Donald Cohen is a specialist in the study of privatization. He reports regularly on his online site “In the Public Interest.”
This article appeared on Huffington Post.
He points out that pro-charter forces based in Wall Street spend more than $2 million on ads during the Olympics that were beamed to viewers in Massachusetts.
The purpose of the ads was to promote Question 2, the expansion of privately managed charters in Massachusetts.
The ads are deceptive, pretending that the vote is about improving public schools when it is about diverting funding from public schools to charters.
Cohen notes that the surprising victory of public school supporters in Nashville should give hope to their peers in Massachusetts. The same corporate forces backed a pro-charter slate in Nashville and lost, despite an overwhelming advantage in funding.
Supporters of public schools in Massachusetts, keep up your organizing and tell the public the facts about Question 2 to combat the propaganda on television. #NoOn2
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It isn’t just “pro charter forces on Wall Street. Read any ed reform site or ed reformer.
It’s all charters, all the time:
https://twitter.com/PCunningham57
It’s an endless litany of the problems in public schools and 100% cheerleading for charters. These aren’t “lobbyists”. They’re people who work or worked in the Obama Administration. They run public school policy- right now. Today.
The influence of the finance sector on ed reform is undeniable, but it’s bigger than “influence”. People in government sound exactly the same as the Wall Street funders. The capture has already happened.
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Here’s what I would need to see. Show me one ed reformer in government who has publicly disagreed with the funders of these campaigns. Show me one.
We keep saying this is”Wall Street” but there’s no difference between Wall Street’s vision for public schools and DC’s vision for public schools. It’s literally a private sector/public sector collaboration. They’re all on the same page.
Go to the Wal Mart foundation site right now- it could be the US Department of Education. There’s not a dime’s worth of difference.
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Diane our wonderful Lower Merion public schools are suddenly the target of a lawsuit seeking to strip our school board of power. The plaintiffs already won the first level, arguing that the school board was “stealing” taxpayer dollars for our schools. These plaintiffs are very powerful and openly stated in their complaint that they want our excellent public schools stripped down to the barest basics required by our state. Help!!!
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Jane, I wish I knew what to tell you. Get your electeds to help.
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From the article “But there’s hope. In Nashville earlier this month, we shut out Wall Street. The pro-charter organization Stand for Children, which has received money from private equity investors including Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, spent $750,000 to back four pro-charter school board candidates. All four lost.”
Where can we read more details on this? (Like which school boards are we talking about?)
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Details are in the linked article in the piece: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/politics/pro-charter-school-group-sees-its-candidates-lose-local-races–392e1a8c-b3c3-2f65-e053-0100007f12e9-389256211.html
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