Mercedes Schneider did some digging into Teach for America’s budget and promotional activities on Capitol Hill and discovered some fascinating facts.
She writes:
“According to its 2013 990, TFA’s end-of-year total assets were $494 million, with $73.5 million of its 2013 revenue designated as “government grants” and $31.6 million of its 2013 revenue earmarked as “service fees revenue….
“For eight hours of work per week, TFA chair Wendy Kopp drew a 2013 salary of $176,657. Co-CEOs Matt Kramer and Elisa Villanueva Beard drew salaries of $381,946 for 42 hrs/wk (Kramer) and $342,134 for 40 hrs/wk (Beard).
“TFA began as a Peace Corps-like temp agency that sends college graduates outside of the field of teaching into classrooms for usually two years. However, by 2001, TFA had established a second goal: To move former TFA corps members into positions of influence in education, business, and politics in order to solidify and expand TFA’s influence over public education.”
Schneider says that TFA charges districts up to $9,000 to place one of their inexperienced temps. “TFA really needs those temp fees. After all, it takes almost a million dollars a year to just pay Kopp, Kramer and Beard for their combined 90 hrs/wk ($900,737), and they are not the only TFA board members pulling a salary. Eight others work 40 or 41 hrs/wk and have salaries ranging from $190,638 to $282,759….
“But TFA has other needs, as well. Consider, for instance, the need for TFA to establish its presence on Capitol Hill. Now, according to its 2013 tax form, TFA only spent $595,870 on lobbying that year. However, if TFA pays interns to gain experience on Capitol Hill, it isn’t really lobbying– it’s just putting talented TFA alumni to work:
One of Schneider’s most fascinating discoveries is that TFA is seeking a new Government Affairs director, I.e., lobbyist.
And here is the kicker: a requirement for the job of lobbyist is SEVEN YEARS EXPERIENCE.
Isn’t that interesting?
TFA tells the world that a “great” teacher doesn’t need experience. It tells college seniors that they can change the “trajectory” of children’s lives if they commit to teach in the neediest schools, starting the September after graduating college.
Just five weeks of “institute,” no real teaching experience necessary.
Yet when TFA hires lobbyists, it requires seven years experience!
Is the job of lobbyist so much harder and so much more valuable than that of teacher?
Mitchell Robinson read Schneider’s post and raised some interesting questions:
*What does it say about your organization’s values when you require 7 years of experience for a lobbying position and require zero years of experience for teachers in charge of classrooms full of young children?
*What does it mean when your organization charges resource-strapped school districts up to $9000 per year in “service fees” for each recruit placed, while private and public universities charge nothing when their graduates get hired for the same positions?
*What does it say about your “non-profit” organization’s values when your top 3 executives are paid $381,946 (Co-CEO Matt Kramer) $342,134 (Elisa Villanueva Beard), and $176,657 (Wendy Kopp), while you attack public schools, teachers and unions for their “greed”?
Yes, curious contradictions.
Mercedes, you beat me to it. Here’s what I just posted on the “Florida $10,000 bonus for TFA” thread:
————-
This $10,000 bonus is about luring TFA to Florida… because TFA supposedly values and recruits higher quality teachers… but, with regards to the criterion of “teaching, experience,”, how does TFA hire its teachers, and upon what criteria do TFA’s corporate reform allies pay its teachers?
Not based on teaching experience, as TFA requires ZERO experience in the classroom.
Furthermore, how does Florida and other states dominated by corporate reform pay its teachers — TFA or not?
Again, not based on teaching experience… as corporate reformers claim that all the “studies” (non-peer-reviewed) from corporate reform think tanks show that years of classroom “experience” do not correlated to “teacher quality.”
However, check out this job listing BELOW:
https://tr.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/13769566?trk=job_view_similar_jobs
Here you see that, unlike “TFA teachers” and the criterion of teaching experience, TFA DOES demand that “TFA lobbyists” come onto the job with 7 years (!!!) of lobbying experience, and the more prior lobbying experience that a TFA lobbyist brings to the job, the more TFA pays that lobbyist.
Mitchell Robinson found this TFA job listing, and writes about this contradiction with TFA and what it “values.”
http://www.mitchellrobinson.net/2015/07/28/teach-for-america-experience-and-values/
Again, unlike “TFA teachers”, to work as a “TFA lobbyist,” the job listing says that prospective TFA lobbyists need…
— “at least 7 years of work experience, with at least three years experience on Capitol Hill”.
Again, unlike “TFA teachers” and teaching experience, pay for “TFA lobbyists” is based on years of lobbying experience (something absolutely “verboten” in corporate reform… as studies — non-peer-reviewed — from corporate reform think tanks show that “experience” on the job.does not correlated to “teacher quality”… just “lobbyist quality”, apparently.)
— “Salary for this position is competitive and depends on prior experience.”
http://www.mitchellrobinson.net/2015/07/28/teach-for-america-experience-and-values/
————————————————————–
EXCERPT:
“What does it say about your organization’s values when you
require 7 years of experience for a lobbying position,
but require zero years of experience for teachers in
charge of classrooms full of young children?”
” .. ”
“Perhaps its time for TFA to update their mission statement from this:
” *** OUR MISSION is to enlist, develop, and mobilize as many as possible of our nation’s most promising future leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational equity and excellence. ***
“… to this:
” *** OUR MISSION is to lobby, pressure and persuade as many as possible of our nation’s most powerful political leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational privatization and profit. ***
“Because, based on what your organization actually says
and does, this is what you truly value.”
http://www.mitchellrobinson.net/2015/07/28/teach-for-america-experience-and-values/
The state of Nevada also faces a dire teacher shortage.
Part of their solution is bonuses:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada-legislature/lawmakers-tackle-teacher-shortage-scholarship-fund-bonuses
Again, what the Nevada governor is implementing is not an across-the-board permanent increase in teacher pay—that would make sense, as that would solve the problem long-term, as such a raise would encourage returning teachers to stick around next year, and the year after.
No, it’s the usual bonuses… a short term fix that treats the symptoms, but not the disease… It’s $5,000-per-year, for just the first two years… and it can only go to new hires, some of them from fast-track programs and who have no experience. This fits the two-year TEACH FOR AMERICA program like a glove.
This is a total slap in the face to returning veteran teachers, who don’t get a penny.
TFA is like a sordid reality show challenge. Let’s see if 10% of these folks can outdo real teachers by working twice as hard with minimal preparation.
Highly Effective is like Employee of the Month.
It’s all a big game for people like those morons in Florida, TFA, Gates, Broad, Klein, Bloomberg, Murdoch, Spencer. Create demeaning and meaningless competition. Lower what should be a revered and supported profession to a reality show obstacle course.
Is there an opt-out form for the stupidity of this society?
“What does it say…?”
Adding, what does it say about American politicians who authorize this racket and, the citizens who put up with it.
Thanks to Dr. Schneider. All of us should forward this to our representatives, in Washington and, demand an answer.
I am not pleased with how Robinson does not clearly note that his sole source for info was my post.
The full blog post clearly identifies your post as the source material for this quote: http://www.mitchellrobinson.net/2015/07/28/teach-for-america-experience-and-values/
Not unless the wording was rewritten. When I read it, Robinson did not credit me with info in his bullet points.
Not unless the wording was rewritten. When I read it, Robinson did not credit me with info in his bullet points. I am not only the source of a quote; my post was the only source for the facts included in his post.
You are cited in the bullet points on the blog post as well…
Glad to know it. Thank you.
Thanks Mercedes for this! Thanks Diane for giving us the voices of people like Mercedes who shin a light on the sh#t and shingle that the charlatans sell to enrich themselves and leave the rest of us poorer than before… bereft of a working public schools system with real professionals..
I say t here, and everywhere, that the war on teachers took out the experienced veterans in the most heinous way, charging them with fabricated crimes, and replacing them with temp workers
. http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
Making defense and free speech impossible
https://aclu-wa.org/news/free-speech-rights-public-school-teachers
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
And then, with VAM, taking our any teachers who do not quit in 3 years after discovering that there is not a shred of support for LEARNING.
I was, as you know, the cohort for the REAL NATIONAL STANDARDS which have disappeared, because 4 of the principles that make learning possible… WERE FOR ADMINISTRATION so they could support the classroom practitioner… yeah PRACTITIONER… that silly word I use ins read of teacher because like doctors and lawyers we educators MUST BE SMART, EDUCATED AND EXPERIENCED to ensure that a human brain acquires SKILLS.
TFA was always a joke, but unfortunately the joke was on young people who wanted to be teachers. They would never aspire to become doctors in a few months, with little experience but PEDAGOGY is unknown, and teachers can be trained like medics and evaluated like office workers.
TFA does have a semi-secret, non-transparent arm 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 taking great pains not not to violate the rules governing its non-profit status… which bar it from promoting privatization.
It is called the “Leadership For Educational Equity.” or LEE
For more on TEACH FOR AMERICA’s “Leadership For Educational Equity,” (LEE) and its lack of cooperation to journalists who want to know its workings, read this piece from RETHINKING SCHOOLS’ writer Barbara Miner:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_03/24_03_TFA.shtml
———
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… ”
and on it goes… it’s long, but well worth the read.
——-
On the subject of the mysterious LEE, here’s a blast from the (recent) past:
FIRST, SOME BACKGROUND —
At the invitation of the L.A. Times, Dr. Ravitch wrote a piece about what LAUSD Board Members should look for during its search for a new Superintendent:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-ravitch-what-la-needs-in-a-new-school-superintendent-20150723-story.html
Since Dr. Ravitch’s suggestions had an implied criticism of LAUSD charter schools, the California Charter School’s Associaion (CCSA) “struck back” with its own op-ed… one that totally distorted what Dr. Ravitch said, put words in her mouth, etc.:
https://dianeravitch.net/2015/07/26/los-angeles-the-charter-empire-strikes-back/
This vituperative op-ed was written by Sarah Angel, the Los Angeles Director of Outreach for CCSA.
Now here’s where it gets interesting.
Who is Sarah Angel?
She’s a former (current?) prosecutor with the city of Redondo Beach, neighboring Los Angeles
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2012/redondo-beach/sarah-angel/
and a former (current?) lawyer with O’Melveny & Myers LLP law firm in the posh city of Newport Beach. O’Melveny & Myers LLP and its lawyers have deep ties to, and does business with the privatization and charter school industry… its members sit on charter school boards… etc.
http://www.lawyercentral.com/sarah-b-angel-interactive-profile–20-815112.html
While claiming expertise in education…
Ms. Angel 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 two children, the eldest a four-year-old daughter, she has ZERO experience with education from the point of view of a parent.
However, Sarah Angel is married to Dan Nieman, who is… WAIT FOR IT… a former TFA Corp Member (Class of 2001), and the Los Angeles Director for
… WAIT FOR IT, again…
… TFA’s “Leadership for Educational Excellence (LEE)”: (go the top of this post if you forgot what LEE is)
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.”
———–
Both of those jobs held by that family’s household pay somewhere in the range of $150,000 – 250,000 each, or $300,000 – 500,000 TOTAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME from the privatization / corporate reform industry.
Chew on that for a while, as both Sarah and Dan are in their early 30’s.
It gets even better. Sarah Angel’s husband Dan Nieman, is also simultaneously on the Board of Directors for … WAIT FOR IT… the national Charter Management Organization “CITIZENS OF THE WORLD Charter Schools” chain:
Here’s CITIZENS OF THE WORLD’s… well… “charter” (excuse the pun)
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.
—————————–
“Citizens of the World Charter School” rings a bell with me for a couple of reasons.
First, its New York City affiliate is run by… WAIT FOR IT… Eric Grannis, the husband of SUCCESS ACADEMY charter chains CEO Eva Moskowitz”:
(hmm… a small world, corporate reform is… Yoda might might say)
http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/10/citizens-of-world-charter-run-by-evas.html
Secondly, in multiple locations both in Los Angeles and in New York City, “Citizens of the World Charter School” is without a doubt, the worst actor in the whole divisive phenomenon of charter school co-location—where a charter school “invades” a pre-existing public school’s campus, causing havoc and community upheaval whenever one its schools co-locates there.
Activist Robert Skeels covered CITIZENS OF THE WORLD’s 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 disastrous 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/
To blunt the bad P.R. that Nieman’s CMO has generated, and to promote co-location as a wonderful opportunity for all, Loyola Marymount University,( just south of Los Angeles), hosted a seminar. This pro-charter seminar was jointly run by the charter friendly LAUSD official Jose Cole-Guttierez and…
…WAIT FOR IT…
…. Sarah Angel, Dan Nieman’s husband, and CCSA’s Director of Outreach in Los Angeles:
——————-
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.”
—————–
Now why, you may ask, is Dan Nieman, Ms. Angel’s husband, 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. (SEE VIDEO)
When it comes to the LAUSD charter school chains which Ms. Angel is paid to promote and help expand—including her husband’s CITIZENS OF THE WORLD chain—keep this in mind:
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, TEACH FOR AMERICA, 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 anti-Ravitch 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’…
Also, keep in mind that both of the six-figure salaries paid to the Angel-Nieman household come from money that originates in part from taxpayers — money that is funneled into TEACH FOR AMERICA, California Charter Schools Association, and CITIZENS OF THE WORLD Charter Schools ultimately comes from California taxpayers and citizens.
These two are being well-paid to execute a slow, stealth privatization of schools and to eliminate the traditional public schools that have been been a part of the United States and its democracy for centuries.… whether those same taxpayers and citizens want their schools privatized or not.
That ain’t right.
(A shout-out to on of my BFF’s Julie Tran for her contributions to this piece)
Geronimo posted about a mendacious missive that Sarah Angel sent out in suport of the pro-charter LAUSD School Board (and former PUC Charter CEO) Ref Rodriguez:
It’s in the COMMENTS section at:
https://dianeravitch.net/2015/07/26/los-angeles-the-charter-empire-strikes-back/
Geronimo:
“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.
“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
————————————————
———————————————–
I posted back to Geronimo:
“To Geronimo:
“I later located the misleading form letter that you received from 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.
Nor is she a citizen of Board District 5, the contested board seat, as she is a resident of Studio City.
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!!! … supporting his corporate reform opponent (and eventual winner) Ref Rodriguez, who was supported by the privatization/charter industry.
Well, what did Ms. Angel and her falsely-named “Parent-Teacher Alliance” do? They 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.’ ”
My niece in LA lives across the street from Stoner ES – the colocation was a disaster and caused many problems with the regular school, which is next to a housing project, and has long been a school with very dedicated teachers helping the students who attend there. The charter also caused problems with the neighborhood and the community. It became a very divisive situation and the charter parents were not nice and had a superior attitude.
TFA + Pearson = the death of democracy and an end to the U.S. Bill of Rights.
Exposure of TFA hypocrisy and stupidity + Exposure of Pearson test mistakes and inappropriate material + Exposure of Common Core crappiness due to arrogance and ignorance of Gates and Coleman + Exposure of VAM as being literally and figuratively derived from cow pies = hope for a new way and a new day
Excellent Equation! Importance equal to E = mc2
I always assumed that democracy in the United States will never die and there is no end to the U.S. Bill of rights. Your statement is indeed hyperbole.
There is an old saying that to “assume” makes an “ass out of you and me”.
In fact, I think Benjamin Franklin would agree that it is foolish to assume anything, because as Benjamin Franklin left the Pennsylvania State House after the final meeting of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, he was approached by the wife of the mayor of Philadelphia. She was curious as to what the new government would be. Franklin replied, “A republic, madam. If you can keep it.”
The U.S. Bill of Rights was written to protect the people from the United States — not the private sector and especially not corporations.
For instance, Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
4. Does the First Amendment apply to private companies and organizations?
No. The First Amendment applies to the government — to protect individuals from government censorship. While the text of the First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech,” it means that no federal, state or local government official can infringe on your free-speech rights. A private company is not a government or state and therefore generally is not subject to the requirements of the First Amendment.
http://1forall.us/teach-the-first-amendment/the-first-amendment/
What happens to public sector workers that work for the federal, state or local governments when those public sector services, like the public schools, are turned over to corporations?
Easy answer, all those public workers become private sector workers and lose all their Bill of Rights protections and that includes due process rights that apply to only public workers.
And that is exactly what the RhreeFormers want—to strop all rights from all citizens by raking over all of the pubic sector services from public schools to public prisons.
I think it is highly arguable that privatizing public sector jobs is the same as destroying the protections that this republic wrote into the Bill of Rights and that will lad to the end of the U.S. being a participatory democracy and the freedom to speak out against what your employer is doing when you think it is wrong.
The fact that public workers have Bill of Rights protections that include due process means those workers are mostly safe to blow the whistler on people in positions of power within the government and do so knowing the Constitution is on their side.
In the pubic schools that means if an administrator is abusing children, then teachers with due process rights are safe to protest but in a corporate Charter if a teacher protests, they can be fired on the spot without cause and the abuse gets covered up and goes on.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé.
Congratulations of 22 Million Views! That’s about 1 million-per-month reads of this blog, or roughly 3,300-per-day…. and that doesn’t even take into account all the links to this blog, the re-tweets, etc.
To cite from the piece by deutsch29 accessed by the link provided in the posting, under the “Director, Government Affairs (Washington, DC)” advert the entire “Prior Experience” required of prospective candidates is “At least 7 years of work experience, with at least three years of experience on Capitol Hill.”
So when I write that self-styled “education reform” groups like TFA [aptly dubbed “TeachForAwhiles” by some wag years ago] seem like nothing more than jobs programs for adults with an exaggerated sense of entitlement where it’s more important who you know than what you know—
Rheephormsters feel I’m not showing the proper respect due the movers and shakers of the “new civil rights movement of our time” and I should tone down my language.
I guess that means I have to stop pointing out that such groups inflict Rheeality Distortion Fields on themselves so they can distance themselves from the painful and damaging consequences of their words and deeds while they pad their resumés on the way to their “rheeal” and “real” careers.
How to react…
“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”
After years of following the ed debates, when it comes to being tongue-tied, I am past my Alice in Wonderland/Lewis Carroll moment.
So what’s “good for the kids” isn’t good for TFA.
“Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.” [François de la Rochefoucauld]
Who’d a thunk? 21st century cage busting achievement gap crushing creative disruptors laid low by an old dead 17th century French guy.
Now maybe THEY could learn something from HIM.
Although that would indeed be “curiouser and curiouser.”
😎
This summer, in an interview, a former TFA state executive director, who is now an executive at a philanthropy that solicits donations for school supplies (focusing on high poverty schools), identified one of her favorite projects, navy blazers and red bowties for elementary school boys. She told the interviewer, “It as “so powerful to see how proud…”. She viewed the request for the outfits (which one rarely, if ever, sees in the work world), as “a teacher going above and beyond.” Describing the visage of the boys marching down the hallways , heads up, shoulders back, she said, “They looked like a million bucks and felt like it.” (Cash in one’s pocket has the same effect and doesn’t invite ridicule). It would sadden me to see my 3rd grade grandson dressed up and regimented like a tin soldier, preparing for a human capital pipeline.
Publicity photos of schools, where the children of Silicon Valley oligarchs attend, don’t indicate the type of environment she describes.
For a reading session, the “lads” met with a “grown-up from their community, in his own suit and tie.”
If I met up with Arne Duncan, I wouldn’t post that he was wearing his OWN suit and tie.
Further in the interview, she praises situations like the one she now manages, as “risk-friendly (environments)… where people really grow”. I don’t see that raising revenue for the organization, by receiving substantial dollars from donors who presumably want to help poor children, is particularly risky, And, I think young people would grow with greater success, in less risky environments, like the ones Arne Duncan was raised in.
Linda: your info leaves me almost speechless.
Not surprising, though, that rheephormsters are so enamored of superficial pageantry and so dedicated to gutting genuine learning and teaching.
I only add that I am torn between cringing at placing so much value on appearance and anger at such a patronizing attitude towards young people that deserve so much more.
Thank you for your comments.
😎
This is naive neo-colonialism. Do they think that “dressing for success” will erase the impact of poverty and violence? It will take more than a bowtie to do that.
This reminds me of Pink Floyd’s THE WALL, where the schoolkids in grey uniforms are in straight lines, being marching into a giant processor, and afterwards they all have these hideous faces out of a Bosch or Munch painting:
To skip the intro and get right to the marching kids being processed, go to 02:21:
“IF YOU DON’T EAT YOUR MEAT, YOU CAN’T HAVE ANY PUDDING!!! HOW CAN YOU HAVE ANY PUDDING IF YOU DON’T EAT YOUR MEAT???!!”
It reminds me of that picture in the New York Times piece on Eva Moskowitz’ SUCCESS ACADEMY: (it’s about 1/3 of the way down in the story… those kids do not look happy)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/nyregion/at-success-academy-charter-schools-polarizing-methods-and-superior-results.html
It’s also picture “4” in the slideshow accompanying the article.
If NECKWEAR has such an astounding improvement on education, just think what CUFFLINKS could do for learning aquisition.
Or shackles or electrified neck braces or thin one-piece suits with liquid quartz digital displays showing all of your exam scores in tight rows crawling across the body from ankles to neck.
Liquid crystal
So when I shared this article with a conservative friend his reply was, “well what do teacher’s groups spend on lobbying; I’ll be it’s more than $500,000.”
He missed the point, right? How to reply to that?
Reply that that money comes from the small dues of millions of teachers, not from the pockets of a few hedge funders who want to rule to world.
It’s often not even dues, but a special political action fund that teachers pay into of their own volition, and usually in small denominations.
TOW – Absolutely correct. I forgot that PAC money is not from dues. In my union it is $1.00 per month per member who chooses the deduction and is completely separate from dues.
The oligarchs have had decades and spent hundreds of millions and possibly billions smearing labor unions and specially the teachers ‘ unions so this reaction from a conservative isn’t a surprise.
To anyone who has been fooled by the barrage of propaganda, they don’t even think about the billions that corporations and billionaires spend to get what they want that only benefits them and bloats their fortunes even more. Spending that money to fool people is okay, but when a union does it for millions of middle class workers, to the fools it is the same as demons and the devil and the corporations are angels doing the work of God.
How many passages are there in the Bible about false prophets?