Peter Greene is a master of close reading. In this post, he deconstructs Eli Broad’s audacious plan to take over half the students in Los Angeles and put them in charter schools.
Peter read the 44-page report, which reads like an investors’prospectus. It turns the stomach to see these very rich men destroying a democratic institution.
Here are a few wonderful excerpts:
“But the dream is not just to tap into the huge market of students trapped in failing blah blah blah waiting for their chance for high-quality seats (and, man, I would love to see one of these seats, sit in one of these seats, visit the High Quality Seat Factory and see how these seats are made) blah blah blah.”
And best of all:
“I am absolutely bowled over at the magnitude of this power grab. Imagine if Broad and his friends said, “We’re not happy with the LAPD, so we’re going to hire and train our own police force, answerable to nobody but us, to cover some parts of the city. Also, the taxpayers have to foot the bill.” Or if they decided to get their own army? Or their own mayor?
“Who does this? Who says, “We can’t get enough control over the elected officials in this branch of government, so we will just shove them out of the way and replace them with our own guys, who won’t bug us by answering to Those People.”
“This is not just about educational quality (or lack thereof), or just about how to turn education into a cash cow for a few high rollers– this is about a hamhanded effort to circumvent democracy in a major American city. There’s nothing in this plan about listening to the parents or community- only about what is going to be done to them by men with power and money. This just sucks a lot.”
It was said that Mussolini made the trains run on time. All the Italian people had to do was accept fascism. Are the people of Los Angeles prepared to hand their children over to autocrats and billionaires?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I wrote the first comment to this piece:
————————-
Peter,
Thanks for writing this. It makes a piece I was going to write superfluous.
One aspect that you misssed: the recently-departed John Deasy fought any salary increase for teachers tooth and nail—as he did an class size decrease—and now you know why. The report laments the monkey wrench that the current school board through into their plans when they awarded teachers an across the board 10% raise. Mind you, that’s no one-time bonus, but a permanent 10% increase to the hourly / annual salary schedule.
Here’s the report on that: (bottom half of p. 29 at
http://documents.latimes.com/great-public-schools-now-initiative/
——————————————-
GPSN document:
“Across California, enrollment in teacher preparation programs fell by 53 percent between 2008 and 2013. As a result, charter schools are increased competition with LAUSD for a smaller pool of program graduates. Moreover charter operators are concerned that the new LAUSD contract, which includes a two-year quality-blind 10% increase over two years, will not only make recruitment more challenging, but may also increase attrition as existing (charter school) teacher leave for (unionized LAUSD) district jobs.”
—————————————————————
Damn that LAUSD School Board! If only they’d kept their teachers at sh#%^y wages, we’d be able to lure more of their teachers, and recent graduates over to work at our schools… and we wouldn’t be losing our own teachers who defect to work in LAUSD.
This comment ignores other factors. It’s not just the money that’s luring charter teachers to leave and work in LAUSD. The charter school teachers are not stupid, and they talk to LAUSD teachers, and among themselves. They talk to LAUSD teachers about the advantages of teaching in an environment set in part by the terms of a union contract. They hear about the respect that they’re afforded administration. They hear about being treated as a professional, while teaching among other professionals with decades of experience and expertise.
I can tell you about all my own personal conversations with the refugee teachers—those who left charters to teach in LAUSD. “It was Hell working there.”
“It was an pseudo-educational sweatshop.” “God, I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here. It’s so much better than at that charter.” … and on and on…
I can only compare it to folks who breathe freely after leaving North Korea, or back in the day, who left the old Soviet Union.
Regarding salary, you notice how the report doesn’t even consider the possibility of increasing the salaries of charter school teachers so that they will be on a par with, or closer to that of LAUSD teachers… and thus attract teachers through competitive salaries. Poor teacher pay is not a bug, but a feature of the charter school business model.
They blather away about applying market-based principles to education, but the one that they will never apply is “supply-and-demand” to teacher’s wages, with the accompanying result of increasing those wages.
With management however, that’s a different story. Campbell Brown defends Eva Moskowitz’ $600,000+ salary on the grounds that they need to compete with other industries to attract and retain such high quality leaders.
So with the bosses, supply and demand-based salaries are a great thing.
With the workers / teachers… not so much.
Is the US Department of Education planning on weighing in? They jumped into the California teacher trials, and that was a state case. Why so quiet on a plan to buy a huge school district?
Is there a recorded instance of an ed reformer in government opposing or even disagreeing publicly with Eli Broad? I hear all kinds of scolding lectures delivered to public schools, yet I never heard a word directed at these billionaires.
They must all be great people with great ideas, huh? Otherwise we’d be getting some “rigorous” and “data driven” analysis.
Also, Steve Zimmer came out strongly against this Broad plan:
http://laschoolreport.com/zimmer-accuses-broad-charter-plan-of-strategy-to-bring-down-lausd/
L.A. SCHOOL REPORT: “Steve Zimmer, president of the LA Unified school board, said today that plans by Eli Broad and other philanthropists to expand the number of charter schools in the district represents “a strategy to bring down LAUSD that leaves 250,000 kids vulnerable to damage.
” … ”
“But Zimmer characterized the plan as a destructive one that would ignore the needs of thousands of other children ‘living in isolation, segregation and extreme poverty.’
“ ‘This is not an all-kids plan or an all-kids strategy,’ (ZIMMER) told LA School Report.
” ‘It’s very explicitly a some-kids strategy, a strategy that some kids will have a better education at a publicly-funded school that assumes that other kids will be injured by that opportunity. It’s not appropriate in terms of what the conversation should be in Los Angeles. The conversation should be better public education options and quality public schools for all kids, not some kids.’
“(ZIMMER) added, “To submit a business plan that focuses on market share is tantamount to commodifying our children.”
The LOS ANGELES TIMES did an article about
the responses of the seven current LAUSD
Board members to Broad’s privatization plan.
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-lausd-charters-20150923-story.html?utm_content=bufferd3d26&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer.latimes.com
The article states the responses of the 7 LAUSD Board
Members to the Broad’s plan. Predictably, it breaks
down like this:
VIRULENT OPPOSITION: Zimmer, Schmerelson, Ratliff, & McKenna
NEUTRAL TO MILDLY AGAINST — Vladovic
ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORT: Monica Garcia & Ref Rodriguez
————-
The most encouraging quote came from new Board
Member Scott Schmerelson: (had his opponent,
Tamar Galatzan won, she would be in the
Ethusiastic Support camp)
SCOTT SCHMERELSON:
” ‘The concept (of Broad’s plan) amazes and angers me.
Far from being in the best interest of children, it is
an insult to teaching and administrative professionals,
an attack on democratic, transparent and inclusive
public school governance and negates accountability
to the taxpayers.”
Here’s more…
——————————————
L.A. TIMES: ‘Board President Steve Zimmer also had a
strongly negative response, saying that the financial
impact would be devastating for the students who
remain in traditional schools.
” ‘Everyone understands 250,000 kids will not be part of
‘this,’ said Zimmer, who has criticized the rapid growth
of charters. ‘There is collateral damage: We won’t be ‘
able to lower class size or provide comprehensive support
our kids need (in the remaining traditional public schools,
should this plan’s goals be reached).’
(If used elsewhere, that same) private money, he said, ‘could
ensure every child living in poverty in L.A. County … could
have access to high-quality early education.’
“Board member George McKenna, along with Monica Ratliff,
said he wanted foundation money ‘directed toward the public
schools that are already established and need all the private
support that we can get.’
“Ratliff also said that the charter plan underscores the need
to hire a new superintendent who will promote L.A. Unified’s
own successes. The district has launched a search to replace
schools Supt. Ramon Cortines who has said he wants to leave
by year’s end.
” ‘It’s important that a superintendent publicizes that LAUSD
schools are extremely competitive with the best charter
schools,’ Ratliff said.”
THE AMERICAN PROSPECT’s Rachel Cohen compares what Broad is doing to Los Angeles’s schools, to what Mark Zuckerberg did to Newark, New Jersey’s schools. According to the recent book THE PRIZE, by the WASHINGTON POST’s Dale Russakoff, the school “reform” efforts in Newark have been an unmitigated fiasco in every way.
http://prospect.org/article/new-philanthropy-education-reform-and-eli-broads-big-plan-la-schools?utm_content=buffer4b5f7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
RACHEL COHEN: “We don’t yet know what’s going to happen with Eli Broad’s plan to ‘reach 50 percent charter market share’ within Los Angeles public schools. And it wouldn’t be fair to assume he’ll behave just as Mark Zuckerberg did in Newark, or as other billionaires have elsewhere. Still, paying attention to historical precedent is important, and there seems to be sufficient reason to be wary.
“As The Washington Post’s art critic Philip Kennicott wrote just days ago, Eli Broad ‘is a self-made man…who has also built and burned bridges all across [Los Angeles]. Ask around, and no one seems to like him, though many call him effective…They admire his brilliance, covet his money, fear his power and lament his character, which is described as imperious, egomaniacal and relentless.’ ”
Forgive the quibble, but the last paragraph got me thinking…
You don’t need a Mussolini or fascism to make the trains run on time.
Just ask the Japanese. Trust me. I’ve experienced it first hand. Swiss clockmakers could learn something from them about precision.
And you don’t need the equivalent of Mussolini or fascism to make the schools run right.
Just my dos centavitos worth…
😎
This very scary. It is the people with a great deal of money taking over what are government responsibilities. These responsibilities are the police, schools , fire depts. etc. The schools in particular should be run by an elected group of officials. I have no idea of what these types of very rich are really after, it is not to teach children or help them out of poverty. If this were the case the very rich could increase the wages they pay to the parents of these very poor children. This would help raise up the very poor and lessen the wage gaps between very poor and middle class. Very scary stuff.
“This very scary.”
I agree. I don’t see this expanding experiment in privatized government ending well for poor and middle class people.
We’re going to need a Teddy Roosevelt if it keeps going and I don’t think people like that exist anymore. You can’t even get an elected leader to mildly criticize Broad, let alone rein him in.
Go back a couple posts and you can read about LAUSD school board members who freely criticize Broad and his privatization plan, and they were more than mild about it.
CROSS POSTED AT
WITH THIS COMMENT– WHICH CONTAINS MANY embedded LINKS TO THIS BLOG (which do not translate to this comment when I copy it… so go there.
If you read my posts then you know that the INSTITUTION of public education, has been destroyed in one decade by a carefully executed conspiracy to privatize it. The road to opportunity is over, as today’s NY Times demonstrates:
Go to my series here, at my author’s page quicklinks,
http://www.opednews.com/author/quicklinks/author40790.html
or put privitization into the search field at Diane Ravitch’s site, which just got 23 million views.
https://dianeravitch.net/?s=Privitization
.. BECAUSE it is the place to find out the reality of what is happening to public education…while America is entertained by the latest news about the GOP circus.
A summary of what’s ongoing RIGHT NOW taken from Diane’s posts at this site:
FRAGMENTATION OF POLITICAL POWER — Local folks have no say in any aspect of the privatization. Charters answer to their own governing board, and as “recovery” and “achievement” districts spring up, even corporate control is unmanageable spread out.
In Detroit, there are at least 45 separate entities running schools;
in New Orleans there are 44, and nobody who is actually responsible for keeping track of all New Orleans students. The cracks through which one can fall are now huge, and the ability of local parents and voters to seek solutions from the People In Charge has been erased.
LOSS OF COMMUNITY-BASED INSTITUTIONS — In many poor communities, the school is one stable community center. But state takeover invariably involves “freeing” students from “the tyranny of geography.” Saying that students should not be trapped in a particular school because of their address sounds noble, but in practice it means that the neighborhood loses one more unifying, strengthening connection (I recommend Robert Putnam’s Our Children for a clear and thorough explanation of why that’s a very bad idea). But in Chicago, some neighborhoods have no schools at all.
INCREASED SEGREGATION — The numbers are in, and charter schools exacerbate segregation. Now, frankly, local control in the hands of racist jerks can not only support segregate, but can make the effects of it far worse. But even in those cases, there is an electoral remedy. In state-run charter systems, there is no remedy at all.
FINANCIAL INSTABILITY — Let me say it one more time– if you think you can run multiple parallel school systems and maintain a total system with far more capacity than you use and do it all for the same costs as a single public system, you are a dope. And of course by the time the state steps in, the school district has already been starved of resources and needs more than simply maintenance-level support. As we’ve also seen repeatedly, the charters who are hired to run these schools commit to doing the job only as long as it suits them financially.
LACK OF OVERSIGHT FROM GOVERNMENT — On top of all that, let’s consider a state like Ohio, which has exercised no educational or financial oversight over its charters, leading to a system that is laughably full of graft, corruption and incompetence. And yet, the state now wants to start taking over school districts and hiring a CEO to serve as conductor on the charter gravy train that will take the public school’s place.
It ain’t just LA.
Philly.com has a story this week that distills many of the troubling qualities of the charter school movement down to a disturbing essence.Yes, it’s that bad.
1. Charter school administrators and leaders are every bit as capable as school district officials of making boneheaded financial decisions that saddle their respective institutions with crippling debt.
2. Profit-minded businesses are destroying whatever moral authority the education reform movement had.
3. The charter movement is way too big and way too ambitious to operate on an ad hoc basis.
Patrick Kerkstra writes that he was always skeptical when anyone suggested that charters (at least some of them) were seeking profits. Now, having read about what is happening in Philadelphia, he is not so sure. I remember the early days of the charter movement. My colleague Checker Finn Jr. used to say, again and again, that there was a deal: if the state gives us (charters) autonomy, we will be accountable. The charters have autonomy but they no longer want accountability.
FINALLY I SAY;
THE LIARS AND CHARLATANS ARE WINNING, and they don’t have to win the election… when they OWNthe schools they own the knowledge of the citizens and that IS the end… and it has happened under the noses of our citizens.
oops…here is the link to OPED http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Peter-Greene-Roasts-the-Bi-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Billionaires_Children_Diane-Ravitch_Fascism-150923-954.html
“Are the people of Los Angeles prepared to hand their children over to autocrats and billionaires?”
Eli Broad doesn’t care what the answer is to this question. He’s already made his mind up, and anyone who stands in his way, well, … (fill in the blank)
An autocrat is an autocrat and the profession with the most psychopaths are CEOs.
autocrat definition:
a ruler who has absolute power.
synonyms: absolute ruler, dictator, despot, tyrant
“the former autocrat could be banned from traveling abroad while the investigation proceeds”
someone who insists on complete obedience from others; an imperious or domineering person.
Autocratic leadership definition
Autocratic leaders often view themselves like automobile engines that drive people under their tutelage or command, whether it’s a mayor of a large city, a company CEO or an agency director. … Autocratic leaders don’t often illicit opinions or expertise from the people who report to them, as do democratic and laissez-faire leaders. Instead, autocratic leadership implies one person makes all the decisions for a group, team or assembly.
http://online.stu.edu/autocratic-leadership/
It was really nice to see all the labor people flooding DC for the Pope’s visit, though.
They were picketing in the Senate cafeteria, which must have been …awkward for our exalted leaders 🙂
They should appeal to a Higher Authority. They need divine intervention 🙂
From what I’ve read so far about this Pope, he is for the working people and not the 1%, and the only way the 1% can get rid of him—they can’t buy him—is to hire an assassin, but that comes with the risk of turning him into a saint and a martyr for the working people the world over.
and BY THE WAY…Lenny Isenberg has been telling the takeoff the Broad paid corruption in LAUSD for a decade, and NO ONE HAS LINKED OR FOLLOWED HIS WONDERFUL CHRONICLE OF THE END OF THE SECOND LARGEST SCHOOL SYSTEM IN AMERICA.
Perhaps, this is because the assault on education began and is still the WAR ON TEACHERS a civil rights issue that enabled these billionaires to disenfranchise the VOICE OF THE PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR FOR THEN YEARS.
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
Lenny showed how at CityWatch
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
Now, with the teachers gone, Broad can do his chicanery and lies… the Donald Trump of LA… no connection to the TRUTH!
Hey he wrote this years ago
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/social-promotion–lausds-prime-mover-for-continued-and-predictable-student-failure–do-they-really-w.html
and this:
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/06/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html
So now, because of the MEDIA SILENCE
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/have-reporters-become-poli-ticks–the-media-parasites-of-the-body-politic.html
we are hearing about Esquith, and with theLAUSD in tatters so Broad can FIX it.
I wonder what it is about Lenny, who gave his career and his life to setting the record straight, that HE IS NEVER FEATURED in prominent education blogs, when he says things like this
http://www.perdaily.com/2012/03/brave-new-world-no-public-education-no-democracy-by-simone-harris.html
Detroit, Michigan! Mission accomplished!
“The Billionaire’s Beef”
Democracy’s inefficient
It takes so very long
I really am impatient
To sing my private song
So buy me politicians
And buy me think-tank wanks
To ram through my positions
And gain me many thank$
“What (Broad puppet and former
LAUSD Superintedent) John Deasy
tried to do to this school district.
He tried to bring public education DOWN!
And the MISIS crisis was NO accident.
That is… that WAS INTENTIONAL!”
STEVE ZIMMER
May 2015
————————————-
Steve Zimmer recently gave this speech
in support of fellow Board Member Bennett
Kayser’s (ultimately unsuccessful) re-election—
given at a Kayser fundraiser:
(try reading along with the transcript
BELOW, in the following post…
it’s so poetic you can set it to music)
What’s telling is how Zimmer has done “a total 180″
on John Deasy. Remember the days when
Zimmer would reverently refer to Deasy as
“a catalytic change agent” for schools and children?
(That “change agent” quote is from a radio i
nterview with someone (Adolfo?) that is somewhere
on the net… right after Zimmer’s & the Board’s
October 2013 Board vote to keep Deasy and
extend his contract.)
Well, Zimmer’s “catalytic change agent” gushfest
days are totally OVER apparently.
In this latest speech, Zimmer channels
Emile Zola (“J’accuse!!! J’accuse!!!) and boldly
claims that Deasy deliberately caused severe
“disruption”, and willfully wrecked any “stability”
in LAUSD, in order to further privatization, even
if that meant causing “real collateral damage to
real children EVERY DAY” in the process.
In essence, Zimmer argues, and makes the accusation that …
… corporate reformers’ / privatizers’ ultimate and ignoble “ENDS”– privatization and teacher union-busting—in the long run…
… JUSTIFY…
… the corporate reformers’ / privatizers’ strategic and ignoble “MEANS” —“real collateral damage to real children EVERY DAY”—in the short run.
That’s some pretty rough stuff.
In the middle of the speech, Zimmer concedes
that Bennett Kayser had tried to enlighten and
give warning to him about all of this, but
Zimmer says that he had long dismissed
Kayser’s dire forewarnings…
… until NOW., that is.
Zimmer proclaims that… finally (!!!)…
he (Zimmer) gets it regarding what Deasy
is / was all about, and what his corporate
backers are all about.
Thank Jesus.
As promised, here’s the full transcript:
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
STEVE ZIMMER:
“This (election) is NOT just about Board District 5.
This is about the ENTIRE CONTROL and FUTURE of LAUSD.
“This is about CONTROL. Make NO mistake about it.
The control of the (LAUSD) school board hangs in the balance.
“And listen…. you don’t have to applaud on this line,
but you can.
— (CROWD LAUGHS)
“I have a lot of dear friends in the room,
and sometimes we have disagreed,
and sometimes we look at an issue,
we see it from a different lens,
and sometimes there are painful moments.
“That’s true for me.
That’s been true for Jackie (Goldberg) in her service.
That’s been true for Bennett.
“But the difference between the people
who believe that it’s ALL of us TOGETHER—
—that it’s ALL of us working together,
that… that… that our employees,
that our teachers are our greatest partners.
“NOT our enemies,
NOT … NOT… litigants to be challenged in court,
NOT … NOT…. people to be blamed for
the crisis that is facing our children,
but the VERY PEOPLE who can
lift our children out of this crisis.
“Even if we disagree on some issues,
the difference between
the folks like Bennett Kayser,
the folks like Jackie Goldberg,
Jeff Horton before her…
“ … the folks… the folks who have tried
to fight the fight over the years that
I am proud to associate myself with.
“The difference between THAT and…
“And what the folks who are
trying to destroy Bennett Kayser—
NOT BEAT Bennett Kayser—DESTROY him
AS A PERSON, not just as a political figure, but
DESTROY him as a person.
“The difference between…
we who believe that it’s ALL OF US together.
“and …
“those who believe that it’s ‘us against them’…
“It’s NIGHT and DAY.
“We CANNOT let them
take control of the school board
because if they take control of the school board,
they’ll have control of who becomes the
next Superintendent of this district.
“They’ll have control over the budget.
They’ll have control over the policies.
They‘ll have control over the schools.
“And it took us too long for us to realize it—
Bennett realized it WAY before I did,
and I give him credit for it EVERY day—
“What John Deasy tried to do to this school district.
“He tried to bring public education DOWN.
And the MISIS crisis was NO accident.
That is… that WAS INTENTIONAL, because
if you read their websites,
if you read what they’re trying to do…
“ ‘Stability’ is an ugly word.
“ ‘Disruption’ is what it is about.
“But WE know
WE the teachers
WE the principals
WE the school workers
WE KNOW
WE THE PARENTS
WE KNOW that disruption causes
REAL collateral damage
to REAL children EVERY DAY!
“And Bennett and I have been
about trying to re-STABILIZE and
re-HUMANIZE our schools.
“And at the end of the day,
we are about an ALL-kids agenda—
ALL kids, NOT SOME kids.
“And if you go to a door, and if you’re on a phone.
and people say,
“ ‘Why should I care?‘
“ ‘Why should I vote?’
“PUBLIC education is about
EVERY CHILD that comes to the
schoolhouse door—those who are the most gifted,
and those who have the most DIFFICULT
of challenges that are facing them.
“What makes public education PUBLIC education is
that it’s EVERY child that comes to the schoolhouse door,
and no one, NO ONE—NOT ME, NOT anyone else—
has been a better champion of that than Bennett Kayser.
“That said…
the MOST reprehensible,
the most DISGUSTING thing that they have done
is to somehow challenge—that while
Bennett has struggled, and continues to struggle
valiantly, publicly, VICTORIOUSLY
against Parkinson’s disease,
they have SOMEHOW THOUGHT that it is okay
to suggest… to suggest that somehow,
because of this struggle, he is incapable of serving.
“Every … ANY one of us could go to a neurologist
some time over the next year,
and come out with that diagnosis—ANY ONE of us.
“And thank God we have Bennett Kayser to
show us that this is NOT a death sentence,
that it’s NOT a way of having to fade into
the background,
that you can serve with pride,
with integrity,
with intelligence
with capability.
“And DAMN THEM, DAMN THEM
for questioning that!
Damn them for questioning that!
“Don’t let that win!
“Because I’ve known Bennett for over 20 years,
but in our private conversations…
what he now knows is that there is a new
empathy for what our children with
the most challenges face.
“THERE IS NO ONE MORE APPROPRIATE
to serve on the Board of Education.
than someone who INTIMATELY
and PERSONALLY understands those challenges
because he will NEVER turn way from them.
“So these next three weeks, Bennett…
these next three weeks…
they are about you, but they are also about
the future of public education
in this country, and in this city.
“We will NOT let this stand, Bennett,
and we WILL stand by you.
“But the last thing I want to say, Bennett, is….
“Thank you for your courage, for enduring this
on behalf of all of us, and most especially
on behalf of all the children who need you
the most.
“Thank you, Bennett!”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –