This interesting article traces the rise of big spending in Los Angeles school board races.
In 1978, a candidate was elected after spending only $56,000.
This year’s election will break all records.
The big spending began with Mayor Richard Riordan, who decided he needed to shake things up.
He and his fellow zillionaire Eli Broad won control of the board in 1999, promising to guarantee quality education for every child.
And now Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg and other super-rich are pouring over $2.5 million into the school board races.
To what end?
Is it about power? control?
Do they think they know how to produce a great education for every child? Where have they done it?
Certainly not in New York City, where Michael Bloomberg has exercised autocratic control for more than a decade.
In the latest poll, only 18% of New York City voters want the next mayor to control the schools.
Some affirmation.
Where are Eli Broad’s success stories?
If these guys don’t know how to improve schools, why do they keep meddling?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
$$$$$$
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Exactly.
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Let me correct you. It is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. lol Schools are the new mother load for corporations.
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In the February 9th The Answer Sheet, Valerie Strauss states that the “global education market is now worth $4.4 TRILLION.”
Come & get it, y’all!
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$56,000 in ’78 seems an awful lot of money then. I think I was making $12,500 a year then.
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Power and money transference into private hands. LAUSD has a $27 billion school construction bond program. We can prove that LAUSD paid 2-3 time more for construction than the going rate according to the Jan. 2008 Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) study on construction costs. That is a lot of money. LAUSD has about 260 charter schools. That allows transference of wealth. Control of the bond money is control of the tranference of wealth. That is the board and superintendent. Deasy, who has a phony PHD by the way, who make those decisions ultimately as they just did this Tuesday with the vote to spend bond money on I-Pads. This is illegal as that is a general fund expenditure on top of the fact that for the last 300 I-Pads they paid about $1,600.00 each. Does that make sense? When you control how and what they learn you control how they think. This is not a country for all anymore as they know better than we do what we need and what we do not need and thinking is not what we need.
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What you are saying is very interesting if you understand just how Deasy “earned” his doctorate. It involved grant money that he controlled ending up in the pockets of the man who controlled whether or not he got his doctorate (after attending Louisville for a semester).
I teach in Deasy’s hometown. My father met and worked with Deasy as well as Felner (his mentor, who is now in prison). None of the stories he tells about his experience are pleasant.
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I think LAUSD is simply too large.
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When can we start calling him what he is — “Boss Broad”?
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Getting rid of the teacher unions is another one of their goals. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to be governor and Gloria Romero, who lost her first bid to become State Superintendent of Public Education to Tom Torlakson (with union help), probably plans to run again. The next time they run both will have as much money as they need to privatize the schools and get rid of the union voice.
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Obviously, when one controls education, one controls the society. Basically, to destroy public service unionism is one’s ability to end dissent. The result will be an educational system in which students will not learn to think for themselves.
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