Prominent groups that support public schools–not charter schools or religious schools–are meeting on Saturday in Pittsburgh to discuss the future of public education with Democratic presidential candidates.
The billionaire-funded charter industry is angry that they can’t control the event and they have released their plans to disrupt the event.
Contrary to the claims of the charter industry, charter schools are not public schools. They are private contractors that receive public money and are typically unregulated and fail to meet basic standards of accountability and transparency.
Unfortunately, their leaders insist on minimal or non-regulation, assuring that grifters and entrepreneurs will be able to receive public dollars without any accountability.
The industry resolutely refuses to acknowledge, let alone curb, the waste, fraud, and abuse that has created a backlash against charter schools.
The Center for Education Reform, led by former Heritage Foundation education analyst Jeanne Allen, sent out this email:
Charter Schools in Pittsburgh & Leaders
throughout Pennsylvania Unite
Issue strong message to special interest sponsors of “Public Education Forum 2020” and the Democratic candidates ignoring parental demands
WASHINGTON – Charter school leaders in Pittsburgh, joined by others throughout Pennsylvania, and by key state democratic officials issued strong statements today challenging the Democratic candidates for president who will be in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this Saturday, December 14, 2019, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center for the “Public Education Forum 2020: Equity and Justice for All.” Sponsored by unions and other interest groups, the Forum has sparked strong responses from the Pennsylvania charter school community, with its unfounded attacks upon the substantive work being carried out throughout the state and right in the city where the forum will be held.
“We call on the candidates to remember those who won’t be there: the thousands of parents from underserved communities tragically forced to watch their children suffer academically because of a failed system that refuses any real reform,” said representatives of 5 of the city’s charter schools in a statement, speaking on behalf of the state’s 143,000 charter school students and their parents.
“The Democratic Presidential candidates have been summoned to demonstrate their allegiance to the unions and special interests who they believe hold the key to their nomination,” said CER Founder & CEO Jeanne Allen. “Not invited were any charter or reform minded voices to participate in this nationally televised forum where Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is expected to attend and criticize the very charter schools he has tried to keep from operating.”
Many charter educators will be on the ground in Pittsburgh to make their voices heard, including Dara Ware Allen, PhD, CEO and Principal, City Charter High School; Dr. Tina Chekan, CEO/Superintendent, Propel Schools; Jon McCann, CEO, Environmental Charter School; Vasilios Scoumis, CEO, Manchester Academic Charter School; Brian Smith, Founder & CEO, Catalyst Academy Charter School; William C. Wade, Ed.S., CEO, Urban Pathways K5 College Charter School; and David Zeiler, CEO, Provident Charter School. They have issued the following statement in response to the Public Education Forum this Saturday.
“As eight potential future presidents gather here in Pittsburgh this Saturday and are hosted by some of the nation’s most powerful special interests, we call on the candidates to remember those who won’t be there: the thousands of parents from underserved communities tragically forced to watch their children suffer academically because of a failed system that refuses any real reform. It is a cruel irony that the tagline of this weekend’s forum is ‘equity and justice for all’ when all the candidates being celebrated each oppose the very policies that help our schools give such words real meaning. Thanks to school choice, our public charter schools prevail at giving life-altering opportunity to children for whom educational success – and the more hopeful and secure future that comes with it – would likely be denied.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Charter supporters wouldn’t exist without funding from a handful of Alt-Right billionaires like the Waltons, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Koch Clan, et al.
Yes, Bill Gates is clearly an Alt-Right billionaire in disguise, wearing the skin of a liberal and/or progressive he had kidnapped and butchered.
noun: alt-right
” (in the US) an ideological grouping associated with extreme conservative or reactionary viewpoints, characterized by a rejection of mainstream politics and by the use of online media to disseminate deliberately controversial content”
Lloyd, you will love SLAYING GOLIATH. You know who Goliath is.
Nor would they exist without their punching-bag & back-up system/ no-fault condition, the public schools.
The public schools have been the whipping boy of the Alt-Right, neo-liberals, neo-conservatives, and libertarians for decades.
The “whipping boy” is a person who is blamed or punished for the faults or incompetence of others. The deformers, mentioned above, are all incompetent fools and frauds.
“The term whipping-boy wasn’t around at the time of either of these boys — it was sometimes known as “punishment by proxy”. The first known user of whipping-boy was a clergyman named John Trapp in a Biblical commentary in 1647.”
It once it is made clear how much profiteering is at stake if charters take a cut back in favor of funding our real public schools. For this notice to compete at this late date for the attention of the presidential candidates is disgraceful. If these vigilante charter leaders interrupt candidates, and or pack the house with their inbred greed meisters, they will show their renegade goals to steal not only school funding, but also air time assigned to presidential candidates. Since so many of these charter vultures are crooks, it us not too surprising that this is their plan. I wonder if they will bring pugnacious Congressman Jim Jordan with them to destroy this well planned public meeting..
Maybe they’ll “bring” the pride of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, Republican state representative Greg Rothman, who “is gathering support” for Turzai’s bill to add school choice for Harrisburg school district students.
I just learned that the public relations firm promoting this protest is connected to the Trump campaign.
That’s interesting, Diane. Is there a link to this?
Mate, a link to what?
Where we can read about this connection of the public relations firm to Trump.
What’s the pay of the “charter educators ” listed? How do their credentials compare with legitimate school administrators- those chosen by the public through a democratic process?
A page from the so-called tea party’s playbook.
Guess who’s “gathering support” for Turzai’s bill to add school choice for Harrisburg school district students?
That would be state Rep. Greg Rothman who is featured in the “Hot Issues” section of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference site. And, what does Rothman have in common with seven other state legislators featured at the site, in Dec. and Nov. 2019? Rothman is Republican, presumably Catholic, white (based on photos) and male. There were two women in the featured list of 9 state representatives and senators (in other words about 80% are male). And, there were zero black people.
66% of the U.S. population agrees with the founding fathers- they want separation of church and state.
Udi Greenberg’s assessment of the Catholic view of pluralism and democracy appears to hold, as does its threat.
-Journal of the History of Ideas, “…Tortured Path to Religious Liberty”, July, 2018
The rhetoric is typical,melodramatic and misleading.
The charter industry lives on the junk claim that public schools are failures and the reason parents are ” tragically forced to watch their children suffer academically because of a failed system that refuses any real reform.”
I hope that more than one candidate has the courage to call out Jeanne Allen and her supporters for the massive fraud and abuse in the charter industry. One place to begin is to insist that charter schools NOT be called public schools because they are privately managed and open and close with none of the beauty of day lillies.
I hope NPE has been able to place easy to digest counterpoints in the hands of all candidates, and that the event is recorded for analysis and framing counterpoints to the usual claims of charter supporters.
Funny how they call us unions and special interests, as if we’re a narrow slice of the population pie. When we go on strike, 80% of the whole pie supports public schools, public school teachers, and public school teachers unions.
They have the nerve to call union members “thugs.” I hope MSNBC is prepared with security that can remove the disruptors.
My prediction: every protestor will be in a payroll of a charter organization or paid indirectly by the Walton Foundation.
I predict their paid-for tee-shirts will be light blue. Bets close at midnight.
My prediction: in addition to the usual corporate suspects, there will be politically active, Trump-supporting, Catholic Republicans “on the ground” with Jeanne Allen. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops self-identified as “strong advocates of parental school choice …since the beginning”.
2nd prediction- media will ignore Catholic bishop and state conference involvement in school privatization.
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Isn’t Jeanne Allen a Republican? Wasn’t she involved in GOP party politics in California? And her organization, Center for Education Reform, is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Task Force on Education and Workforce Development and plays a key role in supporting many of ALEC’s public school privatization efforts. The organization has presented at ALEC meetings as recently as 2016.
She’s almost the only person quoted in her press release. Why would the Dems invite a Republican stooge to the 2020 Dem Presidential forum on Education? Should we invite Betsy DeVos? It’s ludicrous.
And so is her complaint! How typical of the school privatization industry (which enrolls only 5% of students) to call authentic public schools (which enroll 95%) a special interest. I guess math is taught differently at charter schools.
Demanding that charter schools be as transparent, accountable and democratic as authentic public schools is not tyranny. It is responsibility. Any school that is bankrolled by taxpayers should meet that demand. The fact that charter operators see such as an attack is revealing.
They should call this The Astroturf Strikes Back.
Jeanne Allen is a DeVos Republican.
Wow, now charter advocates are whining because right wing Republicans who want to privatize all of public education aren’t invited to question the Democratic candidates?
Since when do right wing Republicans or those whose outrageously high salaries are from right wing Republican billionaires donating to their “I hate public education and Democrats” advocacy organizations demand the right to question Democratic candidates at a forum?
Please ask Jeanne Allen if Diane Ravitch and others will now get equal time to ask questions at every gathering sponsored by any pro-charter right wing Republican organization.
The right wing Republicans always have this double standard, where they believe that charter school advocates should always get special privileges and it is the job of those who support public education to cater to their privileges and make all the sacrifices that chatter school advocates order them to make so that their own privileges are served at the expense of the most vulnerable children.
So it doesn’t surprise me that they are once again demanding the right to continue the privilege they believe is rightfully theirs due to their strong belief that kids in public schools are worthless and they should pay for the privileges of those who hate them and want to destroy their schools and enrich themselves.
What chutzpah.
The religious like (1) DeVos (2) the President who is described by his supporters as the most pro-faith President in history and (3) Catholic bishops and state conferences believe God gives them the right to destroy democracy. They will, without conscience, invoke God’s name in a demand for civic order while social Darwinists plunder and a million people die of starvation. Ireland provides example.
Wow, sure are a lot of CEOs in that list of “educators”. Funny how they don’t even bother hiding the fact that they’re not running schools, they’re running businesses and churning out product.
“the thousands of parents from underserved communities tragically forced to watch their children suffer academically because of a failed system”
Hpw about the millions of parents who do not want these “reforms”?
Mercedes Schneider posted an extensive bio of Jeanne Allen on May 19, 2019.
Jeanne’s first husband, “John Clayton Allen III was a member of the Knights of Columbus Rock Creek Council and a member of the Catholic Church of the Little Flower”.
Tell me, will this be creative disruption?
Since disruption wouldn’t be tolerated at any other such event, will the “disruptors” be taken out? If they refuse to leave, or resist, will they be tear-gassed, hosed down or tasered? Will they be pelted with rubber bullets? If they make noise & refuse to be quiet, will there be sound provided to drown them out? (Reference: Philadelphia, 2016 DNC Convention–done to Bernie delegates, who had won the right to be there.)
& (the $10,000 question), if they persist in disrupting, will they be arrested?
I sure hope so!
All of this & more has happened to the people who were rightly protecting their native lands & save their waters from the erection of the pipelines.
Please tell those Parents to do the research on what the characters invest in such as private prisons.
That feeds the pipe line to prison, they are not marching for your children they are marching for their profit .
Charter Parents wake up if you invest in prisons then you will make sure they have the population to fill them Charter Parents your sons and daughters.