Because so mAny hedge-fund managers and corporate chieftains are in the “reform” camp, we Ssume that they must know a lot about financial and managerial matters, even if they are clueless about education and learning.
Jeannie Kaplan, who served two terms on the Denver school board, says that assumption of financial prowess is wrong.
She writes in a comment on the blog:
“Denver has been the victim of both education and financial reform. I have been remiss in not writing about financial failures here because of the complexity of the issue.
“But the bottom line in Denver is in 2008 then superintendent Michael Bennet and current superintendent Tom Boasberg, borrowed $750 million in a risky variable rate swap deal to supposedly fill the unfunded liability in DPS’ pension.
“How has that worked out? UAAL has risen from $400 million to over $700 million and the pension debt has risen from $300 million to $950 million. Yes that’s right, close to one billion dollars.
“The two were somehow able to get the Colorado legislature to write off (they call it an offset) bank and legal payments with the end result being less actual money is being paid into the pension. A legal defunding. Amazing, no?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Who cares as long as the profiteers profit?
On the backs of tax payers too often misinformed or uninformed as to what is going on. In my opinion media shares a HUGE responsibility in the absolutely horrific things happening in the U. S including education.
The consequences of this are enormous. We already are paying an horrific price, financially and in lives because of the ineptness of the media to properly inform.
Iraq and Afghanistan will cost us trillions of dollars, negative views of the U. S. throughout the world, countless pain and suffering because the media failed in their responsibility .
There are GREAT reporters who are trying to do their job but media is owned by 5, maybe 6 corporations which control about 80% of the “news” which forms public opinion.
It is extremely difficult to go against the stream of misinformation and if there is such a word, uninformation for which the media is responsible.
As educators we must educate to the best of our ability. It is difficult but someone once said I would rather fail in something worthwhile than succeed in something which has negative consequences – or words to that effect.
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Just as privateers are costing us dearly in education through failed policies, mismanagement, inefficiency and fraud, there are many in the privatized military industrial complex that pay lobbyists to promote war because war equals profit. The media cheer leads the hysteria and fear that feeds the frenzy for war. The welfare of the troops is not a priority. This is unbridled capitalism at its worst.
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“I would rather fail in something (producing good software) that I still make billions from than succeed in something (graduating from college) which makes me no money”
I believe that was something Bill Gates said (or should have)
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No, it appears that many of the people who fall for Get Educated Quick schemes are the same people who fall for Get Rich Quick schemes.
One begins to see a pattern here …
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…and the people who push the Get Educated Quick schemes are the same people who push the Get Rich Quick schemes.
The con artists running education “reform’ are the same type (in some cases the very same ones) running the financial sector.
These folks pray on people’s hopes and dreams.
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make that “prey” (but they may also pray)
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hah!
Chiefs for Change had to change the definition of “chief” to prop up their declining numbers:
Now we’ll need more “achievement authorities” so they can be declared “chiefs”.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/state_edwatch/2015/05/chiefs_for_change_group_expands_and_shifts_membership.html
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Michael Bennet is among the big city superintendents who has gotten the most mileage from the Reform Movement. What exactly has he done to deserve representing us in the United States Senate? In my mind, he’s right there with Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee (though somehow more under the radar).
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I totally agree. Oboma loved Bennett. He does a lot of the dirty work for Denver and I am sure he is more involved. Denver started their own alternative program that was failing, but Bennet got CU to help the district out. CU put an ad out to hire trainers for temp positions on the unemployment web site. So many teachers from DPS have lost their jobs I guess they needed to get one back to help push the alternatives. He just got back from Washington. It seems Denver is a pilot for social bonds. Rockerfeller is helping us? Him and Hickenlooper have made so many messes here you can’t count them all and some you don’t know about until it is to late.
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Thanks for posting this, Diane. Since I wrote this comment the Denver Board of Education voted to REJECT a resolution introduced by my former colleague, Arturo Jimenez, simply asking for:
“…the Securities and Exchange Commission to open an investigation into the district’s auction rate securities and interest rate swaps to determine if the financial institutions that sold these deals violated their duty of fair dealing to the district, and to take all legal actions at its disposal to recover damages for the district;
That the Board of Education instructs all parties involved in the execution of the District’s auction rate securities, variable rate debt obligations, and interest rate swap transactions, including financial institutions and district staff, to make all documents related to these transactions publicly available; …”
In other words, 1) try to get taxpayer money back from the banks and lawyers; and 2) in the name of transparency make all documents related to the original deal and the two deals to get out of the original deal (!) public.
The vote was 5-1 against such resolution – one member was absent. These five are needless to say part of the “reform” agenda, apparently financial as well as educational. Asking questions and trying to recoup some of the hundreds or millions still being paid to the banks and lawyers is not a priority for them.
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Jeannie,
Re the mess in Denver:
Isn’t that like taking a vote in a criminal organization about whether to have an impartial investigation? It should suffice for a whistle blower to go to the SEC and ask for an investigation.
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Well, I have learned nothing is easy, nor is the taxpayer really the customer. There is a group of folks trying to get the SEC to look at possible problems with the swaps and public institutions . The SEC seems to be interested in not looking into past possible violations. Some public entities have been able to recoup some money from the financial institutions. So far it has been case by case I believe. But DPS refuses to even admit the swaps were a mistake, this in spite of the fact that the board voted two times unanimously to unwind them. What we as a board were unable to convince staff to do was to negotiate the exorbitant termination fees. It appears admitting that would mean those who crafted the DPS transactions did not fully understand the market at the time and all the risks. What needs to happen in my opinion is for the SEC to rule on what and how much elected officials were told about the risks of these exotic deals.and it needs to decide if public institutions are eligible for settlements – getting some taxpayer money returned from Wall Street!
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As the Campaign for America’s Future recently said, “If we’re not addressing the financial sector’s systemic threat to our economy, of its affronts to our system of justice, we are failing”.
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As is always the case with so-called education reformers, you must ask, “Where does the incompetence end and the malice begin?”
I reflexively doubt the “waste” explanations about the billions these parasites have spent. Remember that fiscal crises serve a potent political purpose, by allowing the education reform industrial complex to simultaneously use the “objective” reality of tight budgets to further undermine the public schools, while re- directing the money to where they think it will do the most good, namely, into their and their supporters’ pockets.
It’s win-win: the public schools are further destabilized, ever more resources are extracted from them and diverted to politically select players, while the faux objectivity of “money,” “budgets” and “numbers” goes a long way toward misdirecting people from the shell game that’s actually taking place.
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