Indifferent to John Merrow’s investigative reports on the cheating scandal during Michelle Rhee’s tenure as DC Chancellor, the Walton Family Foundation gave her organization $8 million to continue pushing its radical agenda of attacking teachers and promoting privatization of the nation’s public schools.
StudentsFirst advocates that test scores should count for 50% of teacher evaluation, although most researchers agree that these measures are inaccurate and unstable. It also advocates charters and vouchers, including for-profit charters.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
All teachers, their families and friends please stop shopping at Walmart.
Agree.
Don’t even go in, haven’t for many years.
Why give money to the hand that bites me?
Ang
You don’t know what you are talking about.
WalMart has helped schools a lot.
Show me why anyone should not shop at WalMart.
Eggie is in the education business and has ties to Walmart….the plot thickens.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/28/1190556/-Wal-Mart-Disaster-Deepens-Shelves-Empty-as-Sales-Decline
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as payroll-tax increases hit shoppers already battling a slow economy, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News.
“In case you haven’t seen a sales report these days, February MTD sales are a total disaster,” Jerry Murray, Wal- Mart’s vice president of finance and logistics, said in a Feb. 12 e-mail to other executives, referring to month-to-date sales. “The worst start to a month I have seen in my ~7 years with the company.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-15/wal-mart-executives-sweat-slow-february-start-in-e-mails.html
Teachers and parents unite…let’s keep it going. We can do this!
eggie – well, set aside what WalMart is doing to education (which Diane has amply documented), there’s the minor little fact that they give their starting employees food stamp applications because they intentionally don’t pay them enough to live on without the food stamps. Why don’t you tell me why I *should* shop there?
And Sam’s club.
Yes!
There needs to be a national boycott. However, I don’t know if that would work. Whenever one of my colleagues suggests I should buy something at Walmart, I apprise him/her of the Walton family “ethics,” and tell them I don’t shop there and will not. Not one has acted enlightened or interested; they always respond that they have to shop there to save money.
Did somebody say Target? A Walmart boycott must happen now.
Hate to break it to you, but Target is also pretty virulently anti-union. Try Costco instead.
I agree. Costco is good to its employees. We need to give our money to employers who treat their staff with dignity and respect.
Target rapes the local tax base by using TIF’s and as soon as on expires they’ll move down the road a few blocks to take advantage of a new one.
It is remarkable…. They must believe that in the end their will (or is it their investment) will prevail
Boycott Walmart! Boycott Walmart! Boycott Walmart! Boycott Walmart! Boycott Walmart!
Boycott Walmart! Boycott Walmart! Boycott Walmart! Boycott Walmart! Boycott Walmart!
Yes, yes, yes.
Count me in!
I’m in, too. I like Target much better anyway.
See above replies.
Go to Costco, not Target.
How nice but not surprised….just showed the Walmart story to my Civics/economics class it is about the unethical labor practices of Walmart and general exploitation of communities and vendors. Kids eyes were opened…how do we open the eyes of “education reformers”…probably not possible as money will close the eyes of many
Pretty sure their eyes are wide open and looking at that money. Those suitcases full of cash can be pretty darn persuasive.
The time is coming when you won’t be able to teach that. These organizations really have their hooks and tentacles into the government. It is going to take real and massive national action, and even then…
I never found management by intimidation to be an effective way to increase job performance. It seems like these tests are designed to threatened teachers with their jobs if their students don’t pass. I don’t like that at all. I fear the end result will be less people willing to become teachers. How sad. (I will confess that I never asked a teacher their thoughts on the tests though…..)
You are right on. I hope I can escape from teaching. Everyone I know who is anywhere near retirement is leaving, but I’m not there.
Is a boycott of Walmart actually a viable strategy? It is all well and good to skewer the corporation here and certainly legitimate to criticize its support for Rhee publicly. Yet there needs to be a broader conversation about how to organize public sector constituencies in defense of their own interests, especially when they perceive public institutions ambivalently.
False choice. It’s not one or the other.
But I thought StudentsFirst survived off of small donors.
Kinda like Teach For America needing a $50 million annual fix from the federal government.
A befitting punishment is to force Michelle Rhee to work at Walmart stocking shelves for a year . . . .
She’ll probably attempt to reform the endcaps . . .
Or make her a greeter, better yet.
Make her an at-will charter teacher who is not allowed to move up.
Gary Chartrand wants to give then Jacksonville.
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-04-30/story/education-leaders-time-invest-human-capital-duval-public-schools#comment-712274
I wonder if test scores should contribute in any way to teacher evaluations.
Diane, should they?
How should teachers be evaluated and how should a “failed” school
be judged if 100% of the students are from dysfunctional homes?
It is my belief that until we can separate the in-class experience from
the socioeconomic environment of the kid, we are tilting at windmills.
Is there any convincing knowledge on the
School versus the Home issue?
I’m just guessing, but I doubt teachers and schools have changed much
in the past 60 years. I am pretty sure the socioeconomic environment of kids
has changed a lot.
Eggie, teachers should be evaluated by those who see them teach and know their work. Test scores are a bad way to evaluate teachers.
“It is my belief that until we can separate the in-class experience from
the socioeconomic environment of the kid, we are tilting at windmills.”
It is impossible to separate the in-class experience from the socioeconomic environment. The results of studies I’ve seen indicate that a teacher has only from around 8%-15% influence on the outcomes of student learning*. In other words around 85-94% of the influences on student learning come from sources other than the teacher. And the teacher influence is dwarfed by the socioeconomic status of the student, teacher, school, and district. Here in MO, the upper socioeconomic districts spend 16-20,000 dollars per pupil per year while some rural poverty districts spend from 7-9,000 dollars per pupil.
*Notice I don’t use “achievement” as that is one of those rephormy words used to denigrate public education. I don’t give a crap about student achievement, I care about student learning. Two totally different concepts.
As William Walwik pointed out, there are many, many, MANY other reasons not to shop at Walmart. No one should be shopping at Walmart. I haven’t set foot in a Walmart in nearly a year, and I will not shop there ever again. Walmart exploits local taxpayers, kills local businesses, exploits workers overseas in China and Bangladesh. The recent factory collapse in Bangladesh? One of the companies they were manufacturing for was Walmart. Walmart is a tumor upon the world. I agree–boycott Walmart. But not just for this action.
But WalMart helps local communities, rejuvenates towns whose mom-and-pop stores
were on the edge of starvation, gives jobs to people who Costco and almost all others
will not hire and generally makes small towns grow. I have personally watched this happen
in two small towns.
WalMart contributes to PTA’s, local schools and generally outreaches to the
local community. WalMart wants the local community to love them so they
will shop at WalMart. I do. All the progressive BS about WalMart is mostly
a hate diatribe dis-ing ‘corporations’ and has nothing to do with reality and never
provides a both-sides picture.
WalMart, we all know is the biggest corporation. Therefore, Progressives hate WalMart.
They do not acknowledge what WalMart does for local schools.
Walmart kills local businesses. Watched it happen in Page, AZ and Flagstaff, AZ. Those local businesses used to be the ones contributing to schools.
Continue to buy their cheap crap….best of luck! They destroy public schools but we know you don’t care….most in the education business, an oxymoron, are concerned about themselves while feigning interest in the poor brown child.
+Linda
I have witness knowledge of WalMart moving into 2 small towns.
What you say is false according to what I have seen.
WalMart helps local schools and hires the un-hireable.
They are not perfect, but they are WAY! ahead of whomever is in second place.
WalMart killed the shoe stores and several small mom and pop shops here. WalMart gives money to local schools in miniscule amounts here as a form of advertising, writes it off of it’s taxes, and pays little towards the schools by threatening to leave if they are taxed. They come in after receiving tax waivers, make a pittance of a contribution, and tell us we should be grateful that they provide jobs that we must augment with social services. Yeah, they do a lot for us alright.
The Walton Family Foundation is the nation’s biggest contributor to privatization. It gives about $159-160 million every year for education. Most of he money goes to charter schools, vouchers, and think tanks that advocate for charters and vouchers. Only a few thousand dollars are handed out to local public schools. Based on their giving,, I guess that the Waltons look forward to the day when public education disappears and private groups control all education.
The amount of money that WalMart contributes to local schools is miniscule in comparison to the millions they pump into the privatization effort. They put local stores out of business. They pay their employees as little as they can get away with, with no benefits. You’re OK with WalMart employees needing to supplement their pay with public assistance in order to stay alive? Their products are manufactured in sweat shops overseas like the Bangladesh factory that collapsed recently, killing hundreds. They coerce communities desperate for economic development into giving them tax deals, but don’t hesitate to bail and abandon said communities if things don’t work out well enough for them. There are other things. Do some reading.
eggie – perhaps you’ve noticed, but no one is buying the sh-, er, excrement you are shoveling. You’re talking to teachers here, y’know. Teachers are a hard lot to fool because learning is kind of what they do.
Sorry, but their evils and negatives far outweigh their positives.
Makes small towns grow…into what?
Desperate people do desperate things; it is not a sign of Walmart doing “good” things. Take some time to research this company. Why do so many of its workers not have health insurance, while its owners are disgustingly wealthy? It goes on and on with this company. Please research it.
They also have crappy, poor quality merchandise.
WalMart has name brand merchandise. Which name brands are crappy in your opinion, Alan?
Here’s some brand names you can pick up at Walmart:
http://www.thenation.com/article/171810/five-assault-rifles-you-can-pick-walmart-photos
I have entered a Walmart twice in my life and it was two times too many. They came to our town, then left a huge empty building when they decided to go elsewhere. No thanks.
Walmart is a fair weather friend to communities. It packs up and leaves when things do not go their way.
Luckily there are no Walmarts in Seattle proper – just a small SAMs club that gets much less business than the nearby Costco. I haven’t stepped foot in a Walmart since I left Arizona – at least 12 years.
I find it ironic that there is no WalMart in the home town of Bill Gates–a man who partners with the Walton family in so many nefarious endeavors, including the privatization movement. Wouldn’t be surprised to find out that old Bill had a hand in keeping WalMart out. Gates is the epitome of a hypocrite.
Speaking of Michelle’s “grass roots” group…anyone see this over at Salon:
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/30/michelle_rhees_group_stands_by_anti_gay_honoree/
Seems students first is quite a piece of work all the way around.
Is it perhaps that the Rheeject is denying herself and refuses to come out of the closet?
Boycotting Walmart is a very promising idea. Consumer boycotts can be powerful tools which worry big corps. Student sweatshop protests of 90s are examples of corp. sensitivity to boycotts and bad press. A small decline in sales, less than 5% will get their attention, not necessary to have a total shutdown, small sales losses cut their bottom line and stock value and exec bonuses. We have supporters all over the country in local school districts where Walmart sells, where communities and schools are being undermined by Rhee, TFA, etc. To get a boycott off the ground we need a working group of volunteers, first to do careful research on all the money given to school-sabotage so far by Walmart; a map of Walmart stores and which pub schl activists/advocates are near each; outreach to these local folks for input and help; data on Walmart’s low wages and no health plan and failure to promote women equally to men; Walmart’s complicity in cheap labor disasters like the bldg collapse in Bangladesh.
The blob continues to ooze and stretch its tentacles across the US. Could you imagine what could be done with all of this money? Why don’t they start paying their own workers more and make a better working environment?
I don’t watch all the time, but it seems that the “liberals” on MSNBC ignore the assault on public education. Am I wrong? If not, I wonder if Walmart sponsorship is the reason. Also, has Rachel Maddow discussed “Students First” reformer of the year, or ever talked about Rhee if not simply in terms of being anti-union?
Rachel has done nothing and I have written to her. Word is she is friends with Eva Moskowitz. I don’t watch her anymore.
Agreed, Linda. I am so disappointed. I also stopped watching because I think she is an Obama apologist, and I (nor will anyone else, I think) get over what he has done to destroy education in America. And now–Secretary of Commerce (drum roll!)–Penny Pritzker, of Hyatt & the CPS Board!
Chuck,
Check out Bob Somerby over at the Daily Howler.
http://www.dailyhowler.blogspot.com
He has a lot to say about the supposed liberals over at MSNBC.
Spoiler alert: Still big corporate media!
PS Bob also hits education a good deal. He was an inner-city teacher.
Thanks, Ang. I check in on Bob on occasion, and saw his piece today…but, thanks for the reminder.
MSNBC is hardly “liberal”. They are fawning Obama-philes and they are “liberal” to the same extent he is, which is to say, not much. Sorry if I’m not impressed by Obama’s recent “evolution” on gay marriage, but that’s not enough to make him a liberal when he’s protecting banks, destroying public education and drone bombing brown people (among other things). As soon as MSNBC starts covering some of those issues, they can have their “liberal” title back.
I have seen more propaganda pieces on charters on MSNBC. I mean JUNK charters. I used to watch Matthews until one day I saw him decrying that the Dem Party was full of teachers. He showed a video panning Dem convention supposedly showing all the teachers in the audience. His comments were negative and I never watched the channel again. Totally disgusting and bought out media. How many teachers have you seen interviewed through the media? (Not the phony charter plants in the audience)
And I don’t watch MSNBC. getting my news from the Brits and Canadians.
Try Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org
True independent news.
It is sad but true, since Atlanta Public Schools tumbled under the cheating scandal, and their staff went to jail…all hands are off Rhee and all other 190 systems. It probably became apparent that APS did exactly what the EdReformers wanted them to do – raise scores to IMPOSSIBLE %gains with students whose test patterns were alarmingly lower previously. Statistically, a red flag. PERIOD! APS did the same as all others, but got caught, found guilty and went to jail.
Now, EdReformers stay clear of anyone else, such as Rhee. The guilt pendulum could swing in their direction for demanding and rewarding such test score increases. They were quiet, silent and absent during the APS scandal. A.Duncan uttered some statement to denounce the behavior. I do not think that they will move forward with Michelle Rhee. After all, her greedy financial purse is growing and would put up a fight. She will not go quietly! Could get UGLY and PUBLIC!
We don’t need a boycott, necessarily. What we need is a viral badge that urges a boycott. Maybe some billboards: “Teachers Against Wal-Mart.” And some news stories. Let Wal-Mart get the Pearson business.
With pre-k programs and after-school programs being cut, it makes sense that the money should go to Rhee.
I have never shopped at Wal-Mart and I say that with pride 🙂 I remember when Walmart blackmailed other companies like Rubbermaid when they told them they would no longer carry their products if they were sold in competing stores–and some of these were mom and pop owned shops. They wanted and succeeded in destroying small business owners while duping local leaders to take them in on the taxpayer’s dime. That’s how you spell SUCCESS in this country. But what’s really sad is they now have small business owners believing that they are their savior.
I really hope Obama has nightmares about Rhee because she will use that money to destroy whatever good is left in the Democratic party.
In case anyone hasn’t seen it, check out the good documentary “WalMart: Low Cost, High Price.” Until Current goes Al-Jazeera. it may be on–check your local listings (I just saw it 2 weeks ago). For those of you skeptics out there, it will dissipate any
positive notions you might have about the Waltons and WalMart. Just get it from NetFlix or the library or online. Also, I had written in a previous post that the WSJ had mentioned (in their initial reporting of the Bangladesh factory tragedy) that the Waltons had “donated” $1.6 million to “improve” foreign workers’ conditions. Chump change to them! Why don’t they just pay people in the U.S. and provide health benefits, sick days & parental leave to their workers? No–of course–third-world country labor is cheaper, and those workers don’t–CAN’T–complain. So–you guys put the puzzle together. U.S. educated workers tested to death, then taight in compliancy charter schools will NEVER question their Walton masters.
And, people, that’s what it’s really ALL about.The new American slave labor.
Ka-CHING!
Not Netflix. The owner is a school privatizer.
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/netflix-ceos-education-reform-views-sneak-h
Thank you. I’ll check it out.
1.6 mil. Wow I’ll bet that went really far.
Excuse me…that’s “then taught in compliancy…” I make mistakes when angry–
grrrrrrr WalMart!
Add this to the list of reasons I won’t shop there.
I’m a Costco shopper myself. I read somewhere that they are supporters of common core. Very disappointing if true. I may cancel my membership with them!
This donation comes at the same time that the Sacramento City Council is considering changing its anti-big box ordinance at Walmart’s urging. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Walmart wants to open superstores in the city limits that would run unionized grocery stores out of business. Mayor Kevin Johnson (Rhee’s husband) should recuse himself when this comes before the council. But I doubt that he will. He didn’t the last time the City Attorney told him he had a conflict with an issue before the council.
Of course not, that might be too ethical.