Reader “”Rratto” asked if I could post the tapes of the Dean Skelos conversation with his son Adam, wherein he mentions that he has plans to see Campbell Brown and some billionaires. Blogger Perdido Street School posted the tape in question. Many others have also posted it. Google works.
Dean Skelos was the powerful leader of the New York State Senate. He is a Republican from Long Island. He resigned after he and his son were indicted for financial misdeeds.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I know rampant public corruption isn’t funny, but it made me smile because it’s so brief and yet it describes the larger problem so perfectly:
From phone call between Adam and Dean Skelos Dec. 14. 2014:
“AS: What are you up to?
DS: Um going into the city. Meeting with some billionaires.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Thanks Diane, now I am wondering if she is registered as a lobbyist in NYS.
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The WEEKLY STANDARD article puff piece infomercial promoting Campbell Brown …
http://www.weeklystandard.com/whos-afraid-of-campbell-brown/article/1070546
… sets new standards in blatant distortion,
selectivity, and bias. Reading this,
I’m taken back to Oprah introducing Michelle Rhee
as “the great warrior woman of our time,” or to that
masterpiece ‘WATING FOR SUPERMAN.’
In this article (BELOW) there’s not a
word about who’s funding Brown, let alone
the motives and intentions of those funders.
(SEE FURTHER BELOW for audio that sheds
some damning proof about Brown and her
billionaire backers… but first … )
According to this article, Brown’s just winging it by
herself — fighting the good fight against “the
status quo” and corrupt unions… all because
she just cares so much about kids and their education.
The NEW YORK POST has got nothing on this.
However, you have to appreciate the irony that
the same day this puffery comes out, there’s a release of
a wiretap in the Senator Dean Skelos corruption case …
in which Campbell Brown’s chicanery pops up …
chicanery that is, again, at odds with that godawful
article.
If you read the puff piece above, you’d never think that
Campbell was in high-end meetings with billionaire
privatizers, and that those billionaires are funding her,
meeting about how to “use tax credits” to expand
school privatization.
However, the tapes show otherwise. (And you can
easily listen to these relevant excerpts, as they’re just
22 seconds into an audio file that is embedded
conveniently above the text of the story.)
THE DEAN SKELOS TAPES:
http://wxxinews.org/post/revealing-recorded-conversations-form-part-prosecutions-case-skelos-trial
In many recordings, the corrupt-up-to-his-eyeballs
Senator Skelos was using his various wealthy connections
to score a high-paying, cushy job for his son Adam.
Pursuant to that end, he tells his son that he’s soon
attending a meeting about education reform …
Who’s going to be there?
” … a bunch of billionaires… and Campbell Brown.”
One of those attendees might offer Adam such a job, or
act as a conduit for Adam to obtain such a job.
Therefore, Adam wants their names.
Adam eagerly implores his father, “Dad, you’ve got to take
these names down for me.”
“I got ‘em all. I got ’em,” Skelos assures his son.
“All right,” replies his satisfied son.
So again, who are the attendees at this meeting?
Campbell Brown and a bunch of billionaires
pushing charter schools.
What’s one of the topics of the meeting?
How Campbell and the billionaires can
“use tax credits” to open or expand charter schools,
and ultimately profit from such privatization.
On the audio file embedded in the article:
( 00:21 – 00:51 )
http://wxxinews.org/post/revealing-recorded-conversations-form-part-prosecutions-case-skelos-trial
( 00:21 – 00:51 )
—————————————–
DEAN SKELOS: “I’m going into the city, meeting
with some billionaires … on school tax credit stuff – ”
ADAM SKELOS: “Who are you meeting with?
DEAN SKELOS: ” Campbell Brown.”
ADAM SKELOS: “Ohhh… ”
DEAN SKELOS: “Okay.”
ADAM SKELOS: “Any financial … people?”
DEAN SKELOS: “Yeah, you know the … uhh …
the reporter, former reporter (Campbell Brown)
… a whole bunch of them (i.e. billionaire charter promoters)
and I’m having lunch with a bunch of them.
Then I’m going to – ”
ADAM SKELOS: “Dad, you’ve gotta …
you’ve gotta take these names down for me.”
DEAN SKELOS: (laughin) “I got ’em all. I got ’em.”
ADAM SKELOS: “All right.”
———————————————–
Go here for the article and to listen to
above tape excerpt:
http://wxxinews.org/post/revealing-recorded-conversations-form-part-prosecutions-case-skelos-trial
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I hate to throw a pail of cold water on your supposition, but the “school tax credit stuff” wasn’t quite that exciting: http://nytimes.com/2015/05/18/nyregion/cuomo-promotes-tax-credits-for-families-of-students-at-private-schools.html
And you can rest easy–this credit was dropped from the budget omnibus bill.
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When I first wrote a response to this WEEKLY STANDARD puffery on Campbell Brown, I was totally unaware fact that the union-busting, privatizing Anschutz (see ABOVE) owned the WEEKLY STANDARD, and therefore basically ordered up this propaganda article like he was ordering a cheeseburger, with its writer, the WEEKLY STANDARD’s Mark Hemingway, acting as the print equivalent of Anschutz’ short-order cook.
Here’s what I wrote a couple days ago:
—————-
The WEEKLY STANDARD article puff piece infomercial promoting Campbell Brown …
http://www.weeklystandard.com/whos-afraid-of-campbell-brown/article/1070546
… sets new standards in blatant distortion,
selectivity, and bias. Reading this,
I’m taken back to Oprah introducing Michelle Rhee
as “the great warrior woman of our time,” or to that
masterpiece ‘WATING FOR SUPERMAN.’
————————————-
That parttcular “Rhee-is-a-warrior-woman” Oprah show included Rhee announcing the founding of STUDENTS FIRST (also backed by Anschutz and the other usual suspects) That show was actually or effectively one of five hour-long infomercials promoting ‘WAITING FOR SUPERMAN’ that Oprah did during the week when that Davis Guggenheim’s corporate reform propaganda-fest came out.
To quote Princess Leia, “I recognized that foul stench” a couple days ago.
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One more thing, Tim.
It’s a little more “exciting” than you think.
“School tax credits” are basically vouchers by another name, which accelerates the privatization of schools, the busting of unions who might oppose privatization, and, of course, moves otherwise public money and students from the the public commons to the private sctor, where those privately managed schools re unaccountable to the public, not transparent to the public, and who don’t educate all the public.
This drains away money for the public schools, effectively starving them of funding. This, in turn, triggers “failure” — a failure caused, or course by this starving of funding. This, in turn used to justify ending public education as we know it. The “status quo”, don’t you know, is just a “broken (public school) system” that “needs to be blown up.”
Charter schools, now constituted, are basically private schools with public money, with the only thing “public” about them is the public’s tax money that is funding them. They do, however, always invoke the cliche, “Charters schools are public schools, too. They’re just a different kind of public school.” By that logic, defense contractors like Westinghouse are not part of the private sector, but actually governmental entities like the police department.
The long game, according the some ed reform folks, is that once vouchers (under whatever name or euphemism is then in use) are fully legal, many or most charters will then convert themselves into fully private schools, and rid themselves of that yucky government oversight that forces them be embarrassed by the exposure their refusal to educate the most expensive and troublesome children —- Special Ed, English Languange Learners, homeless, behavior-problem kids, foster care, etc. — or their use of “Got-to-Go Lists” of kids to kick out so they can juice their test scores, and up their profits.
It’s a question I always ask: in the history of humanity, has any country ever improved its educational system by doing what Campbell Brown and the biillionaire corporate reformers are now pushing?
I can name two that tried: Chile — thanks to a 30-year dictatorship that allowed free-market Friedman-ites to run wild with a ruinous school privatization — and most recently, Sweden. Both have been unmitigated disasters. The government of Sweden even apologized for this, and is trying to reverse it. In Chile, now that freedom of speech has return, there are protests and riots calling for a return to a truly public system are a regular occurrence.
In Michael Moore’s next movie, WHO DO WE INVADE NEXT?, Moore carries a flag, then goes to European (and other) countries in a “one-man” invasion of these countries, where he tries to find “ideas” that he can then steal and bring back for use in the United States.
On the topic of education, Moore “invades” Finland — whose high school students score the top in the world in the international PISA test. Finland has the most successful education system on Earth, and it does so BY DOING EVERYTHING EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT THE U.S. CORPORATE REFORMERS ARE TRYING TO DO HERE.
Moore asks teachers and students, “You mean the government doesn’t mandate hundreds of hours of multiple choice tests to your students?”
… and they bust out laughing, shaking their heads. “I can’t believe that you (the U.S) do that,” one teacher (or student, I forget) replies.
“And you don’t use the results of those tests to close the school and turn it over to businessmen to run?”
More laughter.
One student interviewed in a group that Moore interviews actually spent three years in the U.S., being educated at a public school actually. When asked what he disliked about those school he attended, he shot back, “The tests! Those kind of tests don’t tell you anything! They’re a stupid waste of time. Here in Finland, we know how to give tests.”
Moore then goes into detail about everything that Finnish educators do engage in.
What’s funny about this is what Moore did has already been done by corporate reformers and their politician allies, in very public fact-finding visits. They just totally ignore what they see.
Jennifer “Edushyster” Berkshire writes about how corporate reformers on the Finland junkets promptly dismiss everything they witness while visiting Finland’s “stunningly successful educational system.” People like Rick Hess have a dual-personality approach. We should pay attention to the international tests that show the U.S. lags behind Finland — using it as a justification for school privatization — but totally ignore how Finland actually does it — again, DOING EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT HESS AND THE PRIVATIZING CORPORATE REFORMERS ARE DOING:
Read Edushyster’s article, “Learning (Absolutely Nothing) from Finland”:
http://edushyster.com/learning-absolutely-nothing-from-finland/
EDUSHYSTER:
We have a lot to learn from Finland’s stunning educational success story—such as how they narrowed a once significant achievement gap (saavutus kuilu in Finnish) to the size of a small crevasse without using a single patented #edreform strategy. I mean, come on Finns! Everyone who is anyone knows that the only way to improve public schools is to close them, hand them over to private operators and fire LOTS of teachers.
And don’t even think about taking on an issue as complex and weighty as addressing education inequities without the heft of a corporate-funded education reform movement behind you.
What’s that Finland???
There’s no such thing as Teach for Finland?
OK, but you have StudentsFinst right? FinCan?
The Finnish Federation of Students?
Stand for Finnish Children? What about Demokraatit
För Koulutuksen Uudistusta, or FFER (Finns For Education Reform)?
Well you MUST have a totally grassroots movement which has emerged spontaneously on college campuses across Finland devoted to eliminating tenure for teachers, or hallintaoikeus as the kids call it. What’s that Finland? You don’t have any of these???
Permit me to make use of Google translator to communicate the following to you:
“Tässä ei ole mitään vitun järkeä!”
Now just because we happen to know that the Fins have absolutely nothing to teach us doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t go there to see for ourselves what isn’t important. My favorite recent example of this new breed of edu traveler comes from a Dr. Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, widely regarded in corporate reform circles as a deep thinker. Dr. Hess had the opportunity to visit Finland last month to assess their secret ‘edu-sauce’ for himself and came away less than impressed. Among Hess’ “insights” (which I suspected arrived courtesy of a great deal of Koskenkorva) are these:
Beer, wine, and booze are so ridiculously expensive that teens can’t even afford to drink. (Hell, adult Finns hop on ferries to Stockholm and Tallinn just to stock up, because the taxes on alcohol are so punishing.)
The country averages about eight hours of sunlight a day from September to March, leaving a whole lot of time for studying and related indoor pursuits.
Finland has a sauna for every two or three citizens. I’m not exactly sure what to make of that, but it suggests that there are some pretty profound differences between Finland and the U.S., other than how we train teachers.
In fact, Dr. Hess came away from his trip “reminded why I have so little faith in the whole breathless industry of international comparisons.”
What????
I wish you would have told me that before I ordered “U.S. Education Reform and National Security” by Joel Klein and Condoleeza Rice about how the demise of our once great nation is imminent—unless policy leaders move quickly to open more charter schools and fire LOTS of teachers.
Closer to home, members of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education recently toured Finland in search of tips and lessons to ignore once they returned home. MBAE chief Linda Noonan, who has spent the last two years waging tireless campaigns to slash the health benefits received by the state’s teachers, and tie their evaluations to student test scores, was struck by two mysterious ingredients in Finnish edu-sauce:
Respect – Schools and teachers are highly respected and respect each other. In fact, teaching is a top choice as a profession – in part, [our guide] explained, because it is one where people can enjoy a good quality of life.
Good pay – Although salaries are not terribly high (he said they don’t compare with law or medicine), they are considered good ones. According to [our guide], a principal earns as much as “a member of Parliament” but doesn’t get the same perks or benefits as a legislator.
Like I said, we have absolutely nothing to learn from the Finns…
(PICTURE OF STUDENTS AT DESKS)
Finnish students prepare to take a high-stakes Finn-dardized test. According to Finnish educational custom, their teacher will be exiled to Greenland should the students score poorly on the exam.
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I just noticed the comments from Edushyster’s Finland article, and two of them nailed it on the head — especially the first one.
Hess and Co. are not ignoring what the Finns do in education because they think it will not work, but because while it most certainly does work — obviously, as the proof is irrefutable — adopting Finnish methods do not lead to profits, as they do not treat either children or education as a commodity.
Here are those comments:
==================
Dianne Khan October 13, 2012 at 9:57 am
“Certain people don’t want to learn anything from places like Finland because the Finns do not use education as a commodity and a profit-making opportunity, but hold dear that it should be free and provided equally to all.
“Where’s the profit in that?”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Nina Smith October 17, 2012 at 3:31 am
“Delightful. I was about to choke on my coffee when I saw the google translation – just because translations seldom are as exact and good as this one was. 🙂
“Transferring a culture, or an educational system is certainly complicated or even impossible. However, parts of Finnish education success could easily be adopted: treating teachers as education professionals who actually DO know how to support and facilitate their students learning (many teachers have a masters degree or are pursuing it), or the idea how learning is more important than testing (I know, there is not much profit there either, especially if the testing businesses go bankrupt).
“But GERM (Global Education Reform Movement – concept of Pasi Sahlberg) is reality. Its first signs are the testing craze and requirement for school choices.
“Sounds familiar?
“Something must be done, asap. Pedagogy is probably the easiest thing to change. My suggestion is to start to teach students about choosing (this introduces extended degree of freedom, but also holds them accountable for their choices), build a non-punitive assessment system to support good choices (feedback loops to support their learning process) and stop thinking the end result (i.e. learning a product) is everything that matters.
“After all, we don’t learn for school, but for life. Right? Information about how to do this:
http://notesfromnina.wordpress.com/
“
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I stand up to our Pearson folks in our school. I do mention Diane’s blog. The Pearson ( works for a sub company of Pearson) swore her name was Diana! I know. Thank you, Diane, for all you do for us teachers.
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