This is a striking story about a group called Democrats for Education Reform, known as DFER. It was created in 2005 by hedge fund managers Whitney Tilson and John Petry. They held their first meeting in a plush apartment in New York City owned by another hedge fund manager, Ravenel Boykin Curry IV. Their speaker that evening was a brilliant young senator from Illinois named Barack Obama. In the past 11 years, they have funneled millions of dollars into state and local elections to elect candidates who support charter schools. They endorse Republicans and Democrats alike, so long as they support charter schools.
In New York State, they have supported Republican control of the State Senate and Governor Cuomo, as well as any Democrat who is charter friendly. Now comes news that DFER has decided to spend serious money to flip control of the State Senate to Democrats this fall. This is a strategic effort to hedge their bets, in case the Democrats sweep the state in 2016. DFER can’t risk losing control of the Senate. They know the Republicans will support school choice without their money.
Chris Bragg of the Albany Times-Union has the story.
Supporters of charter schools have had no stauncher ally in Albany than state Senate Republicans.
So why is a prominent national charter group saying it will spend money this year to try to flip the chamber to Democrats — many of whom were elected with the strong support of teachers unions, charters’ frequent nemeses?
“We understand the dynamic and the shift in the state Senate,” Nicole Brisbane, the New York director of Democrats for Education Reform, said in an interview last week. “We’re playing a long game.”
As the demographics of New York shift more and more toward Democrats — and Republicans continue to hang on to their Senate majority by a thread — there’s a growing sense that charter supporters need to “cultivate change in the hearts and minds” of the Democratic conference, Brisbane said.
DFER recently created an independent expenditure committee, called Moving New York Families Forward, that can raise and spend unlimited amounts. The charter backers will support pro-charter Senate Democrats in some general election races against Republicans this year, Brisbane said.
Informed of DFER’s strategy, other charter supporters reacted with skepticism and surprise.
“The expectation that State Senate Democrats will have goodwill towards education reform priorities is misplaced,” said one person heavily involved in education reform politics and policy.
“The only thing that will get accomplished is angering DFER’s true allies, Senate Republicans.”
As indicated by the group’s title, Democrats for Education Reform backs Democratic candidates across the country.
But in New York, that’s largely meant backing charter-supporting Democrats in primaries, not going after Republicans in general elections. And it doesn’t appear that any charter group has ever openly stated an intention to flip the Senate to Democratic control.
In 2010, DFER and its deep-pocketed donors — a number of whom have made hedge-fund fortunes — were heavily involved in backing challengers in New York City to three Democratic senators aligned with the teachers unions. All the charter-backing candidates lost soundly. After the election, the United Federation of Teachers issued a report calling the group “a letterhead stacked with super-rich backers.”
Now the union and DFER are putatively on the same side of the Senate
battle.
Brisbane said it was too early in the fundraising process to say how much would be spent. And she declined to say which districts the group will target in the general election, which means it’s not clear how much vulnerable Republicans would be impacted. (DFER is also set to back two New York City Assembly Democrats who are supportive of charters.)
Brisbane acknowledged that many members of the Senate Democratic conference don’t currently support her group’s stands — such as expanding the numbers of charter schools — but wants to make sure “more and more of them are championing our issues.” That list also includes increasing accountability through testing, another point of contention with the teachers union, and “Raise the Age” legislation increasing the age of criminal responsibility.
The Republican majority currently depends on the support of a Brooklyn Democrat, Simcha Felder, who conferences with them. And in a presidential election year, Democrats are likely to pick up seats in November, although they will still need to woo the five-member Independent Democratic Conference to join them to have a majority.
DFER’s new strategy “gives them protection for their agenda if the Senate goes Democratic without their help,” said Diane Ravitch, a prominent education historian and frequent critic of the charter movement. “If they get their favored candidates elected, then it doesn’t matter who controls the State Senate.”
Leadership of DFER has also shifted: Shavar Jeffries, who in 2014 lost a high-profile race for mayor of Newark, N.J., with the strong backing of charter supporters, became the group’s national president a year ago.
In recent election cycles, the New York State United Teachers union has spent millions to attain Democratic control of the Senate. NYSUT has endorsed mostly Democrats in swing districts this year. But with the fate of the Senate uncertain, NYSUT is also hedging its bets and supporting a Republican incumbent for a competitive Hudson Valley seat, while giving maximum $109,000 contributions to each side of the Senate battle.
Another pro-charter group, New Yorkers For a Balanced Albany, spent millions to help Senate Republicans in 2014 and again spent heavily to help Republican Senate candidate Chris McGrath in a May special election on Long Island; that race was narrowly won by Democrat Todd Kaminsky.
StudentsFirstNY, another New York City-based pro-charter group, runs that campaign group.
Brisbane, the New York director of DFER, insisted that some deep-pocketed donors supporting StudentsFirstNY — and Republican control of the Senate — would also give to her group backing Democratic control.
According to campaign finance records, there has been some overlap in the past between the groups’ donors.
For instance, DFER’s federal political action committee took a donation in 2015 from hedge fund magnate Daniel Loeb, who also gave $100,000 in June to the StudentsFirstNY campaign group. The executive director for StudentsFirst also gave last year to DFER.
A spokesman for StudentsFirst declined comment on DFER’s support of a Democratic Senate takeover.
Despite the fact that many Senate Republicans do not have many charter schools in their districts — the schools are concentrated in New York City — the conference has been a staunch supporter of their major financial backers. In the final hours of this year’s legislative session, for instance, the Republican-controlled Senate demanded a number of concessions for charter schools in exchange for granting New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio a one-year extension of mayoral control of city schools.
An open question in this year’s Senate races is the degree to which Gov. Andrew Cuomo — a charter supporter who has received major support from DFER donors — will act to help his fellow Democrats win the Senate. Critics of Cuomo say he has given them lukewarm support in past election cycles in order to maintain his close working relationship with the Senate GOP.
Brisbane said her group’s support of Democrats should not be read as an indication of Cuomo’s own intentions.
“We are supporters of the governor and of Democrats who support this issue,” she said, “but have not coordinated with him on this push.”
As a lifelong Democrat who is barely identifying as a D lately thanks to our national party’s bent toward the privateers, I hope someone starts a new group, maybe in a normal living room or kitchen instead a penthouse:
Democrats-Aligned-with Republicans-for-Public-Schools! (DARPS)
I have learned to really appreciate Republicans in my town who believe the same things we do about public schools— maybe DARPS can make a DFERence!
I had the same experience with Republican public school parents. We worked on a funding campaign – a levy.
The one thing we agreed on was President Obama and Governor Kasich have been bad for public schools. They’re political orphans.
Agree with Bert and Chiara…and we have the same here in California where some liberal Republicans, e.g. those who voted for Huntsman, do not think like their current party leaders, and they support public schools. Some are Latino Repubs who understand how much public ed serves their community. They are ALL voting for Hillary hoping she will not sell us out and support the charters she always lauds.
The DFERs have made me question why I should remain a lifelong Dem rather than become a Declines to State, but in my state, that means I am precluded from voting in the primaries for President. The huge group in California of Dems who did change to Independents caused Bernie to lose in our state since their votes for him were not counted. It was a ‘steal’ for Hillary and Trump. As the most populace state in the Union, these votes could have put Bernie over the top and he would be our candidate now.
Dems like Debbie W-S and Schumer are a disgrace…and Tilson, Broad, etc. are really Reps in Dem clothing, also interested only in money and power. If you want to have perpetual nausea, subscribe to Tilson’s report.
Do you mean Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah who ran for President in 2012?
He DOES NOT SUPPORT public education. He signed the voucher law in 2006 as Utah’s governor. It took a huge effort to get a initiative passed to get rid of vouchers. He may “seem liberal” to a lot of people, but he’s the same garbage when it comes to supporting public education.
Thanks for the info on Huntsman, Threatened. An eye opener for me.
Wow! Now we’ll have to watch carefully which Dem’s get DFER money and FLOOD those legislators with emails and mount protests in their home districts to make sure their constituents know who is calling the shots.
Yet another example of why campaign finance reform is so desperately needed in NYS.
Did anyone really know what Obama believed in when he was elected? I don’t hate him but the past 8 years have been a real eye opener as to what he stands for and believes in.
DFER’s policy…
Buy a willing Republican who throws the public and public education under the bus.
Now buy a Democrat who is willing to do the same.
Hence…Clinton, who speaks to massage the “hopes” of her supporters vs. Trump/Pence who support privatization…
The “hedging of the market”.
This is the manipulation of those who were elected to support the “citizen’s” platform, with the ultimate goal of profit and control, while destroying the lives of so many.
The people of our nation must be made aware of the true nature of those seeking representative office.
It should be viewed as it is…a subversion of our democracy.
A crime perpetrated against the United States…
…Punishable by fact
…punishable by law.
DFER? No. DINO (Dimocrats in Name Only), appropriate as well for their antediluvian politics.
Leftie’s Urban Dictionary
The ‘D’ section
DFERent (adj.) not logical
I hear they want to open a charter school in that windowless office building. That’s DFERent!
DINOsaur (n.) someone who still thinks charter scams are public schools
Bernie has a lot of youth supported views, but when he said he supported public charter schools, he was acting like a real DINOsaur.
DINO-sore (adj.) the hissy fit way a hedge hund manager acts when he doesn’t get to fleece the public
Just because you didn’t get to take that baby’s candy, Whitney, you don’t have to get all DINO-sore.
Leftie dear…please add Paul’s new word of description to your Dictionary.
“Dimocrarts”….love all these and will start to use them.
DINOcrat (n.) a snake oil salesperson who inexplicably claims to be interested in politics
See Eli Broad.
Add “Dimocraps”
Far be it from me to second guess the Best and The Brightest, but education reformers would get a much friendlier hearing from public school supporters if they occasionally used all that money and clout to benefit existing public schools.
I actually think it’s a measure of what an echo chamber this movement is that it never occurs to them to offer something that benefits existing public schools along with the incessant charter/voucher promotions.
It’s been 15 years. People were bound to notice this “movement” doesn’t seem to be about improving public schools- they rarely mention public schools.
This just never occurs to them. It must be unimaginable to them that anyone could actually value an existing public school.
Why would any public school parent support this “movement”? It’s like an endless stream of downside for public schools. If they’re not scolding us they’re cutting funding or hatching grand plans to eradicate our schools completely. I’d be nuts to support these people.
Chiara…what would we do without you? Your continual level headed suggestions, and research into the issues with accurate assessments, makes me wonder why you do not run for office in your state? You would be a refreshingly capable and informed legislator.
I agree with Ellen, see below.
Time to vote against any Democrat who supports charters, Hopefully in primaries first.
I know that Senators name from somewhere. That guy who met with the hedge fund barons. Barack Obama. Hey, isn’t he the guy who for last Teacher Appreciation Week directly and purposefully failed to express appreciation for public school teachers? I think it is.
This is the kind of thing that made so many of us support Bernie. The big money people have taken over so very much of our government. The Republicans completely. The Democrats, way too much.
Bernie pushed Hillary to the Left during the debates. Hopefully IF we make our voices heard loud enough we can save our nation from disaster.
Trump would, as most knowledgeable people know, be a disaster. George W shaped this country in such a negative way that we will never recover completely. Trump would finish the job.
And sadly, we must add that Obama built on Baby Bush’s faulty extreme actions by increasing the powers of the Executive with strengthening the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act, expanding exec signing, surrounding himself with the worst Wall Street deregulators of the Clinton/Bush eras, and of course, with using his basketball buddy Arne, to kill off pubic ed in favor of privatizing our schools for investment opportunity.
Who knows what goes on in such meetings (Obama or any politician with hedge-fund barons).
I do know this, however: The hybrid model that Obama applies to public concerns–hybrid between government funding and privateer-“barons” as manager-self-regulators (in education and in health care)–will only work well when the “barons” don’t see that hybrid model as an invitation to the fox (themselves) to live in the chicken house (a democratic commonwealth/of-for-by the people).
As a politician and a pragmatist, that’s probably all that Obama could get away with, considering the forces that have piled up against him since the day he was elected. History will tell THAT tale, however. The question now is: where do we go from here? And, should she be elected, will Hilary be knowledgeable enough and able to carry the ball forward in what we mean by “forward”?
And Catherine…wouldn’t it be revealing if we could hear what Hillary had to say to the Goldman Sachs plutocrats when they paid her a fortune to speak to their robber baron group?
Sad.
To Ellen Lubic who said: “wouldn’t it be revealing if we could hear what Hillary had to say to the Goldman Sachs plutocrats when they paid her a fortune to speak to their robber baron group?”
. . . where is that guy, anyway–the one used his cell phone to film Romney talking about the 47 percent?
To give Obama his due, however, I do believe that his over-use of executive orders was a response to a totally rejectionist Congress. How else, we can ask, could he ever get anything done? Frankly, I don’t know how he has put up with it as long as he has.
Agree with you Catherine re Obama and his use of exec orders. McConnell should rot in the desert for his stance from day one, to obstruct everything that Obama proposed. Federal judges still, after 8 years, have not been approved.
Reblogged this on Matthews' Blog.
I rewrote and simplified what ii that “DARPS” stands for #DemocratAndRepublicansforPublicSchools)
The DFER’s have systematically sought out those in power to push their agenda on the United States.
From the Clintons in Arkansas to Barack Obama…from Cuomo to Christie to Booker to Walker to Pence…to local legislators like Shavar Jeffries….all politically ambitious, holding a desire for wealth and power, each gifted somewhat in tongue or willingness to destroy others for self-preservation…each became a magnet for the privatization movement by using deception against those who they had sworn to protect.
These are individuals (they disgrace the title of democrat or republican), and in reality, ele sent a unique, but not uncommon, type of criminal as they use the powers of the office they hold to run hand in hand with the privatization movement.
Thus, a win-win situation for them, as the American people lose…with the their God given rights of life and liberty.
These individuals are the lowest form of humanity…as they have the ability to look into the eyes of a child, and steal public education right out from under that child’s feet.
In New York State the Democrats are in firm control of the Assembly (110 out of 150 seats) … the Senate is complex, the five members of the Independent Democratic Coalition (IDC) caucus with the Republicans – sort of, depending on the issue … there currently is a cap on the number of charter schools that will not be reached for a number of years … and … the Democratic supporters of charter schools are minority members.
Cuomo rarely, our governor, although a Democrat, rarely endorses local candidates – he never hold press conferences – and has no core values – his only value is what benefits his career.
When the dust clears after November 8th I believe the Democrats will have a majority in the State Senate – whether that translates into a Democratic leader will probably not play out until the Senate returns in January.
The major education issues in NYS currently are opt outs, testing, teacher evaluation and the inequitable funding formula … charter schools is well down the list
Mets2006,
Wasn’t that the year Wainwright struck out Beltran with that mind-bending Uncle Charlie??
See:
Diane, I just read in the on line Washington Post that Bill Clinton was paid more than $17 million to be a consultant and honorary chancellor of a for-profit university chain. It is called Laureate International Universities. I read the article, which seeks to plumb the connections between and among the State Department and the Clinton Foundation. What I find most disturbing is not that, but the fact that a university can pay someone such a staggering sum. Clinton and others are making a fortune in education. What do you think?
Kathleen,
I have contempt for for-profit universities. I think they are a scam.
I read yesterday that Hillary just hired two very vocal critics of for-profit higher education to advise her. The industry is nervous.
Hillary put Rohit Chopra on her transition team. He is a well known critic of for profit higher education
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/08/31/clinton-names-profit-critic-transition-team
Wherein a group of high-profile ed reformers tell the Wall Street Journal that school boards and public school governance are officially obsolete:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/charter-schools-are-reinventing-local-control-in-education-1473115997
The arrogance is mind-boggling.
Imagine if ed reform politicians ran on what they believe and what they plan to do. State constitutions go out the window, whole sections of state code stricken, all existing public schools gone- pronounced “obsolete” by declaration of unelected pundits.
There isn’t a single state legislator in Ohio that would be elected on this agenda. Not one. I would pay to attend the meeting in this town where they dissolve the school board by decree and attempt to collect local taxes without local representation. They would be out of office so fast their heads would spin.
I love how they don’t even bother to rewrite state code. Lawmakers are irrelevant. The rightness of their vision will come about with no democratic mechanism of any kind.
This is why we shouldn’t run around telling these people they’re the “best and the brightest”. They start to believe it.
The Obama Administration are heading out on another tour of friendly audiences and people who adopted their whole agenda.
Tennessee and New Orleans. Those are the acceptable ed reform areas, so that’s where they’re going. They plan to remain hermetically sealed within the ed reform echo chamber for the entirety of the President’s two terms, I guess.
I wonder if they’ll venture into an actual public school, despite the risk of encountering a member of a labor union or some other mediocre and icky… people.
“Ideology”
See Duane Swacker for definition.
Dastardly autocorrect!
“Idiology”
Easy, Akademos:
Idiology (n.) a) Ideology based on errors, falsehoods and invalidities. b) The ideology of idiots.
John King @JohnKingatED Sep 5
#LaborDay is an important time to remember and honor those who gave us the 40-hour work week, safety rules and other worker protections.”
They’re afraid to say “union” in the Obama Administration. Those mysterious entities who “gave us” those things with an incredibly violent decades-long battle that cost some of them their lives.
They act like it was a rule change in the federal register 😉
All very polite and civilized. “Employee voice”. They simply asked for rights politely and employers were happy to oblige!
I first heard about DFER in connection with Students for Ed Reform (SFER), which has had a presence on my campus and has recruited many students to the charterization/marketization cause under the pretense of being an organic, grass-roots student group while obscuring connections to monied interests (hence, “Astroturf Activism”. See the following article: https://www.thenation.com/article/astroturf-activism-who-behind-students-education-reform/
I first heard of DFER as the funders behind SFER (Students for Ed Reform), which has been active on our campus. Here’s an article from The Nation about this group, a good example of “astroturf [as opposed to grassroots] activisim”: https://www.thenation.com/article/astroturf-activism-who-behind-students-education-reform/
Media-labeled, “progressive”, Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown didn’t find the charter school corruption in Ohio until this summer, despite years of newspaper reports. His current position is against “for-profits” but, support for other charters, like those under the auspices of the Fordham Institute (the Waltons et.al., fund Fordham). When is Brown going to stop delaying and endorse his fellow Ohio Democrat for Senate? Or, are there Democratic representatives and senators, who see a personal advantage in a Republican majority in the House and Senate? If a Democratic politician wants to help the rich, but needs votes from the middle class and poor to win, they can wring their hands, look chagrined, and achieve nothing for the people, if Congress remains Republican.
It is difficult to fight charter people. In St.;louis I documented that the state took over the schools in 2007, and the appointed board has remained in place for nine years….long enough to increase the the charter student number from 6000 to 10,500…while simultaneously reducing the overall student population by 10,000. (that loss of students reduced the annual budget from between 100 to 150 million dollars a year—the board brags about balancing the budget. In 2007, the mayor’s office still has a FAQ about charters, bragging about the fact that they had a student population which was 87 % black.
Now, in 2016—the ten thousand five hundred charter students are 70 percent black. the remaining 14,500 are more than 90 percent black.
I think that amounts to 2 school districts…..separate but unequal.
No one will check my numbers. No one cares.
I have found a talented author….I will write to her, with my documentation…..she has a particular interest in segregation issues…..maybe she can help others here…..Nikole-Hannah-Jones, author of School Segregation, the Continuing Tragedy of Ferguson.
In the article she talks about how st. louis county schools were ready to fight de-segregation in the 80’s……and quickly dropped it when noise was made about combining all 25 of their county’s districts…..that would have been more integration than they were ready for. It still is.