Investigative journalist David Sirota asks why so many of the super-rich love charter schools.
The answer, with exceptions: profits and money and union-busting, all rolled in one.
Take Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to Newark. At least $20 million went to consultants. Consultants!
Sirota writes:
“But, of course, a lot of corporate execs working for the firms who got Zuckerberg’s money did indeed personally profit off the pro-charter-school campaign. Additionally, in states where charter schools are for-profit enterprises, there are even more business interests with personal financial stakes in undermining traditional public education. And, again, there are all the profits inherent in the aforementioned tax credits. Meanwhile, there’s the whole anti-union element to the charter school movement. As any political consultant for a business group knows, if you get union-free charter schools to replace traditional public education, you damage the public sector unions – aka one of the few political forces with any resources to challenge Corporate America’s broader legislative agenda.
“Of course, this is the kind of thing you almost never hear about in the ongoing debate about education. Most often, that debate pretends the fight pits greedy self-interested teachers’ unions against purely altruistic corporate types who are so rich they couldn’t possibly have a financial motive in their education policy advocacy. Somehow, we are to believe that in the midst of their careers making as much money as possible in their chosen careers, every philanthrocapitalist suddenly is selflessly spending gobs of money with no desire to get any return on investment. Worse, we are asked to believe this even though there are myriad ways to engineer such a return on investment through the campaign to promote charter schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Very true. In Ohio, we have a “governor”and legislature that very anti-union. We gathered over 1,000,000 signatures to overturn SB5 only to have Kasich stick it in his budget. Current effort are in the works to make matter worse.
This ALEC drafted legislation that shows up here, Wisconsin, and other states intends to privatize every possible service, from toll booths to education to prisons to energy provision. It continues to creep like a cancer throughout our state while the lemmings close their eyes and follow party lines …wherever they lead.
The have-nots and the working middle class don’t really matter in this state…at least in the eyes of the party in control.
Deb, You are so right…so well said. I am an Ohio teacher. John Kasich has ruined public education in Ohio. My husband and I cannot stand him, and we turned Republican when Obama got President – after being Democrats our whole lives. As far as I’m concerned, Republicans and Democrats both have done a lot of damage in our country. My husband and I vote across party lines. We couldn’t support Barack Obama – and all of our misgivings about him have come true in his 2 terms.
John Kasich is an evil man who is intent on grabbing as much as he can throughout his governorship. When my husband was a principal he met Governor Strickland, and you couldn’t have wanted a nicer man. Yes, I remember Senate Bill 5…Kasich bragged that it didn’t matter it went down, because he was going to get back at teachers in his legislation. And, that he did. Someday, Kasich will get all he deserves. I hope he likes hot places. The sad thing is that his twin girls do not have to suffer with his toxic educational policies – like our Ohio kids do.
If anyone is thinking about moving to Ohio to teach, turn around and speed back to another state. Teaching in Ohio is in huge trouble.
No one in their right mind will want to be a teacher in Ohio. Within 10 years, you will not recognize public education in Ohio – unless things begin to turn around. I just do not see that happening. Things seem to be getting worse. Thank you for your excellent post, Deb.
It has become a very draining and morale bursting profession. Teaching in a school which has been rated Excellent with Distinction the last 5 years with As and Bs on the current “report card” simply isn’t “enough” these days. The teachers have been constantly intimidated and brow-beaten in order to secure “performance”
Deb, You are so right. Nothing is enough anymore. Nothing. I spend hours in my classroom. I leave about 5:30 PM or 6:00 PM every night. I go in on the weekends regularly too. I have great test scores too (I know VAM is a sham), but I suffer with exhaustion and like you so well said, nothing is enough anymore. This past year I suffered with age discrimination with a new administration.
I had four of my past students “job shadow” me this year to figure out if they wanted to enter the teaching profession. I was honest with them. I would never allow my own 2 children to enter this broken profession, and I would be very sad to see them enter it. I am an honored, beloved teacher, who has been highly requested by parents – and on the new teacher evaluation system I was severely marked down for directly instructing my students at times during my observations. Isn’t that crazy? My students were in groups at the time, and I was marked down for giving too much direction to my students. I was supposed to aimlessly walk around my classroom and just observe my students working in groups. I told my evaluator that to get my good test scores, I have to be able to teach my kids. It has all gotten crazy, Deb, and no one in their right minds will go into a profession in which they get low pay, no job security anymore, no respect, and oh, yes, you are not allowed to directly teach your kids anymore. The socialistic “Race to the Bottom” pushes for the kids to teach one another. But, this is the super crazy thing: Our kids have to do the high stakes testing all alone. What a mess…..I enjoyed your comments, Deb. Thank You! (:
Our district is big on differentiation and individualized instruction. It sets up the situation to continue using computers to keep track of student learning at an individual pace and to replace teachers with tech monitors.
I suppose that eventually all they will need is a monitor that can easily be replaced every year or two. It will be less expensive because there will be no teaching profession. Low paying temporary monitors will be churned through the system. Possibly the constant skill practice on the computers will help them achieve better test scores. It won’t matter that the tests are not indicative of anything, unless our world is going to become one giant tech industry with no time for or need for real human contact.
I, too, would never suggest to anyone that becoming a teacher is allowed to b fulfilling, let alone lucrative
As usual Sirota brings up great points.
Even unionized charter schools hit a blow to unions. One union leader at an independent charter in Los Angeles told me that because the teacher turnover rate is 50% every year, most members are “on probation” with the administration, leaving them too vulnerable to speak up. So she is usually standing on her own.
I hope union leaders who salivate at the thought of adding charter teachers to their membership will understand that this is one situation where “power in numbers” does not hold true.
It is good to see this getting some traction. I wrote about previously, but the more voices, the better. Of course, municipal bond issues for school construction do make investors money as well, but the process is open and the people responsible for seeking bond issues are subject to democratic control of local schools. Charters, not at all. Explosive growth of a problematic sector of education should not be going on for hidden purposes — not when they claim so much public money with the other hand.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
I am so grateful for David Sirota!
I would like to see some in-depth investigations into how charter schools, both non-profit and for-profit, that have executives who already take in six figure salaries, like Eva Moskowitz, get away with setting up their own management (and/or realty) operations, which basically operate as fronts for raking in even more income from public funds. In my book, that’s double dipping.
I am never able to submit my posts on Sirota’s pages! I hope he reads this blog. I think Dr. Mercedes Schneider’s analysis of Moskowitz’s 990s, for her tax funded, ever-growing non-profit charter schools and management company, warrants further scrutiny, especially since she has refused to comply with state audits or pay rent:
http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/success-academy-tax-documents-moskowitz-can-afford-the-rent/comment-page-1/#comment-13687
Sirota perspective is so cloudy:
First Blog under June 18 response by Daun Kauffman on
https://www.facebook.com/ACEsTooHigh
Post Blog, plost, Then . . . .
We all must start with a MAJOR paradigm shift in Education.
The customer , child must be first, even for those who insist on a ‘business model’. If the Child, customer is first, then the MAJOR shift in the paradigm is to deal with the whole child, starting with chronic or complex trauma and it’s neurobiological effects.
Presently, it’s just so clearly a Failing Paradigm. We must TOTALLY restart.
We have just been “incrementalizing” around the edges. (Charter Schools, Common Core, “Technology”, Standardized Testing, Curriculum tweaks, More funding, less funding, cut Teacher pay, increase Teacher incentives, Longer School days… whaaa ?). None of these will generate the orders-of-magnitude improvements we all seek. None address the injuries, The Elephant. When we ignore The Elephant, we ignore the key variable. It renders analyses impotent at best, and destructive at worst.
Failing paradigm?
In prior posts, Dr. Ravitch identified evidence that refutes the myth of widespread school failure.
The plutocrats tiresome strategy. 1. Create a narrative of failure.
2. The media follows-up with unrelenting criticism of public services.
3. The solution, of an expensive privatization fix, is demanded.
Sirota is right on. But our choices are so limited when all you have to fall back on is a corrupt union cabal ala Michael Mulgrew that takes teachers’ money and throws them under the bus every single day. I wish he had spent as much effort on the recent NYC contract as he did in taking over control of NYSUT, both morally and financially bankrupt.
I am so sorry. I used the wrong word.
I was trying to say Sirota;s TOPIC is so cloudy.
(Not the perspective — His TOPIC is so cloudy).
Within the same few days, I posted a blog that tries to expose the “cloudiness” in urban education with all the buzz-topic distraction. https://www.facebook.com/ACEsTooHigh
THEN, the thought more directly to the TOPIC cloudiness(as above):
We all must start with a MAJOR paradigm shift in Education.
The customer , child must be first, even for those who insist on a ‘business model’. If the Child, customer is first, then the MAJOR shift in the paradigm is to deal with the whole child, starting with chronic or complex trauma and it’s neurobiological effects.
Presently, it’s just so clearly a Failing Paradigm. We must TOTALLY restart.
We have just been “incrementalizing” around the edges. (Charter Schools, Common Core, “Technology”, Standardized Testing, Curriculum tweaks, More funding, less funding, cut Teacher pay, increase Teacher incentives, Longer School days… whaaa ?). None of these will generate the orders-of-magnitude improvements we all seek. None address the injuries, The Elephant. When we ignore The Elephant, we ignore the key variable. It renders analyses impotent at best, and destructive at worst.
So, I apologize again, Mr. Sirota