The Los Angeles Times is not at all pleased with the way the so-called “parent trigger” is working out. The editorial board wants a more open, transparent process.
The editorial does not point out that only one organization has pushed the idea that parents should seize control of a public institution. “Parent Revolution”–funded by billionaires–wrote the law, sends paid community organizers to gather parent signatures, and litigates to push its goals without full information to parents who don’t want to privatize their school or fire their principal or teachers.
The legislature should not tinker with this bad law. It should repeal it. The public schools belong to the community, not to those who may not even be parents next year in the same school.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Are people in the broader community even aware that this is going on? How would they know? If there was no debate in the actual school, I think it’s really unlikely there was any sort of debate in the community.
This is a fundamentally anti-democratic process that treats parents and students as consumers rather than citizens. In that sense it fits right in with “market driven” reform. What are these kids learning? That the broader community has absolutely no input into or power over a “public school” that the community built and funds? That’s one heck of a civics lesson, reformers-good going.
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I’m going to keep re-posting this so people can see
what a liar Ben Austin is (My apologies to those who
find this repetitive… please just skip it if you do)
In the interview linked to BELOW, Parent Revolution leader
Ben Austin characterizes the opposition to the Parent
Trigger in Compton(December 2010) thusly:
“The teachers’ union struck back”,
He then proceeds to describe McKinley Elementary
in Compton (the target school) overall as a
child-abusing hell-hole.
(Oh really? Then why did 90% of the parents
choose to remain at McKinley… the child-abusing hell-hole…
instead of at the charter school that Parent Revolution helped
open just a block away?)
Seriously, Dr. Ravitch. You’re not going to believe this—but Austin claims
THAT the the unionized teachers at McKinley retaliated against the the
pro-Parent Trigger parents by physically torturing the children of
those parents (???!!!) while the children of anti-Parent-Trigger,
pro-evil-union parents were spared this Abu Ghraib-like physical
and mental torment.
Austin said this an interview for the far-right-wing, anti-union Choice Matters,
where he is being interviewed by Bob Bowden, who had previously made
an anti-union, pro-charter documentary, “THE CARTEL”.
Check out this link for the video:
(NOTE: the scary, unnerving tinkling piano music underscoring the urination / defecation torture story)
Next, try watching it while reading along to my transcript:
(ALSO NOTE: Dr. Ravitch, I was very precise in my transcription of this part of the interview—including all the pauses, ellipses ( … ), “uhh” ‘s, “uhhmm” ‘s, etc.. .
I did this to illustrate that Ben Austin is clearly lying his head off. Show this video
to any police detective, or anyone else trained in lie detection, and see
what they say. Compare Austin’s delivery and demeanor to that of
the interviewer Bowden, who is not under pressure to knowingly lie.
Austin is bumbling, while Bowden remains smooth.
Lying is hard work. It places intense cognitive demands and pressures
on the person who is lying, and as a result, when you get someone who
is not very effective and/or experienced in lying, you get a ridiculous, stumbling,
bumbling performance like that of Austin’s in the video.
Also, the bolding during the torture story is mine, Jack)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
TRANSCRIPT: (00:41 – 02:06)
AUSTIN: “Instead of being embraced and applauded for getting involve
in the education of their own children, (THE PRO-PARENT-TRIGGER PARENTS) were intimidated uhhh… and abused and harassed… uhhmm… and… uhmmm… we quiclkly found out that there were few… moral boundaries that the other side was unwilling to cross.
“One story in particular that was… uhmmm… jaw-dropping.. was that… uhmm… we found out pretty quickly that parents… whose… who—uhh… children whose parents signed the petitions… uhhm… were not allowed to go to the bathroom, and… when the children peed in their pants, they were sent to the… Nurse’s Office… uhh… and… that is where the parents… uhmm… parents got called in to bring in clean underwear… uhh… and that’s where the parents got hit up to give their … uhhh… to rescind their… signatures.”
BOWDEN: “Let me get this straight? In the same classroom where the parents who didn’t support the Parent Trigger petition… those students were allowed to go to the bathroom, and if your mom or dad supported the Parent Trigger, you were told, ‘Too bad. Stay there.’ ” (and thus, be forced to urinate/defecate on yourself, Jack)
AUSTIN: “That’s right. I mean it’s.. it’s… i-i-i-i-i… the-the… Things got so bad that the parents… uhhmmm… uhh… had to
—-(AUSTIN STARES DOWN AT SOMETHING… another “tell” of lying)
” … uhhmmm… sue the school district… and uhhmm… they … ”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Austin doesn’t even seem to believe the
bullshit that he’s spewing. His mind is jumping
around awkwardly… rambling about kids peeing in
their pants, then about parents forced to
bring clean underwear…
It’s like he’s trying to remember whatever phony story
that he, Gabe Rose, Pat DeTemple, and/or other Parent Rev. folks
vomited up during a secret strategy session.
In this instance at least, Austin’s a pretty unconvincing liar.
the same video is also here:
I have never seen a video where it was
more completely obvious that someone (Austin) is
lying his head off. The “uhh..”‘s,
“uhhmmm”s… pauses etc…. repeatedly’
the staring down, and looking to the side.
Again, note the contrast with cadence
and manner of the interviewer,
who is not lying.
CONCLUSION:
THIS__STORY__IS___TOTAL___AND___UTTER___BULLSHIT.
NOTE: Austin was an uncredited consultant to the
screenwriters of ‘WON’T BACK DOWN’. The urination
scene is in the movie, with the added wrinkle
that the evil unionized teacher first locked the
pro-Parent-Trigger parent’s kid in a dark closet.
When the hero mom shows up, the evil teacher
says that’s what your kid gets for you being
a trouble-maker—i.e. signing the petition,
and gathering signatures.
Sheesh!
If that ever happened in real life, the teacher
would be taken out of the school in handcuffs.
These Parent Rev. people are sociopaths, or
psychopaths who are so steeped in pathological dishonesty—
telling whatever lie they want to tell
whenever they want to tell it, so long as
it advances their agenda—that, in this
instance at least, they’ve lost
touch with reality.
In my next post, I’ll tell you about
1) the bogus “McKINLEY PARENTS FOR CHANGE” flyer
that Robert Skeels wrote about:
2) Parent Revolution’s despicable “Plan B” they tried to put into effect in Compton, and which ultimately failed.
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Before I get to the post about the flyer and “Plan B”, check out this near the end of the BEN AUSTIN / BOBBY BOWDEN INTERVIEW video:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
( 02:51 – 03:13 )
BOWDEN: “What happened to the teachers who did that?”
AUSTIN: “Nothing”
—-LONG PAUSE where Ben doesn’t clarify this in the least
BOWDEN: “They’re still working?”
AUSTIN: “Uhhmmm… yeah… and… and… I mean our-our goal is not to teacher-bash… or even union-bash… for some people see this simply as a struggle for power… not an issue of social justice… not an issue of …. ”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Right… Ben says that he and Parent Revolution are “not about teacher-bashing”… Oh, no… not at all… he just tells some horrific (and totally bogus) story about teachers at a school torturing children as a means of winning a “struggle for power.”
As anyone on either side of the issue would, Bowden is genuinely interested in whether or not the perpetrators of this were ever held accountable for this alleged conspiracy of abuse.
But Ben doesn’t want to go there… other than to say “Nothing.” when asked if the anything happened to these teachers.
Somewhat embarrassed and staring down (another “tell” of lying), Ben just quickly moves on from this line of questioning to blather about “struggle for power” and “issue of social justice.”
—I’m going into Sam Kinison voice as I type this (I know that dates me with some folks reading)
Hey Ben!!!!!
Didn’t someone ever think of alerting Compton Unified?!!!
Didn’t you think of calling the police?!!
Have those kids gotten psychological treatment?!
Have the child victims’ parents done anything in response?
Are they suing?
The answer to all these question is,,,
—more Sam Kinison Voice
HELL- NO!!!!
Why?
BECAUSE NONE OF THIS EVER FREAKIN’ HAPPENED!!!!!
OH!! OH!! OHHHHHHH!!!!!!
OH!!! OH!!! OHHHHHH!!!!!
BEN AUSTIN… YOU FREAKIN’ LIAR!!!!
OH!! OH!! OHHHHHHH!!!!!!
OH!!! OH!!! OHHHHHH!!!!!
—back to normal voice
I’m an elementary school teacher who has to take the Child Abuse Awareness Training video and test annually.
Here’s how it works.
If I—or ANY teacher / administrator—became aware that another teacher or an administrator had been torturing a child—forcing the child to urinate / defecate on himself / herself…
Like all teachers, administrators and other “mandated reporters”, I am required BY LAW to report this immediately… if not, I will be immediately removed from the classroom, will be prosecuted, and will be open to be sued for a six-figure sum (at least), and I will lose my job and my credential… and eventually get banned from teaching for life.
Look at how blase Austin is when Bowden asks him if anything happened to these teachers. There’s not the slightest bit of anger or outrage on Austin’s part… he’s a bit annoyed at the question, and instead moves on..
Oh well, la-di-dah… kids got tortured… let’s change the subject…
Austin then abruptly changes the topic to “we’re not here to teacher bash or union bash”…
Ridiculous!
If this HAD actually happened, the Parent Revolution douchebags would have gone to the police, held press conferences, had the “pro-bono legal team” sue everyone and every organization in sight—Compton Unified, the teachers, the union, the administrators… etc.
And then publicize the hell outta ALL OF THE ABOVE from now till Doomsday. They’d milk this for all its worth, AS PROOF OF HOW EVIL TRADITIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND and HOW EVIL TEACHER UNIONS ARE.
Why haven’t they?
—going back into a Sam Kinison Voice
BECAUSE_IT_NEVER_FREAKIN’_HAPPENED!!!!!!
—more Sam Kinison Voice
OH!! OH!! OHHHHHHH!!!!!!
OH!!! OH!!! OHHHHHH!!!!!
BEN AUSTIN… YOU FREAKIN’ LIAR!!!!
OH!! OH!! OHHHHHHH!!!!!!
OH!!! OH!!! OHHHHHH!!!!!
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Jack
June 1, 2013 at 11:40 am
Now, here’s the post about the phony flyer & “Plan B”:
Here’s a blast from the past—2 1/2 years ago to be precise—of the infamous events in Compton, California during December 2010:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45455171/astroturf-parent-revolution-compton-caper-flyer
This is the flyer—claiming to be from the parents running “McKinley Parents for Change”.
This was supposedly group of parents of Compton’s McKinley Elementary who were ostensibly out gathering signatures to turn over McKinley Elementary’s multi-million dollar campus/annual school budgets in perpetuity over to the private Charter company Celerity—i.e. from the public sector where it is controlled by an elected school board accountable to the public…. to the private sector, where the Board meets in secret, and the public is cut out of all decision-making.
At this point, a community activist—with an admittedly anti-charter school point-of-view—named Robert Skeels then called the number at the bottom of the flyer, and here’s what he found out:
http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2010/12/update-on-veracity-of-mckinley-parents.html
– – – – – – –
ROBERT SKEELS (December 2010): “Considering the certainty and conviction of the bullet points on the flyer by this newly formed, pro-Celerity ‘parent’ group, supposedly wholly unrelated to the well-paid professional staffers at the billionaire-financed Parent Revolution, I figured my questions and concerns would be promptly addressed.
“I left a message with my name and number for McKinley Parents for Change last night, and lo and behold Parent Revolution returned my call this morning. Yuri (not sure if I’m spelling that right, my apologies if I’m not) must not be aware of my years of investigative journalism exposing the insatiable greed of the lucrative charter-voucher industry. The poor woman couldn’t answer any of my questions about Celerity’s lack of compliance with the Modified Consent Decree or the State Board of Education’s proposed regulations on their Corporate Charter Trigger Law, so she said she’d have Gabe Rose (an official of Parent Revolution) call me back to clarify.
“She also was very helpful and explained to me that Gabe Rose played a major role in the creation of the flyer (who would have guessed?), so he was the best person to explain it. So much for McKinley Parents for Change’s claim that they are parents at McKinley Elementary School. I somehow doubt I’ll receive that second phone call.”
– – – – – – – – – – – –
Over a hundred McKinley parents demanded that they be allowed to rescind their signatures that Parent Revolution collected, claiming that the signature gatherers were not McKinley parents, and that those paid signature-gatherers lied to them about the full implications of what all the parents were signing (“This is for new computers… sign here…. this is to beautify the campus… sign here… ” and on and on)
Parent Revolution officials disputed this, claiming that 70% of the parents at the school signed with fully knowledge of the petition’s implications, and that all those parents were indeed demanding Celerity take over the school.. and that it was the McKinley parents, not Parent Revolution doing all the signature gathering.
(See BELOW where Parent Revolution eventually comes clean about this lie)
This went to court, and also prompted hearings at the State Board of Ed.
Hmmm… who was telling the truth?
Well, we eventually found out, as there eventually was a metric to
show which side was telling the truth.
Parent Revolution then assisted Celerity in opening a charter school a block away from McKinley in an abandoned Catholic school building (NOTE, this was a charter authorization separate from the contentious Parent Trigger process.)
The new “Plan B” was to depopulate McKinley—with the students leaving to the new Celerity school—and then use Prop. 39 to have Celerity co-locate and invade the school anyway because of all the empty classrooms—Prop 39 allows this. They were even promising free laptops to all the students who defected from McKinley to the Celerity Charter. Given how impoverished the typical family was/is in this community, free laptops must have been tempting.
Check out L.A Weekly’s Simone Wilson’s article about Parent Revolution’s ‘Plan B’ :
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/05/parent_trigger_plan_b_charter_school_to_open_2_blocks_from_mckinley_elementary.php
(the pro-Parent Revolution / pro-charter writer, Simone Wilson, is positively salivating at this prospect of Celerity “U-Hauling its top-notch operations” into McKinley):
– – – – – – – – – –
SIMONE WILSON: “Indeed, Plan B is looking pretty promising. If Celerity opens a first-rate campus — laptops for all ! — two blocks from McKinley, chances are at least 200 of roughly 400 students will leap at the chance for a better education. This would leave the McKinley campus ‘underutilized,’ at which point another controversial California law, Prop. 39, could force the district to let a charter school take over its facilities.
” ‘I’m excited because I know my daughter is going to get the education she needs and deserves,’ parent Shemika Murphy told the Los Angeles Times.
“With this kind of support, Celerity would be ready, willing and perfectly poised to U-Haul its top-notch operations from the church over to the elementary school — virtually the same outcome as a successful Trigger would have allowed.
“… In the end, we’ve got to give props to Revolution for finding the sneaky back-door alternative to a Trigger. Whatever it takes to rescue Compton kids from the poor-get-poorer dis-educational system to which district officials have condemned them.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
How nice. Simone praising the “sneaky back-door” antics of Ben Austin & Co. That speaks volumes for the character of all who were participating in, and backing “Plan B”.
Alas, Simone was salivating over this “sneaky back-door” tactic in vain as it turned out.
In the coming fall, the public finally got definitive proof that the Parent Revolution was not on-the-level. Only 10% (or less, depending on reports) of the parents opted to go to the new Celerity school—far short of the 70% Parent Revolution organizers—and writers like Simone Wilson—had been telling everyone were clamoring for the Celerity takeover.
Also, U-Haul must not have been pleased as Celerity had to cancel any trucks they had booked for invasion and exfiltration of McKinley.
At about the same time, Parent Revolution’s Ben Austin was removed from the State Board of Ed. by California’s newly elected Governor Jerry Brown.
In the face of this public relations fiasco—where it became obvious to all that only a mere 10% (or less) of McKinley parents actually wanted Celerity taking over their school, after all—Ben Austin and Parent Revolution put out this new version:
http://parentrevolution.org/content/mckinley-elementary
– – – – – – – –
PARENT REVOLUTION: “We have also been very public about the fact that the McKinley campaign was not a perfect campaign… the vast majority of the signatures gathered were ultimately gathered by our organizers, not by the parents themselves.”
– – – – – – –
Oh really, Ben?
That’s most certainly NOT what you and your cohorts were saying back December 2010. No, you said it was the parents doing everything, with only minimal Parent Revolution assistance… or again, that’s what Parent Revolution claimed.
Their new story was that Parent Revolution had recently “became very public about” all this… yeah… but this was ONLY AFTER people like Robert Skeels exposed them, and the shenanigans in which they were engaged.
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In the quote BELOW, Parent Revolution’s Ben Austin makes a false equivalency between elections and signature gathering for a petition… as a hare-brained way to defend parents not being able to rescind their signatures.
This little tid-bit relates to Parent Revolution’s biggest “success” to date…
the takeover in Adelanto.
A hastily-organized and penniless group of parents
in Adelanto tried to have their signatures rescinded,
claiming that they had been lied to and misled into
signing the petition by Parent Revolution operatives.
They even testified to that in court.
This testimony from Ben Austin responding to their claims says it all:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
BEN AUSTIN: “There are certainly voters who are going to vote
on ballot initiatives this November that do not understand
everything they’re voting on… That doesn’t illegitimize
an election.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Wow!
That is some Classic Ben Austin! You can find it here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/03/wont-back-down-inspiratio_n_1935876.html
Ben is tacitly admitting that—in the course of Parent Revolution’s
signature gathering—there were and are indeed petition signers
who were misled and confused when signing on
(and presumably would not have signed otherwise)…
with Austin conceding that it was AT LEAST SOME OF
HIS OWN SIGNATURE GATHERERS WERE DELIBERATELY
MISLEADING AND CONFUSING PEOPLE.
There were almost 100 parents who wanted to rescind
their signatures after finding out they had been “duped”.
ANATOMY OF THE “DUPING”:
the Parent Revolution organizers rented a house
across the street from the school, and elicited what
the parents by saying, “This is to make the school better… ”
Well, duh! Who’s not going to sign that?
In an argument that inexplicably prevailed with
an appeals court judge, Ben tries to draw an equivalency…
between petitions and elections…
in that both usually have signers / voters
who may be misled or confused when they
vote for / sign something… and so what if they do?
Once again…
– – – – – – – – – – – –
BEN AUSTIN: “There are certainly voters who are going to vote
on ballot initiatives this November that do not understand
everything they’re voting on… That doesn’t illegitimize
an election.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
WTF???!!!
This idiotic argument—attempting to equate elections
and signature-gathering for a petition—essentially legitimizes
wholesale fraud in signature-gathering.
It essentially gives license to any and
every kind of dishonest tactic:
— lying,
—phony promises
—threats
and on and on…
Because later, you can just claim… “well, they do this in elections,
and you’re not allowed to take your vote back… so you shouldn’t
be allowed to take your signature back.”
Unlike an election, petition-gatherer engages in a one-on-one communication
and relationships with the prospective signer… one in which the prospective signer
is at the mercy of the signature-gatherer as to what he or she is
saying—promises, representations, threats, etc.—are actually
truthful.
If the signer of the petition—once he discovers that has “been had”—
is not then allowed to rescind the signature… then the whole fraud
will then run rampant.
An election is nothing of the kind.
The only reason this was not appealed to the Supreme Court was that the School Board in Adelanto had been financially drained by Parent Revolution’s high-powered lawyers. This cash-poor school district was broke, so they had to basically surrender at this point.
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Jack, you may need to post that great article on the “parent trigger” on a regular basis. Vigilante justice is not justice. The public school belongs to the public who built it and funds it, not to the parents of children enrolled this year. It is not theirs to give away. Nor should parents have the power to fire staff. There is such a thing in law called due process.
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I hope its okay to share my agree 2 disagree moment with you.:)
While I do find the Parent Trigger article disturbing, its disingenuous to say the schools below to the “public” when in fact parents are a part of the “public” and its their CHILDREN that must walk those halls EVERYDAY not the bystander public nor the parent . The bottom line is kids need safe, nurturing and effective instructors to teach them in the classroom and they need effective Principals to lead the charge. Kids also need engaged parents/family/community to support their k-12 experience.
Kids are non voluntary “consumers” because compulsory laws force parents to send their kids to school. Its not that simple to call kids citizens because many schools violate their constitutional rights to a safe & quality education everyday because of politics..
It would be refreshing if these types of conversations would be all about whats best for kids because kids need a fair access at obtaining a college degree just like many of us. 🙂
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I wrote to my Assemblywoman and will team up with other people in the Los Angeles area to make certain this law is amended or repealed. My guess is that “Dr.” John Deasy was behind this attempt to deceive well-intentioned parents, along with Parent Revolution. If so, I hope he is forced to resign and Parent Revolution is forced to fold.
As many “reforms” come to fruition, we can see that the true goal is to siphon school tax money into private pockets and the methods for doing so are deception and fraud.
Fortunately for everyone, the public and even the Los Angeles Times, are catching on.
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Yes, And Deasy just rolled out his new 3 year “vision” for LAUSD which includes a personal computer for every one of the 640,000 students, surely to the benefit of Mr.Gates etc.That is certainly more important than class sizes of 50-60, given the number of teachers allotted for Fall 2013 by District Suits.
Its “The Class Size Stupid” !!!
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Ben should fear Jack. Jack is not giving up.
Beware Ben Austin. Lies eventually catch up with you….and some last a lifetime.
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Yeah I remember in Ed courses at a University to become a teacher learning that only about 30% of tax payers even have kids in school. So true–the parents are in fact not the only voices that matter on this. It is crazy these types of events are happening.
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“job seekers only need a substitute teachers permit to apply. Apparently that’s all that’s required to help improve education at a chronically struggling school.”
Many states require substitutes to have just a BA in ANYTHING, with no course requirements in education and no classroom teaching experience is necessary, including my state and, from what I’ve read, CA as well. (That opens the door to TFA, too.)
How many low income parents would know enough about education to even inquire about teacher credentials at a charter school? What a ridiculous law on so many counts, but this one is particularly disconcerting.
Asking parents unfamiliar with education to select who is to manages a school is like asking people unacquainted with science to choose who runs NASA. Would they know enough to pick people who are specialists in astrophysics or might they choose astrologists?
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Elder_wise,
You’ve hit the nail on the head… as once that parents have pulled the trigger—or have been lied to, manipulated, and tricked into signing a petition that does so—from that moment on, THOSE PARENTS WILL NOW HAVE -ZERO- DECISION-MAKING POWER, OR INPUT AS TO THE RUNNING OF THE CHARTER SCHOOL…
— which administrators get hired, and what their qualifications are
— which teachers get hired, and what their qualifications are
— what the salaries are—teachers are usually paid less and abused at will… administrators are usually paid considerably more.
— what gets contracted out… often to companies controlled by the bosses, or run by siblings and friends… (See Juan Rangel in Chicago’s UNO charter schools)
— the admissions and expulsion policies…
and on and on…
Charter school management HAS ZERO TRANSPARENCY TO THE PUBLIC, ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE PUBLIC, AND DO NOT HAVE TO EDUCATE ALL THE PUBLIC…
because they are no longer controlled by the public via a democratically-elected school board.
On the contrary, parents are barred from these closed board meetings, the board members are filled with non-educators—businessman, hedge fund managers, etc…
I could go on and on…
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Remember Parent Revolution’s Ben Austin was booted off The California State Bar for not taking ETHICS classes. http://t.co/oolmUZiBak
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And just how long were Adelanto parents supposed to put up with failing scores and kids who couldn’t read and students who were treated poorly by teachers and top administrators who sent troubled kids back to the school no matter how they behaved and what they brought to school? You wouldn’t want your kid to go to an Adelanto school, and I wish the new school every success.
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And people who are qualified to be only substitute teachers are the answer? Change just for the sake of change is no solution to the complex problem of poverty –but that sure does make a lot of Ben Austin types richer.
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In 2012 alone, Austin’s LA Parent Union/aka Parent Revolution received $2,521,369 from the Waltons to “shape public policy.” They also got $$900,488 from Gates “to help execute upon the mission to transform public education by empowering parents to transform their children’s underperforming schools through community organizing.” Adelante parents have described the experience as divisive, not collaborative.
Think the poor parents in Adelanto have any idea Austin was given nearly $3.5 Million dollars in one year from our nation’s wealthiest billionaires just to “shape public policy” in their little town and to “help” them? I suspect a lot of parents there would think very differently if they understood that this was about promoting a neo-liberal agenda to privatize public education and that they just happened to be selected as ground zero for testing a new method for accomplishing that.
That is a huge amount of money to spend pitting community members against each other, especially just to end up with untrained and inexperienced substitute teachers for their children.
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The charter companies don’t want the best teachers—the ones with years of experience, who are fully credentialed?
And why is that?
Because they have accompanying demands for decent salaries, benefits, working conditions, etc. … and that costs more.
This is the “fast-food”, non-union model of running a business (in this case, a “school business’), wher spending as little as possible, so you can maximize profits is the priority, not the quality of the education, or the well-being, academic achievement, or long-term future of the students.
As the article illustrates, in Adelanto’s recent past, there was a disastrous charter school—scandal-ridden with financial corruption, etc. … Parent Revolution knew the public was aware of this charter school debacle, so what was Parent Revolution’s strategy?
Lie, lie, lie… like Ben Austin does with the made-up story of the Compton teachers torturing children of pro-Parent-Trigger parents.
The professional, paid signature-gatherers—who didn’t even live in the community—made the following pitch:
“Oh, this petition is not for a charter. It’s just to make our traditional public school better… just sign here, please… oh, and by the way, could you sign this OTHER petition here while you’re at it.”
The second petition, of course, was TO CONVERT THE SCHOOL TO A PRIVATELY-MANAGED CHARTER. (This is all detailed in the Yasha Levine article—contained in the second COMMENT of this article… SEE ABOVE.)
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Changemaker,
Did you even read the Yasha Levine article? In the second COMMENT above, it’s posted in its entirety.
Read it again with an open mind, and then get back to us
Peace,
Jack
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I read a comment on a Facebook page saying that DFER has joined Jeb Bush’s organization. I tried to find a link to that, but couldn’t. Does anyone have information about this??
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Not aware of a merger but their interests coincide. Check out the boards.
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Did you see this? Jean Ann Guliano: Battle Lines Drawn Over Common Core Standards:
http://www.golocalprov.com/news/jean-ann-guliano-battle-lines-drawn-over-common-core-standards/
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That was a very informative article. However, it didn’t state that DFER signed up with Chiefs for Change. But both groups have the exact same agenda. The fact that neither group supports a grace period is unbelievable. Only non-educators would fight for such a quick implementation without enough support.
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Robert Skeels posted this about Parent Revolution’s Ben
Austin being disbarred and “not eligible to practice law
in California because of his failure to take a LEGAL
ETHICS course as part of Minimum Continuing Legal Education.”
Given the countless lies Austin throw around impuning
the ethics of others, I think it’s fair game to point Austin’s actual
and documented ethical lapse, and should be circulated
to as wide an audience as possible.
Here’s the link:
http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2011/11/schools-matter-parent-trigger-charlatan.html
and here’s text with Robert Skeels’ take (in
Robert’s inimitable prose):
– – – – – – – – – – –
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Schools Matter:
Parent Trigger charlatan Ben Austin
booted off The State Bar of California
First published on Schools Matter on November 9, 2011
“Making students accountable for test scores works well on
a bumper sticker and it allows many politicians to look good
by saying that they will not tolerate failure. But it represents
a hollow promise. Far from improving education, high-stakes
testing marks a major retreat from fairness, from accuracy,
from quality, and from equity.” — Sen. Paul Wellstone
(1944-2002) quoted on Alfie Kohn’s site
Defend Public Schools from Corporate Charter-Voucher
Charlatans like the foppish millionaire from Benedict Canyon,
parent trigger pusher Ben AustinApparently the right wingers
at Parent Revolution are immune to cognitive dissonance.
How else could we explain an organization that frequently
co-hosts meetings with The Heartland Institute calling the
National Educators Association (NEA) teabaggers?
In a desperate attempt to preserve George W. Bush’s
fringe right-wing No Child Left Behind legislation (NCLB),
the Parent Revolution reactionaries claim that anyone
opposed to Rod Paige’s vicious anti-public school
project are teabaggers, and somehow opposed
civil (read corporate) rights.
The basis for these wild and specious claims?
Parent Revolution doesn’t want to see what they term
“accountability” removed from ESEA/NCLB. Never mind
that NCLB’s false forms of accountability were never
intended to do anything other than make it easy for
the neoliberal consensus in Washington to push the
corporate agenda.
That agenda includes forced school closures,
reconstitutions, and ultimately the privatization of
the whole system for the benefit and profits of Wall
Street hucksters like Whitney Tilson, real estate
moguls like Eli Broad, and convicted predatory technology
monopolists like Bill Gates. Indeed, in defending NCLB, Parent
Revolution wants to maintain the standardized testing status quo.
All their astroturf blather about “accountability” got me thinking.
When I think of paragons of accountability, Ben Austin and
Parent Revolution are poles apart from those thoughts in every
sense. Let’s look at the facts. California Parent Trigger author
Austin was under investigation by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission
(Case # 2010-36) because he was collecting a check at
the City Attorney’s Office while at the same time he was a
full time charter school advocate (and part time Green Dot consultant)
at Los Angeles Parents Union (aka LAPU or Parent Revolution).
Besides double dipping, he used his city employee connections to host
closed meetings with his political connections garnered from his City job,
like with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Those connections also brought
lucrative business to his wife, Tracy Austin, who makes a fortune as
a fundraising consultant for the very same politicians that gave Austin
a pass on his ethics violations. Where was the accountability in all of that?
Of course, Austin’s conflicts of interest while working at the City
of Los Angeles pale in comparison to when arch-reactionary
Milton Freidman acolyte Schwarzenegger appointed the Parent
Revolution chief to the California State Board of Education (SBE)
to join the rest of the charter-voucher profiteers the SBE was stacked
with. Austin used his SBE seat to push through the California Charter
Schools Association agenda. He also used the seat to lobby for and
manipulate the implementation ofhis and Gloria
Romero’s hideous charter takeover law
entitled the Parent Empowerment Act, but most often
referred to by culturally loaded name Parent Trigger.
Austin’s unethical and illegal behaviors on the SBE earned
him a letter of censorship from the SBE demanding he stop
breaking the law. Where was the accountability in all of that?
Ben Austin’s latest foray into the realm of accountability?
Parent Trigger charlatan Ben Austin booted off State Bar of California
Here’s the link to the documentation of Ben Austin’s
disbarment”
I’ll reproduce my original take on this situation:
Parent Trigger author, Benjamin Benchley Lain Austin,
aka the Beverly Hills Barrister, aka the Foppish Millionaire
of Benedict Canyon is not eligible to practice law
in California because of his failure to take a
LEGAL ETHICS course as part of
Minimum Continuing Legal Education.
It’s no small irony that a charlatan that claims to know
so much about education doesn’t keep up with his own,
and more importantly, avoids taking classes on ethics!
I suppose we can’t blame Austin for avoiding classes on ethics,
since ethics are anathema to him. So next time the slick charter
school spokesman and his band of pernicious privatizers prattle
about accountability, we can remember that they have no
understanding of the word whatsoever.
Special thanks to Lisa for bringing Austin’s current State Bar of
California status to our attention.
Addendum: A reader chastised me for not noting another
form of accountability Parent Revolution astroturfers are guilty
of shirking, and that’s keeping their paperwork for tax exempt
status in order. I’m a little embarrassed that I neglected to
mention this, but inTrigger Happy Parent Revolution Refuses
Form 990 Request,we explored how the Parent Revolution
scoundrels weren’t accountable to the tax paying public.
The IRS sent me a letter explaining that they are investigating
these poverty pimps.
While we’re at it, let’s not forget wealthy white Gabe Rose,
deputy director of Parent Revolution, has the dubious
distinction of being caught posing as a Compton parent
when he has never lived in Compton, nor been a parent.
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I was at a UTLA chapter chair training today as an observer and UTLA is finally taking a stand on the way that the Parent Trigger is being operated by Parent Revolution. UTLA has teachers and parents from Weigand Street Elementary there telling in detail what happened and how Parent Revolution operates as did people from several other schools. Parent Revolution has 50 LAUSD schools on their list. They are everywhere. They also operate outside of the law and without anyone knowing the real rules and regulations of the law and that is why this information is not on their website. People are amazed when they see the law and then learn about the illegal methodology of Parent Revolution and how sneaky they are. The law is clear. UTLA will now have a rapid response team. Chapter chairs who were there took a large quantity of the information to hand out to their teachers. We have just started and education of parents and teachers as to the law, rules and regulations. We hope that UTLA will join with us in educating parents, students, teachers and community on the law, rules and regulations so that when parents either do or do not pull the trigger they know what they are doing and that is called “Informed Consent.” I want to thank Warren Fletcher and David Lyell for doing this and all the others involved to inform all of what the law, rules and regulations are.
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It still doesn’t address the fact that a bare majority of current parents are setting policy for a public school.
We’re deciding on a 19 million dollar tax levy at our public school.
I support the funding.
May I take a petition to school and conduct a referendum among parents and raise property taxes for everyone in the community?
Of course not. We’ll hold a vote, and all eligible voters will decide.
You’re disenfranchising 90% of the people in these communities with this law. The current parents don’t own that school. It’s a public asset.
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I’d take it to the community. I’d ask if they think it’s fair that a bare majority of current parents can completely change a public school that belongs to the community.
It’s a dumb law, but even the dopes on newspaper editorial boards should understand that a referendum on a public asset can’t be limited to a small minority of the community.
Since legislators and media have apparently forgotten 7th grade civics, an we take it to a judge?
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Can we find a parent of a preschooler in that community who was excluded from this crazy, undemocratic “voting process” and was harmed?
Surely California has a referendum process that has to be followed, and this is a referendum, it’s an election.
I
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