This short video was made by parents in Boston.
It shows who is standing together to oppose Question 2, which would authorize 12 new charter schools a year in Massachusetts, every year for the indefinite future.
More charter schools means more budget cuts for the public schools that enroll the vast majority of students. Charters do not enroll the same proportion of students with disabilities and English language learners as public schools.
Massachusetts now has the best performing state school system in the nation. Why disrupt it?
Watch the video, share it, and send it to your friends in Massachusetts.
The billionaires are using $20 million or more to spread their pro-charter message on television and to pay campaign workers.
The parents have no money, and they need our help.
Save public schools in Massachusetts.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Let’s make this video our victorious finale.
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Anyone with any sense community would oppose Question 2. If people approve this, corporate carpetbaggers will arrive like locusts to take advantage of local taxpayers. They will have a license to drain public dollar and public schools of resources in order to create splinter schools of dubious value while citizens will have no control over the schools or the damage they inflict.
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This is valuable first order work in Massachusetts, and also important for other activists to see. The extensive investments in capturing American public schools led by deep pocket investors needs to be exposed to view and stopped at the ballot box. Parents are among the best advocates.
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BELOW is a tweet that includes a scan of November 3, 2015 email arranging a phone conference for a “Question 2” strategy meeting.
The email’s recipients’ list shows how truly jacked in that Governor Baker & the Massachusetts Department of Ed is to the charter school industry, and vice-versa.
Among those listed is Jim Peyser, the then-and-current Massachusetts Secretary of Education — the guy whose job it is to protect, manage, and promote all of Massachusetts’ traditional public schools.
Here he is the freakin’ Secretary of Ed. participating in meetings (there are multiple such emails with the same recipients’ list for other such meetings) of a group whose goal is promoting one sector — the charter sector which comprises only 4% if Massachusetts’ publicly funded schools — at the expense of the other — the traditional public schools that have been teaching Massachusetts students for over two centuries, and which comprises 96% of Massachusetts’ public schools.
This email was sent by Eileen O’Connor, a leaders and spokesperson for Great Schools Massachusetts, and partner in the firm Keyser Public Strategies:
She’s the wife of Will Keyser. According to David Sirota’ expose of dark money coming into Massachusetts from out of state to pass Question 2:
“Mr. Keyser is a principal of Keyser Public Strategies, a key strategist for Gov. Baker’s 2014 campaign, a lobbyist for Families for Excellent Schools and consultant to the Great Schools Massachusetts campaign. Ms. O’Connor is also a principal of Keyser Public Strategies, communications professional, and spokesperson for Great Schools Massachusetts.”
Now both “Question 2” proponents and THE BOSTON GLOBE are clients of Keyser Public Strategies. So with the GLOBE’s endorsement of Question 2, you have a Keyser client endorsing another Keyser client. Might Keyser offer the Globe discount as a quid-pro-quo?
http://blogs.wgbh.org/masspoliticsprofs/2016/10/28/breaking-keyser-client-endorses-keyser-client/
No wonder it took the New York Times to cover this story properly.
Anyway, without further ado, here’s the tweet which includes that intriguing email recipients’ list: (You have to CLICK on the email, then hit the “CONTROL” key then the “+” key a bunch of times to enlarge and read the email portion of the tweet)
https://twitter.com/MeghnaWBUR/status/795057815610159104
What’s interesting is EXACLTY WHO is on the recipients list of that November 3, 2015 email that Eileen O’Connor sent out to arranged that telephone conference strategy session for Question 2: ( I GOOGLE-searched the ones whom I didn’t know.)
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
CASE OF CHARACTERS
(email recipients for Question 2 phone conference)
— Jim Conroy — Sirota says, “Conroy was Governor Baker’s 2014 campaign manager and served briefly in the governor’s office before departing for private consulting work. He is also a consultant to Great Schools Massachusetts.”
— Jim Peyser, the Massachusetts Secretary of Education, who, for a period, was simultaneously on the Board of the charter lobbying group Families for Excellent Schools while serving and Ed. Secrentary (as Edushyster put it om her piece “ALL IN THE FAMILY”… For a while at least, Peyser “was lobbying himself.”)
— Jeremiah Kittredge, Families in Schools CEO
— Beth Anderson, Founder and CEO of the Phoenix Academy Charter Network (Linkedin)
— Jon Clark, Co-Director of the Edward Brooke Charter Schools (Linkedin)
— Will Herberich, Managing Director, Communications, Families for Excellent Schools
— Jack Brennan, former legislator and current lobbyist with The Brennan Group (Linkedin)
— Lynda Bernard, Vice-President of The Brennan Group (Brennan Group website)
— Michael Morris, Principal of the Beacon Strategies Group, a PR, lobbying firm (Beacon Strategies website) “a top-ranked public affairs and issue advocacy firm”
— Clare Kelly, consultant Beacon Strategies Group (Linkedin)
— Michael Bergen, Principal, at Beacon Strategies Group (Linkedin)
— Stephanie Ruocco, Executive Assistant and Office Manager at ObserveT, (Linkedin)
— Sean Anderson, Chief Program Officer, Families for Excellent Schools
— Kelly King-Lewis, Executive Assistant / HR Manager at the Office of the CEO, Families for Excellent Schools, NYC
— Christina Kennedy (it’s New England, so there’s a zillion, but here’s one with a charter school connection) Consultant, Bronx Community Charter School (Linkedin)
— Marc Kenen, CEO, Massachusetts Public Charter Schools Association
— Dominic Slowey, the Boston Consulting Group, (formerly), currently Slovey/McManus Communications, a Boston P.R. firm
— Jennifer Chow, who goes back a way with Governor Baker. in 2006, Governor Baker was CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and later, MA Sect. of Admin & Finance, former MA Sect. of Health & Human Services, Throughout these jobs, Baker regularly partnered with Chow, who “the Manager of Enrollment and Outreach” for Health Care for All.
As governor, Baker named Chow to a government advisory council:
Click to access members.pdf
— Kathryn “Katy” Zazzera, since April 2016, she’s been Assistant Manager of Community Relations with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
At the time of this November 3, 2015 email coordinating key people on the Question 2 push, Zazzera was working for Governor Baker in Massachusetts state government:
From Katy Zazzera’s Linkedin
Program Coordinator for the Senior Advisor
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
January 2015 – April 2016 (1 year 4 months)Boston, MA• Manage Senior Advisor’s schedule and meetings
• Assist on issue-based research
• Oversee and run Governor’s Statewide Youth Council
• Greet and answer all phone calls in Executive Office and other administrative duties
• Coordinate Executive Office events
— Ryan Coleman — Legislative Affairs Director, Office of the Governor of Massachusetts
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Here’s the sequel to the above email (all of these, by the way, courtesy of Boston radio personality Meghna Chakrabarti )
It’s the minutes of the phone strategy conference (SEE ABOVE) that actually took place on November 4 — with most of the players listed above:
https://twitter.com/MeghnaWBUR/status/795060523255681025
CLICK on the right side to see the first page of the minutes with the players listed.
CLICK on the left side to read how the parents are being given scripts (“message points”) to read at the rally.
And of course, you may need to enlarge by CLICKING the “CONTROL” key, holding it, then hitting the “+” a bunch of times.
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Here’s an interesting tweet related to Roxbury Prep Charter School(founded and initially led by now-Secretary of Ed. John King).
“Boston Parent” finds a contradiction:
Roxbury officials have been pushing “YES on 2”, with the claim that they currently have 682 students on their Wait List …
… however …
… a few days ago (Oct 26), Roxbury put out ads talking about “Immediate Openings” for students / parents interested in transferring to Roxbury in this school year, 2016 -2017.
What’s up with that? Can’t they just call folks from the phantom Wait List?
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Check out video!
Rebecca Miller
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