Eli Broad has recruited Paul Pastorek, former state superintendent in Louisiana, to lead his effort to privatize the schools of 50% of the children now in public schools in Los Angeles.
Pastorek oversaw the elimination of public education in Néw Orleans. He was also a member of Jeb Bush’s far-right “Chiefs for Change,” a group dedicated to high-stakes testing and privatization.
In his new post, he will press for the elimination of many public schools.
“Few issues have roiled the LA Unified community more than the foundation’s plan to expand the number of charter schools in the district. An early report by the foundation said the goal is to serve as many as half the students in the district in 230 newly-created charter schools within the next eight years, an effort that would cost nearly half a billion dollars.
“It’s also a plan that district officials have said would eviscerate public education as it is now delivered by LA Unified. The LA teachers union, UTLA, has also attacked the plan as part of the Broads’ latest effort to “privatize” public education at the cost of union teaching jobs.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If bullionaires want to build Segregated Private Academies (SPAs), why don’t they just use their own money to do so? They certainly have enough money to do that and I’m sure they would find enough people who like that sort of thing to do just fine.
Why do they feel the need to steal limited public resources to build their SPAs?
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It is all about wealth transfer. These leeches won’t quit until the very last dime is bled from the taxpayer. Broad and the rest of them don’t care at all about students or education. It is all about lining their corrupt pockets.
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Pastorek, who has been on the Broad Foundation staff for awhile, now leads as Managing Co-Director with McGinty. I would speculate that this announcement of his lead position in turning at least 50% of LAUSD public schools in ‘privatized’ charters, is to deflect an angry LA public away from hearing about disgraced former Supt. John Deasy’s role in this announced onslaught.
Concurrently, the recently appointed head of the Foundation was axed. Bruce Reed is claiming he wants to spend more time with his family…where have we heard that before?
Reed was a special asst. to Obama, and was Chief of Staff for Biden, before Eli grabbed him to lead his Foundation. Eli has close political ties to this WH and is also a close friend of the Clintons. Hillary was his lawyer years ago. What a tangled web of deceit and intrigue!!
What could have gone so wrong between these two that Reed is gone so quickly? Reed come on board with the stated philosophy that states should manage failing schools by giving contracts to charter chains (i.e. Green Dot which failed badly in New Orleans and recently pulled out of there).
I urge everyone to go to Broads’s website, read his Mission Statement, and view his board members and his staff. Many red flags appear. Major among those listed is Barry Kunitz who ran the Getty Museum at the time that there were lawsuits and criminal charges about illegal antiquities acquisitions. Kunitz was forced to resign. See how many of the Broad choices to run his Broad Academy and Broad Foundation, like Michelle Rhee (wife of Kevin Johnson and past leader of Students First) left each job under a cloud. His star John Deasy, is being investigated by the FBI and the SEC and could possibly be indicted on various felony charges.
It is a cauldron full of deadly snakes led by Eli Broad, the prime oligarch and egotist.
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While on the one hand this is kind of frightening, it’s also an opportunity to raise the consciousness of the public. This guy engaged in some of the most ruthless, unethical tactics to ram privatization and union-busting down the throats of the unwilling people of New Orleans.
The big thing on this resume is that he privatized all the schools of a major U.S. city. In order to achieve this, he slipped through a revision to a law that changed the score—raising it—that requires a school to be reconsituted, with all the teachers fired, and the schools privatized.
Therefore, Broad and the rest can’t make their usual benign, innocent claim that this is only about giving parents more variety of choices of schools or whatever. No. He’s been hired to do in L.A. what he did in New Orleans—remove democratically-controlled public schools, and democratic governance of schools from Los Angeles. … in spite of the fact that the parents and citizens have voted over and over that this unregulated, unaccountable corporate control of schools is the EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT THEY DESIRE.
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It is important to hold accountable the Democrats who support a person like Pastorek in Broad’s empire.
Pastorek was Gov.Bobby Jindal’s adoring acolyte and oversaw the torching of public education in Louisiana. After his work in post-Katrina New Orleans, Pastorek served proudly on the George W. Bush Institute’s Education Reform team.
When Democrats like Eli Broad, John Deasy, the United Way, Ref Rodriguez ,Monica Garcia and The LA TIMES enthusiastically endorse Broad’s plan with such a right wing leader, then Progressives need to understand war has been declared.
It is horrifying that socially liberal Democrats who will go on and on about what champions they are about gay rights or women’s reproductive matters all embrace people whom Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal and Carly Fiorina believe are the saviors of working class urban children.
We need to call out these people loudly and often and make them explain why the Right Wing in America is wrong about everything except their economic and education policies which ALWAYS benefit the well-to-do.
Would it surprise anyone if John Deasy were put as Education Secretary in a Republican administration?
The Democrats who support mainstream Republican education policies need to be called out and made front and center all the time. Invariably, these Democrats are always linked to the fabulously wealthy who benefit enormously from GOP fiscal matters as well.
Their own children never get the education they say other children must get.
With Paul Pastorek’s ascension to Eli Broad’s Commander-in-Chief of LA’s privitazation effort, we must expose this man’s past pedagogies as truly a product of radically right-wing racist/classist political thought. Broad chose him for a reason and Pastorek is a perfect representation of the danger and destruction Broad’;s and Deasy’s brand of Education Reform embodies and plans to unleash on Los Angeles.
Mercedes Schneider, send word.
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Nearly all democrats have turned their backs on families, public education, children, and educators. The donkey party is rotten, rotten, rotten. So is the GOP.
Despite Bernie is this and Bernie is that, my vote and support go to Bernie . . . .
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Agree with you both, Geronimo and Robert. And many of the Dems are as rotten, power hungry, devious, and money motivated as the Reps.
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As an outsider looking in (on CA), the thing that is shocking about this article is that the people being discussed are private individuals outside the governmental establishment. In most places such an article would read, “Governor ___ has named ___ to lead his efforts to expand charters in ___ [the largest school district in the state].”
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That’s what struck me too- the “shadow government” complete with appointees. It’s just crazy.
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It is beyond a shadow government. It is sold as de riguer and is a takeover of all public agencies by the oligarchs and their wannabes. This web is vast, including media and industry, combined with the sellout legislators. Keep tabs on Social Security and Medicare both scheduled for destruction.
Today the Right Wing LA Times has a fluff front page article on Kevin Johnson that, although it reports on the 20 year old charges that DeadSpin featured, makes it seem that Kevin is a Golden Boy and deserves support if he decides he will now run for a State or National office. He could even be the next DoE head (Obama loves him and invites for stay overs at the WH) after Obama’s other choice, King, who replaced Obama’s Duncan, leaves office. If it was mandated that Obama could not anoint all these basketball oligarchs to lead education, maybe public schools in the US might stand a better chance of surviving.
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It’s odd that the ed reform crew aren’t out (publicly) promoting this. They were all involved in promoting Broad’s experiment in Detroit:
“NEW ORLEANS – Calling Detroit Public Schools “Ground Zero for education in this country,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said there are big changes in the works for the city schools – but said he is not ready to give details.
“Stay tuned,” he told reporters attending the Education Writers Association national seminar Friday.”
http://www.mlive.com/education/index.ssf/2011/04/arne_duncan_detroit_schools_ar.html
That was 2011. Is the EAA still Ground Zero?
The EAA/Detroit has just mysteriously dropped off the privatization promotion lecture circuit. I wonder why? One would think “rigor” and “science” would require looking at ALL ed reform experiments, not just the experiments they want to promote or those that are considered successes.
Reporters should have “stayed tuned”, actually. The results of the Broad experiment in Michigan has inexplicably disappeared from the marketing materials! Maybe someone could go see how it turned out.
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I’m still tuned in and waiting for the good news from Detroit. How about the good news from ASD in Tenn?
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Oh, it was a full court press way back in 2010-11. They all parachuted in to promote the Broad Plan:
StudentsFirst founder Michelle Rhee will serve as a keynote speaker at next week’s Mackinac Policy Conference, addressing business and political leaders from across Michigan, where her controversial education reform group has quickly become a major player.
“Michelle will continue to drive the discussion about education, making sure that businesses understand the skills gap and the need to drive innovation in our schools if we’re really going to have a better business climate and economic output,” said Andy Solon, a former state legislative aide who now heads up the Michigan chapter of California-based StudentsFirst.
She should come back and report on the experiment. We can debate the cheap, garbage “online learning platform” they promoted in the EAA that was an absolute disaster. All the developers and promoters got paid and then left town, and it’s now been quietly dropped.
Michigan is 100% “movement” ed reform. They controlled every lever. They successfully busted all the public sector unions (and the private sector unions, too). How’s it working out for public school kids in that state now that the elite ed reformers have all returned to wherever they live? Better public schools?
http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/studentsfirst_spotlight_michel.html
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Here’s part of Michelle Rhee’s speech at Mackinac:
MICHELLE RHEE: “At long last, the heroic forces of educational reform have been able to overcome the corrupt defenders of a failed status quo in, transforming the way that this state educates its students, and putting student first. Yes, in Michigan, we now can seize an opportunity to make the kind of transformational change to any educational system that, for far too long, has been held hostage by the union thugs that have put adult interests ahead of children’s interests and … ‘
— (seeing something that shocks her, stops speaking… then angrily and frantically covers the mic )”
MICHELLE RHEE: (muffled, gritting her teeth) “Oh God, not again!”
— (angry)
MICHELLE RHEE: (muffled) “Kevin, get up here right now! NOW!!! I tell you. NOW!”
— (KEVIN JOHNSON sheepishly comes up on stage, walks over and looks down at Rhee, still covering the mic and muffling her voice)
MICHELLE RHEE: (muffled, pointing her finger at him angrily) “I told you to stay away from the girls!”
KEVIN JOHNSON: (muffled) “Sorry… I just… ”
MICHELLE RHEE: (muffled) ”
“Now we have to do your exercises again.
“Repeat after me,
” ‘I must not touch the teenage girls.
I must not touch the teenage girls …
KEVIN JOHNSON: (muffled) “I must not touch the teenage girls. I must not touch the teenage girls …”
MICHELLE RHEE: (muffled) “Keep that up for another 30 minutes and go back to the hotel and take another cold shower.”
———–
That’s a parody of course.
I’m thinking of Eddie Murphy movie star character in BOWFINGER, where the guru of his SCIENTOLOGY-like cult is doing the same thing with Murphy’s movie start character.
“You CAN NOT show it to the Laker Girls.”
(1:04)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfIXQ4rPbco
(1:04)
“You CAN NOT show it to the Laker Girls.”
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Have the public schools been designated “the schools of last resort” and if you have a child in a public school what does that mean for your child? Does he or she have a “choice” as to what happens to their school or will the effects on their school be ignored, as is usually the case in ed reform? Did people who value existing public schools consent to their schools being designated the schools of last resort- a back up for the charter system?
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Real question here…I’d like to know the answer the reformers give, not because I think it is necessarily a good idea.
Why don’t they mandate the things the private schools do that they like for the public schools? If they truly believe private schools have “the answer”, then aren’t they saying not all kids deserve the best possible education? Aren’t they leaving lots and lots of kids behind?
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Yes, the reform strategy is a dual system of schools with strict obedience the rule for poor and minority kids
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At least Villaraigosa’s not the mayor any more. At least Ahnold is no longer the govahnoh of Culifoneeah any longer. I enjoyed seeing Mayor Garcetti promoting the Getty Museum — NOT the Broad Museum — on PBS, a couple nights ago. Getty versus Broad. Garcetti versus Broad. Mayor Eric Garcetti versus the LA Times. Governor Jerry Brown versus the LA Times and Broad…
If it’s the unwitting public and LAUSD Board versus Eli Broad, I will wind up working in a charter chain. If, however, it is Garcetti, Brown, and State Supe of Ed Tom Torlackson against Broad and the media, I stand a chance of having my students and my rights protected. Garcetti rules (democratically)!
One more thing, by the by. I looked at the picture of Paul Pastorek in the LA School Report article linked, and saw a younger version of Eli Broad, minus twenty pounds of ears. Since Eli’s own children won’t speak to him, perhaps he’s found a surrogate…
Make that two more things, by the by. LA School Report conducted an online survey about the Broad plan. For two weeks, I watched 48% of responders say they were disgusted by the plan, surpassing all other answers by a huge margin. Then, LA School Report threw that category out and announced that responders overwhelmingly support charter school expansion. Go figure!
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Sorry, I will no longer write any longer and no longer any longer without more careful editing.
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Broad’s children detest him? Do tell.
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It’s been years since I read somewhere that Eli’s children hate him and won’t talk to him. I don’t remember where I read it or how reliable was the source.
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And, Left Coast, LASR fostered that phony and less than scientific poll, and then altered the result to equate the Broad plan to charterize most of LAUSD, conflating the figures with those who said NO. They added a disclaimer and indicated that one person may have voted a multitude of times. This poll is sheer nonsense and should be ignored by everyone. It is a NON POLL and is not worthy of even mentioning.
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Feds are inditing “reform” EAA district principals and higher ups. Pastorek was of course one of Synder’s main “skunk works” advisors in the EAA’s formation and in the current move to totally destroy Detroit’s public schools.
Stay tuned.
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2015/10/15/eaa-detroit-schools-targeted-fbi-probe/73995964/
http://www.freep.com/story/news/2015/10/19/snyder-offers-more-details-detroit-schools-plan/74208674/
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I don’t know the good news about the ASD, but my sisters in Tennessee tell me that the closure of their school district (Clay County SD) due to lack of funding/lack of a budget/ general stupidity, has been temporarily halted due to a court order. No word about funding or budget yet, but plenty of evidence of lack of foresight and stupidity. Not a chance that any for profit private school is touching that county.
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The ASD flopped
Read Gary Rubinstein blog
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Arizona’s Governor Ducey put a spotlight on Pastorek at his 2015 leadership conference as a shining example of what Arizona’s future direction should take. State dollars must follow the child. Money to the districts is wasted. I doubt Ducey will take a closer look at what is really going on in LA.
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