On Thursday, the Los Angeles Times published an article I wrote (at their request) about what the next superintendent should do. I contended that he/she should be a cheerleader for public schools, should restore confidence in them by reducing class sizes and restoring a full and rich curriculum to every school, especially the arts. I also hoped the next superintendent would audit charter schools regularly and impose a moratorium on their growth (there are more charter students in L.A. than any other city). The superintendent’s mission should be to lead and improve public education, not to abet those who want to privatize it.
The response from the powerful charter industry came swiftly. Accustomed to pouring millions of dollars into school board races to capture control of the district, the charter lobby could not tolerate a direct challenge. Here is its response. The charter champion insisted that I was “polarizing” the situation by standing up for public education and opposing privatization.
Last October, KIPP announced plans to more than double its enrollment, from 4,000 to 9,000. Moody’s, the bond rating service, reacted by saying that the KIPP expansion would have a negative impact on the LAUSD bond ratings. This article, specifically about Los Angeles, reflected a warning by Moody’s in 2013 that charters posed a significant risk to some older urban districts because competition weakened the district by drawing away students and resources.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How do charters get chartered in LA? Is there an approval process? Who makes the call?
Peter Smyth, the Los Angeles school board reviews petitions for charters. They have been advised by their lawyer that there are only 5 legal reasons they can deny a charter (so at its peak, when the Broadie was heading the district, LA approved 67 out of 72 petitions). However, gutsy school board members like the now deceased Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte and Bennett Kayser (recently defeated by the charter lobby’s candidate) routinely voted no. We are looking for other more board members to stand up for our neighborhood schools too. Let the charter lobby pay for a lawsuit and take the fight to the courts. California’s charter law allows a rejected petition to be taken to the County, which approves almost all charters it sees. In the event they reject it, the petitioner can take it to the State. It’s almost foolproof for charters here.
Thanks, Kaen. I’m in SC where it’s a little harder to open a charter.
Here’s a follow up: in LA, are charters funded by getting the per-pupil average for each student? Or is there some other ways funds are allocated?
Peter…each child is allocated their ADA funding paid to the charter school. That means that the bill is paid by the California taxpayer who had NO voice in making this decision. There is little oversight by the district or the state.
In the case of Ref Rodriguez, the charter millionaire recently elected to the LAUSD BoE, after some years of his not paying his debts, there were two audits of his 16 PUC schools. Both internal and state showed the deficit. He worked to hide these audit results from the voters, and instead used cash bribes to get his constituency to the polls. The privatizers donated over $ 2.5 million to his campaign.
This is what we are contending with in the land of milk and honey.
I see the privatizers’ point, in an oligarchy, there is no polarization.
Thanks, Dr. Ravitch for standing up for democracy, against the formidable enemy, within.
“The charter champion insisted. . . ”
Classic example of “if you tell a big enough lie often enough. . . .
. . . . it’s still a lie!”
Sarah Angel is a well-paid, hired gun attorney, and mouthpiece for the privatization/charter school industry… in this case the California Charter School Association (CCSA), where she works as its Los Angeles director. As with the overwhelming majority of privatization proponents, she’s paid… and paid well… to do and say what she’s doing and saying.
Who is Sarah Angel?
Well, for starters… while claiming expertise in education…
She has ZERO background or experience in education.
She has NEVER worked as a teacher.
She has NEVER worked as an administrator.
She has NEVER worked in any capacity at any school.
A mother of one child, a four-year-old daughter, she has ZERO experience with education from the point of view of a parent.
She’s paid a six-figure salary—originating from money the CCSSA receives from California taxpayers and citizens—and is being paid to execute a slow, stealth privatization of schools… whether those same taxpayers want their schools privatized or not.
So, again, who is Sarah Angel, and what is her background?
Curmudgucation’s PETER GREENE just did a background check on one Vicki (Murray) Alger, a privatization proponent doing a “drive-by in Maine:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/07/me-reformster-drive-by.html
In the process, Peter asked himself:
PETER GREENE: “Why spend so much time and interwebs stalking on a reformster who is a C-lister? Because here once again is the pattern of affiliations, connections, and general insider world of reformsterism, a big machine that keeps sending out folks into local settings to tell community members why they need someone to come in from outside to give them an educational makeover.”
With that in mind, here’s some background on “Sarah Beth Angel”, the
CCSA director who wrote the op-ed criticizing Dr. Ravitch’s op-ed.
Again, there’s nothing on the Net that shows that she has any
education or background in education—as a teacher, as an administrator, or whatever. I was expecting her to be a TFA alum, but she’s not… or at least, I could find nothing on the net indicating otherwise.
A lawyer and life-long California resident, Ms. Angel has an undergrad from UCLA (2004) and a law degree from U.C. Berkley. (2007) and was admItted to the CA bar in December 2007.
That would make her to be about 33 years of age.
Her being a lawyer explains some of her ridiculous arguments made in the op-ed; immaterial deflection, ad hominum, fabricating victimhood for poor charter parents, etc.
She lobbies (or has lobbied) in Sacramento for the charter industry.
She’s worked as a prosecutor (assistant district attorney) in Los Angeles.
She previously (or currently) works/ed at O’Melveny & Myers LLP law firm in the posh city of Newport Beach, California.
She’s married to Dan Nieman, and they have a four-year-old daughter, and they live in the upscale San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles known as Studio City. An embryonic politician, she recently ran for a seat on Studio City’s Neighborhood Council. (can’t tell if she won or lost).
In general, she appears to be an attractive, intelligent ‘hired gun” attorney and mouthpiece for the charter school industry—“Campbell Brown WEST”, you might say. She used to make a six-figure salary working as a city prosecutor, so I’m assuming that the CCSA is at least matching this.
(Or still is a city prosecutor? I know that recently departed LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan continued working as a prosecutor throughout her 8 years on the board, and still does Perhaps Sarah Angel is, too.)
Here are the links for all this information:
http://www.lawyer.com/sarah-angel.html
She’s a lawyer whose California bar license may be currently inactive.
She went to undergrad at UCLA, graduating in 2004.
She went to law school at UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law.
graduating in 2007, and admitted to the California Bar in December 2007.
That would make her to be 33 years of age.
She previously (or currently) works/ed at O’Melveny & Myers LLP law firm in the posh city of Newport Beach
http://www.lawyercentral.com/sarah-b-angel-interactive-profile–20-815112.html
She previously worked and (is still working?) as a prosecutor, Deputy City Attorney,(in L.A.?) where she pulled in $104,909.31 in total pay, and $140,061.71 in total pay and benefits:
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2012/redondo-beach/sarah-angel/
Here she is leading a CCSA conference module:
http://www.charterconference.org/2015/7892870
At this module, Ms. Angel detailed how “charter school leaders joined forces to turn the tide of a high-stakes school board meeting in their favor despite challenging school board dynamics and a tumultuous political environment. Attendees will also have the opportunity to discuss potential region-specific collective action strategies with peers.”
By the way, this victorious (for privatization/charters) board meeting to which Ms. Angel is referring? It’s the 2013 LAUSD Board meeting where the board voted to retain John Deasy… and the CCSA was part of an astroturf circus with whom the CCSA “joined forces” and successfully pushed to retain Deasy.
For another point of view of this event—somewhat counter to Ms. Angel’s—go here:
——————————
ELLEN LUBIC: “Austin’s claim of an ‘outpouring of public support’ is the biggest lie of all…there was NO ‘outpouring of public support,’ but rather it was a pay day and party day for all the hired actors, the scammed inner city attendees, and all the support staff from the law and PR offices and non profits which were active in the charade (including the CCSA and Ms. Angel) . I researched some of these non profits, and their Boards are filled with lawyers from the same powerful firms who represent the tycoons behind it all.
“These purveyors of planned disruption, all paid by a hidden community of vast wealth and power, created a totally dishonest scenario. They manipulated uninformed inner city people of color once again.
“This sham was put in place not by the public, but by the power players who forced their voices to be the only ones heard.”
——————————
Ms. Angel is also the co-author of a report done for the California State Assembly on Health & Human Services Budget for the years 2003-2004; (page 4)
Click to access Final_Analysis2003-04.pdf
As recently as last year, she lobbied in Sacramento, as she was mentioned in an insider newspaper:
http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/nooner/2014-05-23.html
Back in spring 2012, along with her husband Dan Nieman, she ran for a Neighborhood Council seat in Studio City, California, where her candidate’s statement gives more biographical detail:
SARAH ANGEL: “As a prosecutor, mother, and homeowner, I know the importance of creating safe communities that foster the well-being of every one of us. Everyday, I fight for crime victims, and as your representative, I will fight to ensure that every family has access to the opportunities and resources they deserve. We need to make government more responsive to our local needs here in Studio City.
“I am a lifelong California resident and a product of our public schools, from elementary school through UCLA and UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. My husband and I have owned our home in Studio City for four years, and we are raising our almost one-year old daughter here. We love this community and I want to ensure it continues to flourish.
“I would be honored to receive your support. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at
sarahangel4studiocity@gmail.com. ”
FROM…
https://empowerla.org/scnc-draft/studio-city-nc-elections/
Finally, she’s an attractive brunette who did a joint appearance with LAUSD’s Charter Honcho Jose Cole Guttierez at an event extolling the wonders of charter co-location.
No wonder that Ms. Angel so despised Dr. Ravitch’s op-ed.
(NOTE: in the overwhelming majority of cases, LAUSD charter co-locations have been a disaster and deeply damaging for the pre-existing public school.)
This occurred at Loyola Marymount University… here’s a video:
Check out what a cozy relationship the CCSA & it’s privately-managed schools/corporations has with LAUSD, and its top charter official and Deasy appointee Jose Cole-Guttierez:
——————-
00:54
SARAH ANGEL: “I want to to thank Jose for continuing to be a partner. We are texting and on the phone multiple times-a-week, and meeting face-to-face practically weekly now, and I think… ummm… that’s a testament to the strength of this partnership, and room for growth.”
—————–
As this indicates, the fix is in to favor charters, and to rig the failure of traditional public schools, and Ms. Angel is its bright cheery face.
Once again, she’s paid a six-figure salary—originating from money the CCSSA receives from California taxpayers and citizens—being paid to execute a slow, stealth privatization of schools… whether those same taxpayers want their schools privatized or not.
Oh and here’s her twitter page, where she tweets about charter victories:
Oopsie-daisy. I was/is just fact-checking my own piece, and got something wrong.
Ms. Angel was not a “assistant district attorney” in “L.A.”
When I checked on of the links, she was/is actually a “deputy city attorney” in the beachfront community of “Redondo Beach”, which borders the Los Angeles Airport area of Los Angeles.
Check here:
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2012/redondo-beach/
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?a=redondo-beach&q=SARAH+ANGEL&y=2012
O”Melveney and Meyer is one the largest and most prestigious law firms in the US. They are often retained as outside counsel by LAUSD. Of course they are paid with taxpayer funds.
I am not clear Julie, if Angel currently works for LA City, for TFA, is lobbying in the state capitol, or is at O’Melvenely, so please clarify. Ben Austin was allowed by Villaraigosa to double dip and work for the city and concurrently for Steve Barr and Green Dot. You and I would not be afforded this privilege. If indeed she is also double or triple dipping, it behooves us all to be in touch with Mayor Garcetti.
LASR contended that Cortines got rid on all the Deasy/Broad flacks…but this info disproves that phony report since Jose Gutierrez is still drawing a public funds paycheck in his large LAUSD charter role.
BTW, O’Melveney numbers among their clients many of the billionaires who are pushing to make public schools into free market investment opportunities. Check out their webiste.
Thanks Julie for always bringing in-depth info to this site. I will never forget your help and great muckraking, on Oct. 29, 2013.
“I am not clear Julie, if Angel currently works for LA City, for TFA, is lobbying in the state capitol, or is at O’Melvenely, so please clarify.”
I just corrected myself, but here I go again.
Ms. Angel was not a “assistant district attorney” in “L.A.”
When I checked on of the links, she was/is actually a “deputy city attorney” in the beachfront community of “Redondo Beach”, which borders the Los Angeles Airport area of Los Angeles.
Check here:
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2012/redondo-beach/
Ms. Angel may have left this position as a Redondo Beach to work for the CCSA exclusively.
OR
Like Tamar Galatzan and Ben Austin, she may have continued her work as a prosecutor while working out side the Redondo Beach City Attorney’s for the CCSA.
Also, thank for the heads-up on Ms. Angel’s past (or perhaps current) work O’Melveny & Myers LLP law firm in Newport Beach.
Oh, and thanks for the props.
One more thing: Robert Skeels reports that “José Cole Gutiérrez was one of Rodriguez’s employees when (recently-elected Board Member Ref) Rodriguez sat on the CCSA Board”:
http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2015/05/schools-matter-2015-week-21-education.html
So what does that mean?
It’s Cole-Gutiérrez job to work with LAUSD’s Officer of Inspector General on any investigation that might lead to the prosecution of any charter school official allegedly involved in corruption… specifically the PUC Charter Schools that Ref ran, until taking office on the LAUSD Board. The PUC Charter Chain is in hot water over self-dealing and conflict of interest, where one of PUC’s top officers owned the food company to whichi PUC—with Ref Rodriguez signing off on this— awarded a multi-million dollar contract
Again, Cole-Gutiérrez formerly worked for CCSA, and for PUC Schools’ former head Ref Rodriguez in particular… AND HE’S THE ONE WHO IS CONDUCTING AN INVESTIGATION OVER PUC’s ALLEGED CORRUPTION????!!! Cole-Gutiérrez is the one who creates the report, and decides whether or not to ask the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office to investigate and/or prosecute PUC… whose founder and former head is Ref Rodriguez, and is sitting on the LAUSD School Board???!!!!
The mind boggles.
At the very least, Cole-Gutiérrez should recuse himself, or a majority of the LAUSD School Board should force him to recuse himself—on pain of termination—and instead appoint someone who is totally neutral, and has no past association with PUC or Ref Rodriguez, to investigate and report on PUC’s food contract scandal.
Oopsie again!
Here’s the link showing Ms. Angel’s employment with “The City of Redondo Beach” as a “Deputy City Attorney”:
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?a=redondo-beach&q=SARAH+ANGEL&y=2012
Ellen, I agree about Mr. Cole-Guttierez.
Check out how he’s CURRENTLY on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers…
http://www.qualitycharters.org/about-nacsa/board-of-directors/jos%C3%A9-cole-guti%C3%A9rrez.html
… while SIMULTANEUOSLY, he’s the one person supposedly holding LAUSD charter schools accountable… i.e. in charge of overseeing, investigating, and reporting on whether or not LAUSD charter operators are operating in a legal and proper manner.
To quote someone else: you can’t be a cheerleader and a referee at the same time.
From his National Charter Schools Association bio:
“Prior to joining LAUSD, José served as general manager for the Los Angeles region of the California Charter Schools Association where he supported the development of quality charter schools and increased accountability measures, and collaborated with districts to enhance policy and practice.”
The incendiary rhetoric was Ms. Angel’s alone. Nowhere did Dr. Ravitch disparage teachers, students or parents. It is Ms. Angel who is stoking the fires of disunion.
Exactly. This writer claims that Dr. Ravitch “hurls accusations” at teachers and students, and “demonizes” students and families. I could not find a word in Dr. Ravitch’s editorial that does either of these things.
Ms. Angel claims that Dr. Ravitch called low-income charter school parents “traitors” and and treats them “second-class citizens.”
NOT TRUE – Re-read Dr. Ravitch’s op-ed.
Ms. Angel says Dr. Ravitch is bent on “punishing (low-income charter school parents) for seeking out learning environments that meet their needs.”
NOT TRUE – Re-read Dr. Ravitch’s op-ed.
Ms. Angel claims that Dr. Ravitch is “scapegoating” low-income charter school parents for… well… I can’t understand what Ms. Angel is referring to here.
NOT TRUE- Re-read the article.
Nancy, gloria41488 and Jack: I did a little “thought experiment.”
First, I re-read the op-ed. Point A.
Then I read the charter champion’s dissection of what she said the owner of this blog said. Point B.
How can anyone with a sense of honor and decency go from Point A to Point B?
😳
Remember, the self-styled “education reformers” hold all sorts of opinions—Rheeally!—and lately they are lamenting the lack of civil discourse between themselves and their critics. You know, folks as putatively diverse as Andre Perry [see Edushyster] and Peter Cunningham [he of DOE ‘monitoring that Ravitch woman’ fame] but do all the hard work of rheephorming, can’t say enough about how critics are just so darn, well, what charter champion said.
And just what does honor and decency look like in practice?
This blog, 4-6-2013, “Why I Apologized for Something I Did Not Say”:
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/04/06/why-i-apologized-for-something-i-did-not-say/
So here’s where the champions of charters and vouchers and privatization that frequent this blog get to demonstrate the presence and depth of their moral fiber:
Let’s see them use their usual language and tone to decry the written equivalent of road rage—even if it hurts because it’s by one of their own “thought leaders.” And no “explanation is exculpation” deflection because, dontcha know, you’re part of the “no excuses” crowd.
Walk your own talk. Get with the program: SLANT. NNN. Let’s see some rigor and grit.
One last point: Y’all shouldn’t even need my prompt. This blog should already be flooded with your furious disavowals.
Silence is compliance. Compliance is consent.
😎
Wow – ad feminam attacks, one after another.
Diane is:
a mere “pundit”, not a PhD in education history
she “hurls her usual accusations”
she “laments”, “complains”, “demonizes”and “scapegoats”
she lies: “Ravitch’s rhetoric is forceful, but it’s not grounded in fact.”
she has “polarizing, politicized views”
she has raised “a battle cry”
If you can’t win on the message, attack the messenger.
Not to mention the former Assistant Secretary of Education under the first George Bush.
That’s not exactly a pundit.
They also repeatedly identify Diane as being a Stanford education historian…so are they just too dumb, and/or too lazy, to even get her vita information correct? She teaches at NYU, and her doctorate is from Columbia. This is public info.
These folks are now working from a script of talking points that Broad and his lawyers and PR firms have written. Their shills are on this site and most other education sites, assigned by their corporate masters to spread venom and to manipulate the conversation.
Today the LA Times printed only ONE letter to the editor on the Ravitch op ed. It uses the game plan language, and it is written by the director of TFA in LA. The Times keeps tight control of the letters. I know many teachers in Joining Forces for Education wrote with kudos and support for Diane’s measured writing.
“Ohio’s school rating system is unfair to schools serving poor, urban kids and needs to change, a charter school advocacy group is telling state legislators.”
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/charter_schools_want_their_inequitable_bad_grades_in_urban_areas_changed.html
And that’s the whole intent, breakup the district and thereby resegregate schools by their location. The BOE of LAUSD is complicit in this effort by encouraging the formation of more and more charters. The public is ill informed in thinking this does not hurt public schools since there are public charters. The corporate and business people have been doing well selling this idea to the public. Not only do they have the media pushing this lie but our own politicians who haven’t met a campaign contribution they would turn down.
Paula, it’s not just the intent; it’s happening. Those of us trying to preserve the public school system in Los Angeles are often fighting against many who lead it. Our biggest problem is that the board members who should be vocally, publically standing with us are maneuvering to avoid attacks from the powerful charter lobby, rather than unapologetically defending public education. We are starting to see more courage from our school board and things have improved since the Broadie (literally, he now works for Broad) left. But we need them to be more courageous, and now is the most critical time of all as they hire a new superintendent.
But you right: the public is ill informed. Parents choosing charters for their own children refuse to acknowledge what a public policy disaster that choice is. People are so fed up with LAUSD’s bungling that many have bought the argument that deregulated schools can do a better job. The most important thing Diane wrote in her Op Ed was that the new Superintendent will need to restore the public’s confidence in our school district. They have lost faith and even those who would be our natural allies have left.
And if these billionaires can cause the district to go bankrupt, so much the better for them. They will dive right in and buy up the vast billions of dollars of public financed real estate.
Cortines boy friend who is suing him, was in charge of LAUSD real estate for the past 15 years, until he sued Cortines for sexual harassment and got fired and it now suing for unfair firing retaliation.
Following the reasonable info in Shock Doctrine, this seems part of the plan. Between paying pennies on the dollar for LA school property, and embedding charters, they use OUR tax money and bankruptcy settlements both ways.
They have created an amazing source of accumulating unimaginable wealth with little to no investment….all by fleecing the taxpayers of America.
Is the “LA School Report” a RheeForm controlled virtual propaganda rag designed to promote charter schools?
Wanting to know the answer I first went to Alexa to discover the sites global rank and rank in the US: That was 510,019 and 123,855. I then turned to Wiki but couldn’t find anything there. Last, I checked the About page on the site and learned it was founded in 2012.
Was this an aha moment. After all 2012 is an interesting year to launch an on-line publication called LA School Report.
Who is Jamie Alter Lynton, the founder and executive Editor? Well, she was never a teacher. In fact, she was a journalist and televisions news producer and executive for 15 years in her early career. “She started LA School Report in 2012 to help inform the public about the inner-workings of the Los Angeles Unified school district.”
I wonder if that look into education in Los Angeles country includes looking into the inner-working of the opaque, for-profit anyway you look at it corporate Charter industry? How many posts has her site published about the private sector paid for by public funds industry?
She is a board member for Courage Campaign that is affiliated with Progress Now, a progressive 501(c)(4) advocacy organization in the United States. Founded in 2003, ProgressNow bills itself as a network of state based communications hubs which act as a marketing department for progressive ideas.
Now that the progressive movement started by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1900 and continued by President Wilson, FDR and LBJ split with neoliberals running the newest branch that wants to profitize and privatize K-12 education and also college educatoins, what brand of progressive ideas does Ms Lynton support? The answer might be found in the fact that she was an early member of the National Finance Committee for Obama for America. Her husband is also CEO of Sony Entertainment Inc. who sits on the board of trustees of the Rand Corporation (and a few other boards).
Where does the Ran Corporation stand on school reform? Just look at Rand’s page on this issue to find out. http://www.rand.org/topics/choice-based-education-reform.html
A pull quotes from this page on Rand’s site:
“The goal of the school choice movement is to allow parents to decide which of the increasing options—from traditional public and private schools and charter and magnet schools to vouchers and tax credits—will best meet their children’s educational needs. RAND’s analyses consider the role of choice-based school reform in shaping education policy.”
And from this report out of Rand:
http://www.rand.org/blog/2013/04/what-do-we-know-about-charter-schools-moving-beyond.html
Given the increasing prominence of charter schools in U.S. education, it’s worth considering what RAND research has found. Here are a few key points in the conclusion of the report:
>Charter schools do not siphon the best students from traditional public schools or create racial/ethnic stratification.
>Charter schools are generally on par with traditional public schools in terms of improving student achievement, but they vary greatly.
>Charter schools do not help or harm student achievement in nearby traditional public schools.
>Students attending charter high schools may be more likely to graduate and go on to college
Lloyd,
Jamie Alter Lynton is the sister of Jonathan Alter, the pro-charter journalist who appeared in “Waiting for Superman,” proclaiming “we know what works. Accountability works.”
To add to that, Diane…the Lyntons are donors and supporters of many pro charter schools groups. Their recent emails to each other have been published here (Wiki sourced) and can be found in these archives. These emails show their constant search to identify wealthy people to nurture for their cause of privatizing. Jamie recently decided that she did not want any public comments on her LASR site…so the only news now is gleaned/slanted from her personal views.
Charters get zero influence, power, or revenue if parents don’t choose them. This is a simple truth that gets ignored here all them time.
Baloney. Look at New Orleans. Look at Chicago. Look at all those “achievement” districts. Are parents choosing charters? Or are charters choosing them?
Baloney yourself. You keep invoking New Orleans in an attempt to insinuate that it is somehow typical. Detroit and Chicago aren’t even remotely close to being all-charter. For 99.5%+ of US school-age children, the default is a traditional district school assigned on the basis of their residence. The charter sector could and would quickly cease to exist if families stopped choosing to enroll their children in charter schools.
Tim,
Children are driven out of Public schools by budget cuts, large classes, loss of services, while charters thrive with gifts from rightwing oligarchs and hedge funders
“budget cuts, large classes, loss of services, while charters thrive with gifts from rightwing oligarchs and hedge funders”
Diane, charters almost always have larger class sizes than district schools, and very few of them get gifts beyond startup grants. For the most part, they operate on much less money than district schools.
My school got as much funding from hedge funders and oligarchs last year as you did. Zero.
JOHN: “Diane, charters almost
always have larger class sizes than
district schools… ”
John, you’re wrong, and I’ve got the
video to prove it.
Dr. Ravitch covered this phenomenon—
LAUSD keeps its class sizes high for
public schools, while its charters keep
them low—two years ago at:
DIANE RAVITCH: Last night I
blogged about the recent meeting
of the LAUSD school board and
pointed out Steve Zimmer’s
eloquent defense of class size limits.
The high point of his six-minute
statement was when he compared
the class sizes in L.A. public schools–
40 or more–with the class sizes in
local charter schools, which boast
of 20 or less.
He did it dramatically, reading out
the names of each charter and their
class sizes, then tossing the piece
of paper over his shoulder.
A reader who attended the
meeting added the context of
Zimmer’s comments and the
reaction of some fellow board
members:
Zimmer’s real Al Pacino-esque
moment—I’m thinking of Pacino in
SCENT OF A WOMAN and AND
JUSTICE FOR ALL and other
movies where he cuts loose with
an monologue of outrage—is when
he starts quoting the
student-to-teacher ratios at the
local charter schools… and one
private school (“the elite of the elite…
has a 12-to-1 ratio. 12-to-1!)”
Go to the video:
and watch until Zimmer hits his
stride and lets it rip at:
0:51
With mounting irritation, Zimmer
starts shouting—quoting and
throwing the paper printouts from
the charters websites wildly over
his shoulder (where the charters’
websites’ main page touts and
specifically cites their exact
student-to-teacher ratios.)
This was breathtaking.
You can’t see this because of
the camera angle, but Board
Member Galatzan was visibly
angry at this point.
A little subtext here.
Both pro-charter Board Members
Galatzan and Monica Garcia have
strongly backed the private
charters in general—and the ones
mentioned by Zimmer in particular,
while at the same time, lambasting
teachers in the traditional public
schools and those teachers’ union,
UTLA for doing a lousy job, and
“obstructing reform” and being
“defenders of a failed status quo,”
and on and on… (In the process,
Galatzan and Garcia are parroting
the talking points of the “reform”
organizations who pumped millions
into their campaigns… but that’s
another story).
In 2009, Galatzan and Garcia also
voted to raise class size in the
traditional public schools—while
saying nothing about the ratios at
their beloved charter schools.
While the state budget was a
contributing factor to the vote,
Galatzan and Garcia also cited in
part the following reasons for
raising the class size in the
traditional public schools:
1) “Lowering class size is just
about teachers unions wanting
more members and more dues,
and more power… with no proof
that it helps kids.”
2) “Lowering class size is about
advancing adult interests
at the expense of children’s
interests.”
3) “Lowering class size is just so
teachers, who have it easy enough
already, will have it even easier, with
less work required from less students.”
Zimmer makes brief reference to
these objections… ” to those who
think that (lowering) class size is
solelyabout jobs.. ”
For Galatzan and Garcia, they take
a seemingly contradictory
(hypocritical?) stance on this, as
again, they bend over backwards
supporting and praising the charter
schools whose success is in part
due to their low class size—the
low class size the charters tout on
their websites, the print-outs of
which Zimmer is flinging wildly
around the boardroom.
Anyway, back to the video.
Galatzan starts picking up the
papers that Zimmer flings
indiscriminately over his head and
slapping them down angrily
on the counter, and says to
him,
“Are you gonna clean this up?”
Not flinching a bit, Zimmer continues
his laser-like focus, not even looking
sideways at Galatzan as he snaps,
“I’ll clean it up!” as if to say,
“Don’t butt in.. I’m on a roll here.”
Again… a breathtaking performance.
Jack, I was talking about nationwide. Not familiar with LA specifically.
And, BTW, I’ll admit some parents do choose charters even when there are public school options available. When you demonize public education and schools, underfund public schools, leave them in crumbling buildings with no supplies, yeah, some parents are going to look to those bright shiny new charter buildings and think that that’s a better option.
Thanks for stating the obvious. Those “choices” simply diminish the resources and viability of the only real public schools. Terrible public policy that hurts society. Can you grasp the notion that a competing, publicly funded private entity might harm the system as a whole? I guess all the marketing has worked on you.
Clearly you are pretending not to see what is going on with the budget that is supposed to go to public education.
Ken, please supply some details to back up what you say. Money from the school budget that isn’t going to the education of public school students.
What’s your point? You just showed it in your next statement.
Examples, please. I’m asking, not acknowledging.
Not one word on public schools, which in interesting from people who insist they represent all public school children.
It’s okay by me if ed reformers want to be advocates for charter schools but it would be helpful if they stopped presenting their “movement” as having any interest at all in public schools, other than replacing them with charter schools.
We have passionate advocates for charter schools and then we have potted plant “agnostics” who insist they have no preference, yet spend most of their time bashing public schools. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how this plays out.
Public school parents are well within their rights to insist that public employees act as advocates for their schools. To shut them out and allow only charter advocates and “agnostics” to weigh in is wrong.
Is any advocacy for public schools “polarizing”? Is advocacy reserved exclusively for charter schools? Our schools don’t deserve advocates in government? Why not?
For the information of viewers of this blog, today in the LATIMES there is a response in the READER REACT section of the newspaper, near end of front [i.e., A] section.
For some reason not yet online, so I provide my transcription of same.
A subsection of the READERS REACT section entitled “Don’t put freeze on charters” in somewhat big letters followed by the subtitle:
[start]
Re: “To Lead LAUSD.”
Opinion, July 23
[end]
And now, for the grand finale:
[LATIMES,ReadersReact,7-26-15,start]
As the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education takes on the challenge of finding a new superintendent, I hope it solicits input from the wide spectrum of students and families it serves. While I agree with Stanford education historian Diane Ravitch that our next schools’ chief go to the mat for small class sizes and arts education, a moratorium on new charter schools would be detrimental to learning.
The next LAUSD superintendent should embrace multiple learning environments—from charters to magnets to co-located schools—and hold all schools accountable for learning and spending outcomes. No matter where we find innovations that help our neediest students make gains, the new superintendent should focus on scaling those solutions across the system.
More than anything, the next superintendent should view students in all schools authorized by LAUSD as his or her students.
LINDA JENNINGS
Los Angeles
The writer is executive director of Teach for America in Los Angeles.
[LATIMES,ReadersReact,7-26-15end]
Foot in mouth? One could easily interpret the comment as advocating the idea that the new Supt. should be able to open charter books and exercise authority over their operations [hiring, firing, disciplining, procedures, etc.]. And saying that small class sizes and arts education are so important—what happened to the all-important test prep?
I personally think it is spin but perhaps, in order to sell her points, she went a wee bit too far in public on the record.
😎
It’s just the same portfolio idea they promote in every city. It’s the “agnostic” position where they advocate for new schools and ignore or devalue existing public schools while insisting they don’t pick favorites.
The truth is they ARE picking favorites because the focus is always on “new”,school which by definition means they aren’t advocating on behalf of existing public schools.
It’s the Obama Administration rhetoric, the politically acceptable mush that means nothing.
I almost prefer the people who openly admit they want to replace the whole system with vouchers. At least they aren’t pretending everyone can have everything they want, which is a lie.
Krazy…start following the language used in this privatizer charter blow back. Roger Ailes could be writing their daily talking points, but rather, the billionaires flacks are leading this charge. We have seen this happening for years. Just watch for the continued error in letters identifying Ravitch as being from Stanford….that shows that the lemmings do not even check sources, but just do what they are told and flood the sympathetic LA Times with their manufactured letters.
Ellen Lubic: good catch.
😎
LA School Report – who funds this fake news site? It appears to spring from the same groups as 74 Million, Education Post, Chalkbeat (NY, Colorado, Indiana, Tennessee) and Idaho Education news. All are financed by non-profit reformy groups.
The Lyntons are very wealthy and can afford to fund this site themselves. They also are close to the billionaires Broad, Milken, and many others in LA, who can add to the pot if needed.
Sarah Angel is a well-paid, hired gun attorney, and mouthpiece for the privatization/charter school industry… in this case the California Charter School Association (CCSA), where she works as its Los Angeles director. As with the overwhelming majority of privatization proponents, she’s paid… and paid well… to do and say what she’s doing and saying.
Who is Sarah Angel?
Well, for starters… while claiming expertise in education…
She has ZERO background or experience in education.
She has NEVER worked as a teacher.
She has NEVER worked as an administrator.
She has NEVER worked in any capacity at any school.
A mother of one child, a four-year-old daughter, she has ZERO experience with education from the point of view of a parent.
She’s paid a six-figure salary—originating from money the CCSSA receives from California taxpayers and citizens—and is being paid to execute a slow, stealth privatization of schools… whether those same taxpayers want their schools privatized or not.
So, again, who is Sarah Angel, and what is her background?
Curmudgucation’s PETER GREENE just did a background check on one Vicki (Murray) Alger, a privatization proponent doing a “drive-by in Maine:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/07/me-reformster-drive-by.html
In the process, Peter asked himself:
PETER GREENE: “Why spend so much time and interwebs stalking on a reformster who is a C-lister? Because here once again is the pattern of affiliations, connections, and general insider world of reformsterism, a big machine that keeps sending out folks into local settings to tell community members why they need someone to come in from outside to give them an educational makeover.”
With that in mind, here’s some background on “Sarah Beth Angel”, the
CCSA director who wrote the op-ed criticizing Dr. Ravitch’s op-ed.
Again, there’s nothing on the Net that shows that she has any
education or background in education—as a teacher, as an administrator, or whatever. I was expecting her to be a TFA alum, but she’s not… or at least, I could find nothing on the net indicating otherwise.
A lawyer and life-long California resident, Ms. Angel has an undergrad from UCLA (2004) and a law degree from U.C. Berkley. (2007) and was admItted to the CA bar in December 2007.
That would make her to be about 33 years of age.
Her being a lawyer explains some of her ridiculous arguments made in the op-ed; immaterial deflection, ad hominum, fabricating victimhood for poor charter parents, etc.
She lobbies (or has lobbied) in Sacramento for the charter industry.
She’s worked as a prosecutor (assistant district attorney) in Los Angeles.
She previously (or currently) works/ed at O’Melveny & Myers LLP law firm in the posh city of Newport Beach, California.
She’s married to Dan Nieman, and they have a four-year-old daughter, and they live in the upscale San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles known as Studio City. An embryonic politician, she recently ran for a seat on Studio City’s Neighborhood Council. (can’t tell if she won or lost).
In general, she appears to be an attractive, intelligent ‘hired gun” attorney and mouthpiece for the charter school industry—“Campbell Brown WEST”, you might say. She used to make a six-figure salary working as a city prosecutor, so I’m assuming that the CCSA is at least matching this.
(Or still is a city prosecutor? I know that recently departed LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan continued working as a prosecutor throughout her 8 years on the board, and still does Perhaps Sarah Angel is, too.)
Here are the links for all this information:
http://www.lawyer.com/sarah-angel.html
She’s a lawyer whose California bar license may be currently inactive.
She went to undergrad at UCLA, graduating in 2004.
She went to law school at UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law.
graduating in 2007, and admitted to the California Bar in December 2007.
That would make her to be 33 years of age.
She previously (or currently) works/ed at O’Melveny & Myers LLP law firm in the posh city of Newport Beach
http://www.lawyercentral.com/sarah-b-angel-interactive-profile–20-815112.html
She previously worked and (is still working?) as a prosecutor, Deputy City Attorney,(in L.A.?) where she pulled in $104,909.31 in total pay, and $140,061.71 in total pay and benefits:
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2012/redondo-beach/sarah-angel/
Here she is leading a CCSA conference module:
http://www.charterconference.org/2015/7892870
At this module, Ms. Angel detailed how “charter school leaders joined forces to turn the tide of a high-stakes school board meeting in their favor despite challenging school board dynamics and a tumultuous political environment. Attendees will also have the opportunity to discuss potential region-specific collective action strategies with peers.”
By the way, this victorious (for privatization/charters) board meeting to which Ms. Angel is referring? It’s the 2013 LAUSD Board meeting where the board voted to retain John Deasy… and the CCSA was part of an astroturf circus with whom the CCSA “joined forces” and successfully pushed to retain Deasy.
For another point of view of this event—somewhat counter to Ms. Angel’s—go here:
——————————
ELLEN LUBIC: “Austin’s claim of an ‘outpouring of public support’ is the biggest lie of all…there was NO ‘outpouring of public support,’ but rather it was a pay day and party day for all the hired actors, the scammed inner city attendees, and all the support staff from the law and PR offices and non profits which were active in the charade (including the CCSA and Ms. Angel) . I researched some of these non profits, and their Boards are filled with lawyers from the same powerful firms who represent the tycoons behind it all.
“These purveyors of planned disruption, all paid by a hidden community of vast wealth and power, created a totally dishonest scenario. They manipulated uninformed inner city people of color once again.
“This sham was put in place not by the public, but by the power players who forced their voices to be the only ones heard.”
——————————
Ms. Angel is also the co-author of a report done for the California State Assembly on Health & Human Services Budget for the years 2003-2004; (page 4)
Click to access Final_Analysis2003-04.pdf
As recently as last year, she lobbied in Sacramento, as she was mentioned in an insider newspaper:
http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/nooner/2014-05-23.html
Back in spring 2012, along with her husband Dan Nieman, she ran for a Neighborhood Council seat in Studio City, California, where her candidate’s statement gives more biographical detail:
SARAH ANGEL: “As a prosecutor, mother, and homeowner, I know the importance of creating safe communities that foster the well-being of every one of us. Everyday, I fight for crime victims, and as your representative, I will fight to ensure that every family has access to the opportunities and resources they deserve. We need to make government more responsive to our local needs here in Studio City.
“I am a lifelong California resident and a product of our public schools, from elementary school through UCLA and UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. My husband and I have owned our home in Studio City for four years, and we are raising our almost one-year old daughter here. We love this community and I want to ensure it continues to flourish.
“I would be honored to receive your support. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at
sarahangel4studiocity@gmail.com. ”
FROM…
https://empowerla.org/scnc-draft/studio-city-nc-elections/
Finally, she’s an attractive brunette who did a joint appearance with LAUSD’s Charter Honcho Jose Cole Guttierez at an event extolling the wonders of charter co-location.
No wonder that Ms. Angel so despised Dr. Ravitch’s op-ed.
(NOTE: in the overwhelming majority of cases, LAUSD charter co-locations have been a disaster and deeply damaging for the pre-existing public school.)
This occurred at Loyola Marymount University… here’s a video:
Check out what a cozy relationship the CCSA & it’s privately-managed schools/corporations has with LAUSD, and its top charter official and Deasy appointee Jose Cole-Guttierez:
——————-
00:54
SARAH ANGEL: “I want to to thank Jose for continuing to be a partner. We are texting and on the phone multiple times-a-week, and meeting face-to-face practically weekly now, and I think… ummm… that’s a testament to the strength of this partnership, and room for growth.”
—————–
As this indicates, the fix is in to favor charters, and to rig the failure of traditional public schools, and Ms. Angel is its bright cheery face.
Once again, she’s paid a six-figure salary—originating from money the CCSSA receives from California taxpayers and citizens—being paid to execute a slow, stealth privatization of schools… whether those same taxpayers want their schools privatized or not.
Oh and here’s her twitter page, where she tweets about charter victories:
Holy sh#%! Is this getting interesting!
I just checked Ms. Sarah Angel’s LINKEDIN page: (you missed that, Julie… first place I always go)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahangel
And there’s no mention or her past at the prestigious O’Melveny & Myers LLP law firm (located in chi-chi Newport Beach), or with the Redondo Beach prosecutor’s office? Both of those items are pretty impressive, but she doesn’t want them mentioned on Linkedin?
There’s no mention of Ms. Angel graduating from UCLA and Berkeley’s law school either.
What’s up with THAT, girlfriend?
If all of that were in my background, I’d be out and proud in listing that stuff on an on-line resume.
Ms. Angel’s LinkedIn page only mentions that she works in “Education Management” at the California Charter Schools Association.
(“Managing” WHAT, exactly?… since, as indicated by Julie, Ms. Angel posses no university education, work experience, or background in well… “education”… in any capacity.)
It’s almost as if Ms. Angel, per her corporate masters’ orders, is trying to hide, or at least downplay publicly her past as a private practice lawyer, or as a prosecutor in those wealth communities of Newport Beach and Redondo Beach… as Ms. Angel re-invents herself and enters the Corporate Reform industry, where she apparently has been newly reborn as an advocate for the education of poor minority children.
Weird, wild stuff.
I’m surprised you missed this Diane, from Texas. It’s such a similar response:
“Traditional public schools outperform charter schools: That’s the aggressive stance taken by State Board of Education Vice Chair Thomas Ratliff, and he says he’s got the numbers to prove it.
In an open letter, Ratliff cited the recent Texas Education Agency snapshot report for the 2013-14 school year, and the numbers were pretty clear. Compared to charters, traditional ISDs had lower dropout rates; higher graduation rates; and higher STAAR, SAT, and ACT scores. They are also better places to work, with higher average teacher salaries, more experienced staff, and fewer students per teacher. On top of that, ISDs also spend less money on administration and have fewer administrators as a portion of their work force. That last point is particularly damaging for fiscal conservatives, who constantly harp on supposed inefficiencies within public schools.
Ratliff wrote, “ISDs aren’t perfect, but they graduate more kids, keep more kids from dropping out, and get more kids career- and college-ready than their politically connected competitors.”
This brought an immediate and sharp response from an unexpected source: a joint letter, signed by former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige and former Texas House Public Education Committee Chair Paul Sadler. ”
http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2015-07-24/pulling-from-tea-report-ratliff-argues-public-schools-better-than-charters/
Not so surprising, Chiara, when you remember that it was Rod Paige who manufactured the so-called and debunked “Texas Miracle”, which ushered in NCLB. He also called teachers “terrorists” during his tenure as Arne’s predecessor, not long after 9/11 when that term really resonated.
Chiara, is this comparing all charters to all ISDs? That’s what it sounds like. This isn’t a reasonable comparison since charters serve more economically disadvantaged students and almost twice as many minority students.
The data seems to very clearly support better academic outcomes for charters in Texas.
This is all inside LAUSD baseball stuff.
Last February, Sarah Angel sent out a letter as part of the Parent Teacher Alliance in Support of Rodriguez, Galatzan and Vladovic for School Board 2015 to shape community support in our last school board election.
Her team won with the election of Ref Rodriguez and Richard Vladovic.
I wrote back to her email at the time:
Dear Sarah-
First off, let me first express my complete revulsion with your group.
As a National Board Teacher, I find your exploitative use of minority children grotesque and this lame, rah-rah letter you have sent out completely fraudulent in its intent and purpose.
I despise your pedagogy.
Truly, absolutely sickened by it.
I would love an honest debate with your organization to expose your own racism and class-ism. These are not terms I throw about lightly but I honestly believe you have earned them. The recent District 5 campaign flyer you sent out completely epitomizes your organization and the intellectual, behind-the-scene, strategy session that must have gone in to devising it.
You can keep Ref Rodriguez. You can also keep Ms. Galatzan and Dr. Vladovic too. I’m embarrassed by their “commitment” to LAUSD’s children as well. I have no use for what they feel our children need and deserve and their continual service on the Board depresses me no end that they have been in positions of power over LA’s education for so long.
For too long, money has spoken in education and our children are not getting what they truly need.
Alas, my education utopia and yours differs vastly. By re-emailing your solicitation letter to other teachers and educators, I hope others recognize your organization despite the flower power vague wording of your “outreach”. You should know that true Progressive activism in education is explosive and pervasive, despite the removed financial and political powers-that-be that support and endorse YOUR vision of education, not only in LA, but nationwide.
My students desperately need a Parent-Teacher Alliance–
–But certainly not yours.
Sincerely,
Geronimo, NBCT
Ms. Sarah Beth Angel is a liar!!! Liar, liar, pants on fire!!!
Read this…
————————————————
To Geronimo:
I just located the misleading form letter that you received Sarah Angel, and about which you are writing:
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/laschoolreport/charter_group_says_kayser_policies_8216by_no_means_race_neutral8217/
——————–
(FORM LETTER)
Dear__________:
Did you know that there is a critical LAUSD school board election taking place in Northeast Los Angeles and the Southeastern cities of Vernon, South Gate and Huntington Park on March 3? As a registered voter, you could make a big difference in the outcome of this race.
Parent Teacher Alliance is a group of public school parents, teachers and community members who are dedicated to improving education for all children in the LAUSD. We would like to send you email you about the candidates and issues in this campaign.
Sarah Angel
Parent-Teacher Alliance
———————
Well, as we all now know, thanks to Julie…
Ms. Sarah Angel is neither a “Parent”… of a school-aged child, her eldest being four years old…
Nor is Ms. Angel a “Teacher”… as she has never worked in that capacity.
However, in order to influence voters, Ms. Angel fraudulently posed as such…. as that could be the only inference in the way she billed herself in that letter.
I mean, why didn’t Ms. Angel identify herself by her true title, and instead say that she was at the time…
“Los Angeles Managing Director of Advocacy of the California Charter Schools Association”?
Because that wouldn’t have gotten votes. That’s why!
Liar!!! You are a liar, Ms Angel!!!”
This so-called “Parent-Teacher Alliance” was and is nothing more than a bogus astroturf group created by those forces out to privatize public education via the slow expansion of charter schools.
Ms. Angel made even more lies during the recent school board election!!!!
For a measure of how utterly dishonest and sleazy Ms. Angel and her misnamed “Parent-Teacher Alliance” group was, check out this:
http://laschoolreport.com/campaign-against-kayser-turns-negative-with-charter-funded-flyer-lausd/
BACKGROUND: LAUSD Board Member George McKenna was supporting incumbent Board Member Bennett Kayser, and not.. NOT! NOT! NOT!!! … his corporate reform opponent (and eventual winner) Ref Rodriguez, who was supported by the privatization/charter industry.
Well, what did Ms. Angel and “Parent-Teacher Alliance” do? The paid for and sent out millions of fliers knowingly lying, and falsely claiming that …
George McKenna ENDORSED RODRIGUEZ, AND NOT KAYSER???!!!
McKenna was incensed.
http://laschoolreport.com/campaign-against-kayser-turns-negative-with-charter-funded-flyer-lausd/
L.A. SCHOOL REPORT: (who got it right this time at least)
“In a news release this morning, McKenna expressed outrage that his name appears on the flyer, saying the ‘literature is misleading and racially inflammatory in nature.’ McKenna also makes clear he has not sought the group’s endorsement.
GEORGE MCKENNA: “ ‘I reject the statements, accusations and positions promoted by this group as it relates to Board Member Kayser, whom I strongly support for re-election,’ he said.
“He continues: ‘I was not consulted prior to the release of this literature, nor did I give Parent Teacher Alliance permission to use my name. I request that their endorsement of me be withdrawn, and that my name and/or title not be used by them in any of their literature.’ ”
Ellen,
You’re right.
Ms. Angel’s former (current?) employer, O’Melveny & Myers LLP law firm is getting huge contracts, or least has multiple connections to the privatization / Charter School industry:
———
(from O’Melveny & Myers promotional page)
http://www.omm.com/newsroom/news.aspx?news=3645
“In Josephine Baker’s recently published book, ‘Evolution and Revolution of DC Charter Schools,’ the former executive director of the DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB) praised O’Melveny & Myers for having a ‘major impact on the charter sector’s development.’
“Baker explains that without the victories obtained by O’Melveny in key PCSB litigation, ‘the evolution of the DC Charter sector would certainly not be what it has become.’
“O’Melveny has provided pro bono legal representation to PCSB since it first came into creation in 1997, helping the board develop administrative procedures in compliance with its governing statute, negotiate charter agreements, address labor issues, and handle litigation and public controversies.”
————
One more time…
“Baker explains that without the victories obtained by O’Melveny in key PCSB litigation, ‘the evolution of the DC Charter sector would certainly not be what it has become.’ ”
Get that? D.C. schools has grown 50% charter, and they couldn’t have done that O’Melveny.
We know who butters O’Melveny’s (and Ms. Angel’s) bread.
————————————————————
Oh, and there’s more.
O’Melveny attorney “Danielle C. Gray” is an attorney for, and and who serves on the Board of Directors for… you guessed it… NYC’s SUCCESS ACADEMY Charter School Chain, run by Eva Moskowitz:
http://www.omm.com/danielle-gray/
“Danielle C. Gray”
“Professional Activities…
“Board Member… SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS”
—–
And how about O’Melveny & Myers LLP Attorney Mark Holscher (like Ms. Angel, he went to Berkelely’s law school),
When he was part of Kirkland and Ellis was one of the pro bono attorneys trying assisting PARENT REVOLUTION in its courtroom battles to turn public schools over to private management:
http://www.kirkland.com/sitecontent.cfm?contentID=220&itemid=9032
“Mark Holscher
“Prior experience:
“O’Melveny & Myers”
“In 2013, Mark was selected for the second time for a California Lawyer ‘Attorney of the Year’ award for his pro bono representation of a group of parents and the national education movement, when a California court became the first in the U.S. to verify a “parent trigger” petition to authorize parents to take control of an underperforming school in Southern California.”
———————
Speaking of Parent Trigger, and its main promotional entity, Parent Revolution…
Peter Shakow is currently the Chair of Parent Revolution’s Board of Directors… and he was formerly employed as an attorney…. you guessed it… O’Melveny & Myers!!!
http://parentrevolution.org/our-board/
“Peter Shakow – Chair
“…. He was a litigator at O’Melveny & Myers LLP in Los Angeles from 1998-2003.”
————-
“Daniel Brumer” is currently on the board of the Los Angeles’ Crown Prep Charter Schools chain, and he was formerly an attorney at… you guessed it… O’Melveny & Myers!!!
http://crownprep.org/about-us/leadership/
“Crown Prep Board of Directors
“Daniel Brumer…
“… Mr. Brumer was formerly an associate attorney at O’Melveny and Myers in Los Angeles, CA, where he was a member of the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions practice group….
—–
And that’s just a start…
“We know who butters O’Melveny’s (and Ms. Angel’s) bread.”
The thing about pro bono work is that there’s no butter. (Pro bono, sine butter.) You are paid nothing by the client, because the client has no money. If the client had money, O’Melveny would be taking it or declining the representation.
Fantastic information, Julie. Please contact me at
joiningforces4ed@aol.com
Yes, O’Melveny has long been in the thick of this. I spread the specific word here after the Oct. 29, 2013 charade at Beaudry, that various major law firms were represented there, particularly O’Melveny. I checked the pro bono departments bios and photos and found some of their young lawyers who were handing out the yellow daisies for the hair of the pseudoinner city protesters/paid actors screaming in favor of Deasy, and chanting from the scripts these lawyers handed them,. It was all so well orchestrated by these law firms working with United Way and Parent Revolution, to get Deasy’s contract renewed when teachers had just given him a 91% NO CONFIDENCE vote, and when the iPad fiasco had just broken open publicly.
It was the young female lawyers handing out water and free food to the inner city mob they bought for the day. I was in their midst for many hours and heard all about Monica Garcia’s heavy hand in this expensive orchestrated street theater for the benefit of the media…and they all were on the nightly news.
I insisted after the whole daisy fiasco on speaking to a newscaster. I explained in great detail what had happened in the board room and about losing my right to make public comment against Deasy, when I had been first one into the BoE room, but only pro Deasy advocates with the daisies were allowed to speak. Mike Dominguez and Karen Wolfe were also in the audience that day, and both wanted to give public testimony and were also refused a slip to speak. Speaker slips were rapidly handed out by the BoE monitor, Vanessa, to only the bussed in women claiming to be mothers, using the lawyers talking points to support Deasy. This was done in Spanish first, and then translated into English.
It was the most undemocratic day I have ever seen…and the BoE played right along with them. The room was packed with police against all the walls, I suppose to protect them from any anti Deasy people who might protest loudly at this FIX by the billionaires lawyers and PR firms, and with the lead taken by United Way’s Jim Ryan, and Parent Revolution’s Ben Austin.
Ryan left town last year to take the top spot in Oakland with Marion Edelman, so that is another organization in the grips of Wall Street, and Austin joined Deasy to work full time for Eli Broad. This is the kind of corruption that goes on with LAUSD.
This Wall Street free market movement is huge, and so engulfing in LA, and I assume to a lesser degree elsewhere. It is shaping up to mirror the Civil War, with families taking opposite sides and friendships breaking up over privatizing v. public school. Follow the money as always.
BTW…no news reports that night mentioned the dissenters such as I, who had NO chance to speak. They lauded Deasy as though he walked on water…and they showed the mob outside and delightedly painted them as parents who love Deasy. Media in this town is bought and paid for. Even NPR and public TV are in the pocket of Mr. Broad who contributes heavily to their salaries, keeping them in his lackies.
Nothing like inflated diction to unmask bias: “incendiary messages”….NOT. Who is this Sarah Angel flack anyway?
“Who is this Sarah Angel flack anyway?”
Read the entirety of the COMMENT’s above. They are pretty revealing of Ms. Angel, the corporate reform/privatization organizations to which she is allied/connected, and her total lack of ethics.
Ellen,
There is a TEACH FOR AMERICA connection to Ms. Angel… via marriage, that is…
Ms. Angel’s husband Dan Nieman is “the Managing Director of Field Engagement at TEACH FOR AMERICA and (TFA’s) ‘Leadership For Educational Equity.’ “. This most likely nets him a six-figure salary.
http://vator.tv/person/dan-nieman
“Dan Nieman is the Managing Director of Field Engagement at LEE. Dan is the liaison between Teach For America and (TFA’s) ‘Leadership For Educational Equity,’ managing the partnership and ensuring that our members are on track to succeed in the fields of politics, policy, and advocacy.”
—————–
Hmmm… both halves of this household are pulling down six-figure salaries in the privatization / charter school indistry.
Alas, this is not uncommon.
Michelle Rhee was formerly married to TEACH FOR AMERICA Executives Kevin Huffman.
TFA Founder Wendy Kopp is currently married to KIPP Charter School CEO Richard Barth (a KIPP/Kopp union, so to speak).
But none of them are in it for the money, of course. They’re in it to help the education of low-income, minority children. Don’t ever forget that.
For those not yet acquainted, Ms. Angel’s husband’s organization—TEACH FOR AMERICA’s “Leadership For Educational Equity”—is a non-transparent and mysterious arm of TEACH FOR AMERICA, one that seeks to place TEACH FOR AMERICA alumni in positions of power, getting them elected or appointed to influential positions to promote privatization of schools and the expansion of charter schools… while not violating the rules governing its non-profit status.
For more on TEACH FOR AMERICA’s “Leadership For Educational Equity,”—where Ms. Angel’s husband is a managing directer— and its lack of cooperation to journalists who want to know its workings, read this piece RETHINKING SCHOOLS’ writer Barbara Miner’s:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_03/24_03_TFA.shtml
(WARNING: it’s long, but well worth reading)
——————————–
BARBARA MINER: “Leadership for Educational Equity, meanwhile, has been less than cooperative in providing IRS documents that, by law, are to be made publicly available within 30 days of a request. In mid-January, after more than two months of LEE’s refusal to provide these documents, Rethinking Schools filed a formal complaint against LEE with the IRS; as of press-time in mid-March, LEE had still not responded.
” … ”
“St. Louis provided a window on many of the complexities of TEACH FOR AMERICA at the local level, but didn’t answer the question of TFA’s national role. So I interviewed others across the country, and also Googled, phoned, and emailed, acquiring reams of studies, reports, and articles on TEACH FOR AMERICA.
“Which is how I came to find out about two of TFA’s newest initiatives: ‘TEACH FOR ALL’ and ‘Leadership for Education Equity.’
” ‘TEACH FOR ALL’ is a global network of like-minded organizations, launched in 2007 to replicate TFA in countries ranging from Argentina to Estonia, from Australia to Germany. ‘Leadership for Education Equity’ (LEE) was founded in 2008 to provide a vehicle for political work and campaigning.
“LEE appears to be crucial to another aspect of TEACH FOR AMERICA’s strategy: TFA’s ambitions in shaping the country’s education policy agenda and encouraging alumni to run for office. My surprise at the media silence around LEE was outdone only by my amazement at LEE’s lack of public transparency.
“The Mysterious ‘Leadership for Education Equity’ (LEE)
“TFA spends significant organizational time, energy, and money on its alumni, who are arguably the source of the organization’s true political power. (The most famous alumni are Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the Washington, D.C., public schools, and Mike Feinberg and David Levin, founders of the KIPP Schools.)
“LEE is an outgrowth of TFA’s Political Leadership Initiative, which the TFA website says is designed to provide ‘tools, resources, and opportunities to help alumni influence the policies and priorities of local, state, and national government. It also helps prepare them to pursue elected positions.’
“Some 27 TFA alumni are currently in office, nine more are running for office, and more than 700 are interested in ‘pursuing political leadership.’ TFA has a goal of 100 elected officials in 2010.
“The elected officials, however, present a potential quandary, which is where LEE comes in. As a 501(c)4 nonprofit, LEE can engage in lobbying and political campaigning that is either off-limits or strictly curtailed for a 501(c)3 such as TEACH FOR AMERICA.
“Jen Bluestein Lamb, vice president of TFA’s Political Leadership Initiative, who spends part of her time overseeing LEE, agreed to talk about the new organization. At the same time, Bluestein Lamb refused to give me even temporary access to the members-only website that is at the heart of the organization’s work.
“I was hoping that LEE might unlock the door to TFA’s political agenda, so imagine my surprise when Bluestein Lamb said in no uncertain terms,
“JEN BLUESTEIN LAMB: ‘We have absolutely no agenda for LEE. We don’t have an agenda, we don’t have political goals, we don’t have an ideology.’
In fact, she added, ‘Our [501](c)4 does not lobby.’
“I found it hard to believe, but Bluestein Lamb patiently said the same thing in several ways. So then I asked whether there might be any positions deemed out of bounds—say a TEACH FOR AMERICA alumnus wanted to run for office on a platform ending taxpayer support of public education or a total conversion to vouchers.
“Would LEE have any problem with that?
“ ‘No,’ Bluestein Lam responded, although she hoped such a platform would spark ‘a pretty brisk dialogue’ among other alumni.
“Hoping there might be other information to help me understand LEE, I asked if there had been any media articles about the organization. ‘No, not to my knowledge,’ she responded.
” ‘Leadership for Education Equity’ (LEE) was far out of the realm of any 501(c)4 that I knew, especially one that says its mission involves ending the achievement gap and educational inequity. LEE may not lobby or advocate a political agenda but, I asked, has it ever taken a policy position of any sort?
“ ‘No, and we never would,’ she responded.
“ ‘But even the Boy Scouts take policy positions,’ I countered.
“Bluestein Lamb laughed and then repeated, ‘We have never, and never will, take a policy position ourselves.’
“We were at a standstill. I felt I had entered an alternate reality. All this passion, all this talk of social justice and ending educational inequity—but without any political content or ideology or platform of any sort?
“It didn’t make sense.
“If LEE and TEACH FOR AMERICA are as apolitical as they claim, why does the media constantly link TEACH FOR AMERICA with ‘reformers’ who attack the unions and schools of education, and reforms such as entrepreneurially motivated charter schools, even for-profit charters, as necessary alternatives to traditional public schools?
“And if the media is falsely linking TEACH FOR AMERICA to such pro-marketplace reforms, why doesn’t TEACH FOR AMERICA set the record straight?
” … ”
“Journalism 101: Follow the Money
“To further investigate TFA, I decided to go back to Journalism 101: Follow the money. Which leads, among other places, to the story of Barbara Torre Veltri’s mother.
“Torre Veltri is an assistant professor at Northern Arizona University. Last summer, her mother received a letter from Wachovia Securities/Wells Fargo Advisors, dated June 12, 2009, requesting input on a customer service questionnaire. In exchange for her time, the letter promised,
” ‘We will make a donation to your choice of one of the following charities: American Red Cross, Teach for America, or the National Council on Aging.’
“Torre Veltri’s mother was puzzled.
” ‘Why would donations be solicited by [Wachovia Securities/]Wells Fargo for Teach for America?’ she asked her daughter. ‘Since when is teaching some kind of charity?'(1)
“Good questions without easy answers.
“Wachovia Securities/Wells Fargo was undoubtedly in need of an image makeover in early June. A few days before the letter to Torre Veltri’s mother, affidavits in a federal lawsuit recounted how Wells Fargo deliberately steered working-class African Americans into high-interest subprime mortgages, with the lending referred to as ‘ghetto loans.’
“TFA’s 2008 annual report lists Wachovia as one of five corporations donating more than $1 million at the national level. The others are Goldman Sachs, Visa, the biotechnology firm Amgen, and the golfing tournament Quail Hollow Championship.
“The organization is, without a doubt, a fundraising mega-star. In one day in June 2008, for instance, TFA raised $5.5 million. The event, TFA’s annual dinner, “brought so many corporate executives to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York that stretch limousines jammed Park Avenue for blocks,” the New York Times reported.
“To my knowledge, there has been no in-depth analysis of who funds TFA and why. Clearly, one of the unanswered questions is how TFA has been able to garner such amazing corporate support—especially since some of these same companies, in their business practices, have preyed on low-income people or have exacerbated this country’s growing inequality of wealth.
“Are the donations to TFA ‘guilt money’? Is TFA just smarter than other education groups in wooing corporate support? Is it that corporations believe it is no more politically risky to support TFA than to support the American Red Cross or the Council on Aging?
“Or is there a confluence of views between TFA and its leading corporate and foundation funders? TFA has no public criticism of pro-market reforms such as privatization and for-profit charters. Nor does it ask hard questions about the relationship between the achievement gap and problems of segregation, poverty, and an unemployment rate among African American men that hovers around 50 percent in some urban communities.
“Wendy Puriefoy is president of the Public Education Network, a national association focused on public school reform in low-income communities, and was on the board of Teach for America in the early 1990s. She believes the organization has expanded its agenda in recent years and chooses her words carefully in analyzing its current role because, she says, ‘it is going to sound harsh.’
“Likening market-oriented reforms in public education to the deregulation of the financial industry that culminated in a recession, she says that the very same people who promoted economic deregulation are influential supporters of organizations such as Teach for America. They want to sidestep professional teachers, unions, and schools of education “and let loose the forces of the market,” Puriefoy says.
“ ‘The marketplace of education is a big market. There is a lot of money to be made.’
” … ”
“There are any number of concerns that swirl around TEACH FOR AMERICA:
– that the organization is part of a global network promoting ideologies of privatization, individualism, and elitism;
– that TFA rests on the dubious supposition that elite graduates of elite colleges are inherently better teachers than people from local or regional schools who come from the communities where they teach;
– that the media and foundation attention lavished on TFA sucks away energy and money from other important reforms.
“But what if one accepts TFA’s assumptions—that its purpose is purely to address educational inequity by recruiting the best and the brightest, training them briefly, and having them teach for two years in a low-income school? And that its model trumps the value of recruiting accredited teachers who view teaching as a career?
“Given that the revolving door of unqualified teachers is a key factor in the poor performance of many low-income schools, what are the repercussions of those assumptions? Is TFA aggravating a problem that it claims to be solving?
“It is (TFA Founder Wendy) Kopp herself who perhaps best answers that question. Speaking in a 2007 commencement speech at Mt. Holyoke College, Kopp said:
WENDY KOPP: “What I have come to appreciate is that things that matter take time. We live in an era when it is rare to meet people in their 20s and 30s who have stayed with something for more than a few years. And certainly, in some cases the right thing is to experiment and move on.
“But in many cases, the right thing is to stay with something, internalize tough lessons, and push yourself to new levels of knowledge and responsibility. Deep and widespread change comes from sticking with things.”
That’s piece from Barbara Miner is quite an eye-opener. LEE???!!
Another thing, Julie… isn’t it true that with the LAUSD charter school chains which Ms. Angel is paid to promote and help expand, those schools hire a significant amount of its TEACH FOR AMERICA teachers to staff its schools—in some cases 100% of the faculty being TEACH FOR AMERICA Corps Member teachers—with those Corps Member teachers belonging to an organization that Ms. Angel’s husband also promotes and of which he is part?
So in essence… the more privately-managed charter schools that Ms. Angel can help add to LAUSD, the more her husband’s TEACH FOR AMERICA organization will likewise benefit and expand, and the more that she and her husband will also financially benefit… making the supposed benefit that charters offer to poor kids seeking charters (as Ms. Angel claims in her op-ed)… making all that at best, a secondary concern for Ms. Angel and her husband, Mr. Nieman… if that.
This doesn’t seem right. Isn’t there a conflict of interest here somewhere? If not with Mr. Angel and Mr. Nieman, then with Jose Cole-Gutterez, or with new LAUSD Board Member (and former PUC Charter CEO) Ref Rodriguez?
Just askin’…
Wow, there’s more on Ms. Angel’s husband Dan Nieman.
Again, he’s the Los Angeles Director TEACH FOR AMERICA’s “Leadership for Educational Equity” — a non-transparent and mysterious arm of TFA that seeks get TFA alumni elected or appointed to positions of power in education.
His group promotes infiltration of TFA alumni into government positions in charge of public education. That explains why both he and his wife, Ms. Angel, ran for seats on Studio City’s Neighborhood Council. (ABOVE somewhere)
Here’s more about Dan Nieman, Ms. Angel’s husband.
He’s a Teach for America alumnus (2001 Corps Member), who signed off on an email blast to get his fellow TFA Corps Member Steve Zimmer (1992 Corps Member) elected to the LAUSD school board, an effort that was ultimately successful to get Zimmer elected in 2009:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/markham_eagles/conversations/topics/61
–
text of email: “As Teach For America alumni, we share a unique perspective on the issues of public education across this nation. We’ve taken many different paths since our first years as corps members, but those paths have been indelibly shaped by a passion for educational equity and excellence, formed and flamed by our experiences in the classrooms, schools, and communities in which we taught..
“We write today to tell you about Steve Zimmer, a 1992 Los Angeles Corps Member who, 17 years later, is still working at his placement school and who shares that unyielding passion for kids and communities. Steve is running for a seat on the school board of the second largest school district in the country – the Los Angeles Unified School District. His potential election represents an incredible opportunity to reshape the education landscape here in Los Angeles in a way that will reverberate across this nation.”
–
Boy, I bet he and Ms. Angel regretted THAT one.
( *** FUN FACT OF THE DAY *** Both anti-privatization LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer and privatization queen Michelle Rhee are from the “1992 Class of Teach For America Corps Members”)
When Zimmer was not sufficiently pro-charter during his first term—Zimmer wanted more oversight of charters, and a stricter vetting process—TFA’s allies threw all their support behind Zimmer’s opponent Kate Anderson four years later in 2013… and was part of one of the dirtiest LAUSD Board campaigns ever (until the Kayser-Rodriguez race this year).
Now here’s where it gets weird.
In addition to his being the local Los Angeles Manager of TFA’s “Leadership for Educational Equity”, Dan Nieman is also on the Board of Directors for the “CITIZENS OF THE WORLD” Charter Chain — whose New York City branch is run by SUCCESS ACADEMY’s Eva Moskowitz’ husband, Eric Grannis, if memory serves:
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/10/citizens-of-world-charter-run-by-evas.html
Anyway, back to Dan Nieman, Sarah Angel’s husband.
Here’s CITIZENS OF THE WORLD’s… well… “charter” (excuse the pun)
Click to access CWC_Charter.pdf
Now, go to page 129 (or page 109 of the pdf’s page counter)
–
“BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
“DAN NIEMAN — Mr. Nieman currently serves as Managing Director of the
Political Leadership Initiative for ‘Teach For America,’ where he is responsible for
managing relationships with a variety of partnerships to support Teach for America
alumni in their pursuits of elected office.
“Mr. Nieman also coordinates Teach for America’s School Board Fellows Program and Emerging Political Leaders Fellowship for corps member alumni.
“Mr. Nieman began his career as an elementary school teacher, teaching at P.S. 153 in Harlem with TEACH FOR AMERICA, and then serving as a Founding Teacher of the Bronx Charter School for the Arts for two years.
“Mr. Nieman moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles and participated in the Coro Fellows Program of Public Affairs. Most recently, Mr. Nieman spent the last three years as Director of Community Affairs for LAUSD Board Member Marlene Canter…. ”
–
Now why, you may ask, is Ms. Angel’s husband’s being on the Board of Directors of the CITIZENS OF THE WORLD Charter Chain significant?
First off, because his wife Sarah Angel is the California Charter Schools Association’s point person in protecting and expanding charter schools in Los Angeles, especially in the divisive and controversial context of co-locations, as Julie Tran discovered.
Julie found a video where Sarah Angel sings the praises of co-location, and showcases the chummy relationship CCSA has the LAUSD and its charter executive Jose Cole-Guttierez:
——————-
00:54
SARAH ANGEL: “I want to to thank Jose for continuing to be a partner. We are texting and on the phone multiple times-a-week, and meeting face-to-face practically weekly now, and I think… ummm… that’s a testament to the strength of this partnership, and room for growth.”
—————–
Secondly… well while Ms. Angel, one half of the Neiman-Angel household was out promoting co-location, her husband’s charter chain, CITIZENS OF THE WORLD, has been, without a doubt, the worst actor in the history of LAUSD charter co-locations, causing a disaster at almost every pre-existing school in which it co-locates.
Activist Robert Skeels covered their invasion of Micheltorena Elementary in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles:
http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2012/03/open-letter-to-silver-lake-nc-regarding.html
http://atthechalkface.com/2013/07/08/solidaridad-the-99-cents-store-school-brought-to-you-by-the-lucrative-charter-school-industry/
Parent activist Adam Benitez chronicled in detail CITIZENS OF THE WORLD’s one-year invasion of Stoner Elementary in the Mar Vista Neighborhood in this highly entertaining blog here:
http://cwcmarvista-co-location-stoner-lausd.blogspot.com/
Note, CITIZENS OF THE WORLD’s co-location at Benitez’ kid’s public school Stoner lasted but one year—2013-2014—before its officials outrageous conduct and the parent activism opposing CITIZENS OF THE WORLD drove them out. Benitez is reportedly writing a book about this horrific year, adapting his blog entries.
Here are some highlights from Benitez’ blog:
http://cwcmarvista-co-location-stoner-lausd.blogspot.com/2014/05/cwc-parent-caught-vandalizing.html
“The Stolen Yard Signs” — A pro-CITIZENS OF THE WORLD parent grabbed all the anti-CITIZENS OF THE WORLD yard signs that neighbors had posted on their lawns. Benitez and his wife found the signs in the backseat of this parent’s car. When confronted, the vandalizing thief-of-a-parent claimed “that the wind blew them there.” He’s being prosecuted.
http://cwcmarvista-co-location-stoner-lausd.blogspot.com/2014/04/flashback-cwc-admin-meets-with-stoner.html
“Combination Lock”—instead of hiring a security guard to sit and watch the fence entrance to the campus—that serves as entry to both CITIZENS OF THE WORLD and Stoner campuses—CITIZENS OF THE WORLD officials cheaped out, and gave out the combination to the lock to all of its parents…. thereby putting the safety of both school’s students at risk… as now hundreds of people now had the combo, and can get onto the campus whenever one of them felt like it.
http://cwcmarvista-co-location-stoner-lausd.blogspot.com/2014/07/flashback-cwc-karma-tickets.html
“Karma Tickets”—the CITIZENS OF THE WORLD morning drop-off was a street-clogging disaster, greatly inconveniencing the neighbors (some Stoner parents, some not), who then called L.A. Parking Enforcement on CITIZENS OF THE WORLD parents’ illegally parking their cars while dropping their kids off, resulting in parking fines.
CITIZENS OF THE WORLD responded by handing the neighbors packets of newly-created “Karma Tickets” that the neighbors could put on the parents’ cars’ windshields instead. The design and font resembled actual L.A. parking tickets.
As Benitez said, that’s like having your dogs dump all over the neighborhood, then handing out plastic bags to the neighbors for THEM to all those dumps up.
http://cwcmarvista-co-location-stoner-lausd.blogspot.com/2015/03/bombshell-cwc-docs-released-follow-up-4.html
“The Naked Student Hose Down”—after a CITIZENS OF THE WORLD student had a bathroom accident, the child’s (uncredentialed?) teacher took the child outside and, in plain view of those in school community, as well as those citizens in the neighborhood and… I’m not making this up… stripped the child naked, the proceeded to hose him down with a garden hose, like he was livestock on a farm. In addition to being child abuse and outrageous, it posed a health hazard to the kids at both schools.
When confronted, CITIZENS OF THE WORLD officials were like… “Yeah.. so what? It’s no big deal… Get over it… ” but then stonewalled the release of any of its internal documents, then redacted them when they were later forced by a Freedom of Information request.
http://cwcmarvista-co-location-stoner-lausd.blogspot.com/2014/06/flashback-cwc-protest-1-whats-in-gate.html
“The Strangler Vine Metaphor”—captured on video, one of the CITIZENS OF THE WORLD parents let the mask drop, and signaled CITIZENS OF THE WORLD’s true intentions—not co-location, but conquest; he compared CITIZENS OF THE WORLD’s school to a young and healthy tree sending out “strangler vines” to strangle the older, rotting, dying tree standing next to it (Stoner Elementary):
Here’s that video:
(you can see Karen Wolfe, pro-public education parent activist and regular blogger here, frame right)
–
CITIZENS OF THE WORLD PARENT: (at 03:23) “He’s saying that if this (the new CITIZENS OF THE WORLD school) ends up expanding to be a good school in the neighborhood –
KAREN WOLFE: “Oh, so that’s a good thing? So let me ask you a couple questions-”
CITIZENS OF THE WORLD PARENT: “I mean if you’ve got a tree that’s dying, and the strangler (vine from the young tree) that’s healthy grows around it, eventually the rotting tree goes away.”
–
Needless to say, rhetoric such as this—comparing a beloved neighborhood school that’s served students for generations to a rotting, near-dead tree that needs to die so the charter can take its place—did not sit well with Benitez and the other Stoner Parents, as Stoner has been educating those neighborhood students for generations.
After a year (2014-2015) of being free of charter co-location, Benitez is reporting that LAUSD’s Jose Cole-Guttierez, perhaps in retaliation, is foisting another Charter Chain, ICEF, on the Stoner campus this fall.
Benitez is finishing up his book about this unending charter school horror that CITIZENS OF THE WORLD brought to the Stoner community. He’s currently vetting it with lawyers. Once I buy it, it’s going up on my shelf with “Chronicle of Echoes” and “Reign of Error.”
Also CITIZENS OF THE WORLD has also gotten horrific press all the way over in New York City:
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/04/exposing-segregation-tactics-of-eric.html
In part because of actions similar to those detailed by by Adam Benitez in Los Angeles,
parents in New York City are suing CITIZENS OF THE WORLD:
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130129/greenpoint/parents-sue-state-for-approving-citizens-of-world-charter-school
“WILLIAMSBURG — A local parent group is suing the state for approving a controversial charter school’s entrance in the neighborhood this fall without sufficient “support from the impacted community.”
“CITIZENS OF THE WORLD, a charter elementary slated to co-locate with two other schools across McCarren Park on Leonard Street, garnered support from only a “select, cultivated group of parents” and held “hidden meetings,” according to the lawsuit filed in the Kings County State Supreme Court last month.
“The members of WAGPOPS (Williamsburg and Greenpoint Parents for Our Public Schools), the parent group who filed the suit, claim that the state illegally ignored significant community opposition to the new charter.
” ‘We do not believe they abided by the law by accepting this school,’ said WAGPOPS member Brooke Parker. ‘It was done sneakily and they ignored the impact on our community, and they should be held accountable for this.’
“Citizens of the World, a Los Angeles-based network promoted by Eric Grannis — the husband of Success Academy’s director Eva Moskowitz — has received fierce criticism from WAGPOPS, Williamsburg Community Board One, local teachers and politicians over the past year… ”
and on it goes…
It’s interesting that Ms. Angel, whose job it is to promote and expand charter school growth LAUSD is married to someone whose charter chain has such a dismal record in LAUSD charter school locations .
Surely, when Ms. Angel ran the “co-locating-charters-are-wonderful-for-all” seminar in the video…
… she was well aware of the disasters that her husband’s Charter Chain was wreaking on various L.A. neighborhoods and pre-existing public schools.
Don’t Ms. Angel and her husband talk to each other? Oh that’s right, they’re married… maybe they don’t.
Here’s another take the organization for which Sarah Angel’s husband Dan Nieman is the local Los Angeles Manatger..
The Leadership for Educational Equity:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/06/1214049/-Leadership-for-Educational-Equity-the-master-plan-for-Teach-for-America
—————-
Wed Jun 05, 2013 at 05:28 PM PDT
Leadership for Educational Equity – the master plan for Teach for America
by
teacherken
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9 Comments / 9 New
Those who have been paying attention know that some years ago Teach for America ceased being an organization providing bright students from good colleges to fill in at schools where there were a lack of certified teachers to being an organization that serves as a way-station on the way to other careers.
What many may not realize is how formalized this has become, not merely with the preferential admission to graduate and professional schools after 2 years of service in TFA, but also a parallel organization, Leadership for Educational Equity, which seeks to place former corps members into positions of influence in politics and policy.
To help understand the scope of this, I strongly recommend that you read Teach For America’s Deep Bench from American Prospect. This piece, by James Cersonsky, from last October, provides a clear and potent description of what the TFA apparatus is seeking.
Here are two key early paragraphs from the article:
–
AMERICAN PROSPECT: “Since its founding, TFA has amassed some 28,000 alumni. Two have made Time’s ‘Most Influential’ list: its Chief Executive Officer and founder, Wendy Kopp, and former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor and StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee. Others have gained prominence as the leaders of massive charter operations, like KIPP Schools and New Schools for New Orleans. And TFA alums are currently the heads of public schools in Newark, D.C., and Tennessee.
“What about the other 27,000-some-odd people? That’s where Leadership for Educational Equity, or LEE, comes in. LEE was founded in 2007 as a 501(c)4 spin-off of Teach for America to provide resources, training, and networking for alumni who are interested in elected office or other extracurricular leadership positions. Its goals are ambitious: by 2015, as its standard job posting reads, it hopes to have 250 of its members in elected office, 300 in policy or advocacy leadership roles, and 1,000 “in ‘active’ pipelines for public leadership.” If all goes as planned, LEE could shift control over American education reform to a specific group of spritely college grads-turned-politicians with a very specific politics.”
–
There is more.
LEE functions as an alumni network for former TFA corps members.
AMERICAN PROSPECT: “The organization also provides resources for the electorally curious. Besides running two six-month fellowships pairing members with public officials, it offers a variety of webinars and tool-kits on organizing, advocacy, and elections.”
And there is this:
AMERICAN PROSPECT: “In 2010, 12 LEE members ran for local boards of education (with 4 wins), 31 for Chicago local school councils (14 wins), 31 for neighborhood council or other local office (21 wins), and four for state legislature (two wins). In LEE’s accounting, these totals are a step up from 2008, when five members ran for school boards (four wins) and four for other local offices (three wins).
“In total, as of August 2011, LEE counts 56 TFA alums in office: 14 on school boards, 13 on local school councils, 24 on neighborhood councils or other local boards, two state senators, a constable, a judge, and a justice of the peace.
“Understand clearly, that whatever the original intention of TFA may have been, it has morphed into something else, and LEE serves as an important mechanism, to seek to reshape American education into a model to which most Americans have NEVER given their assent.”
–
Read the article:
http://prospect.org/article/teach-america%E2%80%99s-deep-bench
Consider the implications.
Recognize that the vision they seek to impose is NOT what most professional educators seek for their students.
Then decide what if anything you are going to do to save public education.
Here’s AMERICAN PROSPECT’s article on the organization for which Sarah Angel’s husband Dan Nieman is the local Los Angeles Manatger..
The Leadership for Educational Equity:
http://prospect.org/article/teach-america%E2%80%99s-deep-bench
——————-
Teach for America’s Deep Bench
by
James Cersonsky
October 24, 2012
The education nonprofit is also training the next generation of politicians, who have very specific ideas on school reform.
– – – – – – – –
“Is this our Egypt moment? Will we seize the moment?”
Former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein spoke those words at Teach for America’s 20th anniversary summit last summer. Coming from Klein, who is now a divisional leader at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, incitements to political uprising might raise some eyebrows. But at the summit for the nonprofit, which recruits college graduates to be teachers in poor school districts around the country, Klein was onto something that Nicholas Kristof and Thomas Friedman have ignored in their eight pro-TFA columns: behind the veil of well-funded, debate-worthy idealism, TFA is coordinating a political revolution.
Since its founding, TFA has amassed some 28,000 alumni. Two have made Time’s “Most Influential” list: its Chief Executive Officer and founder, Wendy Kopp, and former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor and StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee. Others have gained prominence as the leaders of massive charter operations, like KIPP Schools and New Schools for New Orleans. And TFA alums are currently the heads of public schools in Newark, D.C., and Tennessee.
What about the other 27,000-some-odd people?
That’s where Leadership for Educational Equity, or LEE, comes in. LEE was founded in 2007 as a 501(c)4 spin-off of Teach for America to provide resources, training, and networking for alumni who are interested in elected office or other extracurricular leadership positions. Its goals are ambitious: by 2015, as its standard job posting reads, it hopes to have 250 of its members in elected office, 300 in policy or advocacy leadership roles, and 1,000 “in ‘active’ pipelines for public leadership.”
If all goes as planned, LEE could shift control over American education reform to a specific group of spritely college grads-turned-politicians with a very specific politics.
LEE functions in part as a network for TFA alumni. In the restricted section of its website, to which I gained access through an existing member, you can find job postings ranging from government relations at the National Education Association to Web Editor for the Heritage Foundation. Members are also encouraged to connect with each other: “[P]erhaps you want to bring some of your fellow LEE members to an education rally in Houston. You could cast a wide net, and search for all LEE members within 100 miles of zip code 77001. Your search returns about 240 LEE members—that’s quite a rally.”
The organization also provides resources for the electorally curious. Besides running two six-month fellowships pairing members with public officials, it offers a variety of webinars and tool-kits on organizing, advocacy, and elections. In a PowerPoint entitled “What School Boards Can Do,” you meet two reformers, one of whom is pushing for “data-driven, outcomes-focused” superintendents, the other “driving debate on pay-for-performance.”
In another presentation, charter operator Future is Now advises on getting elected to union office. “New unionism,” in its rendering, means “enabling unions to play a critical role in the development and implementation of new efforts aimed at meeting students’ needs/achievement.” Inspired by Obama’s call to “out-educate” and “out-innovate” the world, Future is Now is in the dual business of “reforming” unions and pushing for new charter schools—in other words, something a little afield from the Chicago Teachers Union, whose reigning Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators has rallied alongside community groups to stop school closings and fight for more resources in district schools.
Though LEE’s 990 filings are missing from the IRS’ online database and chronically allergic to press attention, executive director Michael Buman says that its budget this year is $3.5 million. While Buman maintains that elections constitute the “minority” of LEE’s work, some portion of that sum has gone toward electing TFA alums to office.
“We provide various kinds of in-kind support,” he says. “If we host a training and the person is a candidate, that’s an in-kind contribution. Sometimes they want us to take a look at a piece of mail that they’re sending out.” On the other hand, “Sometimes the candidate looks at our services and says no thanks.” Furthermore, he says, LEE does not operate independent expenditures campaigns, which support candidates or candidate committees without officially cooperating or consulting with them.
The limited-access section of LEE’s site reveals the numbers: In 2010, 12 LEE members ran for local boards of education (with 4 wins), 31 for Chicago local school councils (14 wins), 31 for neighborhood council or other local office (21 wins), and four for state legislature (two wins). In LEE’s accounting, these totals are a step up from 2008, when five members ran for school boards (four wins) and four for other local offices (three wins). In total, as of August 2011, LEE counts 56 TFA alums in office: 14 on school boards, 13 on local school councils, 24 on neighborhood councils or other local boards, two state senators, a constable, a judge, and a justice of the peace.
LEE’s poster boys—its two state senators—are of similar breeds. Soon after uprooting a 27-year incumbent to become Maryland’s youngest ever elected state senator, Bill Ferguson, who is 29 years old and worked as a TFA teacher in Baltimore, introduced a package of bills last year that included a Maryland version of parent trigger. (Parent trigger laws allow some proportion of parents to vote for new school management—and in some cases, entirely new staff—at their kids’ schools.)
Upon entering office in Colorado in 2009, Michael Johnston, who is 37 and served as part of TFA’s Mississippi Delta corps, wrote a controversial, and ultimately victorious, bill that weakened teacher tenure and upped the role of students’ “academic growth” in teacher and principal evaluations to 50 percent. Ferguson got elected with significant support from TFA alumni; alumni also make up four of five Johnston staffers.
Of the five LEE members profiled at its website’s “Candidate Corner,” three speak a common language: Caitlin Hannon, vying for the Indianapolis School Board, supports merit-based pay and decries the “lemon dance” of “ineffective practitioners” lampooned in Waiting for Superman; Rob Bryan, a Republican running for the North Carolina House and fellow merit pay proponent, asserts that “the solution for struggling schools is not simply throwing more money at their problems;” and Allison Serafin, TFA’s former executive director in Nevada and candidate for State Board of Education, has signaled support for expanded standardized testing and parent trigger.
(Takashi Ohno and Jeremy Ly, candidates for the Hawaii and Illinois Houses, respectively, have meager site material on big-ticket issues; neither could be reached for comment for this piece. It’s worth noting that Ly led a campaign to unionize a charter school and has received donations from the Illinois Federation of Teachers.)
According to Buman, “LEE does not have any kind of litmus test about any policies. We’re completely policy-agnostic.”
Alex Caputo-Pearl, a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and a member of TFA’s inaugural class, is leery of LEE’s politics. Caputo-Pearl is a co-founder of the United Teachers of Los Angeles’ Progressive Educators for Action Caucus, which, like its Chicago allies, advocates member and community organizing and resists school privatization.
“LEE hasn’t been openly unsupportive of our work,” he says. “But LEE is clearly looking to strategically promote folks who have a different politics”—including, he claims, his union’s “NewTLA” caucus, trumpeted by Future is Now and founded by a TFA alum.
Steve Zimmer, who was elected to the LA school board with the help of TFA alumni and is still a proud alum, now feels a cold shoulder from the group—possibly, he suggests, because of his stances on charter schools and unions that buck “TFA orthodoxy.” “There are many ways we can get to transformation in public education,” he says. “Either TFA is going to welcome those multiple pathways or it will run the risk of creating the resistance in the political arena that there once was at the school site.”
Because it counts on federal grants and local contracts—in sum, $43 million in 2011—TFA has to be involved in some amount of political advocacy. LEE voiced indirect opposition to TFA skeptic and Wendy Kopp persona non grata Linda Darling-Hammond when she was being considered as Obama’s Secretary of Education. In the case of Kira Orange-Jones, TFA’s executive director in Louisiana who was recently elected to the board that oversees New Orleans’ Recovery School District and approves TFA’s contract, TFA is in a position to influence its own contract from both sides.
LEE adds a new dimension to TFA’s growing empire. A selective crowd of high-achieving college graduates is primed to take over the leadership of America’s schools. This summer’s elections for Nashville’s school board, which featured a race between TFA alums, could be a preview of intra-family rivalries to come. (The winner, Elissa Kim, is
TFA’s chief admissions officer and garnered near-record donations for her campaign.) And while LEE may be policy-neutral, it isn’t hard to imagine the massive proliferation of Michelle Rhees and, in turn, the entrenchment of education reform geared toward money-soaked charter expansion, “new unionism,” and test-based student achievement. In other words, what began—and is still viewed by many—as an apolitical service corps could be the Trojan horse of the privatization of public education.
Allie..thanks for this great and most insightful commentary…combined with Julie Tran, you two present an education on the takeover of public schools at LAUSD and across the Nation, which has been a long term plan by the oligarchs. TFA start up coincided pretty much (only a bit earlier) with the start up of the Broad Academy in 1999 (to turn out CEOs for charters and public schools, and use TFA insurgents to replace highly trained teachers). This could not have been a coincidence. The history of this tangled web of takeover is unraveling.
For the first time, it becomes clear why, at LAUSD, Zimmer equivocates so much (and why he drowned Monica Ratliff’s choice as his VP on the BoE)…and perhaps why UTLA, with Alex Caputo-Pearl, is not as strong as teachers would hope. Both of your links to other sources are invaluable. Excellent info for all who pay attention and do their homework..
28,000 TFA grads now in schools across the nation, and as legislators…and their master plan to inculcate and make change, sounds like a major political cult. No wonder the billionaires fund the storm troopers.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.