings to school construction bonds with hidden language saying this public funding, ostensibly for new schools and/or school repairs, may be used to purchase iPads and software to support CC testing, and to build and finance charter schools. These bonds would be bundled with legit instruments and sold world wide. And the indebtedness would fall to the public to pay over 30 years with compounded interest.
Please everyone, learn from LAUSD which is frantically trying to undo contracts that the former Supt. Deasy seems to have rigged with these companies.
Brooksley Born came before Congress in 2007-8 and gave testimony about the swaps and other derivatives and how the Fed was not being open…but Greenspan and many Congressmen derided her, even though she was spot on. We have Elizabeth Warren maybe as the latest canary (certainly not Yellen), but she is not as open about the potential frauds of the public school privatizers as Born was about the ‘too big to fail’ banks and their fraudulent bundled mortgages (credit default swaps). And then, as now, the DoJ will do little to protect citizens, kids and students, and taxpayers, no matter if the Prez is Dem or Repub…remember history.
Good piece about the political campaign to expand charter schools in Connecticut.
The Democratic governor is, of course, enthusiastically promoting charters while remaining carefully “agnostic” on public schools, so as not to offend his political backers in The Movement:
“Malloy, a democrat, addressed the rally Thursday, saying, “We should not be dividing ourselves by what type of school or who runs the school. But we [need] to have great schools for all of our students, and that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do.”
Blah, blah, blah. “Great schools for all students” as long as they’re charter schools. .
Maybe the public school kids can hire an advocate. The Agnostics aren’t going to help them any.
Ken does an excellent job of investigation and research on so many issues affecting education. He is a treasure.
I agree with Lisa. Ken’s research is meticulous and relentless. We are lucky to have him in Philly.
On another note, here is a video of David Brian, Entertainment Properties Trust president & CEO, explains why investing in charters is a smart move.
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000109398
Great journalism and reporting, Ken Derstine is an astute observer of education and politics in Philadelphia and his blog posts are illuminating, always
It’s painful to read though
thx Ken
Thank you Ken Dirstine very much for the thorough information of how CHARTER SCHOOLS are formed and expanded at the expense of public money (= local taxes).
[start quote]
Beginning and ending (MY EMPHASIS) with both PA Representative Dwight Evans and PA Senator Anthony Williams who were CRUCIAL TO the creation, protection, and expansion of the tax credit and charter programs.
They were also instrumental in passing the law that led to the state takeover of the School District of Philadelphia by the legislature PASSED “”Act 46″” that set up a School Reform Commission that eventually took over the School District in 2001.
The ARCHITECT OF THE ACT 46 was Philadelphia Representative DWIGHT EVANS who was CHAIR OF THE HOUSE Appropriations Committee.
Many of the American civil rights leaders of the ‘60’s, like Howard Fuller, have followed in the footsteps of Booker T. Washington, and made their peace with the 1%. They promote a corporate education reform that undermines the civil rights gains of the ‘60’s. National leadership of groups like the National Urban League and NAACP have sold out for a price to the 1% and joined the promotion of the privatization of public schools. The Broad Foundation has trained urban superintendents, many from minority communities, to turn urban school districts over to private interests. (See “Who is Eli Broad and why is he trying to destroy public education?”)
The National Urban League has received $5,286,017 from Gates over the last few years
.
Gates Foundation Awarded Grants
Put other organizations, like BAEO, NAACP, AFT, etc., in the search window to see what they have received from the Gates Foundation.
THE INFUSION of corporate and hedge fund money INTO ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT for the purpose of PRIVATIZING PUBLIC EDUCATION is a GRAVE DANGER to DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS in the United States.
[end quote]
As long as Americans still have Dr. Ravitch, all veteran “”GURUS”” educators in this website, the author of this post, Mr. Ken Dirstine, sooner or later, Charter expansion cannot move any further upon the EXILED corporate backers due to their TAX INVASION in the view of the Supreme Court Judge with conscience. (I cannot predict how and when this would come true!)
Whenever people are well cultivated in order to realize that
1) Our mind cannot control or discipline our BAD habits (eat more sugar, exercise less, and deprive sleepiness, short break, relaxation…), our body will break down with all kind of illness (diabetes, heart-attack/stroke, Parkinson/Alzheimer…)
2) Our family head like parents who are selfishly and busy looting material gain for their own EGO, their children will be bad or good dependent on the influence of their private or public teachers, cicrle of friends and acquaintances, and their own innate karma.
3) Our authority leaders are short sighted, greedy, and blindly trust empty promises from INTENTIONALLY greedy AND “”cold bloody”” CALCULATED mind of many different backgrounds in business corporations, many young generations will SUFFER in living in “”the”” well designated SOCIAL DISASTER (see history and documentary about living under the grip of devil in all Chinese revolutions and civil wars for 5000 years +, or like Russia of today, North Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, India, …
In conclusion, being leaders with conscience, or clear minds with kindness, people will treasure and value their INNER PEACE, and HEALTH much more than chase after the impermanent material world of wealth, ego and lust for fame to become INVALID body and mind in the end (Could anyone realize that Former Female England Prime Minister, Former US President R. Reagan, President G. Bush Sr have one illness in common: “Alzheimer”?)
If it is not because of illness, all authority leaders who intentionally shake hand and make a deal with devil, WILL NEVER ESCAPE the devil’s grip. They all end up with assassination or being trapped/exposed as being sexual pervert, or drug user, or whatever devil can come up with in order to get on with their way – destroy democracy, destroy public education, smear dignity of whoever in their way like teachers, journalist, radio hosts, local government officials, lawyers and judges… whenever these professions reveal devils’ bad intention. Back2basic