A reader named mrobmsu left a comment on the last post, the one saying that Eva Moskowitz demands an apology from PBS and John Merrow. It made me laugh out loud. (LOL). Here it is:
Nation’s Children, Parents and Teachers Demand Apology by Eva Moskowitz and Success Network, Campbell Brown, Michelle Rhee, Teach for America, StudentsFirst, the New Teacher Project, Democrats for Education reform, Arne Duncan, John King, Bill Gates, The Walton Family Foundation, The Heritage Foundation, KIPP, Wendy Kopp, David Coleman, the Relay Graduate School, Education Post and Peter Cunningham, Chris Stewart and Every Hedge Fund Manager and Investment Banker Who Has Profited from Corporate Education Reform
Not to be picky, but I think Eli Broad would demand an apology for being omitted from the list.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sad, but very very funny!!!
LikeLike
I thought we were supposed to be protecting African-American children and narrowing the achievement gap. What the heck is Eva doing attacking this young child?! To protect herself?!?
LikeLike
One name is missing from the extensive list and it is “God”
LikeLike
Raj, I think you missed the point, unless this is your way of saying that the privatization movement is led by God. I doubt it. What Would Jesus Do? Would he side with billionaires? What did he say about a rich man getting into heaven?
LikeLike
What would Jesus say about the scapegoating and deception the rheeformers and our own govt. use to attack children and teachers?
What would Jesus say about making a profit off the tears of children, teachers and parents?
What would Jesus say about stealing from the poor to give to the rich? What about “grinding the faces of the poor”?. – Isaiah 3:15
The rheeformers do not have God on their side. In fact each and every one of them need to take a looooooong hard look in the mirror and ask some VERY hard questions about which master they really are serving.
LikeLike
Jesus often sat down to teach his disciplines. I believe now days they would take away his desk and make him stand.
LikeLike
I think that Raj is highlighting the narcissistic audacity of the reform movement: they really think that they are some god given force out on this planet to save kids… By degrading their education, the people who actually are caring enough to be there day by day etc…
Raj, out of curiosity, from what I remember most righteous civil rights movements are not steamrollered I with people lining their pockets. Ghandi did not give speeches for 50k at a pop, and plop astro turf hunger strikers. Let’s get rid of the cash for these highly paid people on your side: suddenly they will lose interest.
Meanwhile somewhere in America a teacher will continue teaching with a much lower salary that Rhee’s speech for one day.
LikeLike
Yes, Titleone, Raj is actually reminding us of the narcissistic personality disorder or “god complex” that these people exhibit. Everyone on that list refuses to acknowledge the messes that they have made. Everyone on that list ignores the evidence, massages the evidence, or hides the evidence so as to further inflate their ego, so as to further advance their crusade, so as to further demonstrate how infallible they are. Everyone on that list has perverted justice and/or abused the rules of our society because they belong to the privileged set. Everyone on that list has bribed, tricked, corrupted, and hoodwinked the public. There are no commoners, no peasants, no average Americans on that list. It is a list of the rich kids who like to play with their public toys.
Good point, Raj.
LikeLike
Thanks every one.
LikeLike
No problem , Raj.
LikeLike
Hmmm. we could see if Phyliss wants to help
Burris from my iPad
>
LikeLike
Who is Phyliss?
Diller???
As much as I am self-diagnosed AI*, I’m probably in much worse shape (again self-diagnosed) in regards to MMI**
*Acronym Impaired
**Modern Media Impaired (with emphasis on TV)
LikeLike
Phyllis Diller, from the Netherworld, helping us out in education land?
Really?
Ah-Hah, hah, as Diller used to say.
Hysterical, Duane!!
Will hubbie Fang also help us?
LikeLike
“Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.” [Mark Twain]
This posting is proof positive.
😎
LikeLike
Barack Obama is surely a name that can be added to this list. He’s given us Arne Duncan and now John King, and turned a deaf ear on all those trying to get him to see the truth.
LikeLike
Does he argue reformer points or does he just say nothing?
And Hillary? Are they advised to keep quiet on the subject? Have they simply given up on the idea of public schools or is it about campaign money?
LikeLike
Answers to four questions put forth:
Both
Who cares?
Probably
Both
LikeLike
Just for grins, I went to Campbell Brown’s Twitter page.
https://twitter.com/campbell_brown?ref_src=twsrcgoogle|twcampserp|twgrauthor
Campbell wants to have it both ways. She’s falsely attacking Randi Weingarten for inciting anti-reform bloggers and commenters to attack Campbell’s family, and attack Michelle Rhee’s family. She’s clearly enraged about that, but at the same time, refuses to point out what the substance of those attacks actually is. (not to mention that Randi’s not paying any of those people). She instead dredges up an old article from several years ago by Dimitri Melhorn, attacking Diane Ravitch for her lack of civility.
The substance of the “attacks” on Campbell’s family, and on Rhee’s family — not mentioned by Campbell:
1) Campbell Brown — she’s a hypocrite in the choices she makes for her own children … she wants to close all existing public schools, and replace them with privately-managed and unaccountable charter schools… with dubious, test-prep-heavey curriculum and a no excuses, militarized discipline style of classroom management… yet she chooses the EXACT OPPOSITE for her own children — the private school Heschel;
— Campbell is a hypocrite in that she falsely attacks NYC teachers, saying that there are scores of them who are pedophiles on the loose, and they’re on the loose because their corrupt union protects them, yet when the husband of her number one ally Michelle Rhee — and a prominent privatizer himself (clearly proven to be a pedophile based on this video BELOW) — Campbell goes silent. He’s also the step-father of another prominent privatizer, Michelle Rhee’s ex-husband Kevin Huffman and former Tennessee Education Commissioner (and prominent blogger on Campbell’s site ‘THE 74’.
2) Michelle Rhee — back in 2013, when defending her firing of hundreds of teachers during a budget shortfall, Rhee in an interview with FAST COMPANY magazine, that most or many of them were pedophiles and child abusers… (… uhhh… you’re not supposed to use a budget shortfall to fire child abusers… you’re mandated to report them to the authorities… ) When asked for documentation, she produced one case.
Meanwhile, it’s clear that her husband and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has sexually abused teenage girls. (AGAIN, see the video BELOW)
It’s a weird balancing act. Campbell wants to lash out at those bringing these attacks—fabricating victimhood and sympathy from her allies —but scrupulously avoids mentioning what those attacks are, and is maddeningly vague… since they will embarass and harm to movement to privatize schools.
Here’s a post about the video (from one week ago tonight):
———–
**** SPECIAL BULLETIN ***
**** WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING to bring you the latest on the pedophilia scandal swirling around Kevin Johnson, the current Mayor of Sacramento and prominent proponent of school privatization and union-busting … oh yeah, and the husband of Michelle Rhee.***
BELOW is the recently-released police interview video — conducted during the 1996 investigation — with the alleged victim Mandi Koba herself. Here she recounts the horror of being molested by Michelle Rhee’s husband Kevin Johnson, the current mayor of Sacramento and a prominent proponent of busting teacher unions, and replacing public schools with privately-run charter schools.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is the same man who has no court-mandated limits on his access to the two daughters of his current wife Michelle Rhee (who are also, of course, the daughters of her ex-husband and former Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman.) Conceivably, these two daughters, when visiting their mother Michelle Rhee and their step-father Kevin Johnson in Sacramento, could be left alone with this perv, without any supervision whatsoever.
Scary stuff. (Mr. Huffman, if you’re reading this, what are you going to do about this?)
Watch the video and judge for yourself.
Keep in mind, folks, that this is a sixteen-year-old girl, recounting events of a few months prior when she was just fifteen. The video is even dated July 19, 1996 ( “7-19-1996” )
———————————————————————-
( 00:37 – 01:35 )
( 00:37 – 01:35 )
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: “What … what specific areas (of your body did Kevin Johnson fondle)?”
MANDI KOBA: “My stomach. My breasts. My butt… ”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: (almost whispering) “Anywhere else?”
MANDI KOBA: “As it progressed.”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: “Where ELSE did it progress?”
MANDI KOBA: “Between my legs.”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: “Okay, and what do we call that area?”
MANDI KOBA: “My vagina.”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: “And – and I know some of the questions sound stupid. Okay? And I apologize for it, but there are certain things I’m looking for. Unless I know these things, then…
MANDI KOBA: “I understand.”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: ” … then I don’t know what’s going on.”
— (PAUSE)
“He (Kevin Johnson) had HIS clothes off?”
MANDI KOBA: “Yes.”
PHOENIX P.D. DETECTIVE: “What happened after the fondling?”
MANDI KOBA: “That’s … we didn’t have intercourse… It was… just a lot of THAT. I don’t know how long it lasted, and then… ummm ”
CLIP ENDS
———————————–
(ONE SIDE NOTE: what’s up with choosing a male detective to conduct this incredibly sensitive and delicated interview? Wouldn’t this be better handled by a female detective? Just askin’.)
There’s so much to be asked here.
If this video were about the predations of a prominent teacher—especially one in the anti-corporate reform movement, or perhaps a prominent teacher union leader…
—what do think Campbell Brown would be doing in response to this video?
What would Ben Austin would be doing in response to this video?
What would Michelle Rhee be doing in response to this video?
The same question goes for Eli Broad, Mike Petrilli, Wendy Kopp, Richard Barth and the rest.
Before she went on her campaign to take away all teachers’ rights and job protections, Campbell Brown first came to prominence with her accusations that among the unionized teachers of New York City were hundreds of pedophiles on the loose, thanks to their being protected by their union. When all of that was proven to be nonsense, she simply moved on to her current crusade.
Now that Ms. Brown and the rest of the corporate reform world have video proof that one of their pro-charter, union-hating allies Kevin Johnson (and also the husband of one of their most prominent allies) is a pedophile, the question must be asked:
What is Campbell Brown doing now? SILENCE
Where is Kevin Huffman doing now? SILENCE
From this shameful silence, they communicate to the world that they apparently view this girl in the video above — and Johnson’s other victims — as collateral damage in the movement to bust unions and privatize the public school system. Now that Kevin Johnson has successfully pulled off a hostile takeover of that Black Mayors’ association, he will be instrumental in privatizing hundreds of schools in those cities run by black mayors in the organization. Since the ends justify the means, someone like Johnson who is that key in the anti-union movement to privatize public schools must be given a pass for his fondness of teenage female flesh.
To watch the entirety of this video in context, watch here:
There’s more about Johnson rubbing his … against her leg. I’m not doing any more transcribing, as this is seriously creeping me out.
ONE MORE THING: the reason for “SPECIAL BULLETIN” parody at the top of this post is that this in actually four-days old, having been released by DEADSPIN four days ago… and there has been ASBOLUTELY NO COVERAGE OF THIS WHATSOEVER FROM THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA.
The mainstream media refuse to do a story about this recently-released video, because if they did that, that would mean that the public—particularly the voters in Sacramento who will be voting for or against Kevin Johnson’s re-election next spring—would then be able to view this video and judge for themselves.
Those in charge of the mainstream media don’t want the public to have this. What good is a free election with a secret ballot if you, as a voter, are deprived of all the key information needed to make an informed choice in that election?
Oh, and I should have given DEADSPIN more credit, plus a link to the article:
http://deadspin.com/police-video-shows-teen-girl-graphically-accusing-kevin-1735279363
There are details in her full video testimony that are simply beyond bizarre:
After each time Kevin Johnson would molest Mandi Koba, he would then tell Mandi, “Now, we have to pray for God’s forgiveness for what the sins we’ve just committed.” Then he would lead the pair in prayer.
WTF????!!!
Excuse me, but what’s this “we” sh#@ that Kevin tries on her? EXACTLY what does SHE have to ask forgiveness for? She’s the victim here…and a passive one at that. She says that throughout these molestation sessions that she was too scared sh#%-less to do anything. Is Kevin claiming that Mandi is a Jezebel-Delilah-like temptress who acted as a Lolita and used her 15 year-old nubile body to drive him to sin?
Again… WTF???!!!!
Kevin also makes the counter-argument that it could have been worse; they could have been kissing. Kevin maintains that kissing is far more sinful and intimate to what he was doing… so good thing we’ve never kissed.
Again… WTF???!!!!
http://deadspin.com/police-video-shows-teen-girl-graphically-accusing-kevin-1735279363
ONE MORE THING: People have been asking the question for the last year:
“How could Bill Cosby have gotten away with raping women for so long?”
Well, here’s why. Just as with the Bill Cosby’s behavior, the mainstream media is TOTALLY IGNORING THIS RELEASE OF VIDEO. They are acting like it never happened.
That’s why he and Kevin get away with this stuff. They’re celebrities who get a free pass. Kevin allegedly molested girls in Sacramento from his St. Hope charter school. Their silence was allegedly bought off by lawyers under the direction of Kevin Johnson’s wife, Michelle Rhee.
OH… AND ONE LAST THING: Later this week, ESPN Sports Network is broadcasting a totally positive and glowing documentary portrayal of of Kevin Johnson. This will be total hagiography. The folks at ESPN know better — they almost certainly have watched the video of the police interview — but they’re still running the piece.
Think how painful that must be for Mandi Koba and Kevin’s other victims.
The film is called: DOWN IN THE VALLEY. Here’s a preview.
http://espn.go.com/30for30/film?page=downinthevalley
LikeLike
Dave McKenna at DEADSPIN just dropped another thermonuclear bomb of an article attacking Kevin Johnson:
http://deadspin.com/kevin-johnson-wants-certain-people-to-not-talk-about-ke-1736645309
It’s a sprawling piece, full of actual documents… so sprawling that it’s hard to summarize.
Vanessa Williams (not the actress / singer) is part of the Black Mayors’ group that is fighting Johnson’s hostile takeover of that same group… and also claiming sexual harrassment, “he grabbed my butt”… and calling her at her hotel in the middle of the night inviting her to his room for what she says was “a booty call,” or that he was “trying to initiate a sexual relationship” with her.
In the latest maneuvering, Johnson and his lawyers are now trying to buy Ms. Williams’ silence with a settlement agreement that, in exchange for a large cash sum, requires her to drop her attempts to thwart the hostile take over of the Black Mayor’s group, and that further required her to say that everything she told DEADSPIN to date was a lie, and requiring her to never never talk to DEADSPIN or the media again.
The actual wording of the proposed hush-up agreement are really mind-bogglingly incriminating and embarassing (there’s a photo of parts of the the agreement itself). Didn’t these idiots ever think that this might one day become public?
Her response to Johnson’s offer, “I’m not 15 (like Mandi Koba, JACK). Kevin Johnson can kiss my black ass!”
LikeLike
Diane, this reminds me of a bone I need to pick with you. I agree fully with your castigating Duncan et. al. for their faux education reform. But what about Obama? I know he has been criticized unfairly for many domestic issues for which he shouldn’t be blamed. But Obama chose and supported Duncan. He has supported the take-down of public schools through his support of charters and testing. I voted for Obama twice, and think he’s a better president overall than many people believe. But he has had the power to help reverse much of the hurtful education policy that has been the trend for his nearly seven years in office and he has not. In fact, I think his education policies, perhaps manifested through Duncan, have been his biggest failing as president.
LikeLike
Yes.
LikeLike
garthbwolkoff,
You are right that Obama is fully responsible for Duncan. The President chose him for the cabinet and praised his non-existent achievements in Chicago, which turned out to be hollow. I have criticized the President when he praises the “reforms,” when he went to Miami to join with Jeb Bush to celebrate a turnaround school (that was on the state’s list of failing schools), when he praised a school in Denver that had not turned around. But you are right, I have had far more to say about Duncan. That is because Duncan says more about education than Obama does. And he comes up with some amazing lines when he goes off-script. My favorite is when he said he wants to be able to look in the eyes of a second-grader and know they are on track to go to a good college.
LikeLike
Jalen Rose, Pitbull, Alicia Keyes, Denzel Washington, Oprah, Andre Agassi, Magic Johnson, Will Smith, …
LikeLike
A while ago I commented on the reformers’ support from the American Nazi Party. The years old websites I used for research are now gone from the web. Since you mention Jalen Rose and Magic Johnson, a while ago I commented on the reformers’ support from NBA basketball affiliates. The years old websites I used for research are now edited to exclude all education related “philanthropy”. I was planning to do shtick about baseball, football, and auto racing too, but the web has been changed recently, undercutting my plans. It’s interesting to see how different groups of millionaires retreat into the shadows when you shine a light on them.
LikeLike
This rewriting and editing is evident in many places, notably on the Common Core website where the history of that project was once easy to access, including its evolution from the American Diploma Project. The USDE website is also filled with blind alley links to nowhere.
LikeLike
They have a lot to apologize for
“School Deform from A to Z”
A is for Avarice, driving the Huns
B is for Billions, from public school funds
C is for Coleman, the Core of the trouble
D is for Duncan, who next made it double
E is for Eva, a charter school nut
F is for Failure, for those who are cut
G is for Gates, who has funded deform
H is for Hack, the deformian norm
I is for Ignorance, willful and not
J is for Journey, to Blunderland spot
K is for Kopp and her front, TFA
L is for Loopy, the Common Core way
M is for Money, the ultimate goal
N is for Nihilist, standardized soul
O is for Onerous, testing in schools
P is for Pearson, for tests and for tools
Q is for ‘Quality’, gauged by a score
R is for Rigor, of zombies and more
S is for Standards, established by hacks
T is for Testing irrelevant facts
U is for Unicorns, fairies and rest
V is for VAM, which is random, at best
W’s for Winnowing, wheat from the chaff
X is for X-out, of schools and of staff
Y is for “You gotta do as we’ve said”
Z is for Zimba, quite clueless ‘bout ed
LikeLike
Michael Bloomberg and John Arnold.
LikeLike
Joe Williams, Barbara O’Brien, Kevin Chavous, Peter Groff, Michael Benjamin, Terrance Carroll, Adrian Fenty, Craig Johnson, Tony Payton, Maureen Stapleton, Mary Ann Sullivan, Buzz Thomas (DFER’s Advisory Board).
Dannel Malloy, Rick Scott, Bruce Rauner, Scott Walker, Mike Pence, Sam Brownback, Bobby Jindal, Paul LePage, Larry Hogan, Rick Snyder, Chris Christie, Andrew Cuomo, Pat McCrory, John Kasich.
LikeLike
Elaine Wynn the Nevada Casino philantropist demands an apology too.
How dare skilled teachers get in her way as she tries to kill public schools by replacing teachers with substitutes and TFA?
She even threw a fit the other day about our 20% turnover.
To be clear: She caused the turnover with her reform and turnaround schools but she makes no connection – it must be someone else’s fault. She demands a war room!
Last year . . . http://m.reviewjournal.com/news/education/nevada-mulling-dramatic-crackdown-low-performing-schools
This year . . .
How nice it must be to be an opinionated and perfect billionaire who can toy with us all.
Im just glad she is sort of seeing the light.
LikeLike
Eva and her ilk don’t even believe in the concept of “disability” or that there is a category known as “special ed,” or in IEP’s.
Or perhaps Eva does, but doesn’t deign to take those unfortunates on. According to one staffer, she responds to kids in hardship, including those based on disability with the following comment:
“SUCCESS ACADEMY is are not a Social Services agency.”
Eva Moskowitz is on the same page with Duncan. To both of them, there’s no such thing as “special ed.” In her opinion, that which the traditional school approach categorizes as “special ed,” is nothing more than a lack of “maturity” as a result of “mama” failing to her her job. Those whose fail to “mature” — or have the effects of poor parenting reversed — under Eva’s system are kicked out… err… “counseled out.”
This is from PAGE 5 of the 2010 NEW YORK MAGAZINE story on Eva and her schools:
http://nymag.com/news/features/65614/index4.html
————————————————-
“At Harlem Success, disability is a dirty word.
” ‘I’m not a big believer in special ed,’ (SUCCESS ACADEMY’s instructional leader) Fucaloro says. For many children who arrive with individualized education programs, or IEPs, he goes on, the real issues are ‘maturity and undoing what the parents allow the kids to do in the house—usually mama—and I reverse that right away.’
“When remediation falls short, according to sources in and around the network, families are counseled out. ‘Eva told us that “the school is not a social-service agency,” ‘ says the Harlem Success teacher. ‘That was an actual quote.’
“In one case, says a teacher at P.S. 241, a set of twins started kindergarten at the co-located HSA 4 last fall. One of them proved difficult and was placed on a part-time schedule, ‘so the mom took both of them out and put them in our school. She has since put the calm sister twin back in Harlem Success, but they wouldn’t take the boy back. We have the harder, troubled one; they have the easier one.’
“Such triage is business as usual, says the former network staffer, when the schools are vexed by behavioral problems: ‘They don’t provide the counseling these kids need.’ If students are deemed bad ‘fits’ and their parents refuse to move them, the staffer says, the administration ‘makes it a nightmare’ with repeated suspensions and midday summonses. After a 5-year-old was suspended for two days for allegedly running out of the building, the child’s mother says the school began calling her every day ‘saying he’s doing this, he’s doing that. Maybe they’re just trying to get rid of me and my child, but I’m not going to give them that satisfaction.’ ”
“At her school alone, the Harlem Success teacher says, at least half a dozen lower-grade children who were eligible for IEPs have been withdrawn this school year. If this account were to reflect a pattern, Moskowitz’s network would be effectively winnowing students before third grade, the year state testing begins.
” ‘The easiest and fastest way to improve your test scores,’ observes a DoE principal in Brooklyn, ‘is to get higher-performing students into your school.’ And to get the lower-performing students out.”
LikeLike