Mother Crusader, written by New Jersey parent Darcie Cimarusti, determined to find out who was putting up the millions to beat teacher tenure and seniority in California. She examined the 990 tax forms for “Students Matter, the organization that led the battle against the California Teachers Union.
Students Matter spent more than $3 million from 2010-2012; the amount spent in 2013-14 has not yet been reported.
“The 990’s also reveal that the money behind the suit wasn’t Welch’s alone. The two largest contributions did indeed come from Welch; $550,000 from “The Welch Trust” and $568,357 from “LRFA, LLC” which is some sort of business entity that links directly back to Welch’s Infinera.
So that’s well over $1M from Welch.
The next biggest dollar amount came from none other than Eli Broad, who kicked in $200,000 to buy the Vergara ruling.”
“The next biggest dollar amount, $100,000, came from “Tammy and Bill Crown.” It took some digging around to figure out that William H. Crown, who seems to split his time between Chicago and Portola Valley, CA, is one of the heirs to Chicago billionaire Lester Crown’s fortune.
“Lester Crown, 80, chairman of Henry Crown & Co., the privately held company that is the vehicle for much of the family’s investments
……
“William H. Crown, 41, general partner in Henry Crown & Co.; president and CEO of another family-run investment company, CC Industries Inc. (son) Bucks: Regulars on Forbes’ billionaires list, Lester Crown and clan ranked 52nd this year with an estimated net worth of $4 billion.”
And then there is this: “A $30,000 donation from the Emerson Education Fund may be one of the most interesting, however. The Managing Director of the Emerson Education Fund is Russlynn Ali, who also just happens to be on the Students Matter Advisory Board.” Ali was at Education Trust before she became Arne Duncan’s Assistant Secretary of Education for civil rights. Recall that school segregation has been soaring in the past decade. Could it be because the U.S. Department of Education believes that tenure is a greater threat to civil rights than segregation?
Darcie likens Vergara to the Parent Trigger, which brings disruption to communities, not much else, and she concludes:
“It’s my greatest hope the Vergara decision does not spread to other states, and is overturned in California on appeal due to pressure from the actual parents, teachers and students who would be affected but this reckless ruling. I don’t know about you, but personally I’m pretty sick and tired of monied interests buying legislation, and now a court decision, that could potentially impact my (and your) kids and their teachers.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
my emails from on separation of church and state show an author Robert Boston that I would like to quote here… it is somewhat “irrelevant” but it captures what is happening and why the people working on separation of church and state are writing more about their involvement in education (which is not always their major issue).
quoting Boston: the attack on teacher unions, in particular, is primary. for example: “in states with vouchers no independent studies have shown a boost in student academic performance. The scheme appears to be to break the back of the teachers’ unions and move toward privatization of education…allowing corporate interests to move in and do what they do best; i.e., offer the cheapest product possible to maximize profits and keep stockholders happy. Some things are more important than profits.”
I was pleased to see that this is being recognized by many groups and they are writing about it…. if anyone wants the source or their blog site I will willingly forward …jeanhaverhill@aol.com
The largest paper in NJ, The Star Ledger, had a rather duplicitous and sarcastic op ed on Sunday in favor of the Vergara decision. In what bizarre universe is tenure, seniority and LIFO (last in first out) considered to be a violation of students’ civil rights. Teachers don’t hire themselves, they don’t do all the observations and evaluations and neither do the unions. Administrators and principals hire the teachers in the first place, they do all the observations and evaluations of the teachers from day one of employment. If tenure, seniority and LIFO are destroyed, then the older more expensive teachers will be dumped or forced out. NJ has highly rated schools by almost any measure and that’s with unions, tenure, seniority and LIFO.
It turns out the evidence was made up too… http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/06/judge_strikes_down_california_s_teacher_tenure_laws_a_made_up_statistic.html
Bloomberg Business has “Obama Administration Picks a Fight With Teachers Unions” which is true.
It’s so petty and vindictive and also manipulative as hell. They come out swinging on one side the first day and then call for “cooperation” the next. A political hit followed by a droning, patronizing lecture to “both sides”. Duncan already knows they’re suing in other states. They announced as much, not to mention former DOE officials are backing the lawsuit(s).
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-17/the-obama-administration-picks-a-fight-with-teachers-unions
The marks of those who truly care about improving education for everyone are not hard to see. The marks of those who have completely alien goals are not hard to see, either. It is time to quit pretending we can’t tell the difference.
A wealth of genuine research and practical experience has been developed over decades and even centuries by humane educators who have dedicated their lives to the task of improving education for all. People who really care about education and equal opportunity are constantly working to apply and grow that knowledge while these other people are blissfully or willfully ignoring its existence for reasons of their own that have nothing to do with education.
I am wondering why billionaires feel the need to destroy teacher’s unions and public schools. The next step is to follow the money and see what they are gaining from this? It seems kind of clear with Gates in that they’re creating a huge market for their products, but what do these other folks gain – tax breaks, shelters?
Low information voters, unskilled workers??
Because once public schools are fragmented into a collection of contract service providers, there won’t be any collective pressure to fund or support them and there will be zero accountability or responsibility by lawmakers for “public schools”, other than that of “authorizing” ( NOT regulating but ceding regulatory authority) the contractors and doling out funds.
Set up a website with approved service providers, give each child a 7200 dollar starter subsidy, and send them out to whichever service provider the parent picks.
Think about the health insurance exchanges. That’s a publicly-funded, privatized model.
Google Lester Crown and read up on the incestuous relationship between big money and public policy. I’m just wondering, did NEA donate to Obama?
The oligarchs and crony capitalists will destroy America as we once knew it.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
How much money did the plaintiff shills get for their participation in this witch hunt?
Diane and all — can you please help find the links with Russlyn Ali? We know here in Los Angeles that she has ties to Deasy — I think she may have worked for LAUSD first. As far as we can tell (I can try to verify this) she helped Deasy manufacture a so-called “civil rights” violation at LAUSD affecting English Language Learners. As a result, some of our schools serving the poorest children got coverage for their libraries, which were generally neglected compared with other areas. But we think the reason Deasy and even ex-mayor Villaraigosa engineered this was so they could steal the Title III funds that normally are supposed to help English Language Learners. So Ali’s involvement in Vergara is even more insidious in my opinion. Anyone know more about Ali? Thank you.
Looks like this is the agreement you were referring to.
Click to access Statement%20from%20Arne%20Duncan%20on%20LAUSD%20resolution%20agreement.pdf
And here is some background from Susan Ohanian:
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=9214
Nice work! I got into. Facebook debate with an employee of Welch’s. A well-intentioned but misinformed friend had posted about Vergara, her comments in support of the decision because as a teacher-education program grad she couldn’t find a job in the district so naturally that was because tenured teachers of lower quality than she were holding spots she and her classmates deserved to compete for. I was truly shocked and disappointed to see her take on the ruling. And I wonder how many young teachers, fresh out of grad school with a lot of debt, when confronted with shrinking job openings due to declining enrollment, turn on older teachers. It’s sad.
This Welch employee just repeated the neoliberal rhetoric “education is a business..teachers are neither well-trained nor well-compensated.” And so I layed into him citing evidence and relying on facts. His feelings were hurt that I called him out so publicly.
But I fear his comments reflect the attitude of Silicon Valley/San Franciscans toward public Ed teachers.
And that is frightening considering the wealth there.
So good work following the money. I just wish there was a specific effort to dispel the misinformation spread in the tech community about public Ed.
Maybe Diane could write something for ValleyWag??