Valerie Strauss here reports on the travails of Steve Perry in Hartford, Connecticut.
Two bloggers, Jonathan Pelto of Connecticut and Jersey Jazzman of New Jersey, have investigated Perry’s boasts about the magnet school he runs and found that his school serves very small proportions of children who are poor, who have disabilities, and who are English language learners.
Perry is a “reformer” of the “no-excuses” variety. He likes to step on toes. He frequently sends me insulting tweets, but I ignore him. As Jonathan Pelto has documented, Perry has plenty of time for tweeting and for making speeches demeaning teachers and unions.
But what really upset Perry was that his effort to take over another school in Hartford was turned down on a 5-4 vote by the Hartford Board of Education. This led him to tweet:
“The only way to lose a fight is to stop fighting. All this did was piss me off. It’s so on. Strap up, there will be head injuries.”
Not a felicitous choice of words.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Another boastful bully.
Just who in the H*ll does he think he is?
Head Injuries??????????
That is a threat…
No just another looney tunes charter CEO who has no business running a school nor making a bunch of money. He talks like a gangster. Can you imagine you school super. acting this way????
the only thing this tweet does is verifies that the “ed reform” is not about education but about business ventures.
of course, he probably thought it would increase his salary by half a million.
“The only way to lose a fight is to stop fighting. All this did was piss me off. It’s so on. Strap up, there will be head injuries.”
I wonder whose? His or someone else’s? Not a good choice of words for a reform “role model”. Not a wise choice to be tweeting. But then again, how intelligent is this fellow?
Can’t get your way? Fight until there are “head injuries.” Some model for children. Teachers would lose their jobs if they proposed anything similar –and rightfully so. They should take his existing schools away from him.
I agree Elder
Doesn’t the NFL have a lawsuit against them because of head injuries? But this buffoon thinks that it’s acceptable to inflict them on others. And he has contact with children? Fire him now. Words matter. Ideas matter.
Perry blithely dismisses his remarks in the Hartford Courant as merely being a metaphor. Nevertheless, a Connecticut school official making such references to violence is pretty tasteless (The Sandy Hook anniversary is coming up). Other teachers and administrators have been shown the door for less.
“Other teachers and administrators have been shown the door for less” — but they had less money, and fewer connections. Always remember the Golden Rule.
Is it not self-evident that those with the power to speak and act with impunity must clearly have been GIVEN such by God? Who are we, mere mortals, to challenge God?
The lower classes must and shall learn their place in the world.
werebat73: you mean the one that says “He who has the gold, rules”?
😕
One and the same!
“He who has the gold, rules”
Yes!! Love it!
The biggest bullies are the ones who can handle anything negative towards themselves the least. We need a larger platform for this guy so more folks can see who he is. In what universe does this man think he has the right to make these decisions. Some people have too much money.
Yes, and some people really need to hear the word “no” more often.
Just think, CNN regularly had this man on their network.
Here’s the newest educelebrity photo from his agent:
I know you-all don’t need a reminder, but it should be noted that Michelle Rhee joins Mr. Perry on ed reform celebrity media tours:
“School reformer extraordinaire Michelle Rhee has begun a three-city event where she is hosting town halls in what she says is an effort to have a “real talk” with teachers, who
for years have viewed her as anything but a friend. (The same could be said of one of her traveling companions on this tour, Connecticut educator Steve Perry, who is famous for referring to teachers unions as “roaches.”)
Rhee and her panel began their tour in Los Angeles earlier this week and will go to Birmingham on Sept. 12 and then Philadelphia on Sept. 16.”
I’m wondering why the calls for civility and compromise don’t include a denunciation of Rhee and Perry? Where is Arne Duncan on this? He delivered a stern lecture to public school parents who are opponents of his Common Core. Why are these two exempt? The demands for civility and cooperation seem to apply only to advocates for public schools. I think Perry should “relinquish” that school he wants. That would be the child-centered thing to do.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/09/07/student-takes-on-michelle-rhee/
Michelle Rhee @MichelleRhee 19 Nov
We can’t allow adult fights to drag on while countless students, esp students of color, are denied the high quality #education they deserve.
Except in the case of her media tour partner. Why won’t ed reformers relinquish schools?
Maybe she can talk to him the next time they’re in the “green room” together.
I’ve always thought the RHEEformers were a bunch of corporate subsidized bullies — add this to the evidence pile….
Words really do reveal the character of a man or woman.
“The tweet above was one in a fusillade that Perry unleashed after the majority of the Hartford Board of Education on Tuesday rejected a deal, supported by Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra and the school board’s chairman, Matt Poland, to allow Perry to stop being a public employee and run the public school, along with a second school, through a nonprofit charter management company that he founded and for which he serves as president. The Courant reported that Perry is listed in state corporation records as president of Capital Preparatory Schools Inc., registered in February 2012. The organization is also listed on Guidestar, an online information service specializing in nonprofit organization, as being at the same address in Hartford as Capital Preparatory Magnet School.”
The truth is, this would be a “public school” in the same way that private insurance plans on the new health care exchange are “public”.
They’re not public, they’re private companies, and no one pretends they are public because if they did they would be laughed out of the room. Many private health insurance plans are “non profits” but they’re still private companies, and this is exactly the same thing.
Why are we calling these public schools? Blue Cross and Blue Shield (traditional) of Ohio is a non-profit health insurer that will be publicly-subsidized under the PPACA. Can I call that private company “public” now? They might object to that! Then again, they haven’t redefined “public” to include “publicly-funded but private”.
Perry has a boat load of anger. It would be in the best interests of kids and families if he go on term leave, or even better, find a new job and inflict himself on an organization wherein his anger/rager is viewed as a positive personality trait, rather than a sign of a major mental illness. At this point, Mr. Perry requires pharmacological intervention; unfortunately, he doesn’t know it.
He is also blaming this on the union and even though the mayor of Hartford, Pedro Segarra and the BOE chair, Matt Poland, are calling for an investigation, he scapegoats the union for his foul behavior. And the Hartford Courant, our local rag, creates a headline stating: The union demands investigation into “threatening” tweet, something to that affect. I will link.
So it is the union only, no one else, calling for an investigation and the tweet may not have been a threat. Perry now says it was a metaphor. Then he said a sports reference and in between it was just a joke. He can’t seem to stick with one lie. The joke is on the kids under his supervision. This man is seriously disturbed and should be far away from children.
Check out the comments here and those posted on all of Pelto’s post – former teachers and parents are commenting, NONE are in support, except for one, who I suspect IS Perry.
America’s Most Twisted “Educator”.
http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-perry-tweet-1122-20131121,0,2558067.story
Comments to this article are eye opening.
http://wnpr.org/post/hartford-board-education-chairman-calls-investigation-principal-steve-perry
This is interesting.
Bizarre and disturbing…. but interesting:
Can you provide a link for this video? I can’t find it on you tube.
Paul, this is, indeed, bizarre & disturbing. However, this sort of thing has become the norm–public servants (although they seem to have confused their roles–our elected officials think that WE, their constituents, are THEIR servants!) as…Hollywood-style celebrities! For example, I am disgusted to see the number of politicians (Chris Christie, Cory Booker, Pres. Obama, etc, ad nauseum) on late night talk shows. Better they should be working for the people who elected them rather than (and I say this with a smirk) “entertaining” them. And that goes for Dr. Steve Perry and his colleagues as well.
He needs to be working at his schools and doing the job he is (over)paid to do!
Although Perry should have chosen his words a little more carefully, his intent was to forcefully say “I have not given up the fight” or even “I have not yet begun to fight”. Let’s not over react. There are too many legitimate concerns to be focusing on the absurd.
That’s not what he said and search the Pelto blog for Perry posts. He has been tweeting and insulting for months DURING school hours when he should be working like the rest of us. He has also been absent 20% of the school year already. Don’t defend a charlatan egomaniac. “Dr.” Perry is absurd.
Linda: Dr. Steve Perry is literally the exemplar of the edubully.
Imagine what it must be like to be a student or parent or employee under his control—and disagree with him.
I have had the unfortunate experience of working under someone like him. I can assure you that folks like him, in less public venues where they are not under widespread scrutiny, are experts at being a 3DM.
No, not to be confused with Data-Driven Decision Making. Demeaning Demoralizing Disruptive Moron.
Sorry, my bad. I apologize to all morons for comparing them with edubullies.
😎
Comments from former teachers and parents are flying in on blog posts, WNPR, news articles, etc. It’s been reported he tells kids, who do you think your parents will believe, you or me? Here’s one comment from a new teacher who met him briefly…all you need to know about America’s most twisted educator:
Posted on WNPR:
I met Steve Perry about six years ago at a teacher’s open house hiring event. I met with many principals that day and all were extremely friendly and welcoming. Fresh out of graduate school and with my hand extended to shake his, he proceeded to cut down my commitment to young people and to teaching. Even before I knew anything about him, I felt violated after my conversation with him. He asked me what my interests were beyond teaching. I said I’m a musician. He asked what I would do if a record company wanted to put me on tour and release my songs. I told him I had just completed an education degree and I was 41 years old, that my interests were not at all with music on that level. Plus, it was wholly unrealistic, as if I would suddenly just up and leave education. Then he became aggressive with me on the point. I simply smiled and walked away. Since then, whenever I mentioned his name to other Hartford teachers and administrators, they would give me a look of avoidance and change the subject. Beyond his misguided stance on education, Steve Perry is a punk and an uncivil blowhard.
Also, read comments on Pelto posts, start here:
http://jonathanpelto.com/2013/11/22/capital-prep-steve-perrys-shocking-record-failure-student-bullying/
He pissed me off when he called my 50, 000 colleagues and I “thugs” and said we “left 400, 000 kids for dead” when we went on strike here in Chicago. The kids were on the picket line with us and their parents. He needs to stay in his lane! Real educators do real things!
Also, Me, Chicago is NONE of his business–he needs to be tending to his own school rather than pointing fingers.
BTW, Diane, this might be one of the reasons that Rhee dropped out of the debate–she may have had Perry in mind, but then all of this hit the fan (or was coming up the pipes). So, she figured on getting out while the getting was still good.
Perhaps there’s someone in the know who might be able to tell us something?!
Now THAT would be hilarious!
Krazy TA, and this, see full post, a review of a book Perry says he wrote:
It is ironic, as a parent of former Capital Prep students, to have only found this review of Steve Perry’s work & the school after having run into issues with this “principal” as mentioned in the article. I guess I should have done my homework on him first before enrolling my kids, but as most parents looking to get our kids out of poor district neighborhood schools into “high-achieving” schools, I believed the media hype. After several months of red flags from pervasive, poor communication to parents to poorly implemented programs and curricula to severely strict uniform policies to poor responses to discipline issues to just a not having created a warm, nurturing environment for young kids, we were finally just biding our time until the end of the school year to escape and find new options for our children. Unfortunately we left sooner! With just 2 months of school left, I have withdrawn my daughters (ages 8 and 5) after having my 5 year old be harshly disciplined for having a missing belt on that day. Her discipline for “not being in proper uniform” was lunch room detention which requires students to stand in front of the cafeteria at tables and forced to eat their lunch standing up for the lunch block! I am still angry at the humiliation that this school caused my shy, introvert 5 year old daughter to experience because her mommy forgot her belt. A simple phone call or email could as rectified the situation for her before she was punished for something beyond her control. And to add insult to injury, Perry had the nerve to reply to my request to stop the practice by telling me he punishes his own son in this manner and reminding me that it would be unfortunate if we left over such a “minor” consequence! Even more outrageous is that I have yet to get any response from the Board of Ed regarding my concern over this harsh discipline.
Will we stop allowing these fame-seeking, fake reformers ruin our kids and schools? He’s worse than the teachers he complains about!
Here’s a snippet from the review:
Throughout, Perry spews unsubstantiated pearls of wisdom that he appears to pull straight out of his asterisk. That is if there were asterisks; the book is largely devoid of footnotes or citations. This is the world according to Perry, where coaches and attractive people make the best teachers. It’s also a world of mangled metaphors: “Urban schools are America’s canary. The shafts are dangerous. Traveling them will cost more than money.” Perry cultivates a maverick image, peppering his speech with colloquialisms like “piss-off,” “hell yes” and “hell no,” “silly-ass,” “raggedy ass,” “sorry-ass,” “dumb ass,” and several other variations on the ass theme. He may be keepin’ it real for the ’hood, or just swapping brazen rhetoric for substance. It’s hard to say.
http://www.buffalospree.com/Buffalo-Spree/November-2011/Education-2011-Take-this-book-and-shove-it/
I refer to them as self-aggrandizing educelebrities.
It’s much worse than that with Perry. Read this synopsis written by a CT parent, see full post, linked at the bottom:
Watching the antics of Steve Perry has brought home to me just how racist so much school “reform” really is. Steve Perry is quick to excoriate “teachers” (just about all of them?) for the soft bigotry of low expectations concerning poor minority students. “Dr.” Perry, in contrast, has great faith in the academic potential of all his students; he believes that he can make any one of them “college-ready” by subjecting them to his stark methods at Capitol Prep. So Perry, like Michael Sharpe of Jumoke, is a “no excuses” man. Students are not to talk about the hardships in their lives; they are to pull themselves up by whatever strings or straps they have at hand. The good “Dr.” Perry is an exponent of “tough love,” and when the student doesn’t shape up, Perry and his minions find a way to show such students the door. “Dr.” Perry’s ship is so damn tight, students are punished for wearing the wrong color pants belt with their school uniform. And woe betide the child who comes to school in something other than the prescribed uniform. I know this to be true because a child I am familiar with, who attended Capitol Prep, was harshly dealt with by the staff for a minor deviation from the standard uniform. The child was distraught at the punishment he received, but Steve Perry knows, as well as any tyrant, that you don’t want to spoil the child by sparing the rod!
Perry’s rule at Capitol Prep is evidence of a deep racism, for the simple reason that his bullying and obnoxious ways would NEVER be tolerated in a middle class suburban school predominantly populated by “white” children. Perry would not dare to practice his authoritarianism on such children. He is an egotist, but even he cannot be so stupid as to antagonize middle class people with lawyers who know their rights. He knows that in Simsbury or West Hartford or in Farmington, parents would be after him so quickly, if he bullied their children, that his feet would not touch the ground. The School boards in any of these towns would fire him quicker than he could fire off one of his trademark tweets. But Perry does all his bad stuff to Hartford children for the very simple reason that he knows he can get away with it.
He can get away with it for a host of tragic reasons. He can justify his harsh treatment of black and brown children by laying claim to the fact that he is a minority too. This kind of pseudo racial solidarity is the stock-in-trade of every opportunist and careerist, from Clarence Thomas to Corey Booker. (Racism has clearly damaged the soul of Steve Perry but in ways that are too complex to go into right here.) Perry uses his “race” as a shield: it allows him to say things to minority children and their parents that would be deemed unacceptable if spoken by a white person. He also uses his “race” as a covert weapon: he thinks being “black” gives him the moral authority to criticize “lazy teachers” and “selfish” teachers’ unions for allegedly perpetuating the abysmal failings of “ghetto education.” We can agree with Mr. Perry that “ghetto education” is indeed a national disgrace, but we find it wrong and simple-minded to make teachers the scapegoats. If Perry read a little history, I think he would see that the “miseducation of the negro” (as Carter G. Woodson put it) has been a longstanding problem in the United States. And it is complexly related to the invidious social position that blacks have occupied in the aftermath of slavery.
Steve Perry is evidence of deep racism in one more sense: he is the “blackface” put on by powerful white interests. The people who want corporate school “reform” (with privatization as the seminal concern) have no real commitment to African American and Latino children who are caught in the morass of poverty. To my knowledge, these people do not advocate for an “end to poverty,” for a renewal of the War on Poverty; indeed, they are largely silent on a slew of social issues. However, they are loud and vocal about school “reform,” as this is central to their broader goal of securing a society that is completely subject to the discipline of the private market. In other words, they view school reform as part of a revolutionary effort to reduce the role of government in safeguarding the public welfare. They don’t want representative government, they want enhanced corporate power. Destroying public schools is a fundamental way of changing the meaning of the “public” and thus the people’s commitment to republican government.
Corporate school is racist because poor minority children are being used to advance a reactionary social agenda that will ultimately prove harmful to all Americans, but most certainly to those who are poor. In one way, the future is already here. In Hartford, the magnet schools are funded and promoted and a few Hartford kids get to go to “Heaven.” But the vast majority of Hartford children are left in “hell”–in schools with no resources, no stability, and very little hope.
It’s obvious that Steve Perry is no educator. He is merely a performer. He is playing the role of “Angry and Inspired Black Educator Who Just Wants to Save the Children if Only the Evil Teachers’ Unions Would Let Him Work His Magic.” There is comedy in Steve Perry, but, alas, it’s hard to laugh when you know he’s a front man for right wing reactionaries who could not care less about the children in Perry’s charge.
http://jonathanpelto.com/2013/11/25/public-school-parent-calls-capital-preps-steve-perry-account/
Steve Perry has taken his Angry Black Man persona on the road and I find him repugnant. I was stunned when the International Reading Association hosted him as a featured speaker at its national convention. That cost the IRA my membership dues. I will not pay to be insulted by Steve Perry. Shame on the IRA for enabling this man.