Jonathan Pelto notes the arrival of a new front group to promote charters in Connecticut. He also notes that the name is new, but the people are the same as the existing front groups.
“As Connecticut faces yet another massive state budget crisis, even more Pro-Charter School and Corporate Education Reform Industry money is flowing into Connecticut to help grease the charter school operators’ efforts to grab additional public funds courtesy of charter school aficionado and “education reform” groupie Governor Dannel Malloy.
“This time the corporate funded charter school lobbyists are calling themselves “Fight for Fairness CT” and are rallying in Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford.
“Charter school organizers are using http://www.fightforfairnessct.org, a website that was created by a New York City advertising company on October 23 2015.
“Although they are calling themselves by a different name, the group is actually the same controversial New York based charter school lobby group known as “Families for Excellent Schools” http://www.familiesforexcellentschools.org/ except when they call themselves “Families for Excellent Schools Advocacy.”
“While their primary purpose has been to support Eva Moskowitz and the other New York Charter School operators, Families for Excellent Schools arrived in Connecticut from New York last year and registered both Families for Excellent Schools AND Families for Excellent Schools Advocacy as lobbying entities with Connecticut’s Office of State Ethics.
“However, Families for Excellent Schools immediately created a new front group called Coalition for Every Child, setting up a website named http://www.foreverychildct.org/
“When slapped for failing to register Coalition for Every Child with the Connecticut’s ethics office, the New Yorkers quickly changed their name to Families for Excellent Schools/Coalition for Every Child.
“This year Families for Excellent Schools has spent nearly $1.2 million lobbying in favor of Governor Malloy’s charter school and education reform initiatives.
“A quick glimpse at the newly formed http://www.fightforfairnessct.org will reveal the same logo as the old http://www.foreverychildct.org/, although they did change the color from Yellow to Blue to go along with the new t-shirts that Families for Excellent Schools are handing out to charter school parents and students in New York and Connecticut.”
The charter school kudzu.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Kudzu?
No, metastasis…
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
Another look at the devious world of the for-profit, opaque, autocratic and often fraudulent corporate education school reform war being waged on the community based, transparent, non-profit, democratic public schools that belong to the people and not billionaires and corporations.
This is more than GROSS!
What liars.
Love the kudzu comparison.
Whatever it grows on it kills!
Suffocates and sucks out all the nutrients of the host tree.
Something in this particular story rung a bell way back in my head. I’m sixty years old now and have collected a few deep impressions along the way. One that has stuck with me is the deep convictions of groups of people who have fought against all odds to overcome their enemies. The ones that come to mind are the Vietcong against the US, the Afgans against the USSR, and the countries in the Soviet realm. DO NOT mistake my intent here, I am not extolling their causes. I am simply using these examples to highlight the characteristics they possessed that I believe helped them to “triumph” against overwhelming odds. They had extreme patience, unwavering belief in their cause, and a willingness to put it on the line. They also faced a foe who at best (under the surface) had dubious motives.
I believe those who are standing up against the “reform” movement are fighting much the same type “battle”, one that can be won if we ultimately show we posses these same characteristics of patience, belief, and sacrifice. History has shown it can be done.