Tom Ultican, who recently retired as a high school teacher of advanced math and physics in California, has been studying the tentacles of the privatization movement.
His latest expose reveals the nefarious, insidious organization benignly called “Education Cities.” It is a spin-off of The equally insidious organization called The. I don’t Trust, which has hidden behind a facade of faux progressivism. The Mind Trust goal is the complete privatization of the public schools of Indianapolis.
Dont be fooled! Like The Mind Trust, Educatuon Cities is a central part of a long-range plan to destroy public education. It is now operating in 25 Cities. Like other privatization groups, it begins by telling you how terrible your public schools are. It warns that there are achievement gaps in your schools, based on race and income. It claims that it will lure schools to your city that are so great that every student will have high scores. It’s propaganda, like all propaganda, is shot through with lies, exaggerations, hyperbole, and false promises.
Is your city one of their targets? Read Tom’s article and find out.
These are the hollow men. They come to steal your public schools and give them to entrepreneurs.
“The Idont Trust”
The Idont Trust
Is simply faux
Progressive bust
That talks the talks
The walk’s a must
But what we’ve found:
The Idont Trust
Is talking bound
“You can’t hide yer lion eyes”
The Education Cities
Are shining on the hill
But sometimes little kitties
Are moving in for kill
Nice autocorrect of “Mind Trust” to “I don’t Trust”
Autocorrect has a mind of its own.
“Auto-correct”
The self-correct is fixing
The things we write online
It’s changing and it’s nixing
Mistakes and what is fine
It sometimes fixes error
But often nixes sense
And sometimes is a terror
With meaning and with tense
And sometimes it spits out
An innovative thought
Which leaves us with a doubt
That self-correct’s a bot
Cross posted Ultican’s article and Diane’s comment at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Education-Cities-is-the-Na-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Education_Education-Language_Educational-Crisis_Expose-180122-515.html#comment686855
Our nation is over if ‘they’ take over our schools, as we are bing distracted with the Trump circus.
If you are following my reporting on the WAR ON PUBLIC EDUCATION you might have read David Safier, who writes in the Tucson Weekly about well-funded efforts by the billionaire Koch Brothers to promote their anti-government, free-market libertarian views into local high schools.
https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/guest-opinion/Content?oid=12119561
Meanwhile, groups funded by the infamous Koch brothers have launched an advertising campaign targeted at Hispanic voters called “the Libre Institute.”
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2017/11/16/roberts-koch-funded-group-launches-six-figure-campaign-sell-arizona-voucher-expansiexpanding-voucher/872630001/
My city isn’t on this list, but one in my state, Rochester, New York, is.
Many years before there was such a thing as a charter school, the Rochester City School District was one of the most segregated in the United States. It remains that way, with traditional public schools that are 86% black and Latino inside an mostly white county and an overwhelmingly white metro area. Rochester’s teaching force, conversely, is 72% white, and as shocking to the conscience as that is, it’s less shocking than the fact that the teaching force in the suburban parts of Monroe County is 99% white.
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2017/10/17/teacher-diversity-ny-education-trust-rochester/769894001/
The grades 3-8 ELA proficiency rate for black, Latino, and economically disadvantaged children attending Rochester’s traditional public schools is six (6) percent! Only 112 out of 10,237 tested students scored at the highest level. We don’t have to ask if Rochester’s white teachers would send their own children to schools where 1/100 kids score well; we already know that they don’t.
The dismal outcomes continue through the upper grades. The four-year HS graduation rate is 54%. How many commenters here or public school teachers in general send their own children to high schools where 1 in 2 kids doesn’t graduate and will be hard pressed to find even minimum-wage-level full-time employment?
Of Rochester’s traditional public school graduates, 5% are judged to be sufficiently prepared for college. Again I’ll ask: who here happily sends their kids to schools where just one out of every twenty students is on a path toward being able to get a “C” as a freshman in a core class, without expensive non-credit-bearing remediation, at an open-enrollment community college?
Traditional residence-based public education in the city of Rochester is broken. The free, open-enrollment, opt-in charter schools in Rochester are a godsend for thousands of families. The very best way that the interests who are opposed to more charters can make their case is to start enrolling their OWN KIDS in the very same schools that they insist OTHER PEOPLE’S KIDS must attend rather than a school of their choosing.
Happy National School Choice Week, everybody!
“Education Cities” is a multi-pronged targeted corporate assault on urban school districts. For a targeted area a team of corporate raiders armed with fake research will descend upon a city like locusts. They start with easy urban targets that will be “easy pickins” for their organization. They will continue to grow and expand always, in all ways, as long as there is money to be made. Local communities should be prepared to fight for their life as these corporate vandals will never stop expanding into new areas as long as they profit.
Local communities need to defend their democratic public schools and stop these corporate carpetbaggers, that want your public asset, from getting a foothold in your community. People need to pressure local representatives for fair funding for public education, as in “Education Cities,” they will lose their democratic power of self governance that will be usurped by greedy corporations. The future of your young people and town are at stake.
We are building “education cities” in our town. They are buildings for students we don’t have to entice students who don’t exist to come here. How about, whatever the mode, all people who claim to be there “for the children” actually be required to deliver an actual education to said children? What a wonderful world that would be…
Ohio is shutting down the largest “public” school in the state with no public hearings and no public input of any kind.
It’s lawyers for two private entities negotiating:
“ECOT and its sponsor came to an interim agreement Friday that will allow a special master to take over operations of the now-closed school but keep assets intact until the Ohio Supreme Court rules on its fight with the state.
The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow was supposed to face-off in court Friday over the request of its sponsor, the Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West in Toledo, for the court to appoint a receiver to take over operations of the school to ensure it winds down properly.
Lake Erie West voted Thursday, the end of the semester, to suspend operations of the financially troubled school that was set to run out of money by March.”
This is ed reform “governance” at work. It’s conducted via private litigation and 5 or 6 private parties make all the decisions on billions of dollars and thousands of students.
The Ohio legislature and executive branch offices and officials have no responsibility for this school or these students or this money, so they simply do nothing and allow two private companies to run their giant charter school.
This is why politicians LOVE ed reform. They don’t even have to perform the minimum functions of their jobs. They escape responsibility for “public” education. They outsource the whole thing and walk away.
Now that the government is re-opening Betsy DeVos can continue last week’s “public schools suck!” campaign.
And you’re paying for it. Hundreds of public employees and tens of work hours devoted exclusively to broadcasting the ed reform “public schools suck!” message far and wide.
They don’t even invite public schools to these DC ed reform campaign events anymore.
As far as the federal government is concerned, public schools and public school families don’t exist. They’re doing theoretical “work “for the privatized systems they envision, but don’t exist yet 🙂
You’ve exposed so much in these four sentences: “Like other privatization groups, it begins by telling you how terrible your public schools are. It warns that there are achievement gaps in your schools, based on race and income. It claims that it will lure schools to your city that are so great that every student will have high scores. It’s propaganda, like all propaganda, is shot through with lies, exaggerations, hyperbole, and false promises.” (May I post this on my facebook page?)
Sadly, Memphis is among the cities—and heavy target.
Here is an article on the newest planned action in Memphis: support “single site” charters. https://chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2018/01/19/here-are-the-initiatives-memphis-education-philanthropists-will-focus-on-in-2018/
Education Cities is a project intended to accomplish what mayoral control of public schools often does, leaving citizens with only a very thin role in charting what happens in their schools. Because mayors are elected to address many more issues than education, it is not unusual for others to move in and offer plans. That is what Education Cities does. It invites politically savvy and deep-pocket non-profits to takeover of public schools.
From the outset, Education Cities has been a project of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
August 2011 Purpose: to support a full-time Executive Director, support staff, and programmatic activity related to next generation learning in the cities that comprise the Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust (“CEE-Trust”) network Amount: $539,334 Notice the reference to “next generation learning.” The CEE-Trust became Education Cities.
October 2012 Purpose: to support additional operational capacity and programmatic activity related to next generation learning within the Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust (“CEE-Trust”) initiative Amount: $1,420,000 Notice again the reference to “ Next Generation Learning.”
June 2014 Purpose: to support efforts to provide customized support on personalized learning to its members Amount: $1,000,000 Notice that “personalized learning” is to be a concept marketed to members of the Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust (“CEE-Trust”)
July 2016: Purpose: to identify the role Education Cities can play in supporting Personalized Learning adoption in member cities Amount: $250,000. Now it is clear that the Education Cities initiative is no longer about building charter schools. It is about getting local non-profits to push “Personalized Learning.”
Cincinnati is a target of Education Cities. The basic strategy in every city is to cite terrible scores on standardized tests, and failure to improve year over year, as a litmus test for claiming a city needs more “high quality seats” in schools. Another part of the basic strategy is to enlist some of the most prominent and wealthy local movers and shakers to support privatized education.
The first CEO of the our version of Education Cities Reform, “Accelerate Great Schools,” came from the Mind Trust in Indianapolis where he worked as a TFA recruiter. That CEO was recruited by Bellwether Education Partners, a belief tank and consultancy friendly to charter schools. The first CEO was expected to raise $48 million dollars. He left on short notice with no explanation.
The current CEO of our “Accelerate Great Schools,” Brian Neal, oversees “a multi-million dollar fund to increase access to high-quality schools for underserved students across Cincinnati.” He was recruited locally from the Farmer Family Foundation where he was a program director. As I hope to show, the wealth and influence of The Farmer Family Foundation, and in-laws, shows up on the Board of our “Accelerator.”
First, there is Scott Farmer, Chairman and CEO of Cintas and the son of Cintas Founder and Chairman Richard T. Farmer. Cintas, once known as The Uniform People, now is known as The Service Professionals, the nation’s largest uniform rental outfit, with more than 5 million people wearing Cintas uniforms. Scott is a past director of the Uniform & Textile Service Association, an international trade organization. He is a former trustee of United Way of Greater Cincinnati and Community Chest. His compensation in 2017 was $8,550,621.
Second, Mary Beth Martin serves on the Accelerator Board. She is also Executive Director of the Farmer Family Foundation. The Farmer Family Foundation is a generous supporter of local community organizations, hospitals and medical centers and other foundations (See SEED below). The Foundation also supports private Christian K-12 schools, public and private universities. Sourcewatch says the Farmer Family Foundation contributes to right-wing groups heavily affiliated with the Koch brothers, including Americans For Prosperity and DonorsTrust. https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Farmer_Family_Foundation
Third, Laura Mueller is Trustee, The James J. and Joan A. Gardner Family Foundation. Until his death in 2014, James J. Gardner was the general manager, vice president of Cintas and brother-in-law of Richard Farmer, the founder of Cintas. Ordinarily, the Gardner Foundation gives about $3 million annually for projects in education, including higher education, Christian and Roman Catholic churches and organizations, social services, and health organizations). A fairly recent gift of $14 million went to establish a neuroscience research center in Cincinnati.
Fourth, as noted, the current CEO of our Accelerator was a program director at the Farmer Family Foundation. But he also had previous work experience with the SEED Foundation in Ohio. The SEED Foundation developed the nation’s first and only network of public, college-preparatory boarding schools…”for students who need–and deserve–a 24-hour learning environment to achieve their full potential.” SEED hopes to have one of its schools in every city. https://www.seedfoundation.com/future-plans/ Last year the SEED Foundation received over $1 million from the Farmer Family Foundation.
Other board members are well-known movers and shakers in greater Cincinnati. Only two have any experience of potential relevance to education.
Gary D. Mercer is General Manager, Engineering Division & Vice President, GE Aviation System. He has been with GE for 26 years. GE Aviation has about 9,000 employees in greater Cincinnati, about $25 billion in annual revenue.
Tom Williams is Partner and President, North American Properties. North American has launched 36 projects totaling $1.1 billion in total capitalization. He is a founding board member of Accelerate Great Schools and Teach For America. He serves on the Education Committee of our local Chamber of Commerce. He is Vice-Chairman and one of the principal owners of the Cincinnati Reds.
George Joseph Chairman President, Joseph Auto Group. The group sells new and used Acura, Chevy, Cadillac, Buick, Hyundai, Subaru, Toyota, Porsche, Infiniti, Audi, and Volkswagens. It has a development wing, Columbia REI, LLC, known primarily for acquiring, demolishing, and making parking lots of any downtown buildings that might be candidates for low-income housing.
Jeb Head President, Atkins & Pearce, Inc. This is a seventh generation family owned business, 200 years old. It began with a modification of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin. It develops and manufacture braided technical textiles (including wire) for companies worldwide. Jeb is a Board Member of The Christ Hospital Foundation and also Board President Emeritus of ProKids, an agency that works with volunteer Court Appointed Special Advocates to help abused and abandoned children live in a safe, permanent, nurturing home.
Dorothy Battle, Ph.D. is the only experienced educator on the board of the Accelerator—She was a principal in the Cincinnati Public Schools for over a decade. After completing a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership she worked as an educational and political consultant forming her own shop called Charting Democratic Journeys for local clients. She is on the board of PIE Partnership for Innovation in Education. PIE is a local non-profit that “delivers transformational, vertically-integrated programs guaranteeing high-quality, specialized content delivery with real-time assessments” with “emerging technology partnerships.” PIE offers help in “building digital career simulations, creating talent and skillset assessments, and STEM applications for Apple and GooglePlay sales platforms.” More at http://stem.piemedia.org/technology/
I hope this exercise shows how the Education Cities project works at a local level, and in this case with one major family of wealth leading an initiative to push technology into our schools and privatize oversight of schools by targeting those with the low test scores that do not improve “year over year.” Although I was familiar with the names of more than one of these board members, I did not understand the interlocking relationships as fully as I do now. Nor did understand that charter school were not the only objective. PIE wants all tech all the time–and that surely makes Gates smile.
If you have been targeted by “Education Cities,” please investigate what is happening.