UPDATE: Marc Kenen, the executive director of the Massachusetts Charter School Association and also the author of ballot Question 2, which would expand the number of charter schools in the state, has written to say that this post is untrue. I have no way of knowing who “Nat Morton” is since he or she will not reveal his/her identity. “Nat Morton” is a passionate advocate for charter schools who posted comments here frequently. If Marc Kenen is not “Nat Morton,” I apologize. Someone writes a blog and calls him/herself “Nat Morton,” and I implore that person to give their true name so readers can judge their credentials and their authenticity. I will also ask Marc Kenen to stop writing insulting comments to this blog, as such comments are not permitted.
Knowing this background: I leave the original post intact but warn readers that the identity of “Nat Morton” is unknown, and I can’t be certain who he/she is, other than that it is not me. Beyond that, I can’t know until “Nat Morton” removes his/her mask.
The original post began here:
Reader Christine Langhoff in Massachusetts sent the following comment about a blogger who has frequently written on this blog to defend charter schools, support Question 2 to permit more of them, and to flout his superior research abilities.
“A Boston parent, exchanging emails with (G)Nat Morton, received a digital file from Gnat in support of his arguments. But he forgot to use his nom de plume, and revealed himself as Marc Kenen, executive Director of the MA Charter School Association and also the author of ballot Question 2.
“http://www.masscharterschools.org/about-us/staff
“Kenen has not denied that Nat Morton is his avatar. Further, Stephen B. Ronan is the only person I have ever seen refer to Nat Morton’s blog, and in any forum where the one appears,the other is apt to chime in. This leads me to conclude that Kenen is Gnat is Ronan.
“I find it difficult to enage seriously with someone who would defund our excellent public schools when he is not even willing to own his perspective publicly by using his own name as he advances the cause of the privatizers. And if there’s any question whether the ballot question is designed to defund our schools, it’s worth noting that Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson made this point in the Askwith Forum at Harvard on Sept. 27 regarding Question 2. He asked Kenen directly why he had not written a funding mechanism into the proposal. Start at 1:12:00 (It’s apparent in the video that Kenen bears more than a passing resemblance to his Nat Morton avatar.)
So there you have it: the leading advocate of Question 2 (more charters) pretends to be an independent researcher but is in fact a paid employee of the state charter association. Why not give your name and affiliation and let people make their own judgment? This is redolent of the charter movement itself, which pretends to be about helping poor kids but attracts funding from Wall Street, right wing politicians, and others whose real goal is privatization, not helping improve schools for all children.
Our national goal is equal educational opportunity, not a free-market of winners and losers. Privatization does not advance equal educational opportunity. It exacerbates inequality, just like any free market.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wow. Excellent detective work!
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Cowards
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Kenen isn’t just an employee. He actually founded the MA Charter School Association in 2001. It’s his baby.
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Good grief, yougotta be kidding me! How low will they stoop?
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Let’s see the email.
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Wait. Marc Kenan is the head of Mass Public Charter Assoc. but he claims he has a legit reason to use a nom de plum to advocate for charters? What is that?
This is the guy who wrote the ballot question micro-blogging and blogging with a sock-puppet account?
Credit one of the co chairs of the Boston Schools Parent Counsel who sniffed this out weeks ago
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LOL! The subterfuge of these charlatans does not surprise me.
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Well, I stated it was my intention that I would not be leaving comments here again, but since my anonymous profile is being used to slander someone else I suppose I must speak.
I am not Marc Kenen and he is not me. You — and anyone who cares — have my word on that. I am exactly who I have always said I am: a Massachusetts parent of both charter and traditional public school students. I am not an education professional nor do I have any affiliation, paid or otherwise, with any political advocacy group of any kind. It’s just me talking here.
Diane, if you would be so kind as to post this, and I will comment here no further unless asked by you.
Regards.
Nat (and only Nat)
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Nat,
We have no way of knowing who you are, or who you are not, since you hide behind a fake name. Maybe you are Kenen. Why should we believe anything you say? I use my name. Why don’t you?
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Oh, that’s easy. Because I value my privacy. Look at the viciousness of the comments here. I have no wish to subject me or, more importantly, my kids who are still in the traditional public system to the attacks that are so common from the anti-charter crowd. The fringe element of your movement is not rational, so you’ll just have to deal with what I say and not who I am (or who I am not).
BTW, I don’t know Marc Kenen but you owe him an apology.
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Nat,
Nothing you say here persuades me that you are not Kenen.
Use your real name, otherwise readers will still believe you are Kenen. In my experience, the pro-charter folks are protected by money, media, and power. Public school parents feel intimidated.
See, that’s an inevitable problem with charters. They divide communities and set neighbor against neighbor.
I urge you to use your real name. You are in no danger.
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Explain your use of VPNs. That hides your identity but also belies your claim.
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Or it means I replied from somewhere with a VPN. I asked again, if there’s a digital record of my slipping up in this way where is it? Would not be hard to produce, would it?
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WE WHO ARE REALLY INTERESTED IN ENDING THE ASSAULT ON PUBLIC EDUCATION.. are happy to see th departure of people who add misinformation, and who manipulate truth. We get enough of that from Trump, and folks like him who are impervious to facts.
Good luck and have a good life.
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Another thing, Marc.
It’s my understanding from a tweet from Massachusetts public school teacher and teacher union member Rob Powers …
https://twitter.com/PCunningham57/status/761601400346247168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
… that you and the Massachusetts Charter School Association had to hire paid signature gatherers to get Question 2 on the ballot. That seems to contradict your claim of massive grassroots support for Question 2.
Why couldn’t those phantom 30,000 – 40,000 parents that you claim are on charter school waiting lists have volunteered for free to collect those signatures? Those parents are all on a list, so that should have made them easy enough to call and get to work for free … what with all that anger and motivation they’re supposedly feeling from having been barred from attending a charter school.
Marc, what’s your best guess on how many unpaid volunteers across Massachusetts are working to pass Question 2?
1,000? … 500? … 100? … 6?
If the movement to pass Question 2 to do so is truly grassroots, there should be tens of thousands just chomping at the bit to participate. In that case, you don’t need $21.7 million of campaign funds from out-of-state billionaires and Wall St. hedge fund managers — folks out to profit from charter school proliferation — in order to get Question 2 to pass. Those tens of thousands of grassroots folks working their hearts out should be sufficient.
If a campaign for a potential initiative, or for a candidate running for offices has true grassroots support, with actual motivated people on the ground, you don’t need to hire a bunch of annoying shills like this guy…
… to go around — on your dime, mind you — getting people to sign the petition to get the Question 2 initiative — the one that you yourself drafted — on the ballot.
When I was gathering signatures for pro-public school initiatives, or working on campaigns for LAUSD school board, or some other elected office, nobody was getting any pay — just really bad Chinese food, much of the time 😉
And no, not all of these campaigns were union-originated. My church group — totally separate from the teachers union — organized signature gathering for both key initiatives to increase funding for public education — Propostions 30 (2012) and this year’s Proposition 55. Those he parishioners who volunteered — low income Latinos, Filipinos, and some African-Americans — were motivated because their kids all attended Los Angeles public schools, and knew what was at stake.
That’s true grassroots, Marc.
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Really sad that he cannot be honest with voters and the public.
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I hope some scans Marc Kenan’s NatMorton blog and calls out the indefensible bs he posts
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Great detective work.
The website has some of the backstory on Dr. Marc Kenen.
He and his operation owe a lot to the US Department of Education–our tax funds helped to put this outfit in place.
Kenen is a long-time user of “creative communications.” His staff and the board of directors enable his “creative” and arguably deceptive communication strategies. I wonder how many of them are also present as on the Internet, as themselves or as avatars.
Did the public money that helped to made this operation possible also legitimate deceptive advertising?
Here are his collaborators.
http://www.masscharterschools.org/about-us/staff
http://www.masscharterschools.org/about-us/board
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What are they doing for public schools in Massachusetts this cycle?
Nothing, right? As per usual.
We’re getting a brand new testing scheme in Ohio.
It’s the third in three years. Our public school students are obviously incredibly excited. They can hardly wait to sit for the latest round of “innovation” and be assigned their annual number.
Will it be higher or lower than the year before?
The suspense is killing them, I’m sure.
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Good question. Nothing is right.
The joint education cmte in MA legislature spent last year studying the foundation budget which helps fund poor districts. Established in 1993, it uses formulas that underfund public ed by $1-2$ billion a year. The cmte produced recommendations. The legislature did not act. Instead, They worried about how to close the budget gap.
There’s no appetite to raise taxes. Income tax is flat per state constitution and income growth from 2000-2014 for everyone in Mass under median income has been negative income growth; for everyone over median income growth is positive and the more you make the more growth you had.
The GOP Gov and conservative democrat Speaker of the House oppose any tax increase. Instead the state has gone through three austerity budgets during a time of growth. MA recession was not a deep as most and the recovery was more robust.
An attempt was made to forestall the ballot question on charters– 12 per year, anywhere, forever. The Senate president formed a working group to draft an education bill that raises the cap on charters, funds the foundation budget and reforms charters in a variety of ways including making them more accountable to the cities and towns that fund them. The bill was called RISEact. It passed the Senate. The House failed to produce a bill.
Mass sees great value in making pre-K universal. So many of the students in our cities come from low-income families, are English language learners, some have trauma.
A process by which the MA Constitution could be changed by 2018 has begun. It would allow for a 4% surcharge on income over $1 million. $.04 a $1 over $1,000,000. It’s called fair share tax or millionaire’s tax. It actual levels the rate of local and state tax of people on opposite ends of the income scale. This money if intended for education and transportation.
Charter expansion is unfunded.
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It is so typical of the pro-charter movement to lie about things. They can never make their case with honest facts and they don’t have the moral compass that would cause them to refrain from using whatever lies are necessary. In that, they have much in common with Donald Trump.
Families for Excellent Schools — the lobbying arm of Success Academy — happens to be the same group underwriting the charter school movement in Massachusetts. And that’s how I first came to understand how dishonest the people pushing charter school chains in NYC were. It wasn’t because I was pro-union. It was because I witnessed with my own eyes the lies that Success Academy was saying and was astonished that they were getting away with such blatant lies without being called out on it.
To wit: they received a charter to open a school in Brooklyn to serve at-risk students in one District. Mayor Bloomberg decided to give them free real estate in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Brooklyn so they demanded (and got) permission from SUNY to move it to a far richer district instead. And then turned around and dropped priority for at-risk kids! Say what??
If that wasn’t bad enough, the liars justified it by claiming a big demand for the school in that very wealthy district. Only it turns out there WAS no demand. They had to PAY unemployed people willing to canvas for them because they couldn’t find a better job, and they did this after they claimed that there was a demand. And the canvassers gathered signatures on false premises by saying it was for “a new school to help overcrowding”. Fake demand!
That FAKE demand is the hallmark of Families for Excellent Schools and it is spending unlimited amounts of money to fake demand in Massachusetts as well.
Parents want well-funded schools. FES and the billionaires who underwrite the salaries of the completely unethical people who run that group will happily starve public schools of all funding and push expensive kids back for public schools to have to spend their limited resources to teach because it makes parents more likely to turn to their charter schools. They want the well-funded schools to ONLY be charters so that they can attract the middle class families and the strivers among the low-income kids while they are more than delighted to let the other children rot. And they are willing to use any lie to pursue their goals.
No wonder they are in bed with Trump and he adores everything they do. Will Hillary and Elizabeth Warren be on their side and continue the lies or vote for honesty?
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One of those Success Academy shills was captured on video for posterity here:
Eva from Success Academy has the audacity to send her winged monkey recruiters to lurk outside traditional public schools — some of them upscale, well-regarded schools with top-notch faculty — and accost parents bringing their kids to school. They then tell them every lie, scare tactic, and phony promise they can, to get contact info, so they can poach these students.
There’s a great video of public school parents and students at a more upscale part of New York City confronting one of Eva’s Shill-meisters. The recruiter appears to be losing an argument to what looks like a 4th or 5th grader (which I guess is a credit to the school that it produces such brilliant students who can debate off-the-cuff with adults like that.) A renown teacher, Jamie Fidler, is in this debate as well.
I finally got around to making a transcript of this… riveting stuff:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
( 00:29 – 1:22 )
( 00:29 – 1:22 )
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD: ‘So you don’t have to prove it when you say that it (Success Academy) is ‘the best elementary school in New York State’ ?”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “No, I don’t have to prove it. I have- ”
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD: “So how can you just rely on somebody’s word?”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “Someone else rated it. I can’t … I can’t re-run every experiment that’s done. I can’t re-run every rating system.“
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: “No, but- “
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I have to accept- ”
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD: “Can you each time just research people who says who your quoting pro-noy(?) ?”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “Boy, everything I say -?”
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: (to the CHILD) “Yeah… That is SUCH a GOOD point.”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “So everything I run into. .. I can’t… I have to … I can’t just accept an outside expert’s … conclusion?”
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: “Well, if you make a statement like it (Success Academy) is ‘the best school in the state’, you kinda need to be able to back it up with SOMETHING.”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I’m repeating… Yes, and they-“
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD: “You can’t even tell us WHO is saying this (i.e. Success Academy is “the best school in New York State.) You can’t even tell us WHERE YOU GOT THAT, or where it can be found?!”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I assume if you went to the web, and googled what I just said, you can come up with the report, which you could criticize yourself.”
PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILD: “But you DON’T EVEN KNOW WHO DID that report.“
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I have NOT read that report.”
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: “I mean I could say that Rick Santorum is best candidate for president, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. Right? So, you know -”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “But, but you’re saying that an opinion -“
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: “ “If you’re making an assertion, you need to have SOMETHING – You need to be able just- “
VIDEO CUTS OUT
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Here’s an earlier post about this:
This is how you handle those SUCCESS ACADEMY (or other charter school) recruiters.
A couple years back, Eva’s winged monkey recruiters had been lurking outside traditional public schools in a more upscale New York City neighborhood where Eva was about to open a school, accosting parents with a sales pitch to ditch their public school for one of Eva’s test prep factories.
Unlike the uninformed lower income immigrant community folks and were duped, these folks knew what these recruiters were all about.
The parents and teachers then got in the face of one of them, with the confrontation captured on video: (is he wearing one of Success Academy’s L.L. Bean’s backpacks?)
I’m urging parent leaders Karen Wolfe and other acttivists, and teacher union leaders to like UTLA President Alex C-P to play this video to every parent and teacher, respectively
that each of them can get to watch it.
In Los Angeles, the Broad Plan will unleash hundreds of these paid recruiters to accost parent and student at our traditional public schools., in an effort to appoach the students attending public schools.
Get lost, you money-motivated charter shills!!!!
One of the teachers / parents here was Jamie Fidler, a nationally
renown teacher who came into prominence in the documentary
AMERICAN TEACHER (a mixed bag of a film, but that’s
another story).
They kept protesting, and Eva’s winged monkeys were
never seen again.
HAPPY ENDING
Oh and again, here’s Jamie Fidler — a career teacher, like her father, who’s in it for decades— on a TV show refuting the propaganda vilifying career unionized teachers:
Oh, and don’t forget the end of the “mic check” that sent Eva’s Shill-meister running for the warm comforting bosom of Lady Eva:
x x x x x x x x x x x x
( 2:11 – 2:46 )
( 2:11 – 2:46 )
Mic Check Leader: “.. told this charter school flier-man. .. ”
CROWD: ” … TOLD THIS CHARTER SCHOOL FLIER-MAN … ”
..
Mic Check Leader: “.. that he should NOT be soliciting … ”
CROWD: “THAT HE SHOULD NOT BE SOLICITING … ”
Mic Check Leader: ” … in front of OUR public school.’
CROWD: ” … IN FRONT OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL!”
Mic Check Leader: “Our students …
CROWD: “OUR STUDENTS …
Mic Check Leader: ” … have told you that also!”
CROWD: ” … HAVE TOLD YOU THAT ALSO!”
Mic Check Leader: ” … and now these cameras.. ”
CROWD: ” AND NOW THESE CAMERAS … ”
Mic Check Leader: ” … are here to help us tell our story.”
CROWD: ” … ARE HERE TO HELP US TELL OUR STORY.”
Mic Check Leader: “.. mic check!”
CROWD: ” MIC CHECK!”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “What’s wrong with solicitation?”
ANOTHER PARENT: “Children are NOT commodities!”
— public school PARENT telling off one of Eva Moskowitz’ shills who stands outsidide accosting parents as they pick up and/or drop off their students ad P.S. 261
That two-line exchange sums up the market-based school reform.
Here’s PART 2 of the parents, teachers, and kids confronting Eva’s Shill-Meister.
First, here’s the title card, which I have transcribed here:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
( 2:46 – 2:57 )
( 2:46 – 2:57 )
TITLE CRAWL:
“Teachers at P.S. 261 said that they first tried asking the man handing out fliers to leave, but to no effect. Then on Thursday, parents, teachers, and students gathered in front of the school to confront him and ask why the Success Acadeny school was superior to their own.
“The conversation did not go well — he was hired to hand out fliers, not to defend the school’s existence — but it energized the parents and teachers.
” ‘We can still fight in our little ways.,’ Ms. Fidler said.”
( 2:58 – 3:51 )
( 2:58 – 3:51 )
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I didn’t make the rating (that he claims says that Success Academy is ‘the best elementary school in the state.’) Someone ELSE did.”
ASIAN PARENT: “You don’t even know his name (the name of the guy who made the rating).”
TEACHER/PARENT JAMIE FIDLER: Look, the point is .. is that we have no reason to believe you.”
OTHER PARENT: ‘You’re passing out fliers for something you don’t know about. That’s kind of embarrassing.”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “Well then it would be my expert (?).”
OTHER PARENT: ‘Would I ever stand out on a corner and hand out fliers with something that I know NOTHING about? ‘That’s kind of like despic- That’s like DECEIVING to the people to whom you’re handing out literature.””
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I don’t know NOTHING about it. I know that the students do well in (Success Academy) schools.”
ASIAN PARENT: “I’m sorry, but the students to well in OUR school as well. “
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: (sarcastic) “That’s terrific.”
ASIAN PARENT: “So there is NO REASON why you should be POACHING OUR STUDENTS! ”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: (sarcastic) “I’m, I’m… totally in favor of GOOD SCHOOLS.”
ASIAN PARENT: “This is solicitation! It’s like anybody who’s trying to SELL A CAR!”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “What’s wrong with solicitation?”
ASIAN PARENT: “This is solicitation.”
OTHER PARENT: “”Children are NOT commodities!”
ASIAN PARENT: “This is solicitation!”
— (mimicking EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER)
” ‘Would you like to apply to our school?’ as you have a flier in your hand.
It’s a solicitation!”
OFF-CAMERA PARENT: “When we can’t even afford copy paper!”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I don’t see anything wrong with solicitation.”
PARENT: “Exactly!”
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: (to ASIAN PARENT) “I don’t see anything wrong with solicitation.”
TEACHER: “We don’t have any of that paper (for solicitation fliers) in our school, and you want to know WHY? Because we don’t have the budget for it. But if we had a multi-million-dollar (advertising) budget that was funded by Wall Street and hedgefunds as they (Success Academy) are, then maybe we can have them (public school’s version shill-meisters) out there (at charter schools.) You’re talking about here’s like competition, like your best choice in a playing field that is not really even.”
VIDEO CUTS OFF
I think every voter in Massachusetts needs to see this video.
Do the parents in Massachusetts REALLY want creeps like Shill-meister descending on the traditional public schools, lurking and annoying the sh#% out of parents and students?
I really do find this video …
… so disturbing on so many levels.
“This callous b-word of a a teacher, Charlotte Dial — and almost all Success Academy teachers — have never been licensed or credentialed in any state. She’s following Eva’s bogus, untested, and abusive teaching techniques that involve abuse and humiliation of children as young as four… as, incredibly, this is what Eva & Co. believe is the proper way to educate children, the same stuff that educational experts have studied and universally condemned.
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I found the name of the actual job — and job posting — that “Shill-Meister” was carrying out at Success Academy:
“Community Organizer”
… which, after the poor slobs start working for Eva, quickly morphs into…
“Parent / Child Annoyer”
(as seen in this video)
… upon orders from Eva, of course.
Here’s the actual job posting:
https://www.themuse.com/jobs/successacademycharterschools/community-organizer-e3cff4?utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Job%20Individual&utm_campaign=NYC%20Jobs
It’s says that Eva’s looking for for someone who …
— has experience with “2+ years canvassing”, which is sort of what the guy was doing with his clipboard outside P.S. 261 in the video;
— reports “directly to the (S.A.) Associate Director of Enrollment” … enrollment, of course, meaning of course, the process of recruiting students to “enroll” in one of Eva’s schools;
— can “develop comprehensive outreach plans that carefully consider the needs of each community and fits into a larger Enrollment strategy” … which, translated, means come up with whatever sleazy tactic and slick pitch which or whatever that will lure students into enrolling in S.A. … again, accomplishing this by any means necessary;
— “enjoys collaboration and will work with Parent Engagement Managers to schedule, host and facilitate events and identify further opportunities to reach (i.e. recruit) prospective families”;
— “has a positive, ‘can do’ attitude and will identify opportunities to gain deeper insight into creating more efficient and streamlined processes” … whatever that last part means … faster, cheaper ways to lure in suckers, I guess.
Here’s full text:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
“Community Organizer — Success Academy
“We are seeking a motivated, goal-oriented Community Organizer to create and maintain positive working relationships with community leaders and organizations on behalf of Success Academies. S/he is a self-starter committed to educational choice, education reform and the development of exemplary schools.
“Reporting directly to the Associate Director of Enrollment, our Community Organizer should be someone who…
” – Has 2+ years canvassing and organizing experience in political or issue campaigns;
“- Can develop comprehensive outreach plans that carefully consider the needs of each community and fits into a larger Enrollment strategy;
” – Is a skilled relationship builder that can identify community organizations and leaders to establish and nurture relationships to help build awareness of and partnerships with Success Academy;
” – Enjoys collaboration and will work with Parent Engagement Managers to schedule, host and facilitate events and identify further opportunities to reach prospective families;
” – Has a positive, ‘can do’ attitude and will identify opportunities to gain deeper insight into creating more efficient and streamlined processes; and
” – Is fluent in English and Spanish.
“To join our team, please upload a cover letter and resume that outlines your candidacy. Your cover letter should explain in detail your qualifications for the position. Resumes without cover letters will not be reviewed.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Keep in mind these are your and my tax dollars paying for all this, money coming from the majority parents and citizens which all polling says support the survival of public education and traditional public schools — and not their wholesale replacement by privately-managed charter schools, and support teachers as professionals, but in this instance, have no say in the way Eva is using this tax money — to pay her salary, to fulfill her goals and to serve her motives which again, are anathema to what the public actually wants regarding education.
Those same parents and citizens may be firmly opposed to the privatization of public education via the expansion of Eva’s (and others’) privately-managed “public charter schools,” and who are also opposed to the de-professionalization of teaching that goes hand-in-hand with this privatization of schools … as the less professional, less-trained, and less qualified “the help” is required to be, the less you have to pay them, and the more the bosses can pay themselves, and also, the more money they have on hand to these expand privately-managed charter schools.
That’s why I’m only semi-sympathetic to Shill-meister.
BOTTOM LINE: he’s just a hired shill, or a carnival barker trying to get suckers or marks to come in the tent where the more qualified and seasoned hucksters (Eva’s “Parent Engagement Managers”) then take over and try to close the sale…
… or perhaps he’s a hunter of humans; if you will, who will, per Eva’s orders, will bring in his catch of the day … in the form of signatures and contact information from strangers whom he Eva orders him to accost and annoy outside schools, or on playgrounds, or wherever parents will likely be hanging out.
At the end of the day, Shill-meister’s one and only commitment is merely to get paid — first, last and always — while, as to the negative long-term effect that the way he earns his living has on the future survival of democratically-governed and truly public education,
… OR …
… as to that harmful impact that his efforts have on the profession of teaching — turning teaching from a respected, decently-compensated profession such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. … and then degrading it to that of a low-level, poorly-compensated, dubiously-trained service job like fast food, office temping, retails sales, etc…..
… well, he couldn’t give two sh#%’s about ANY of that.
All he cares about is whether, after he does what he was hired for, Eva’s checks will clear.
Near the end of the video, he cluelessly opines:
( 3:24 – )
( 3:24 – )
EVA’S SHILL-MEISTER: “I don’t see any problem with solicitation… what’s wrong with solicitation?”
A lot, you money-motivated douchebag!
You know, as I re-wartch the video …
… it’s interesting to see how civil, calm and polite the parents are towards Eva’s Shill-Meister — way more than I would have been in that situation. The only one who shows a little anger is ASIAN PARENT at the very end, and, again she’s just demonstrating her understandable frustration at Shill-meiester’s inability to grasp why they object to what he’s doing.
“This is a solicitation! This is like someone SELLING A CAR!”
The off-camera ANOTHER PARENT put it best:
“Children are NOT commodities!”
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Charter schools are all super-awesome and public schools are all horrible and declining and should be replaced.
I know this because I read America’s most prominent ed reform activists.
They’re ga-ga over charter schools. You won’t find a single critical word – in order to pull this off they have to ignore vast swathes of the country, but they manage.
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Coward. Can’t even use real name. Wowzer detective work, Christine. And thank you, Diane.
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To be a masked vigilante you have to leave no trace. No room for silly mistakes, like this one. Tsk tsk.
The fake grassroots support for ed reform is called astroturfing, and it is a shameless tactic, also part of a broader strategy called manufacturing consent. This was a strategy used against Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, by the way, and it’s been employed heavily by the U.S. government in the 20th century (think CIA) up to present day.
If you can’t get the peoples’ support, best to fake it. A long-held tactic of totalitarian regimes and coercive institutions, this is exactly what to expect from billionaire-led top-down reform efforts.
Of course, it’s different for regular ol’ teachers to cover their identities, and it’s also sad that we sometimes have to. Just to use myself as an example, I’m not advocating for the monetization and destruction of public education, and truly work independently. I also retain certain ethical standards. You can still act “accountable” for your own words while wearing a mask.
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Forgot to close the link there. This kind of mistake is more allowable.
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FWIW, NatMorton on twitter claims he is not Marc Keenen.
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Who is Nat Morton? Why is he hiding his identity? In the absence of giving his real name, there is no way to tell if he is Kenan or one of the Koch brothers or Scott Walker.
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“(It’s apparent in the video that Kenen bears more than a passing resemblance to his Nat Morton avatar.)”
Comparison of Kenen / NatMorton twitter.
Of course not “proof,” just eyebrow raising
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Christne Langhoff said:
“A Boston parent, exchanging emails with (G)Nat Morton, received a digital file from Gnat in support of his arguments. But he forgot to use his nom de plume, and revealed himself as Marc Kenen, executive Director of the MA Charter School Association and also the author of ballot Question 2.”
Christine,
I need a little more proof before concluding that Nat Morton is the fictional identity that Marc Kenen created to pose as a parent who loves charters.
QUESTIONS:
Who is this “Boston parent” who exchanged emails with “Nat Morton”?
Can you post the incriminating email where Marc allegedly “forgot to used his nom de plume, and revealed himself as Marc Kenan?”
Perhaps Nat Morton is exactly who he says he is, and he just forwarded some data that Marc had previously given him, and the forwarding just looks as if Nat Morton is Marc Kenan, or someone jumped the gun and concluded this.
I actually bought into the notion that Nat Morton is an unpaid, concerned parent who loves charters, and left a long email just last night on his blog, with plenty of arguments, links, etc. … in the hopes of opening up a dialogue with him, with the goal to raise his knowledge and consciousness about corporate education reform and the whole privatization movement. I hope that I wasn’t duped into thinking Nat was/is something he wasn’t/isn’t.
My post is the third in the list on this article where he claims victimhood at the hands of Dr. Ravitch:
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Jack – I’ll see if the parent will post answers to your questions here.
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Jack,
I don’t know how it is possible to victimize a non-existent, fictional person.
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I’m not Nat Morton. Really.
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Marc,
I don’t know who Nat Morton is. Do you?
I understand that people use pseudonyms because they are afraid of losing their job. Usually, they are teachers, who are vulnerable. I don’t understand what “Nat Morton” is afraid of. He is obviously not a teacher.
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Nat has a long record of being anonymous and I admire his drive to maintain his privacy. In the world of education policy, both teachers and parents have legitimate interests in staying anonymous. As a charter school teacher whose daughter attends a district school, I know how fraught it can be to have opinions counter to those of one’s children’s teachers. While I am not anonymous, I can see why Nat chooses the way he does. My professional and personal worlds clash more often then I would like.
Also, I will note that YOU are the one who posted unsubstantiated hearsay from someone who (1) remained anonymous and (2) name-called. Christine then backed it up with the most circumstantial of evidence [his avatar looks vaguely like the other guy] and then immediately jumped to the conclusion that Nat is Marc is another guy named Stephen B. Ronan because Ronan comments on Nat’s blog. Twitter conversations that followed among your supporters immediately debunked the Ronan is Kenan argument because the same person had met both of them, yet Christine’s spurious claim remains up on your blog. The logical leaps are a fantasy. And I think YOU hold the burden of proof here, not Nat.
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Marc,
Whoever you are or are not, I have some questions.
What’s with your playing the race card, and dealing it from the botttom of the deck, I might add … in your promotion of the “YES on 2” position?
I”m saw the latest Question 2 debate, and you made some hare-brained claim that the teachers union leaders’ motive, or a big part of of their motive in opposing Question 2 is racist. Either that or — at the very least — their motives are rooted in the fact that the union leadership is white, and their white-ness is somehow driving them, subconsciously or whatever, to oppose Question 2 … again to the detriment to low-income students and families of color.
That’s a pretty lame and divisive tactic on your part, for which you owe folks an apology.
Go here:
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( 35:02 – )
( 35:02 – )
MARC KENAN: “We have our strongest opposition from the teachers unions across the state, whose leadership is primarily white… (So-effing-what?! JACK) … our goal, and whom we are trying to serve, are those black and brown parents and young parents who are trying desperately to get alternatives for their children.”
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Yeah, right, Marc. Helping black and brown parents is your “goal” … unlike those crypto-racist teachers in teacher unions who only care about themselves, even if that screws the education of black kids and poor kids. This is in spite of the fact that those unionized teachers are the ones in classrooms teaching kids of all races and classes — including blacks —- for seven or more hours each day.
Naaah, according to you, the teachers in those classrooms don’t care about their students. Only billionaire-backed charter folks like you care about black and brown kids.
So let me get this straight, Marc. If Barbara Madeloni and other Massachusetts teachers union leaders were as black as Karen Lewis (the black teachers’ union leader in Chicago), you wouldn’t attempting this bizarre line of argument?
Or maybe then you’d characterize those hypothetical black Massachusetts labor leaders as an Uncle Tom sell-outs, who value big union officer salaries more than she does helping out her fellow blacks.
What utter nonsense!
Thank God African-American anti-charter Tito Jackson was there to immediately counter this asinine attempt to frame this as a race issue, and inflame racial tensions.
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( 35:27 – )
( 35:27 – )
TITO JACKSON: “Marc, the leadership of the teachers unions is primarily white, but SO IS the leadership of most charter school in the city of Boston, and so I think that THAT is a critical component.”
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Tito then changes topic, then proceeds to debunk the vaunted charter school wait list numbers.
QUICK DIGRESSION … DEBUNKING THE WAITLIST
Think about it, Marc.
If there truly were 30,000 – 40,000 people furious at being wait-listed and denied entry to a charter school, because there wasn’t enough of such schools, wouldn’t that mean these parents would have formed an army of volunteer campaign workers swarming the state pushing for passage of Question 2— knocking on doors, phone-banking, marching down streets, etc.? They wouldn’t need $20 million of out-of-state billionaire money. That volunteer component would be enough to win the day.
No, with less than a month left, there’s nothing of the kind going on in Massachusetts right now. That army of pro-charter, “Wait List” parents is nowhere to be seen. The pro-Question-2 stuff is all big money commercials, mailers, and robo-calls, not live calls from live volunteer workers, or live canvassers knocking on doors.
Anyway, back to what Tito could have said to Mark regarding the overwhelming whiteness of Massachusetts charter leaders, as well as those leaders not living in the neighborhoods where their charter schools are located.
Here’s what Tito could have said, but was said by someone else at the other debate.
In the other debate, the FEMALE MODERATOR, in a question to Charter Lady Marty Walz, goes into detail about THE TOTAL ABSENCE OF ANY BLACKS, OR ANY LOCAL PARENTS OR CITIZENS — IN COMMUNITIES THAT ARE OVERWHELMINGLY BLACK — IN ANY POSITION ON THESE CHARTER SCHOOL BOARDS TO EXERCISE ANY DECISION-MAKING POWER OVER THESE CHARTER SCHOOLS WITH, again, ENTIRELY OR OVERWHELMINGLY BLACK STUDENT POPULATIONS.
Marc, if you care so much about the education of these poor black students and low-income communities, why do you and the rest of the charter school industry not allow their black parents any position on these charter school boards where they can have some input or decision-making power, or where those running those schools would have some level of accountability to those same black parents?
It sends a message to those black parents: we (upscale white charter leaders) know what’s best for you, and are doing what’s best for you, so just shut up and let us run things.
What the-hell ever happened to democracy in the governance of these supposedly “public” schools ? (The only thing “public” about them is the public’s money which fund them, while that same “public” is then eliminated from having any input via a democratically-elected school board.)
Watch this:
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(34:30 – )
(34:30 – )
FEMALE MODERATOR: “Representative Walz, for some who oppose Question 2, one of the issues that it comes down to is this, and I’m going to paraphrase Carol Burris, she’s a former New York high school, and she says
” ‘The democratic governance of our public schools is a American tradition worth saving.’
” … and then the Annenberg institute for school reform at Brown University earlier this year released a study, and they analyzed EVERY board for EVERY charter school in the state of Massachusetts. and they found that ..
“31% of trustees (school board members) statewide are affiliated with the financial services or corporate sector. Only 14% were parents.
“60% of the charter boards had NO parent representation on their boards WHATSOEVER.
“Those that DID were largely confined to charter schools that served MOSTLY WHITE students.
“Here’s an example: City on a Hill (Charter) Schools in Roxbury — again, this is according to the Annenberg Institute Report — has schools in Roxbury and New Bedford, (has a) 14-member board, trustees for all three of those schools.
“ONLY ONE member of the board lives in New Bedford. Three live in Boston, but NONE in Roxgury. The rest live in (upscale communities) Brookline, Cambridge, Cohasset, and Hingham.
“So they (at Annenberg) ask:
” ‘How can those charter schools be considered locally controlled and locally accountable?’ ”
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Charter Lady Walz responds by claiming — and winning applause from the charter folks stacked in the audience — that local control through school boards has “wholly failed’ to produce quality schools and educate children, and need to be wiped out.
Those in the audience are cheering the end of democracy? Really?
Wait. Isn’t Massachusetts the highest achieving state in the U.S.? Really? She says that democratically-governed schools with elected school boards in Massachusetts have “wholly failed” students? Really?
At another point in the debate, Charter Lady claims their group is about improving all types of schools, but here she is recommending replacing all of traditional public schools with privately-managed charter schools.
So which is it?
The Moderator interrupts by insisting that Charter Lady answer the question about accountability, and Charter Lady brings up the only method needed — the Death Penalty AND THAT’S IT…. but no accountability to parents and citizens, while those schools are actually open, and ZERO OPPORTUNITY OR MECHANISM for those parents and citizens to enjoy any kind of decision-making power over those schools while they are in operation.
And we need to watch John Oliver again to find out how well the charter school model, with what Marty Walz describes as “higher degree of accountability than public schools” actually works out in practice:
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Reliable Boston folks who are active in the campaign to defeat Question 2 have told me that Stephen B. Ronan and Marc Kenen are two real, different people. Guess they’re just kindred spirits – or brothers from another mother.
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Interestingly, as an historical figure Nathaniel Morton was a Puritan settler who is best known for his substantial efforts to drive interest and enrollment for people to leave England for Plymouth, regaling potential applicants with wonderful tales of the New World.
See the connection?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mourt%27s_Relation
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There’s another pro-Question 2 person — with her own blog, plus articles that she writes for the Huffington Post — who uses her own name, but also, imo, misleads people as to her actual position in the charter school industry, and thus, her true motives:
Erika Sanzi (who uses “Nat Morton” as one of the guest contributors on her blog)
At the Huffington Post, is there some kind of Ombudsman or authority to whom one can complain when a HuffPost writer is not being forthright in his or her biographical description, and thus misleading unsuspecting readers into thinking that he/she is something that he/she is not?
That may be the case here.
Just yesterday, Erika Stanzi published an indescribably vicious Huffington Post piece claiming that Dr. Ravitch is just as much a bully as Donald Trump, and cites Dr. Ravitch’s treatment of “Nat Morton” and also of Campbell Brown as proof.
Yeah, Dr. Ravitch’s writings are right up there with The Donald and his p****y-grabbing, let me tell you, not to mention Trump’s threatening to imprison Hilary Clinton after he takes power. Yep! They’re two peas in a fascist pod, cut from the same tyrannical cloth.
Sweet Jesus!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-little-letter-to-donald-and-diane_us_57fc1741e4b090dec0e71b0c?
Here’s how she Erika describes herself in her Huffington Post biography — “a full-time education advocate” … is that a paid position? If so, who and what organization is paying her, and where does that money originate? (She could be doing all this for free, I again freely concede.)
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ERIKA SANZI:
“Mom of 3, educator for a decade, former school committee member, current advocate for great schools for all kids at http://www.goodschoolhunting.org
“Erika Sanzi spent a decade as a teacher and school dean before becoming a full-time education advocate. Her love for writing coupled with her willingness to take on people in power has led her to spend much of her time responding to status-quo protectors inclined to put adult interests ahead of what kids need. She is particularly focused on inequities in the system, persistent but surmountable achievement gaps, and what she sees as a culture of low expectations that disproportionately impacts low-income students of color.
“She is the mom of three young sons and you can often find her on the sidelines of their countless sports practices and games. She is committed to the belief that zip code isn’t destiny, that parents deserve choices when it comes to educating their children, and that too many “good” schools are falling down on the job in too many ways.
“Born and raised in Massachusetts, she now calls Rhode Island home with her boys, her husband, and her dogs Griffey and Gracie. She writes about her corner of New England at Good School Hunting.”
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This only mentions that she was a teacher and a school dean, but doesn’t specify as to whether that work was in a public school or a privately-run charter school. For her to be forthright, the words “charter school” should be in there somewhere. Nowhere in that description does Erika mention anything about getting paid or working for the charter school industry.
However, google her and you find that it’s the latter.
At this at the website of the Blackstone Valley Preparatory charter school chain — a chain of charter schools in Rhode Islands, but whose operators seek to expand the Blackstone chain into Massachusetts, and can only do so if Question 2 passes (and also open more schools in Rhode Island, I imagine):
https://blackstonevalleyprep.org/what-bvp-is-thankful-for/
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“I am thankful for the health of my three sons – their boundless energy drives me crazy, but is also a reminder that they are healthy and strong. I’m thankful that BVP continues to work hard to move the needle for kids and I’m extra thankful that my children get to go there and that I get to work there.”
— Erika Sanzi, Elementary School 1 Parent and BVP Staff Member
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Whoopsie daisy!
Here’s another confirming that she is a “teacher” at Blackstone Valley charter:
http://bvprep.blogspot.com/2014/05/teachers-my-cup-runneth-over-because-of.html
Here, she writes a post identifying herself as
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“By Erika Sanzi, BVP teacher and parent”
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Her working at Blackstone Valley charter school must have slipped her mind when writing her Huffington Post bio.
And that’s not the only charter school organization which has paid a salary to Erika Sanzi.
Google around and you can find this from the Paul Cuffee Charter High School: (CLICK the link BELOW, then jog down the top of page 7)
Click to access Family-Handbook1.pdf
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“Erika Sanzi – Dean of Students”
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Whoopsie daisy again! Charters typically pay more their top school leaders a much nigher salary than they do at at traditional public schools (Eva Moskowitz pulling in $600,000 / year comes to mind), so you can only imagine what the full salary and benefits package could be for a “Dean of Students” at a charter school.
Both the Blackstone Valley charter and Paul Cuffee charter school organizations must make their charter application and 990 tax forms publicly available, so it would be interesting to see if Erika’s name figures prominently on any of these and with what title, and at what salary.
Well, here’s Guidestar’s free preview page for Blackstone Valley charter 990’s:
https://www.guidestar.org/ViewPdf.aspx?PdfSource=0&ein=27-0617933
and here’s Guidestar’s free preview page for Paul Cuffee charter 990’s:
https://www.guidestar.org/ViewPdf.aspx?PdfSource=0&ein=05-0518947
These are just previews that tease you. You used to get this for free. However, now, to view the actual PDF’s of those 990’s, you have to shell out cash. Unfortunately, I’m just a poorly compensated public school teacher, so maybe somebody like Mercedes Schneider can pick up this baton (and a credit card) and run with it.
Erika is also a writer at Education Post — presumably a paid one, as Education Post’s founder and lead editor Peter Cunningham has a $12 million-dollar budget, donated by Eli Broad, from which Peter can pay his “Contributors.” Then again, I could be wrong, and like me, she could be a chump who does all this ed policy writing for free. 😉
If Peter has a $12 million annual budget, and he does NOT pay his contributors, that would make Cunningham one cheap bastard. Lemme tell ya!
If Eriks IS getting paid for her Ed. Post contributions, that means that money that originated in the bank accounts of Eli Broad (who pays the full $12 million annual budget for Education Post) eventually ends up in Erika’s bank account.
Yuck! Talk about dirty money or dark money!
Here’s Erika’s Education Post bio — again, you see a conspicuous absence of her salaried positions at charter schools. According to this, she’s just a mom of school-age kids, doncha know?
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“Erika Sanzi is a mother of three sons and taught in public schools in Massachusetts, California and Rhode Island. She has served on her local school board in Cumberland, RI, advocated for fair school funding at the state level, and worked on campaigns of candidates she considers to be champions for kids and true supporters of great schools.”
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Notice how it doesn’t say that she “volunteered for free” on the campaigns of charter-school-promoting political candidates — her euphemism for those candidates being “candidates she considers to be champions for kids and true supporters of great schools.”
No, it says she “worked on campaigns.” Did she pull down a salary while working on these campaign? If so, how much, and from what organization? And where did that money originate?
Is she pulling down a salary for all her recent work promoting “YES” on Question 2? (or again, is she a chump like me who does this for free? 😉 )
I’m getting tired of this, but if you want to get an idea of the kind of stuff Erika writes on her own blog, go here:
http://goodschoolhunting.org/2016/09/keep-politics-back-school-night-private-office.html
In the link just above, Erika bloviates about teachers wearing “NO on 2” buttons during Back-to-School night (Oooh! Teachers wearing “buttons” … Shock! Horror!) …
but elsewhere on her blog ….
http://goodschoolhunting.org/2016/09/elizabeth-warren-baby-got-wrong-back.html
… she has no problem with out-of-state billionaires and Wall St. hedge fund managers kicking in $21.7 million to the “YES on 2” campaign.
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ERIKA SANZI: “The ‘No on Question 2’ camp has been decrying any and all outside money (and commentary!) favorable to the other side while they themselves enjoy a windfall from both local and national entities. The outrage is selective and impossible to take seriously.”
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First of all, the out-of-state money for “YES on 2”, at $21.7 million dwarfs the grand total of cash that the “NO on 2” folks have … $7 million total. (I’m not sure what the subtotal — i.e. what portion of that $7 million — is out-of-state money is for “NO on 2”. Perhaps Mercedes or someone can chime in here.)
Secondly, charter school officials, teachers, administrators also use their position to promote their political agenda, including the “Yes on 2” agenda. And they do a lot more than wear buttons. (Eva Moskowitz in New York City spends over $700,000 for each rally she puts on). Is Erika politicking for “YES” on 2 in the course of her job at Blacktone Valley Prep? If not, is chastising any of her fellow staff and Blackstone Valley Preparatory Charter Academy for doing any politicking for “YES on 2”?
Finally, Erika, if you’re reading this, could you please come on this blog and set the record straight and answer these questions? Come on in. The water’s fine.
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Thanks for identifying the vested interest that was omitted in the Huffpo bio.
Recently, when Fordham described to media, a research finding, that was clearly absent from Dr. Figlio, of Northwestern University’s research, it made me question, why Northwestern didn’t correct the misstatement.
The picture forming about the people and organizations, who promote charter schools, highlights the contrast between their values and the noble values of education.
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If you’re not quite on the right track, Diane and Christine, you may be getting warm…
Notice:
1) Nat and Kenen deny being each other, but neither denies being me
2) If you take the second and third letter of “Morton” and reverse them, it’s the same as the first two letters of “Ronan”
3) “Ronan”, “Kenen”, Broad” and “Brady” each have precisely 5 letters (and those last two, c’mon that can’t be a coincidence)
4) “I’ve” been kinda quiet around here since the four-game suspension ended
Don’t quit now, gals, keep those bloodhounds movin’!
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Shorter Stephen B Ronan:
You can’t save all the at-risk kids. So why shouldn’t some private organizations get very very rich by saving the ones who will be a credit to their charter school? So what if that means less money for the kids who are in public schools? If their parents aren’t smart enough to choose the better-funded charter that kicks out the problem kids, or did choose the charter but the charter didn’t choose them, then they aren’t worth it. And charter schools’ willingness to understand that we need to separate the good kids from the unworthy ones at age 5 certainly deserves them lots of financial rewards.
And if billionaires who hate any and all public goods are willing to pay us good money to promote that view, it’s a win-win for the people with the chutzpah to recognize that some kids who are a credit to us deserve our education and our billionaire idols’ precious tax dollars should not be spent on the kids who don’t.
And I suspect that all of your, whether Ronan, Kenen or any other name, are paid shills whose “work” is underwritten by people who are connected with the FES/privatization/pro-charter groups.
How much do they pay you to ignore the voice inside that tells you that throwing away children at age 5 is wrong? How much to promote the myth to as many racists as you can convince that young children who happen to be African-American are violent and needed to go from your charters. I hope it is worth it. I hope your children are proud of your devotion to “knowing” that some kids are just not worthy and they can rot for all your care about them. Only SOME kids who are a credit to your charters are worthy. And that is why your movement is supported by Donald Trump and BLM understands the racism inherent in what you preach so loudly to the public. Only SOME kids matter and the rest don’t.
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For those who are outraged at Diane Ravitch for posting this, particularly the “reform” camp, your argument that there is not enough evidence in this situation is valid — however, you of course fail to see why it is so easy to believe this story and jump to certain conclusions. This is not an isolated instance of fake support and fraudulent claims. You don’t need to be behind an anonymous account to be disingenuous in your activity. Just look at the Education Post, a billionaire astroturf project to promote “education reform” and “better conversation,” but really a largely fake “grassroots” organization that claims to be “helping children and parents” while simultaneously undermining the dream of quality education for all. The reform camp claims to be for “quality education for all kids,” but anyone looking at the big picture of “evidence” can see that charter schools are moving us further away from that goal, not closer. Paid shills and hedge-fund managers aside, the parents promoting charter schools are almost always the ones most concerned with “getting theirs,” while those concerned with quality education for “all” of society, including the most vulnerable, are interested in improving the regular public school system — which the dual system of charter and non-charter makes more difficult.
The charter school movement is morally indefensible. It is a system where the most greedy and ambitious can use “the market” to help themselves first, and maybe the students later. It doesn’t always happen like this, but the problem is that it is much more likely to happen like this, under the charter system, and so often does.
The evidence is very clear that this system is not going to bring quality education for all students. It is foremost an avenue for those who want to make more money at the expense of the public good. “Quality” charter schools may exist, but there is no reason why that school couldn’t be a regular public school with a community school board, local control, and financial transparency. The problem is not individual charter schools, it is the system of charter schools which is a ripe environment for corruption and the least educationally-qualified businesspeople to spread propaganda and make money off the hopes and dreams of aspirational families, while frequently providing a draconian and dubious education.
Those from the “reform” camp have no room to talk when it comes to ignoring evidence and lacking ethics. Diane’s rare mistake is your entire approach. Don’t throw stones in glass houses, etc.
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Thanks, Ed. When people hide behind masks, it’s anyone’s guess who they are and who they represent. I give my name. My bio is easily available. No one pays me for my views. I have no funders. I take no ads. Pro-charter advocates are entitled to their views but they should have the courage to sign their names to their views. They have some nerve attacking me because they disagree with me. It makes me laugh to think that these “reformers,” funded with millions from the Waltons, Broad, and other billionaires, are frightened by a 78-year-old grandmother equipped with nothing more than words.
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Ed,
Until “Nat Gordon” identifies himself, I can’t accept his assurances about who he is. He won’t admit to his name. The only thing I am certain of is that he is not me.
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Your summary provides important voter information. Throwing public education under the bus so that Wall Street and tech billionaires can further concentrate their wealth, is disastrous for America.
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Here’s ore on pro-charter activiist Erika Sanzi’s charter school where she currently works, Blackstone Valley Prep. These are the schools she wants to spread throughout New England if and after the “YES on Question 2” passes.
Recently, some of their young un-credentialed TFA teachers — their lack of credentials allowable thanks to the lack of regulation that charter operators demand in order to “innovate” — were caught texting derogatory messages about their students:
http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20160622/blackstone-valley-prep-teachers-resign-in-texting-scandal
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PROVIDENCE JOURNAL:
“In the expletive-ridden messages, teachers spoke casually about students, calling them “idiots,” and “dumb [expletives].”
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There’s another interesting text that got the Blackstone Valley Prep’s TFA teachers in trouble:
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“Man I wish we could hit them,” writes one (female) teacher.
Another responds, “Move to Arizona … Start your own charter and commence with the flogging.”
She responds: “lol”
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It’s interesting that these TFA folks already know and discuss exactly which state has the least oversight of charters, and where they can, in fact, most easily get away with extreme discipline — “Arizona.”
This text also indicates that it is common knowledge among TFA-ers that after slumming it for two years, a TFA almnus can just “start your own charter” at age 24, where they then will have zero or little oversight from any governmental authority, and get paid handsomely in the process.
This is part of the toxic thinking and behavior that Wendy Kopp has wrought upon public education.
Of course, in the same article, TFA is quick to distance themselves from all this:
——————————————
“In an email Wednesday, a Teach for America spokesperson said the language and actions of the teachers are ‘not reflective of Teach For America’s core values that we expect our teachers to uphold.’ ”
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Gee, if it’s “not reflective of TFA’s core values,” I wonder where and how those rogue “bad apple” TFA’s could have gotten the following crazy ideas:
1) Arizona requires the least oversight of privately-managed charters, and if you open a charter there, you can get away with a lot;
2) At age 24, with just two years of experience slumming at a public school and with no teaching credential, you can just “start your own charter,” and be a Doogie-Howser-like principal of your own charter school… and you can cherry pick your students, and weed out the ones who drive you to text violent fantasies against them… or, with impunity, “flog” any students of yours who do.
Clearly, this is not just random banter that’s limited to the Blackstone Valley Prep TFA teachers in question here, but something that’s discussed system-wide and nationwide among TFA Corps Members. Even if such cynicism and avarice is not showcased in TFA’s official materials and statements about itself, the TFA organization does constantly promote the stories of TFA’s who got rich founding charter organizations: Dave & Mike with KIPP, Chris Barbic, etc.
I wish someone would tell these TFA folks:
“Instead of hungrily looking ahead to the day when you’ll be the six-figure-salaried boss of your own charter school at aged 24 — where you can cherry-pick those students who don’t drive you to relish using violence against them — why don’t you try focusing on the kids who are there right in front of you right now… you know … like every credentialed, unionized teacher in the country does?”
This texting scandal was discussed here.
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One more thing about Erika Sanzi.
On July 26, her hometown paper, the Wellesley Wicked published Erika’s pro-Question 2 op-ed. It’s chocked full of wholesale smears of Boston’s public schools as educational hell-holes right out of the Third World, crumbling buildings where students learn nothing.
Let’s assume that’s true… which it’s not (SEE THE COMMENTS rebutting this below)
Of course, according to Erika, fixing and fully funding those schools is not the answer. Opening privately managed charter schools that will poach away a subset of those hell-hole-school-attending students to attend those charter schools is the only way to go.
But what about the rest of those poor kids left behind in those hell-hole public schools?
Oh well, you can’t save ’em all!
(again, her accompanying bio made no mention of her being paid by the charter school industry)
http://wellesley.wickedlocal.com/opinion/20160727/vf-widget-art-3530CAA6-947A-4A83-E053-0100007F7D97-pub543?start=2
Well, that enraged some actual Massachusetts public teachers, such as Jim Shore:
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JIM SHORE:
“Ms. Sanzi is a writer for “Education Post” a pro charter school astroturf blog funded with $12 million dollars by the Broad Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Walton Family Foundation. She lives in Rhode Island.
“Ms. Sanzi is intentionally misinforming to push her agenda. Boston Public Schools (BPS) are not located in the Third World.
“As a Boston Public School (BPS) high school teacher, I take exception to Ms. Sanzi depiction of us. All BPS high schools have Calculus and AP classes, and books for each student. BPS high schools are citywide and, with the exception of our 3 exam schools, open to all Boston high school students. BPS is “portfolio” district. In addition to 3 exam schools, we have large traditional high schools and small boutique Pilot high schools. All of these high schools offer different themed programs. BPS traditional high schools have gyms and sports fields, just 1 year ago, $18.5 million was spent renovating the sports fields at West Roxbury Education Complex.
“Many of our smaller boutique high schools have gyms and sports fields also, if not onsite close by. Small boutique high schools located downtown, like Snowden, have access to gyms and pools at nearby athletic clubs, community centers or at other nearby schools.
“Don’t be hoodwinked!
Please read the rebuttal to Ms. Sanzi by Kristin Johnson, she too graduated Wellesley High School, and now lives in Boston. She articulates a real Boston Public Schools parent’s perspective on why Massachusetts voters should “Keep the Cap” and vote NO on ballot question 2.
http://wellesley.wickedlocal.com/news/20160803/commentary-rebuttal
Also, Brendan Halpin, “No on 2: What Makes an Excellent School?”
http://www.brendanhalpin.com/girlinacage/2016/08/no-on-2-what-makes-an-excellent-school.html
——————————————
That first link from Kristin Johnson, one of Erika’s fellow alumna from Wellesley High Schools, and she responds to Erika’s op-ed. It is worth printing in total:
http://wellesley.wickedlocal.com/news/20160803/commentary-rebuttal
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KRISTIN JOHNSON:
“I read the commentary ‘Wellesley, Let’s Support All Families Having Access to Great Schools’ with immense interest.
“At a glance, it would seem that the author and I have a lot in common; I also graduated from Wellesley High School in the early 1990s, and I’m also an education activist and blogger. However, this is where our shared experiences end.
“Unlike Ms. Sanzi, who lives out-of-state in Rhode Island, I have two children in Boston Public Schools. My daughters’ school and district will be negatively impacted if the ballot measure to lift the cap on charter schools passes. While Ms. Sanzi is correct that our urban public schools lack the same resources as Wellesley Public Schools, I cannot fathom her suggestion that one solution to under-funded and under-resourced schools might be passing a ballot measure to open more public schools.
“Because of the current funding structure of public education in Massachusetts, Boston Public Schools will lose about $158 million to Commonwealth Charter Schools in the current fiscal year. That figure will skyrocket if the ballot measure to lift the charter school cap passes.
“Our own mayor, who is fervently pro-charter and was a co-founder of Neighborhood House Charter School, is against this ballot initiative. Earlier this year Mayor Walsh said, “This proposal does not provide for the sustainable charter school growth that its proponents seek. Instead, it would wreak havoc on municipal finances, undermining our ability to support either new or existing schools in Boston.’
“The ballot measure would allow 12 new charter schools annually, or a 1 percent increase in the number of students (~9,500 seats).
“In an OpEd to Commonwealth Magazine last March, a group of state senators wrote,
” ‘If the ballot question passes, more charter schools could be created in the next five years than were created in the prior 20, with a price tag exposing the Commonwealth to $1 billion and impacting less than 10 percent of students.’
“This unchecked proliferation of charter schools will strain the budgets of current traditional public and charter schools alike.
“Ms. Sanzi asserts that the current cap on charter schools is to blame for limiting access to high quality schools for low income families. The educational challenges facing our low income and black and Latino children do not simply go away by placing them in a charter school. Furthermore, it’s disingenuous to categorize the Bay State’s current charter schools as ‘high-performing’ without also acknowledging that they often serve a different demographic than the sending district.
“For instance, here in Boston, the student population of BPS is composed of 30 percent English language learners and 20 percent students with disabilities, while the charter schools in Boston are composed of 13 percent English language learners and 17 percent students with disabilities. Simply put, students with less complex educational challenges perform better on standardized tests.
“One component of accountability that is largely not being discussed in the context of this ballot measure is that charter schools open and operate without the input or oversight of the local municipality. If a charter school operator decides they would like to open a new school in Wellesley, the operator can do so without community input and without the oversight of the Wellesley School Committee and Board of Selectmen, despite the fact that Wellesley would be mandated to foot the bill. If a charter school fails, it’s extremely disruptive to the whole community, yet completely out of their control.
“As an example, I urge your readers to investigate the epic failure of the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School before deciding how to vote on ballot question No. 2.
“Lastly, it is unfair to categorize all those who oppose ballot question No. 2 as cogs in the wheel of a so-called ‘union machine’ that’s fighting to keep the status quo. Many of us are parents with children in public schools who understand that this ballot question is a reckless measure that would have a detrimental impact on our public schools if passed.
“Please vote no on ballot question No. 2 so that we can all work work together to create equitable educational solutions for ALL of the children in the Commonwealth.”
Kristin Johnson
Medical Artist
BPS Citywide Parent Council representative
Parent at Ellis Mendell School, Roxbury
Founder and co-author of the blog Boston Political Education
http://bostonpoliticaleducation.blogspot.com/
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Oh and here’s the other response to Erika Sanzi’s pro-Question 2 op-ed in the Wellesley Wicked, this one from Massachusetts public high school teacher Brendan Halpin. Appropriately enough, the comments section includes an exchange between Brendan and … you guessed it… Nat Morton: (All roads lead to Nat, apparently)
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BRENDAN HALPIN:
“No on 2: What Makes an Excellent School?
August 01, 2016
“Charter school mythology maintains that charter schools are excellent. The astroturf organizations that venture capitalists fund in order to simulate popular support for charter schools have names like ‘Families for Excellent Schools’ and ‘Great Schools For All.’
“And, if you’re foolish enough to get into an argument with one of these folks on Twitter, it won’t be long before they compare themselves to Freedom Riders, and you to an evil segregationist who opposes good schools for children of color.
“In light of this, it’s worth asking if charter schools are, in fact, excellent schools. There is certainly abundant evidence that they do not do as good a job of educating all comers as regular urban schools, but I’d like to take the comparison to another level. Charter backers often suggest that they only want to give people with limited means the same freedom of choice that wealthy people have. After all, if you’ve got enough money, you can move to any community you want and send your kids to the public schools there.
“By this logic, charter schools should be quite similar to the kind of suburban schools that affluent families choose for their children.
“So let’s take a look and see if that’s true!
“I decided to look at Lexington High School, a public high school in an affluent community, and MATCH Charter High School, one of the so-called ‘Excellent Schools’ that charter advocates want to open more of.
“As one might expect, Lexington High School students perform very well on standardized tests. So do MATCH students, though they don’t perform as well as LHS students.
“But there’s more to a school than test scores.
“At least in Lexington there is.
“Lexington High School offers Cheerleading, Field Hockey, Football, Swimming, Golf, Soccer, Volleyball, Basketball, Hockey, Wrestling, Baseball, Softball, Lacrosse, Tennis, and Ultimate Frisbee.
“MATCH offers Basketball, Track, and Soccer.
“Now admittedly, MATCH has a much smaller student body and couldn’t support all those teams. But even the teams they have seem a bit half-hearted. MATCH girls’ soccer plays 11 matches; Lexington High School girls’ varsity soccer plays 20 matches.
“Lexington High School offers an extensive art program: they have a visual art department and a performing arts department that includes dance, drama, and music.
“MATCH has no visual art teacher or music teacher. It employs one drama teacher who is also the athletic director. I am not making this up.
“Lexington High School’s library employs two librarians and three assistants.
“MATCH does not appear to have a librarian or a library.
“Lexington High School offers courses in ASL, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish.
“MATCH offers courses in Spanish.
“Lexington High School’s principal has 18 years of experience as a teacher.
“MATCH’s principal graduated from college in 2008.
“Now, comparing a large suburban school to a small urban one may not be fair. But this is the comparison charter advocates invite. This, they say, pointing at schools like MATCH (which I chose for this example only because they do a better job of retaining their students than most Boston charter high schools, though they still lag behind BPS), as the very best we can do for urban students.
“This?
“This bare-bones test-prep factory is the best we can do?
“No: students in Boston deserve better. Students everywhere in Massachusetts deserve better.
“And, in fact, they have better.
“Not only suburban high schools, but also Snowden, a small Boston Public High School where students can play soccer, football, hockey, basketball, wrestling, volleyball and softball. Where students can take courses in performing and visual arts. Where students can study Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish. Where there is a librarian.
“Charter advocates would have you focus only on test scores, but these are not the only thing that makes a school great. The arts, world languages, athletics, libraries: these are not frills. They are, in fact, what the affluent parents of Lexington demand for their children. They are part of a complete education. And they are an area in which charter schools fall woefully short.
“This is not an accident. Charter schools have chosen to shortchange their students in these areas. They have had twenty years in Massachusetts to establish themselves, and this is what they’ve come up with.
“Our students deserve better and already have better. Expanding the number of charter schools will only weaken the schools working to educate the whole student rather than simply training students to take tests.”
Posted at 09:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Comments
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NatMorton said…
“This is a rather silly line of reasoning. Any school will have its strengths and weaknesses. It’s not really a question of which is better overall, but which is better for a given child. Don’t you think that child’s parents are in the best position to make that assessment?
“Beyond that, MATCH does not need to be a better option than Lexington or any other leafy burb. It just needs to be a better option for the students in the community that it serves. Judging by the waitlist, for many it is.”
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Reply August 06, 2016 at 09:50 AM
brendanhalpin said…
“I did not start an astroturf organization called ‘Families for Excellent Schools’ or ‘Great Schools Massachusetts.’ Those are pro-charter groups. Charter advocates have been quick to accuse public ed advocates of wanting to deny great schools to poor kids of color. In light of this, it’s fair to ask whether charter schools are actually great. You’ve effectively conceded that they’re not. You should tell the venture capitalists who created those organizations.
“You say waitlist, I say retention: if MATCH is so great, why do a higher percentage of students leave MATCH than they do BPS before graduation?”
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NO RESPONSE TO THAT FROM NAT.
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I want to focus in on one point that Brendan made …
http://www.brendanhalpin.com/girlinacage/2016/08/no-on-2-what-makes-an-excellent-school.html
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BRENDAN HALPIN:
“And, if you’re foolish enough to get into an argument with one of these (pro-Question 2) folks on Twitter, it won’t be long before they compare themselves to Freedom Riders, and you to an evil segregationist who opposes good schools for children of color.”
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… and tie Brendan’s comment into Marc Kenan’s race-baiting comments at the debate.
At one point in the debate, Marc made some hare-brained claim that the teachers union leaders’ motive, or a big part of of their motive in opposing Question 2 is racist. Either that or — at the very least — their motives are rooted in the fact that the union leadership is white, and their white-ness is somehow driving them, subconsciously or whatever, to oppose Question 2 … again to the detriment to low-income students and families of color.
The YES on 2 white folks are the Freedom Riders.
The NO on 2 folks are George Wallace and Orville Faubus.
That’s a pretty lame and divisive tactic on Marc’s part, for which Marc owe folks an apology.
Go here:
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( 35:02 – )
( 35:02 – )
MARC KENAN: “We have our strongest opposition from the teachers unions across the state, whose leadership is primarily white… (So-effing-what, Marc?! JACK) … our goal, and whom we are trying to serve, are those black and brown parents and young parents who are trying desperately to get alternatives for their children.”
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With tens of millions of dollars going to political campaign operatives, I’m guessing this specious race-baiting was dreamed up by those guys, and then tested on focus groups where those experts found out that these messages worked in getting folks to vote YES on 2.
This scuzzy and divisive tactic works two ways:
ON WHITES: it’s a way to use white guilt to pressure white voters into voting Question 2.
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MESSAGE to Whites:
“You don’t want to be one of those racists who keep blacks from getting a good education, now, do you? Vote ‘YES’ on Question 2, and earn your ‘I’m-No-Racist!’ merit badge.”
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For whites, it’s an easy way to prove you’re not a racist, and make yourself feel good in the voting booth… regardless of how off-base that thinking actually is.
ON BLACKS: it’s a way to use historical black anger against white oppression and mistreatment to vote “YES” on 2.
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MESSAGE to African-Americans:
“White folks in upscale Massachusetts cities and neighborhoods are stealing black kids’ promise of a great education and keeping black kids from having good schools, just the way they’ve been doing this forever. Stick it to those racist whiteys and vote ‘YES’ on Question 2.”
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As a Los Angeleno, this demagogic re-framing of the issues reminds me the way attorney Johnny Cochran, in the O.J. Simpson trial, successfully manipulated the black jurors and black population into abandoning their common sense and critical thinking to render their verdict, and act the way they did. He brought in an irrelevant and inflammatory context of historical racism, and attached it to the way a true black person should think and act regarding O.J.’s guilt or innocence.
“Here’s your chance to even the score with The Man. Vote to acquit!”
or
“If you’re in the black community, back your brother O.J. in his time of need, and stick it to the racist power structure.”
That’s how and why you got this abomination. (Note the different reactions of blacks and whites to the live announcement of O.J.’s acquittal):
( 1:01 – )
( 1:01 – )
For Marc Kenan and his Massachusetts Public Charter School Association (which Marc founded) to stoop to this level of pernicious exploitation of historical racism is pretty scuzzy and skeevy. However, I imagine this is what the high-priced political campaign experts whom the “YES” on Question 2″ folks hired told him to say at the debate and elsewhere. … and Marc figures,
“Oh what the heck. As scuzzy and skeevy as this tactic is, all’s fair in politics, and you do whatever you have to in order to win. The ends justify the means, blah-blah-blah … ”
In all my campaigns for which I’ve volunteered — for school board members, politicians, initiatives, etc. — I’ve never had to be associated with such sleazy campaign tactics or messages that violated my own moral code, and I never will be, as I will drop out if engaging in this kind of stuff is what you have to do in order to win.
Indeed, on her pro-charter blog, Erika Sanzi engages in this as well in her response to ultra-progressive Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s endorsement of the “NO” on 2 campaign. Sanzi makes Warren out to be the Second Coming of George Wallace, standing in front of the University of Alabama door and barring black students from entering:
http://goodschoolhunting.org/2016/09/elizabeth-warren-baby-got-wrong-back.html
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ERIKA SANZI: “Perhaps those zip codes that act as barbed wire fences for poor kids have simply fallen through the cracks of her broken foundation where principles have given way to power and money and special interest. Adult interest in this case.
“It’s actually hard to imagine the disgust that low income parents, especially black and brown ones, must feel that their world famous Senator, their fighter for the ‘little guy,’ has now lost interest in that proverbial ‘little guy’. ”
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Oy vey!
Here’s another piece, this one from Campbell Brown’s “The74” blog that goes all in this specious race-baiting. Michelle Rhee hagiographer Richard Whitmire calls out those rich white Massachusetts folks who back “NO on Question 2.”
http://the74million.org/article/its-heartbreaking-boston-parents-ask-why-their-wealthy-neighbors-are-fighting-charter-schools
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‘It’s Heartbreaking’: Boston Parents Ask Why Their Wealthy Neighbors Are Fighting Charter Schools”
RICHARD WHITMIRE:
“However, recent polls, along with unexpectedly intense anti-charter activity in places like Newton, suggest that support may be soft. Just before school opened in Newton this year, the union staffed a table outside its ($200 million) high school to encourage teachers to oppose the cap lift. Recently, Tillman attended a meeting in Newton where she said she heard plenty of talk against lifting the cap.
“All of which makes her ask: Why would Newton teachers and parents, who are unaffected by charters, vote to deny better schools for the low-income neighborhoods of Boston?
“ ‘It’s heartbreaking,’ said Tillman (an African-American in favor of Question 2 and expanding charter schools). ‘This does not affect their budget. Why don’t they want to help their brethren in our ZIP code?”
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Because they’re evil racists, Ms. Tillman. Shame on them.
What nonsense.
How do the pro-charter, pro-Question 2 folks square this line of argument with both the NAACP and the Black Lives Matters leaders coming out strongly against Question 2, and the expansion of privately-run charter schools in general? Are those black leaders all stupid, or dupes of the white racists?
Whatever.
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It never occurs to charter advocates that some people oppose privatization of public services in principle, not because of self interest
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Boy, whoever could have guessed that this would turn out to be wrong.
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FLERP, what turned out to be wrong?
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Marc,
Whoever you are or are not, I have some questions for you.
What’s with your playing the race card, and dealing it from the bottom of the deck, I might add … in your promotion of the “YES on 2” position?
I”m saw the latest Question 2 debate, and you made some hare-brained claim that the teachers union leaders’ motive, or a big part of of their motive in opposing Question 2 is racist. Either that or — at the very least — their motives are rooted in the fact that the union leadership is white, and their white-ness is somehow driving them, subconsciously or whatever, to oppose Question 2 … again to the detriment to low-income students and families of color.
That’s a pretty lame and divisive tactic on your part, for which you owe folks an apology.
Go here:
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( 35:02 – )
( 35:02 – )
MARC KENAN: “We have our strongest opposition from the teachers unions across the state, whose leadership is primarily white… (So-effing-what, Marc?! JACK) … our goal, and whom we are trying to serve, are those black and brown parents and young parents who are trying desperately to get alternatives for their children.”
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Yeah, right, Marc. Helping black and brown parents is your “goal” … unlike those crypto-racist teachers in teacher unions who only care about themselves, even if that screws the education of black kids and poor kids. This is in spite of the fact that those unionized teachers are the ones in classrooms teaching kids of all races and classes — including blacks —- for seven or more hours each day.
Naaah, according to you, the teachers in those classrooms don’t care about their students. Only billionaire-backed charter folks like you care about black and brown kids.
So let me get this straight, Marc. If Barbara Madeloni and other Massachusetts teachers union leaders were as black as Karen Lewis (the black teachers’ union leader in Chicago), you wouldn’t attempting this bizarre line of argument?
Or maybe then you’d characterize those hypothetical black Massachusetts labor leaders as an Uncle Tom sell-outs, who value big union officer salaries more than she does helping out her fellow blacks.
What utter nonsense!
Thank God African-American anti-charter Tito Jackson was there to immediately counter this asinine attempt to frame this as a race issue, and inflame racial tensions.
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( 35:27 – )
( 35:27 – )
TITO JACKSON: “Marc, the leadership of the teachers unions is primarily white, but SO IS the leadership of most charter school in the city of Boston, and so I think that THAT is a critical component.”
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Tito then changes topic, then proceeds to debunk the vaunted charter school wait list numbers.
QUICK DIGRESSION … DEBUNKING THE WAITLIST
Think about it, Marc.
If there truly were 30,000 – 40,000 people furious at being wait-listed and denied entry to a charter school, because there wasn’t enough of such schools, wouldn’t that mean these parents would have formed an army of volunteer campaign workers swarming the state pushing for passage of Question 2— knocking on doors, phone-banking, marching down streets, etc.? They wouldn’t need $20 million of out-of-state billionaire money. That volunteer component would be enough to win the day.
No, with less than a month left, there’s nothing of the kind going on in Massachusetts right now. That army of pro-charter, “Wait List” parents is nowhere to be seen. The pro-Question-2 stuff is all big money commercials, mailers, and robo-calls, not live calls from live volunteer workers, or live canvassers knocking on doors.
Anyway, back to what Tito could have said to Mark regarding the overwhelming whiteness of Massachusetts charter leaders, as well as those leaders not living in the neighborhoods where their charter schools are located.
Here’s what Tito could have said, but was said by someone else at the other debate.
In the other debate, the FEMALE MODERATOR, in a question to Charter Lady Marty Walz, goes into detail about THE TOTAL ABSENCE OF ANY BLACKS, OR ANY LOCAL PARENTS OR CITIZENS — IN COMMUNITIES THAT ARE OVERWHELMINGLY BLACK — IN ANY POSITION ON THESE CHARTER SCHOOL BOARDS TO EXERCISE ANY DECISION-MAKING POWER OVER THESE CHARTER SCHOOLS WITH, again, ENTIRELY OR OVERWHELMINGLY BLACK STUDENT POPULATIONS.
Marc, if you care so much about the education of these poor black students and low-income communities, why do you and the rest of the charter school industry not allow their black parents any position on these charter school boards where they can have some input or decision-making power, or where those running those schools would have some level of accountability to those same black parents?
It sends a message to those black parents: we (upscale white charter leaders) know what’s best for you, and are doing what’s best for you, so just shut up and let us run things.
What the-hell ever happened to democracy in the governance of these supposedly “public” schools ? (The only thing “public” about them is the public’s money which fund them, while that same “public” is then eliminated from having any input via a democratically-elected school board.)
Watch this:
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(34:30 – )
(34:30 – )
FEMALE MODERATOR: “Representative Walz, for some who oppose Question 2, one of the issues that it comes down to is this, and I’m going to paraphrase Carol Burris, she’s a former New York high school, and she says
” ‘The democratic governance of our public schools is a American tradition worth saving.’
” … and then the Annenberg institute for school reform at Brown University earlier this year released a study, and they analyzed EVERY board for EVERY charter school in the state of Massachusetts. and they found that ..
“31% of trustees (school board members) statewide are affiliated with the financial services or corporate sector. Only 14% were parents.
“60% of the charter boards had NO parent representation on their boards WHATSOEVER.
“Those that DID were largely confined to charter schools that served MOSTLY WHITE students.
“Here’s an example: City on a Hill (Charter) Schools in Roxbury — again, this is according to the Annenberg Institute Report — has schools in Roxbury and New Bedford, (has a) 14-member board, trustees for all three of those schools.
“ONLY ONE member of the board lives in New Bedford. Three live in Boston, but NONE in Roxgury. The rest live in (upscale communities) Brookline, Cambridge, Cohasset, and Hingham.
“So they (at Annenberg) ask:
” ‘How can those charter schools be considered locally controlled and locally accountable?’ ”
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Charter Lady Marty Walz responds by claiming — and winning applause from the charter folks stacked in the audience — that local control through school boards has “wholly failed’ to produce quality schools and educate children, and need to be wiped out.
Those in the audience are cheering the end of democracy? Really?
Wait. Isn’t Massachusetts the highest achieving state in the U.S.? Really? She says that democratically-governed schools with elected school boards in Massachusetts have “wholly failed” students? Really?
At another point in the debate, Charter Lady claims their group is about improving all types of schools, but here she is recommending replacing all of traditional public schools with privately-managed charter schools.
So which is it?
The Moderator interrupts by insisting that Charter Lady answer the question about accountability, and Charter Lady brings up the only method needed — the Death Penalty AND THAT’S IT…. but no accountability to parents and citizens, while those schools are actually open, and ZERO OPPORTUNITY OR MECHANISM for those parents and citizens to enjoy any kind of decision-making power over those schools WHILE CHARTER SCHOOLS ARE IN OPERATION.
And we need to watch John Oliver again to find out how well the charter school model, with what Marty Walz describes as “higher degree of accountability than public schools” actually works out in practice:
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This whole “who is Nat Morton?” stuff was ultimately enlightening, as it led to me getting acquainted with some of the Question 2 folks — for and against — in Massachusetts.
However, at the end of the day, here’s something upon which people should focus:
During the next month leading up to Tuesday, November 8, as you see or listen to the slick and expensive Madison Avenue-level commercials promoting “YES” on Question 2, or view the slick mailers you find in your mailbox, or listen to robo-calls, think about this following post:
The latest figure is that over $21.7 million of out-of-state money from the most ruthless capitalists who have ever walked the Earth — Eli Broad, the Walton family of Walmart, Wall Street hedge fund managers, etc. — is pouring into Massachusetts to pass Question 2.
Read this well-researched article here for that $21.7 million figure:
These profit-minded plutocrats who are pouring in this money obviously …
— do not live in Massachusetts,
— have no children, grandchildren, or other relatives that attend public schools in Massachusetts
— have never given a sh#% about the education of middle or lower income until recently, when they realized they could make a buck off privatizing Massachusetts schools via the expansion of privately-run charter schools,.
They want to these corporate charter schools to replace truly public schools — the ones that, for generations, have been accountable and transparent to the public via democratically elected school boards, and which are mandated to educate ALL of the public… including those hardest or most difficult to educate … special ed., English Language Learners, homeless kids, foster care kids, kids with difficult behavior arising from distressed home lives.
Are proponents of Question 2 seriously making the argument that out-of-state billionaires and Wall Street hedge fund managers are pumping in all this money because those folks care so much about the education of kids in Massachusetts?
You really think they are NOT seeking a big money return on these ($21.7 million campaign donations?
Does that pass the smell test?
Can you provide an example of JUST ONE TIME in the past where they poured in this kind of cash to something … no strings attached, and with no expectations of return?
If, as Q 2 supporters like Marty Walz claim, the most ruthless capitalists that have ever walked the Earth are now kicking in this kind of cash to pass Question 2 merely because they care about children’s education —
… and if they are not about their profiting through the privatization of public schools brought about by the expansion of privately-run charter schools,
… then I’m sure one of you Q 2 supporters could google and find a past example where they have done something similar .. .again out of generosity… with no expectation of an eventual monetary return…
Something like …
“Well, back in 2000-something, or 1900-something, these same folks donated $20 million to the (INSERT CHARITABLE CAUSE HERE). Here’s the link that proves this.”
No, I didn’t think so. When this was brought up in a debate, Mary Walz refused to address it, saying, “We need to talk about the kids, not the adults.” Well, keeping money motivated scum from raping and pillaging Massachusetts public schools IS CARING ABOUT THE KIDS, Marty!
So the real question is:
To whom do the schools of Massachusetts belong? The citizens and parents who pay the taxes there?
Or a bunch of money-motivated out-of-state billionaires and Wall Street hedge fund managers who are trying to buy them via Question 2, and the expansion of privately managed charter schools which they control, or also profit from their on-line and digital learning products that will be sold to these charter school chains?
If you believe the former, THEN FOR GOD’S SAKE, VOTE “NO” ON QUESTION 2.
Send them a message: Massachusetts schools are NOT FOR SALE!!!
Oh and go watch the John Oliver charter school video:
Oh and listen to this dissection of a “YES on 2” radio ad:
http://wrsi.com/monte/dissecting-the-great-schools-massachusetts-ad-on-question-2/
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“…and ,my, grandma! What big TEETH you have!”
If you have to achieve your goal through deception and deceit, then you don’t belong in the debate. Especially in a field as important as the education.
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…of the human mind. Children, teens, young adults, senior citizens. All included.
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SPREAD THE WORD because state lawmakers and voters everywhere need to know right now that the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education has issued a warning that charter schools posed a risk to the Department of Education’s own goals. The report says: “Charter schools and their management organizations pose a potential risk to federal funds even as they threaten to fall short of meeting the goals.”
The report documents multiple cases of financial risk, waste, fraud, abuse, lack of accountability of federal funds, and lack of proof that the schools were implementing federal programs in accordance with federal requirements.
Throughout our nation, private charter schools backed by billionaire hedge funds are being allowed to divert hundreds of millions of public school tax dollars away from educating America’s children and into private corporate pockets. Any thoughtful person should pause a moment and ask: “Why are hedge funds the biggest promoters of charter schools?” Hedge funds aren’t altruistic — there’s got to be big profit in “non-profit” charter schools in order for hedge fund managers to be involved in backing them.
And even the staunchly pro-charter school Los Angeles Times (which acknowledges that its “reporting” on charter schools is paid for by a billionaire charter school advocate) complained in an editorial that “the only serious scrutiny that charter operators typically get is when they are issued their right to operate, and then five years later when they apply for renewal.” Without needed oversight of what charter schools are actually doing with the public’s tax dollars, hundreds of millions of tax money that is supposed to be spent on educating the public’s children is being siphoned away into private pockets.
One typical practice of charter schools is to pay exorbitant rates to rent buildings that are owned by the charter school board members or by their proxy companies which then pocket the public’s tax money as profit. Another profitable practice is that although charter schools use public tax money to purchase millions of dollars of such things as computers, the things they buy with public tax money become their private property and can be sold by them for profit…and then use public tax money to buy more, and sell again, and again, and again, pocketing profit after profit.
The Washington State and New York State supreme courts and the National Labor Relations Board have ruled that charter schools are not public schools because they aren’t accountable to the public since they aren’t governed by publicly-elected boards and aren’t subdivisions of public government entities, in spite of the fact that some state laws enabling charter schools say they are government subdivisions.
Charter schools are clearly private schools, owned and operated by private entities. Nevertheless, they get public tax money. Moreover, as the NAACP and ACLU have reported, charter schools are often engaged in racial and economic-class discrimination.
Charter schools should (1) be required by law to be governed by school boards elected by the voters so that they are accountable to the public; (2) a charter school entity must legally be a subdivision of a publicly-elected governmental body; (3) charter schools should be required to file the same detailed public-domain audited annual financial reports under penalty of perjury that genuine public schools file; and, (4) anything a charter school buys with the public’s money should be the public’s property.
NO FEDERAL MONEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO GO TO CHARTER SCHOOLS THAT FAIL TO MEET THESE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE PUBLIC. Hillary Clinton could, if elected President, on day one in office issue an Executive Order to the Department of Education to do just that. Tell her today to do that! Send her the above information to make certain she knows about the Inspector General’s findings and about the abuses being committed by charter schools.
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I think the issue of NatMorton’s identity is less important than the question of how much Kenen and his board of directors would increase his salary if Question 2 passes? The question is entirely relevant given that Kenen was offered a very generous compromise by the State Senate President. But much to Kenen’s dismay, that compromise included too many in-district charters, and not enough independent/non-union schools – the kind that would be more likely to pay dues to his non-profit. The public deserves to know why he abandoned a good deal and instead opted for an option that – if successful – would almost certainly have been benefitted him financially.
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She is a complete fraud. Taught in a charter for a few years then quit because of “scheduling conflicts”. Which are…? A stay at home mom whose kids are in charters
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