Billionaire Eli Broad has proposed a plan to privatize the schooling of 50% of the students in Los Angeles. He plans to pool $490 million from fellow billionaires to achieve his goal. If he succeeds, the remaining 50% of the children in LAUSD will have fewer resources, fewer teachers, larger classes. This is a short-sighted approach, to say the least. Surely, Eli doesn’t want his legacy to be: HE DESTROYED PUBLIC EDUCATION IN AMERICA.
Here is a genuine crisis that he could easily address. LAUSD cannot afford arts education in every school. It currently spends $25 million a year on arts education. It needs $75 million a year to supply the teachers of the arts to every school. Eli Broad just opened a fine new arts museum, which cost him $200 million. The children in LAUSD will not be able to visit the Broad Museum because there is no money for field trips.
Some schools have arts resources but no arts teachers. Some have neither arts resources nor arts teachers.
Instead of funding a parallel privatized system to compete with the public schools, further impoverishing public schools, Eli Broad could build a model public education system, where every child has a full education in the arts.
Mr. Broad, what do you say? If you care about children, if you care about the arts, will you supply the $50 million needed to enable every child to act, paint, sing and participate in all the arts?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Surely, Eli doesn’t want his legacy to be: HE DESTROYED PUBLIC EDUCATION IN AMERICA.”
Stop calling him Shirley …
I sorta think that is his goal.
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As a matter of fact…Broad brought into LAUSD about 1 1/2 years ago, a director of arts programs…and I read that he funded part of his salary. But so many arts teachers were axed that now the few music teachers left are assigned to teach at 5 different schools a week…almost an impossible task, and exhausting driving in the LA traffic.
As I understand it, students in band and orchestra are rationed to only 9 weeks training, then nothing. I would hope someone here who is an LAUSD parent or teacher would expand on this.
Eli does what shows, as he uses his undercover methods to destroy. He uses slight of hand, three card Monte, to impose his will everywhere.
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Great points to share with people who don’t get how charter schools imperil public education. All our arguments should begin with, “Instead of funding a parallel privatized system to compete with the public schools…”
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how’d that work for Mark Zuckerberg?
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Zuckerberg was played for a rube, but his money was nevertheless used successfully to smash and grab the public school system in Newark, and turn it over to privateers.
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None—and I mean NONE—of Zuckerberg’s $100 million actually got to the classroom. More than half of it was vacuumed up by $1,000 / day consultants, who gave studied conditions, make recommendations, then skipped town with millions.
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Zuckerberg learned a big lesson in his dealings with Christie and Booker, the two charter supporter slimy pols…and mismanagers of money…and certainly Christie of the bridge lying and other political lies.
Good hearted and brilliant Z. will be far more careful where he donates in the future.
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That’s what I read, too, Ellen.
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PS, in Newark, NJ millions of Zuckerberg’s money went to a “survey,” then to consultants. The CEO of Foundation for Newark’s Future coordinating MZ $ and matching funds, Greg Taylor, had a salary ~$380K and didn’t stay very long. His successor, Kimberly McLain, had prior experience VP Newark Charter School Fund; national staff TFA; Credit Suisse; KPMG. Program Officer was former TFA. A portion did go to teacher innovation grants.
MZ was good enough to pay a chunk of retroactive teacher pay without requiring matching funds for that, I read. I give MZ and his wife credit for being willing to make another significant donation in their locale with more careful community approach this time.
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When LAUSD created its ‘ARTS INDEX, I’m pretty sure that charters were not included since they have to fund their own programs. Wouldn’t it be great if someone could do an analysis of arts programs in charters? For sure, the Green Dot high schools threw in a few arts courses where the students had minimal materials. This was all that was needed to fulfill the requirement for high school graduation. The arts are not cheap and charters look for ways to save money.
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No, the deal is he gets to fund whatever he wants and then our job is to go along with whatever he decides, and also be grateful for it. Questioning any of it is terribly ungrateful and probably “self interested” or “defending the status quo” or “traditionalist” so now that we’ve effectively labeled and therefore marginalized “the opposition” that’s the end of that “debate”.
I hope privatizing public schools is a super-good idea! I have my fingers crossed!
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Right, exactly, the public sector of democratic policy-making is anathema to billionaires, who prefer to act like Emperors with final say over who gets what and who gets to do what. Big money nullifies democracy.
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Too many billionaires act like “America’s royalty.” If someone has a lot of money to put into a project, he or she should still have to prove that the proposal has been researched in an impartial way before everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Education policy should not be decided in a “marketplace” or as a vanity project for billionaires. It should be decided on what is in the best interests of students, and opportunity for a few at the expense of many should never enter into the equation in a democratic republic.
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This is a great example of how the privatization agenda has replaced any genuine concern for education with a quick fix.
So-called education “reformers” seem not to need to have any idea about education, or even care much about education.
It’s the same with educational funding equity. No need to address it if a mythical competitive market can take its place.
This is why I think it’s useless to ask what the “reformer’s” real agenda is. It’s just a lot of billionaire money and misunderstood “data” sloshing around, creating destruction in its wake.
At the same time, Diane’s favored framing of the issue as that of democratic control of education is probably the best.
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Even when the funding goes to something I support like the arts, I really don’t think public education should be at the mercy of private donations. Eli Broad and other billionaires needs to be taxed heavily and that money (controlled by the public) needs to go to public schools). In the long run, we need to rework the rules of the market so that no one gets as rich as Broad and his ilk in the first place. Taxing the rich is necessary, but it’s only a stop-gap measure until we can get a fair distribution of income in the first place.
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Your point is well taken. The arts should be fully funded by the district, not subject to the whims of private donors. In this case, there is a point to be made. Broad wants to see private donors fund charter start ups, but has no interest in helping children in traditional schools. The proposed increase in charters would decimate the budgets for the remaining schools. What will that do for the future of arts in this district? The answer is obvious.
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These billionaire Rheeformers/DFERs seem to think they are on a roll…and it certainly looks like their long term plotting is coming to fruition with the Broad/Walton leadership (and the collusion with Wall Street, hedge funders and brokers like Tilson et al, who manipulate the markets seeing vast profits in a new education industry, remember Enron!) creating a nationwide ‘pogrom’ on public education, as with “hit ’em fast, hit ’em hard”.
Each community sees the same assault by the ALEC/Wall Street/free market/investor class. The plan is in full swing all across the US and has the support of the WSJ and the NY Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post, etc….all this media owned by these same few billionaires.
Unless America’s parents wake up and take a stand, supported by brave educators, and activists, there will be a paradigm shift and the greatest loss to democracy we have ever seen.
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It will happen so fact; they may not even realize what has happened until it is gone. Then, if they are dissatisfied, they will find it tough to reverse the process.
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Just learned at a meeting this AM, that a friend who is a mental health therapist has been assigned to visit (11) ELEVEN schools a week. Most do not have nurse on duty, at all. Children are given their meds by office staff. It is not only the arts which suffer.
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And a few hours later I learned, while researching the new Supt. and Asst. Supt in Atlanta who are colluding with Broad to impose charters on the whole city….that both these public school execs are Broad- trained charter supporters..and that un-elected Broad committees sit with elected school boards nationwide and act to search and vet new superintendents.
Why does Eli Broad have this unilateral power to influence our entire society?
In LA, this is happening right now, and it is a disgrace…but evidently this has been happening, sub rosa, for years. No wonder we have so much chaos in LA, NYC, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Philly, etc. Broad committees probably chose all their Supts…and all seem to be Broad Academy grads.
This is a ‘done deal’. But how did it happen over a period of multiple years, and we never picked up on the breadth and depth of this Broad infiltration into our public structure.
What else is Eli Broad running in his underground cesspool?
And of course it not just Eli, but the Waltons and all the vast wealth of the vulture class that has subsumed democracy.
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I don’t believe the 1% wants students to think. The Fine Arts do this.
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Bingo!
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Just tweeted him: @UnreasonableEli Want to do some actual good for LAUSD kids? Spend your $$ on arts education in existing schools. Don’t cannibalize them.
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Actually, the reason LAUSD students cannot attend The Broad is not that the schools cannot afford the field trip. A principal friend told me that he called The Broad to arrange a trip for the students at his high school. The woman who answered the phone said The Broad cannot arrange for classes to visit. Check out the website; they don’t even list an education director. That’s ironic. http://www.thebroad.org
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That is beyond ironic Karen.
Every major museum in LA, and all over the country, has an education department that is in charge of tours for students from public and private schools. I am an education docent, after months of training by curators, at the Getty Villa, and this superb museum in Malibu which has artifacts from the Etruscan, Greek, and Roman eras, and its sister Getty Museum in Brentwood, serve, and educate, over 80,000 school children, K -12, a year. It is one of the most important functions of museums.
So glad you pointed this out…wow. Will Eli’s wonders never cease?
BTW…it is generally Title 1 funding that provides the busses for these field trips.
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I think Eli Broad would be happy to be known as the destroyer of public education in America – as long as it improves his bottom line!
Sent from my iPhone
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I think Eli Broad would be happy to be known as the destroyer of public education in America – as long as it improves his bottom line!
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