Educators tend to be child-centered and attentive to the needs of classrooms for adequate resources. Having been teachers, they are usually unwilling to support attacks on the teaching profession.
So where do rightwing governors find people to lead their state’s education department? Here is one major source: Teach for America.
When Bobby Jindal of Louisiana needed someone to lead his agenda for vouchers, charters, and anti-teacher proposals, he selected John White (TFA).
When Bill Haslam of Tennessee wanted someone to push the rightwing agenda, he chose Kevin Huffman (TFA).
When Terry Branstad of Iowa wanted someone to push his rightwing agenda, he chose Ryan Wise (TFA).
When North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory needed an education advisor to promote his extremist, anti-public school agenda, he chose Eric Guckian (TFA).
Let us not forget Michelle Rhee (TFA), who served a mayor, not a governor and was especially vitriolic towards teachers and unions. Her organization StudentsFirst has funded candidates who support privatization.
What is it about TFA that produces leaders who want to privatize public education and crush the teaching profession?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In Colorado – Director of Stand for Children – TFA, Chief of Staff for Senator Michael Johnston – TFA just to name a couple…
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& Sen. Michael Johnston, TFA…
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TFA is a pipeline for developing right-wing anti-public education “leaders.” The right-wing pipeline began 35 years ago to develop political assets which can overwhelm the public sector with private-sector leadership. SCOTUS appointments came out of young assets identified by the Washington Legal Foundation. Media assets were trained also. The famous “Powell Memo” Aug. 23, 1971 can be Googled as the foundational call-to-arms for a right-wing counter-attack against the democratic mass movements of that time. Billionaires and foundations invested heavily in bringing Powell’s agenda to fruition which we are now living under.
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Tyrants For Austerity
I suppose Broad can’t crank ’em out fast enough .. yet …
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I don’t know, but does basic competency matter?
“A parent we spoke with today expressed her frustration as she is now trying to enroll her daughter in 9th grade in another school, but is unable to get anyone from the school or the sponsor to answer her calls as she needs a copy of her daughter’s transcript and her IEP. These documents are just a small part of her daughter’s entire student record that she needs to obtain in order to get her daughter properly enrolled and you would think that a “public school” like FCI Academy would be required to provide these documents to a parent. That doesn’t appear to be the case as they are locked up inside a closed building where no one seems to want to help.”
“On another note, we’re not quite sure why the building is locked down and no one seems to be working there as they have already received, according to Ohio Department of Education (ODE) Payment Reports, over $395,000 in state funding for this school year.”
Really? A note on the door the first day of school telling people it’s closed? Thank God they haven’t closed all the public schools in that particular area. Now these kids can just be shifted to the unfashionable, much-maligned public sector schools and no one will hold anyone in power accountable. Political disaster averted! I realize they have “relinquished” public schools to contractors, but doesn’t that just mean they don’t do their jobs?
http://www.plunderbund.com/2015/08/27/columbus-charter-school-shutters-doors-where-are-student-records-where-is-395000-in-funding/
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That’s why it is important to vote.
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The management hierarchies in public education had always been rather flat in the past. But you can’t build the really big pyramids if any old Moses can become Pharaoh.
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“Here’s how the money flows under the current model: Ohio gave Newark City Schools $4,523 per student last school year. That amount is calculated based on many factors, including how much the district can collect in local property taxes.
But if a student goes to a charter school instead, the district must contribute nearly $6,000 for his education. Because more money is spent on the exiting charter school students, students who are left get less money: about $4,240 per pupil, according to estimates from left-leaning think tank Innovation Ohio.
That calculation isn’t completely fair, said Chad Aldis, vice president for Ohio policy and advocacy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which sponsors charter schools. Charter schools don’t receive any local money to educate students and little for facilities. A 2014 University of Arkansas study showed Ohio’s charter schools received 22 percent less money than traditional schools.”
Are they completely innumerate at the Fordham Institute? Of course charter schools are receiving “local money”. When Newark City schools shifts $6000 to charters from the state share of $4,240 the difference between those two numbers IS local money. It can’t be anything else. There’s just the state share and the local funding. The only other alternative explanation is the public school child is OUT 2k in their share of state funding.
What they’ve done is shift local funding to charter schools using a back door method. If 4 comes in and 6 goes out the public school is down 2.
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/news/local/2015/08/27/charters-steal-money-local-students/71285892/
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I object to “Right wing”, Diane. There has been no bigger promoter of these folks than the Obama Administration. To listen to them, one would think there were three places where public education exists- New Orleans, DC and Tennessee. Oddly, they leave IL, OH, PA and MI out of all “analysis”. Some inconvenient ed reform debacles happening in those states.
http://tn.chalkbeat.org/2014/09/05/memphis-is-final-stop-on-education-secretary-arne-duncans-back-to-school-tour/#.VeBsMpfxeSo
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Yes! Cuomo (NY), Malloy (CT), and Ktitzhaber (OR) are Democratic Governors whose track records on education reform are at least as bad as the cadre of Tea Party governors that washed up on the shores of southern and midwestern states in 2010.
Advocates of public education are truly political orphans. If we make the mistake of framing this as a partisan issue we give aide and comfort to the wolves in Democrats clothing who are seeking to destroy public schools.
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I totally agree. If education becomes just a partisan issue we are doomed. Way too many politicians of both parties are bought out by the special interests. However, one must look at where the emphases are in both parties on issues of public good and not focus just on educational issues as vitally important as they are. We ALL know that most of the problems in education are caused by failure to address societal problems. Yes, moneyed interests have pushed for corporate charters and both parties have been unduly influenced by them but educators must be cognizant of the total political spectrum and not be sidetracked by a single issue, again, as vitally important as that may be.
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The vandalism and looting are bipartisan, often promoted by people who claim a pwogwessive background and agenda, and are based on Overclass consensus and investment that sets the agenda for the two legacy parties, mainstream media (especially including purported “liberal”outlets like NPR and public television, which are unrelenting loudspeakers for so-called education reform, intended to set the terms of debate for that audience) and captive academics.
That consensus is that the schools are to be privatized, students monetized, and teachers turned into powerless, semi-skilled temps.
Calling the hostile takeover of public education a right wing project was once, quite a while ago, accurate, but no longer is, and gives a erroneous picture of the forces arrayed against public education.
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Chiara. I read this article in the Cincinnati Enquirer. There is no mention of the Walton Endowed source of the study cited by the charter friendly Fordham Institute. The Walton-endowed Department of Educational Reform at the University of Arkansas exists to promote charter schools, TFA and to dismantle public education under the banner of “choice.” The methodology of the study is bizarre. A coherent methodology for the study was impossible because the charter industry works to prevent public records. The study was thoroughly criticized by the scholars at NEPC. Ohio bookkeeping and reporting requirements for charter schools are so obscure that the quoted comparisons are absurd. In addition to endowing a whole department at the University of Arkansas to hype charters,TFAs, and privatization, the Walton philanthropy has invested $359 million to start 1,600 charter schools, $300 million for advocacy, $93 million for TFA, and $56 million for TFA. There is not even a whisper of mention of the for-profit charters in Ohio and trail of frauds.
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Thanks. They are ignoring a basic fact, and because it is so basic I have to conclude they are choosing to ignore it.
If the state share to a public school student is 4k and each charter school student receives 6k that 2k that is going out has to come from somewhere.
One of two things is happening. The 2k difference going out is coming from local money or the public school student is just down 2k in state funding and it isn’t made up with local funding. The public school principals are saying the 2k comes from local money, because 4k isn’t enough to cover the public school student’s cost. They’re right. There shouldn’t be a “debate”. It’s addition and subtraction.
Of course charters want to keep this system in place. It’s a back door local funding mechanism.
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This is a better explanation than mine:
“511 of Ohio’s 613 school districts got less state funding per pupil last year than the minimum charter deduction required under state law. This means that local revenues have to subsidize these charter school payments.”
This isn’t difficult. No one at the Fordham Institute or the University of Arkansas can add and subtract? They are creating funding out of thin air. They just glide right by it with this dogged insistence that charters don’t get “local funding”. Where does the shortfall come from, then?
http://www.10thperiod.com/2014_12_01_archive.html
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Diane, do you ever use the term “Leftwing” to describe governors or anyone, or do you consider such characterization an impossibility? How would you describe the rephorm-intoxicated governor of e.g. Rhode Island? Or of New York?
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JMC, I would refer to Cuomo and Raimondo as rightwing Democrats. I don’t think there are any leftwing Democrats in high office other than Bernie Sanders.
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JMC, and Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat!
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As Diane said, I can think of no “left wing” politicians in the mainstream except for Bernie, and he is not even so strongly “left wing” from a European (rational) political point of view.
At the risk of being called a “radical,” I’d also point out that “left-wing” isn’t such an indictment as “right-wing,” due to the nature of these “ideologies.” “Left-wingers” tend to be people like spiritual leaders and philosophical revolutionaries who believe that… wait for it… humans should share their stuff with each other.
First line of “left wing politics” from wikipedia:
“Left-wing politics are political positions or activities that accept or support social equality, often in opposition to social hierarchy and social inequality.They typically involve concern for those in society who are perceived as disadvantaged relative to others and a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished.”
Can “left-wing” really be used as an accusation by intellectuals and sensitive human beings? If it’s “left-wing” to support those who have less, we can be more forgiving when it comes to potentially erroneous methodologies for achieving those ends (as may or may not be the case for “far left wingers”)
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““Left-wingers” tend to be people like spiritual leaders and philosophical revolutionaries who believe that… wait for it… humans should share their stuff with each other.”
No.
Left-wingers tend to be people who believe that… wait for it… the government should take from productive people by force and give what they take to unproductive people.
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“Left-wingers tend to be people who believe that… wait for it… the government should take from productive people by force and give what they take to unproductive people.”
…This is the obnoxious and misinformed “right-winger” view of the “left wing”
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It seems the systems gate keepers, are usually those attracted to the general
character of the system. The “cult” (system) has approved advertising, in the form
of slogans and myths. The grand game of obfuscation and distraction. It works best
on “soft” minds.
“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan”. King
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TFA instills an ethic that all TFAers are obviously smarter than any traditional teacher, hence their noblesse oblige duty. Most of the corps have attended universities or been in honors programs, where disrespect for educ majors is rampant. Many TFA-ers discover teaching and teachers as a world where they need help and support from the regular teachers, but some never escape their disposition to see teachers as a problem and themselves as missionaries from a more evolved planet. Those people often stay and move up the food chain in TFA [just as other TFAers develop some new perspectives about TFA and move away from its views and ideologies] and perpetuate the naive and arrogant viewpoint that originated w/ Wendy Kopp.
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Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
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Short answer? It’s a cult.
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CULT is right.
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Finalists for that position in Kentucky were just names. The previous education commissioner was Terry Holliday.
Any thoughts?
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And they don’t even have to be TFA types either. Utah’s state superintendent is a lawyer with a checkered work history, who managed to convince fellow school board members of one of our poorest districts to select him as superintendent there. For four years he ran Ogden district into the ground. Then, he was picked up by the state. He doesn’t even have as much teaching experience as someone from TFA.
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I just finished reading Excellent Sheep by William Deresiewicz… these administrators are all products of elite colleges and universities that too often turn out tone deaf “leaders” who have no real world experience but DO know how to jump through predetermined hoops in order to fulfill their raw ambition.
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