Wow! I have seen billionaires put money into elections on behalf of charter schools around the country, but this one takes the cake.
Alice Walton and Jim Walton of Arkansas really want Massachusetts to have more charter schools. They must be very unhappy that the public schools of the Bay State are #1 in the nation. Clearly, the state needs disruption and market forces to shake up its highly successful school system.
Mercedes Schneider writes that the two Waltons gave $1.828,770 to the campaign in Massachusetts to increase the number of charters in the state by a dozen a year in perpetuity.
Mercedes writes:
According to the September 09, 2016, filing of the Massachusetts ballot committee, Yes on 2, billionaire Arkansas resident Alice Walton is one of two individuals providing the $710,100 in funding to promote MA Question 2, raising the charter school cap.
Alice Walton provided $710,000.
A second contributor, Massachusetts resident Frank Perullo provided $100 in order to establish the committee.
And then, the Alice Walton cash was moved to another Question 2 ballot committee: $703,770.29 of Alice Walton’s Yes on 2 committee money was expended to fund Question 2 ballot committee, Campaign for Fair Access to Quality Public Schools, where it was combined with billionaire Arkansas resident Jim Walton’s contribution of $1,125,000, thus making the total Walton contribution to the two committees $1,835,000 (and total Walton contribution to the latter committee, $1,828,770.29).
The Campaign for Fair Access total on its Sept 09, 2016, filing was $2,292,183 for 43 contributors– with 79 percent of that money ($1,828,770 / $2,292,183) arriving from two out-of-state billionaires.
In other words, 95 percent of contributors (41 out of 43) provided only 21 percent of the total funding on the Campaign for Fair Access Sept 2016 report.
I can almost hear the conversation between Alice and Jim:
“You buy this Massachusetts ballot committee, and I’ll buy that one.”
“Done.”
The Waltons are not the only out-of-state billionaires using their wealth to influence the charter cap in a state in which they do not reside. According to the September 09, 2016, filing of the Question 2 ballot committee, Great Schools Massachusetts, other out-of-state billionaire/lobbying nonprofit contributors include the following:
John Arnold (Texas), $250,000
Michael Bloomberg (New York), $240,000
Education Reform Now (ERN) Advocacy (New York), $250,000
Families for Excellent Schools (FES) Advocacy (New York), $5,750,000
She points out that the lobbying groups need not report their donors, so no one will know which billionaires chipped in to the campaign to privatize the public schools of Massachusetts.
This is a disgusting display of oligarchs undermining not only public education but democracy.
People of Massachusetts, send the Waltons and their ill-gotten gains, squeezed out of the wages of underpaid employees at Walmart, back to Arkansas. Let them fix their own state’s low-performing schools. Tell them to go away by voting NO on Proposition 2 on November 8.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Clearly, the state needs disruption and market forces to shake up its highly successful school system.”
I wouldn’t consider MA’s 404 separate school districts to be a “school system” (whether “highly successful or not has not been determined when so many students are being lost in the standards and testing regime). The confusing and conflating of those 404 separately run and democratically controlled districts into one “system” serves to befuddle the dialogue. Considering that this “system” that is supposedly “highly successful” as defined by COMPLETELY INVALID standardized test scores, we are just feeding the edudeformer monster meme of “gubmint monopoly” nonsense by using “highly successful school system.
Try as you may, to pull out the stop plug and drain out the waste,
of the “test score rabbit hole (cultural habitus)”, the people who conflate their personal identity with “badges” derived from
“test scores” keep on “ticking and ticking”, while the premise of
choice meme (democratically controlled) produces the
uni-directional flow of concentrated wealth and power.
“In this alternate universe solutions to global warming, the threat of nuclear weapons, never-ending wars fought to control economic resources and the just distribution of political and economic power are always but one election away.” Rob Urie – And the Ship Goes Down
How can the Waltons claim to care about the education of poor kids, when this is what they’re paying those same kids’ parents?
https://www.glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/Walmart-Hourly-Pay-E715.htm
Sales Associate
1,311 salaries
$9.36
hourly
$7
$15
Walmart Cashier
900 salaries
$9.20
hourly
$7
$17
Guest Service Team Member – Cashier
715 salaries
$9.10
hourly
$7
$13
Wal Mart Cashier
566 salaries
$9.16
hourly
No, this support of Question 2 is so that, eventually, they’ll replace traditional public schools with schools of their own, where they’ll be paying teachers the same amount — or as close to that amount as they possibly can without parents rioting. And the Walmart family bosses will pocket the rest.
There’s a lot more about the Walmart Waltons. From Forbes, “Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion in Public Assistance.
“Walmart told analysts last year that the company has captured 18 percent of the SNAP market,” it reads. “Using that figure, we estimate that the company accounted for $13.5 billion out of $76 billion in food stamp sales in 2013.”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/#371482317cd8
In short, American tax payers are subsidizing Walmart’s low wages.
Thanks for that info, Jack.
I would “like” the comment but that’s just too sad to like.
This is a remarkable example of investigative reporting. Now these dismal facts should be leveraged to say a big fat NO to the billionaires who hate democratic governance and the public functions of authentic public schools. Say no to the takeover of public education by pushers of corporate charter schools.
I forgot the link! It is now there: http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2016/09/10/arkansas-residents-jim-and-alice-walton-pony-up-1835000-to-raise-charter-cap-in-massachusetts/
Where is Elizabeth Warren?
Why isn’t she making this an issue? Are we about to find out that she has been as co opted by the billionaires as Obama?
It’s funny that people come down so hard on Hillary Clinton while Elizabeth Warren is showing her true colors — she does not care one iota about privatization public education nor listening to public school parents.
I’m starting to see why Trump is getting votes. The Democrats are appalling and Warren could stop this in its tracks. Why isn’t she fighting this loudly and constantly during every single speech and media appearance?
MA activists have been pressing Warren to take a stand against charters, but she has yet to do so. Could be due to the influence of her educational staffer, Josh Delaney, who was TFA. Many on Capitol Hill have staffers whose salaries are paid for by TFA.
But that’s outrageous! Does she not pay attention? It is inexcusable that she has been co opted like this. Education is IMPORTANT. It isn’t some obscure issue she has an excuse for not knowing more about. It sounds like she is afraid to take a stand, which is the same as being co opted by the billionaires.
Mayor de Blasio is one of the few Dems willing to flout the establishment. He seems to be the real heir to Bernie, not people like Sen. Warren. If she can’t manage a position on something this important, she makes her position clear. She doesn’t want to oppose the reformers. I thought she spoke truth to power, but I guess I was misled.
I hope the people who believe in public education will get behind a campaign to support the only Dem I have seen with any backbone. Mayor de Blasio. With friends like Elizabeth Warren, who needs enemies?
I think this link should provide a listing of contributions constituting the $6,777,696.00 contributed by those opposing the ballot question:
http://www.ocpf.us/Reports/DisplayReport?menuHidden=true&id=584044#schedule-a
Stephen,
As Mercedes Schneider reported on her blog, the NEA and AFT and many teachers contributed to the defeat of Question 2. They have skin in the game. They know that charters will eliminate unions and their members in Massachusetts will lose their rights. The hedge funders and billionaires and businesses put up twice as much money (you forgot to mention that). What skin do they have in the game? Why are they so eager to send money from New York City and Arkansas to tell the people of Massachusetts what to do? Why should the Waltons send $1.8 million (so far) to influence Massachusetts voters?
As the folks in Nashville found out
recently, this sort of outrage is
also an opportunity for the folks fighting
Question 2.
As in ju-jitsu, you use your opponent’s
strength AGAINST HIM or HER.
During Steve Zimmer’s campaign, Zimmer used
the fact that all this out-of-state money was coming
in — $1 million from Bloomberg alone — against
his corporate ed. reform puppet/opponent, Kate
Anderson:
“To whom do your schools belong,
out-of-state billionaires who don’t even live here
whose kids and/or grandkids don’t attend schools here?
“Or you, the citizens and taxpayers and parents
of children who attend these schools?”
This tactic was working so well, and
was getting such traction that when
I went door-knocking, I barely said a word before
the homeowner replied,
“Whoever’s the candidate who’s running against
the one that Bloomberg gave all that
money to, THAT’S who I’m voting for.”
It even got to the point were two corporate reform
former School Board members, Yolie Flores and
Marlene Canter, put out an op-ed trying to reverse
this highly successful effort.
(and as they say in court, or in politics…
“When you’re defending, your losing.
When you’re explaining, your losing.”)
Here’s that attempt to counter Steve’s tactic:
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20130301/marlene-canter-and-yolie-flores-in-lausd-board-race-enough-with-insiders-vs-outsiders
Teacher/activist Martha Infante fired back at this in the
COMMENTS section (deleted shortly afterwords, btw):
INFANTE: “The teachers union is not the Borg. We are tens
of thousands of men and women who have chosen
to dedicate our lives to serving our youth.
“We are your husbands, wives, brothers and sisters. We
are your children, cousins, nephews an nieces. We are
people.
“What Flores and Canter choose to overlook is that the
will of Los Angeles residents should not be subverted by
any ONE wealthy individual from across the country. Unlike
teachers, Mike Bloomberg does not live in our city, pay
our taxes. or work in our classrooms.
“Teachers make meager contributions to school board
candidates they feel will protect the interests of students
and teachers alike. After all, we share a classroom for
8 hours a day. We are in it together.
“”I cannot afford to make a million dollar contribution. But
I can participate in my union, join the House of
Representatives, and demonstrate the best that
democracy has to offer: debating ideas, electing
sound leaders, and participating in elections by
phone banking and precinct walking when necessary.
“Isn’t this how a democracy should function? One person,
one vote?
“It is shocking then, to see two former school board
members flaunt their contempt of democracy by
aligning themselves to billionaires who are intent
on dismantling public education and privatizing it.
“What a conflict of interest.
“Ms. Flores herself pushed hard to destabilize
schools with the Public School Choice plan and
was reviled in the very community she grew up
in, Huntington Park, when she ceded part of the
local high school to charter companies.
“Then, she was handsomely rewarded with a
six-figure job with the Gates foundation upon
her separation from the school board. There should
certainly be a law barring public servants from
passing laws that benefit private companies and
then being hired by those very companies.
“I for one, and voting for Robert D. Skeels for the
District 2 school board seat because he is an
education activist that could never be bought by
corporations.
“Martha Infante,
National Board Certified Teacher,
Los Angeles 2009 CCSS Teacher of the Year”
Sadly, Robert came with on 4 percentage
poings of forcing Monica Garcia into a
run-off.
If you’ll indulge me, here’s some back-and-forth
between myself and a pair of astroturf operatives
Rene & Amy, in the Patch COMMENTS
section that’s relevant:
I went to work at the official Zimmer campaign
during the last two weeks, and his campaign
manager said Anderson was strong in the areas
covered by these outlets of the “PATCH” chain
(where I / “Jack Covey” voiced my / his opinions):
Venice, Mar Vista, Marina Del Rey, Pacific
Palisades, etc.
Anderson was running ads on MS-freakin’-NBC
non-stop, and we had to reach the voters in
these communities any way we could—including
aggressive door-to-door canvassing and
persuasion in this “enemy territory”.
Now, I don’t want to overstate my contribution
on-line (or elsewhere)… just trying to show
how every little bit helps, and blogging
like this is 100% free.
Here’s some of that Rene wrote on the
Venice PATCH:
RENE RODMAN:
“Change is beginning to take hold within LAUSD, in
large part due to the efforts of Superintendent Deasy
and the board members who share his vision. The
tough work has begun with the teacher evaluation
system. LAUSD parents have more school choice
than ever before. And the Superintendent is
transitioning the district from a one-size-fits-all
command-and-control model, to one where more
decisions are made at the local level to meet the
individual needs of schools and their communities.
“All of this will be in jeopardy if reform-minded
candidates are not elected to at least two of the
three open board seats in this election. If parents
want these efforts to continue, we must vote for
candidates who will sustain them. We have a
responsibility to our children and our city to get
out and vote.
“If just 15 to 20 percent of LAUSD parents and
guardians make our desire for change known at
the polls, change is certain to occur.
“As the single largest stakeholder group in LAUSD,
we parents share heavily in the responsibility for
the current state of the system. By voting for
change and candidates like Kate Anderson, we
also have the numbers and power to do something
about it….
“In addition to being an LAUSD parent herself and
having excellent qualifications for a seat on the board,
Kate Anderson supports the changes needed at
LAUSD and the leader who embodies them. This
does not mean that she will blindly support
Superintendent Deasy, but it does mean that the
two are on the same page – something that is
critical for LAUSD (and any organization) to move
forward.”
and also…
AMY BAKER:
“Steve Zimmer is NOT the best choice for our students.
Kate Anderson is. I have watched Mr. Zimmer stall and
block reform efforts by our superintendent and other
school board members ALL YEAR LONG and I am tired
of having someone who supports the status quo represent
me.
“I want a school board rep who is not afraid to challenge
the status quo to get policies in place that are in the best
interests of students. I want a school board rep who puts
STUDENTS first.
“That person is Kate Anderson. She is smart, thoughtful,
down-to-earth and a parent who understands what
needs to be done to fix LA’s schools for all of LA’s children.
“She will support Dr. Deasy and not block his efforts to put
the needs of students first when making the changes
necessary in LAUSD”
Here’s where I went to work refuting them, and
in the process, reach out to voters in Anderson’s
strongholds of Venice, Mar Vista, Pacific
Palisades, Marina Del Rey, etc.
At this point in the campaign, unless we (again,
not just me, but a lot of folks) made a dent in
Anderson’s lead in these communities, Steve
would have surely lost.
Heeeeeeeere’s “Jack Covey!!!!
Jack’s 1st COMMENT:
“Rene,
” ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune.’
“To whom do our public schools belong, anyway?
The parents and citizen/taxpayers via a
democratically-elected school board… ?
“… or out-of-state billionaires 3,000 miles away
whose for-profit businesses—charter school
companies, digital & online learning—will benefit
from Mrs. Anderson’s election, and the ultimate
goal of privatizing most or all of our schools?
“Yeah, I know. That’s a loaded question, but
somebody’s got to say it. Mrs. Anderson is
corporate puppet fronting for the moneyed
interests whose goal is to privatize the public
school system—the billionaires whose
contribution is now $ 2.8 million and
counting:
http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/billionaires-pouring-millions-lausd-school
“First of all, Mrs. Anderson was not the first choice of
the privatizers. Before they asked her, nine others
turned them down. Her political ambitions and
self-interest coincided with the interests of the
privatizers, and now we have her candidacy.
“There have been a deluge of lie-filled TV ads in
which Steve Zimmer is being blamed for the
actions of other school board members Monica
Garcia, Yolie Flores, and others—namely the
laying off of teachers and the elimination of arts
programs. Blaming Steve for this is like blaming
Watergate on Obama, as he was teaching
at Marshall High when all this went down.
“They are literally telling the exact opposite of
the truth. Kate’s people know these are bald-faced
lies, but also know it resonates with the public… and
all’s fair in electoral politics.
“Steve actually fought to keep teacher jobs and
arts programs. It’s the John Kerry Swift-Boating
campaign all over again. Unlike Mrs. Anderson,
Steve has no money to put up TV ads to set the
record straight, but someone did this amateur
YouTube video of Steve responding:
Jack’s 2nd COMMENT:
“In fact, Mrs. Anderson’s whole
just-a-plucky-mom-who-cares-about-schools act is
ultimately just a front for the eventually abolishing the
very office and democratic body—the LAUSD School
Board—for which she is running (not right away,
but eventually).
“Once the system has been privatized, the parents
and citizen-taxpayers will no longer have any
democratic control of schools via a school board
responsive to the public via democratic elections.
The moneyed interests backing Mrs. Anderson will
have ‘boards’ the meet in private, and made up of
non-educators and profiteers.
“The public will then have zero input or
decision-making power.
“It’s all in the school privatizers’ playbook:
” ‘Abolish all school boards.’
“Everyone backing her… from Broad to Rhee
to Gates to Bloomberg to the Koch Brothers to
the Walton family… is on record as this being
their ultimate goal. That’s what they’ve done in
other cities. Since they can’t do that her, putting
in corporate puppets is the next best thing.)
“That is why both she and the folks who back
her must be stopped.
“VOTE FOR STEVE ZIMMER on Tuesday, March 5th!!!!”
Jack’s 3rd COMMENT:
“I’ve got so much to say, Rene.
“Do you really think that those out-of-state
billionaires who are kicking in $3 million dollars
to elect someone to a political post that pays
$46,000 / year are doing it out of the goodness
of their hearts, and because they care so much
about the education of middle and lower-income
children?
“Does that pass ‘the smell test’?
“No, they’re out to destroy the precious institution
of public education in order to profit from their
takeover of it. Everything that comes out of Ms.
Anderson’s mouth is straight from the school
privatizers’ playbook. She’s an Irish Michelle Rhee.”
Jack’s 4th COMMENT:
“At one point during both the United Way and KPCC
debates, Mrs. Anderson waxes nostalgically about
the good ol’ days when California had an education
system envied the country over, and she’ll bring that
back.
“Well, EVERYTHING THAT SHE PROPOSES TO
DO THAT IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF THE
WAY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL SYSTEMS WERE
OPERATED BACK THEN.
“Kate wants to shred all union protections.
“Well, back then, California teachers had the strongest
job protections in the country, and teachers had
due process and seniority, and seniority-based
pay.
“She wants to raise class size.
“Well, back then, we had small class sizes.
“She wants to evaluate teachers based on
the junk science of test-based evaluation of
teachers…
“WRONG AGAIN, KATIE! We didn’t have
that back in the good ol’ days either.
“Merit pay, and test-based evaluation? Dr. Diane
Ravitch, the former Asst. Sec. or Ed under the
first Bush. said it best about this: merit pay
never works, but it never dies. It keeps coming
back. It’s the ultimate “zombie policy.”
“She wants to give away some/most of the
LAUSD schools to private (charter) companies
to manage.
“Well, back then, how many ‘public’ schools
were privately-run charters?
“ANSWER: NONE!
“What we did have back then was a fully-funded
system… and we lost that because the same type
of right-wing thugs backing her now… back then
they gutted school funding.
“What we also had was a healthy middle class…
the post-war development of which was the
greatest anti-poverty development in history.
“Vote for Steve Zimmer.”
QUICK EDIT:
instead of the ABOVE paragraph:
====
During Steve Zimmer’s campaign, Zimmer used
the fact that all this out-of-state money was coming
in — $1 million from Bloomberg alone — against
his corporate ed. reform puppet/opponent, Kate
Anderson:
IT SHOULD READ:
During Steve Zimmer’s campaign, Zimmer used
the fact that all this out-of-state money was coming
in — $1 million from Bloomberg alone — against
STEVE ZIMMER AND IN SUPPORT OF his corporate
ed. reform puppet/opponent, Kate Anderson:
Jack…since you did change the direction of this post, I will add a few things. Marlene Canter, who was a former LAUSD BoE member, went on to form a charter school (with Elliot Ponchick on her board…both being under the sway of Eli Broad).
And Monica Garcia, for whom many in LA have ZERO respect, never gives up and is running yet again, now against Carl Petersen. Garcia is so mendacious that it is inconceivable that she should be in elected office. She was/is Deasy’s pet board member and always did/does his bidding…and she will surely be supported again by Eli Broad. She has partnered with the other charter school owner/director, Refugio Rodriguez, who manipulated his winning seat by using Voteria….and they seem to have influenced the thinking of new Supt. Michelle King.
The LA Times as well as CBS TV news, lauded King’s stance on “all LA schools including their charters” in the past two weeks, giving her unusual prominence in the media. Is Eli behind this?
Meamwhile, a few years ago,unknown charter supporter Antonio Sanchez had a war chest of millions donated by Bloomberg and his buddies (at the behest of his mentor and privatizer former mayor, Antonio Villraigosa. the Broad toadie), yet he lost to teacher/lawyer Monica Ratliff….who ran with only $150,000 (but upped late in the campaign with a large UTLA donation)…but she is now moving on to run for City Council. The BoE, losing Ratilff and probably continuing with Garcia, and with another Supt. who seems to be ok with it, now tilts firmly toward charters.
Oh yes…the Waltons, particularly Carrie, and the Walton Family Foundation, donated to each of the charter pushers.
Sorry to have interrupted the Mass. debacle info….Jack Covey ‘made me do it’…..
From Mercedes Schneider’s lips to the Boston Globe’s mouth.
Why is it legal for out-of-staters to ‘vote’ [via campaign funding] on an in-state ballot issue at all?
Bad enough that KS state ed sys is in thrall to Waltons, or CA’s to Broad. But no, every state that one of our billionaire anti-‘gub’ment-schools’ ideologues targets is vulnerable at every level to their ‘free speech’ [cash], right down to municipal school board elections. Would overturning the Citizens United decision shut off that spigot? Or are there state laws that could be changed? The outsider vs insider argument is a strong one and might support state-level change.
Each day there is more. Yesterday it was revealed that Paul Sagan, Chairman of MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, has made a $100,000 donation to the committee seeking to eliminate the charter cap; Dell EMC, the corporation of which he is a director also contributed $75,000.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_politics/2016/09/question_2_opponents_slam_100g_gift
Then there’s the on-going saga of an unwanted charter school imposed on the city of Brockton. The city placed a stop work order against construction for the new school after it failed to pull permits for construction. This was the second location proposed for use. The delay led to re-siting the school in a neighboring town some 22 miles away. Brockton Public Schools will have to pay for transportation, which will of course impact service to students enrolled in the public schools. Mitchell Chester gave the school the go ahead despite its failure to secure and open a building before the beginning of the school year. He has granted them until January 3 to do so.
Andrea Gabor has been ably reporting on this story:
https://andreagabor.com/2016/09/03/update-brocktons-charter-fiasco-continues-as-controversial-school-prepares-to-leave-town/
As has the local newspaper, The Enterprise:
http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/20160902/brockton-charter-school-gets-approval-to-use-norwood-site
This morning, it was reported that many families who had enrolled their children are bailing out and returning to Brockton’s public schools – some 54 of them. The school is already under-enrolled, failing to meet a projected enrollment of 300 pupils. Naturally enough, this has caused difficulties with re-enrolling kids and making space for them:
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/09/08/brockton-families-bail-charter-school-opens-temporary-location-norwood/
And in one more quite questionable move, DESE has been considering opening yet another charter in Brockton:
“The application for the new Brockton charter school was submitted by the Long Beach, California-based nonprofit Direct Instruction Entrepreneurial Academy, which is headed by Loretta McDonald. Two years ago, Direct Instruction Entrepreneurial Academy and McDonald failed for the sixth time in four years to establish a K-5 charter school in Long Beach, with the school board there rejecting the proposal in November 2014 due to a lack of support among parents and students…
The Entrepreneurial Village would start with just 120 kindergarten students in its first year, according to the initial application, and it would grow by 60 students while adding a grade for each of the following four years.
Direct Instruction Entrepreneurial Academy said in its proposal that the curriculum would have a focus on entrepreneurship and economics, and that this alternative educational choice is not currently available for elementary school students in the area, according to the application for the Brockton charter school.”
As if kindergartners ought to be entrepreneurs!
http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/20160815/state-considers-adding-another-brockton-charter-school
Just wanted to make a correction. Sagan is not employed by Dell EMC.
Also, I want to note that it was not a major news outlet but a parent activist, Kristin Johnson, who posted the information on the $100,000 donation. Seems she’s taken a page from Mercedes Schneider’s playbook!
Questioned this afternoon by a reporter as to whether there was an ethics issue for his Chair of the Board of Ed, charter advocate Gov. Charlie Baker claimed it was necessary to “focus on the kids”.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
Why does the Walmart Walton family want to destroy the best public schools in the country that’s in a state where they do not live?
We spend a lot of money on our schools in MA, so the charters get a high average dollar figure for each student. This is despite the fact that charters do not serve the highest needs students, so they get much more per student than their costs.
Waltons hate unions and MA teachers are highly unionized.
Our pro-business Republican governor has vowed to lift the charter cap “whatever it takes”, so the Waltons think they have a sure bet. (Gov. Baker has also been merrily going about privatizing our public transit and janitorial services at the State House.)
If they can declare victory in MA, they can do it anywhere.
Where is Elizabeth Warren? Her silence speaks volumes.
The reason I LOVE Bill de Blasio is he was willing to take on the billionaires who want charters. It cost him and may cost him his career because the Dem establishment did not like it. But if he is going to go down, I am thrilled he is doing it for what he believes.
Barack Obama sold out public education to his billionaire friends. On purpose. He obviously has absolutely no respect for parents who send their kids to public schools – as Arne Duncan’s comment claiming those parents care about their property values more than their kids proved beyond a doubt. Obviously Obama feels the same way.
And now it seems Sen. Warren is in complete agreement.
I think I understand why people are turning to Trump.
I just tried to share this post through my Facebook page and Facebook blocked me. It said there was material in the content that was not allowed. Did this happen to anyone else?
Yes, just happened to me. Tried to put it on with and without a comment. There were 6 shares already listed when I tried.
Since we know who controls Facebook supports or has supported the public sector privatizers, is Facebook attempting to censor our voice?
Went back to Diane’s post, clicked the link to the Schneider post and then posted it on FB successfully. Beats me what is going on, maybe Diane has a rep at FB?
Thank you. I followed your lead and went to Schneider’s post too and Facebook accepted it.
Hmm, if they block one blog, then we can re-post and send from other blogs. :o)
Google+ and LinkedIn accepted the link but not Facebook. Facebook said: “This message contains content that has been blocked by our security systems. If you think you’re seeing this by mistake, please let us know.” The first time I attempted sharing this post through my Facebook page, I had a comment introducing the post. The 2nd time, I deleted my comment and only sent the link. Facebook still blocked the share.
There is a call for the resignation of MA Chair of Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Paul Sagan in wake of the revelation that he contributed $100,000 to the campaign to eliminate the cap on charter schools. Here is the petition:
Paul Sagan, Chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), which approves and oversees charter schools in Massachusetts, donated $100,000 to the Question 2 campaign in an effort to lift the cap on charter schools. This is a blatant power grab by a wealthy individual who wants to control billions of dollars in state and local education funds.
This year, 231 local school districts will lose more than $450 million to charter schools, even after state reimbursements. If Question 2 passes, it would more than triple the number of charter schools in just ten years, and take away more than $1 billion a year from our local public schools.
Please sign to call for Paul Sagan to step down from his post immediately.
https://www.change.org/p/charlie-baker-call-for-paul-sagan-s-removal?recruiter=452692782&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive
From today’s NYT… You tell me how to solve this…
In Connecticut, a Wealth Gap Divides Neighboring Schools
By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS and KRISTIN HUSSEYSEPT. 11, 2016
A classroom at Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport, Conn., where 1,100 students make do with crumbling walls and peeling paint. The school’s graduation rate is a dismal 54 percent. Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
The two Connecticut school districts sit side by side along Long Island Sound. Both spend more than the national average on their students. They prepare their pupils for the same statewide tests. Their teachers, like virtually all the teachers in the state, earn the same high marks on evaluations.
That is where the similarities end: In Fairfield, a mostly white suburb where the median income is $120,000, 94 percent of students graduate from high school on time. In Bridgeport, the state’s most populous and one of its poorest cities, the graduation rate is 63 percent. Fifth graders in Bridgeport, where most people are black or Hispanic, often read at kindergarten level, one of their teachers recently testified during a trial over school funding inequities.
Seemingly intractable contrasts like those last week led Judge Thomas G. Moukawsher to tell the state that it had 180 days in which to rethink almost its entire system of education. Ruling in a case known as Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding v. Rell, Judge Moukawsher of State Superior Court in Hartford said the state was allowing children in poor districts to languish, while their wealthier neighbors soared.
Across the country, school funding cases have often resulted in more money being funneled into poorer districts to help offset the effects of poverty on their students. That may well be the end result in Connecticut.
Frances Rabinowitz, the interim superintendent for Bridgeport public schools, began as a teacher in the city, then left for 14 years before returning. “The stripping of resources was amazing to me,” she said. Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
But more than anything, Judge Moukawsher seemed offended by the irrationality of the state’s education system: He said its funding of new school buildings was driven not by need, but rather by how much clout individual legislators might have; he criticized the teacher evaluation system and said the high school graduation standards were all but meaningless. He told the General Assembly it first had to determine how much money schools actually need to educate children and then must allocate the funds in a way that met that goal.
Philip Dwyer, the chairman of Fairfield’s Board of Education, said on Friday he felt the judge’s view of Connecticut’s system lacked nuance.
“The problem I have is his writing almost encourages the legislature to boil this down to an urban versus suburban question,” Mr. Dwyer said. “That would avoid the fundamental question of what is a more creative way to fund our constitutional obligation that every child deserves a free and appropriate education. This ‘we’ versus ‘they’ approach his decision sets us on is a path I think is a mistake.”
But Bridgeport’s interim superintendent of schools, Frances Rabinowitz, said much of the ruling sounded right. Ms. Rabinowitz started in Bridgeport as a teacher, then left the city 14 years ago for positions elsewhere, including a job as an associate commissioner for education for the state. When she returned to the district in 2014, she said, it was in even worse shape than when she left.
“The stripping of resources was amazing to me,” she said.
Irrational spending
Requiring at least a substantially rational plan for education is a problem in this state because many of our most important policies are so befuddled or misdirected as to be irrational. They lack real and visible links to things known to meet children’s needs.
In the morning, school buses line the circular driveway of Fairfield Ludlowe High School, dispatching a stream of students into the sandy-brick building buffered by an expansive, tree-lined lawn.
Photo
Markus Simmons, 18, a senior in Warren Harding’s honors program, has a 40-minute commute to school because Bridgeport cannot afford school buses for its high schools.
Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
At Bridgeport’s Warren Harding High School, there is no line of buses. As Judge Moukawsher noted, the city cannot afford them for its high school students.
By the sixth day of his senior year at Warren Harding, Markus Simmons had his morning commute down cold: He wakes at 6 a.m. and walks to a city bus stop where he catches a ride to the Bridgeport bus terminal. There, he boards the No. 13 bus to school. The trip takes him about 40 minutes.
Mr. Simmons, 18, is in Harding’s honors program and is eager to go to college, rattling off a list of schools he might apply to: Wesleyan University, the University of Connecticut, Clark University in Atlanta, Sacred Heart University in Fairfield.
But three of his friends, he said, had dropped out of high school.
“They just decided they didn’t want to come anymore,” Mr. Simmons said. “I’m not sure why, to be honest.”
Empty promises
State graduation and advancement standards are so loose that in struggling cities the neediest are leaving schools with diplomas but without the education we promise them.
While Harding’s graduation rate is a dismal 54 percent, Judge Moukawsher said the number masks a worse reality of students being passed along year after year without acquiring the skills they needed, starting in elementary school.
Antoine Sistrunk, center, a security guard at Warren Harding, which some pupils enter reading at a third-grade level. Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
Some students arrive at Harding High School reading at a third-grade level, said Aresta Johnson, an assistant superintendent who oversees the district’s high schools. And in many cases, she said, students simply have not attended school consistently enough to learn how to read fluently.
“We face a huge issue with chronic absenteeism,” she said. Cuts to athletic programs, which are a big draw for some students, have only made the situation worse.
“And keep in mind, when our students come to high school in ninth grade we can pretty much get them in the door,” Dr. Johnson continued. “Once they turn 16, they become eligible to work full-time jobs, and sometimes serve as the sole supporter for their families.”
Passed Along
According to a 2012 study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, more than a quarter of children illiterate at the end of third grade never even graduate from high school, and in Connecticut we know just how easy that is to do.
Bridgeport has about 147,000 residents and an unemployment rate of about 12 percent, according to the judge’s decision. At 21,000 students, its school district is roughly twice the size of Fairfield’s.
Both districts spend more on each of their pupils than the national average, which was about $10,800 per student, according to the most recent federal statistics.
Warren Harding High School, where there have been cuts to athletic programs. Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
In the 2014-15 school year, Bridgeport spent about $14,000 per student while Fairfield spent nearly $16,000. The difference between those numbers is not enough to explain the yawning disparities in results.
Egregious Gaps
Michael Podgursky, an economics professor at the University of Missouri, testified convincingly that there is no direct correlation between merely adding more money to failing districts and getting better results. This is hard to argue with, and the plaintiffs concede that only well-spent extra money could help. But if the egregious gaps between rich and poor school districts in this state don’t require more overall state spending, they at least cry out for coherently calibrated state spending.
Because schools are heavily supported by local property taxes, as the judge pointed out, a property-poor town like Bridgeport has less money for its schools, even while taxing its residents at higher rates. And when funds fall short — for things as basic as paper, as they sometimes do — there is no way to make it up.
That is not true in Fairfield, Mr. Dwyer, the chairman of the board of education, said. While his is not the highest-spending district in the state — several districts spend more than $25,000 per student — Fairfield parent associations raise money for field trips, white boards or boxes of school supplies.
And then there is what residents spend out of school. “A suburban family can get their kids to museums, they can travel, can get special tutors, they can get enrichment classes,” Mr. Dwyer said. “Poverty is a word, but what really separates the two districts is suburban children have more enrichment activities before they even start public school than the typical urban child, and that makes a difference.”
Teacher shortages
Shortage problems with only minimal shortage solutions hold true in many districts for math teachers, bilingual instructors, special education teachers, and, in general in poor districts where the working conditions make the jobs less attractive. The state sees itself as powerless here. It set up a system of local control in which school districts must agree on these things with teachers. But if the system was set up by the state then the state is responsible for the system. Any obstacle to a rational system the state has set up, the state can take down. The state is not powerless.
Harding High School, a once-grand red brick building now long past its heyday, sits on Central Avenue in Bridgeport. Ground has been broken on a new $106 million school nearby, on a site of a former General Electric plant.
Finding and keeping qualified teachers, especially those certified for math and science, is a battle for administrators like Dane Brown, in his seventh month as interim principal at Warren Harding. Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
But for now, the school’s 1,100 students make do with crumbling walls, peeling paint and classrooms that on Friday were sweltering. By late morning, teachers and students mopped sweat from their faces as they marched through the building.
Finding and keeping qualified teachers, especially those certified to teach math and science, is a battle, administrators said. Dane Brown is in his seventh month as interim principal at Harding, and over the summer, he had 16 positions to fill. Special-education teachers are especially difficult to find, and roughly 20 percent of Harding students qualify for special-education services, he said.
Presented with the challenges of Bridgeport, many teachers look for jobs in neighboring Fairfield, Greenwich or Stratford, Dr. Johnson, the assistant superintendent, said. That creates a competitive disadvantage that is nearly impossible to overcome.
“They can go 10 minutes away,” she said, “and make $25,000 to $30,000 more.”
Indeed, the districts’ proximity not only magnifies their differences, it makes matters worse, education experts say.
Erica Frankenberg, an education professor at Penn State who studies school segregation, said: “Over time, districts that are right next to each other become very much identified as on very different trajectories, and that has a range of impacts on the kinds of schooling kids get. There is an idea of what certain districts are, and they just diverge.”
Crossposted at Oped news:
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Arkansas-Residents-Jim-and-in-General_News-Billionaires_Charter-Schools_Education_Funding-160912-200.html
With this comment which has embedded links at Oped.
IT IS A VAST CONSPIRACY… go to BillMOYERS.com For a thorough and chilling review of ALEC’s plans to privatize education, ALEC loves charters and vouchers, hates unions, loves profits http://billmoyers.com/episode/united-states-of-alec/
In Atlanta, local NBC channel 11 station did an expose of the secretive far-right group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC. Under the aegis of ALEC, Georgia legislators met in a posh resort with corporate lawyers to decide their priorities for the next session.
Today as everyday, Ohio lawmakers are focused like a laser on the charter sector:
“COLUMBUS, Ohio – The state’s fight over whether the giant ECOT online school deserves the $106 million in state money it receives hit the courtroom today, with ECOT lawyers saying the state is using rules that are “unenforceable” and the state saying the school’s objections are “absurd.”
The school and Ohio Department of Education are expected to be before Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Judith French for the next three days to present their differing views on a crucial issue: Whether online schools have to show that students actually participate in their online classes, or just that the schools provide classes”
Can the 93% of Ohio students who attend public schools buy some representation?
Can we opt out of contributing to these peoples’ salaries and pay some adults who are interested in public schools?
i’m not clear why we’re paying thousands of public employees in Columbus for this industry.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/09/ecot_online_school_funding_fig.html
Just ’cause you say it everyday doesn’t make it less true, Chiara! Thanks!
Are any of the thousands of public employees in the US Department of Ed visiting a public school on their tour this year?
I sure hope it’s not another Obama Administration “public schools suck, charter schools rock” marketing event.
I’m getting tired of paying public employees to privatize public schools. Maybe we could privatize the US Dept of Ed.