A reader sent this list of the board of directors of the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems for 2009.
The center is part of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which runs a training program for urban school superintendents.
Some (many?) Broad-trained superintendents have been involved in controversy, due to their non-collaborative management style.
| Joel Klein, Chair, Chancellor New York City Department of Education Barry Munitz, Vice Chair, Trustee Professor California State University, Los Angeles Arlene Ackerman, Superintendent of Philadelphia Public Schools Richard Barth (Chief Executive Officer KIPP Foundation) Henry Cisneros, Chairman of City View America, former U.S. Secretary of HUD Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education (on Board until Feb. 2009) Louis Gerstner, Jr., Retired Chairman and CEO, IBM Corporation Maria Goodloe-Johnson, Superintendent Seattle Public Schools Dan Katzir, Managing Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation Wendy Kopp (CEO and Founder of Teach for America) Margaret Spellings, President and CEO of Margaret Spellings and Company, former U.S. Secretary of DOE Melissa Megliola Zaikos, Autonomous Management and Performance Schools Program Officer, Chicago Public Schools Michelle Rhee, Chancellor District of Columbia Schools Lawrence Summers, Director National Economic Council Mortimer Zuckerman, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, U.S. News & World Report; Publisher of the New York Daily News |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And this, apparently, is the list from which our President selects a US Education Secretary (banging head on desk).
Our President selected the man responsible for the (non-existent) “Chicago Miracle.”
In Chicago our school board ranges from investment bankers, to the CEO of the Board of Trade to a billionaire real estate developer heiress, to one former principal who now manages the career of her hip-hop artist son. These people were all appointed by our mayor who was once an investment banker himself. Apparently the ability to make outrageous sums of money qualifies you to run a school system in which 87% of the students are low income or very low income. Power resides with money and that power allows those at the top to further enrich and advantage themselves.
An ed-“reform” group also lead by investment bankers ran about $200K of ads in the Chicago area spreading misinformation about the negotiations between the union and the board. A coalition of parent and community groups along with a group called Teachers for Social justice have started a campaign to get an elected school board for Chicago. We can’t just have a business focussed board for whom business as usual is destroying public education in our city.
We made this sort video in response to those astroturf ads http://youtu.be/1rcDyfzOVZY
is it not unusual to have a husband and wife on a board together, unless it is of family foundation? So why Barth & Kopp?
And it makes lots of sense – NOT – to have your exemplars of superintendents people who basically failed, in one case multiple times (Ackerman, although she was at least somewhat traditionally prepared) – include both Rhee and Klein as failed superintendents
I suppose I could put Arne Duncan there as well, since his tenure at Chicago was not all that successful
One aspect of Anti-Trust law back around the beginning of the previous century was to get rid of interlocking boards.
And yet when it comes to what is being done to public education, isn’t it interesting how often it is the same people? I include Lou Gerstner in that, since he was the motivator behind the National Governors Association all bringing a businessman to there conference on education, and he was one of the first as a business leader to start inserting himself into education policy.
Margaret Spellings is now high up in U S Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber was chartered at about same time as UN. Powerful connections here.
Several weeks ago Michelle Rhee spoke here and shared the forum with a young woman from National Chamber of Commerce. Attendee at my table from PA state gov said he was there to back COMMON CORE.
One of Spelling’s. C of C associates is also Homeland Security connected. More on that tomorrow as his bio is ‘unavailable’ via Chamber site. Interesting! !!.
Maria Goodloe-Johnson was fired from Seattle Schools. She is now in Michigan, about to head up something in Detroit. We’re sorry, Detroit, though glad to see her gone,
It is always intriguing to find people who say collaboration is the way and they fail in this respect themselves with a top-down autocratic way. It is easier to talk then to act. One thing about this is it does point to an issue that is the same on both sides of our shared border.
We are hearing the word “collaboration” all over the place, including from some union leaders. Whenever I hear it spoken it sets off alarm bells.
A dictionary.com definition of “collaborate”:
“to cooperate, usually willingly, with an enemy nation, especially with an enemy occupying one’s country”
The key word in the training organization is MANAGEMENT, and that’s what they get – managers. It takes more to LEAD and manage. When the Board gets that right more superintendents will know how to work collaboratively with educators!
Talk about stacking the deck. This is positively incestuous. I was alarmed earlier this spring to hear advertisements for the Broad Superintendent Academy on our local Philadelphia NPR station WHYY.