Those Los Angeles billionaires are up to their old tricks, handing out astronomical sums to capture control of the public schools, in which they have never had children or taught.
Former Mayor Richard Riordan, a close ally of billionaire Eli Broad, just contributed $1 million to a fund to defeat Steve Zimmer, the president of the Los Angeles Unified School District board.
The committee to defeat Steve Zimmer is called, ironically, “LA Students for Change, Opposing Steve Zimmer 2017.” Neither Richard Riordan nor Eli Broad nor any of the other billionaires who contribute to this fund are “LA students.” It is a typical “reformer” deception, intended to mislead voters that students are putting together a multimillion dollar campaign to clear the path for Eli Broad’s desperate desire to put half the students in Los Angeles into charter schools.
This nomenclature is similar to the billionaires in New York and Conne richter who created the fake group “Families for Excellent Schools,” who raised millions to promote charters, although none of those elite families had a child in a public school or intended to send their own children to charter schools. Their own children are at Andover, Exeter, and other posh schools where tuition is about $50,000 or more.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane writes: ” . . . Their own children are at Andover, Exeter, and other posh schools where tuition is about $50,000 or more.”
. . . and where their own children will never be touched by unabridged history, classes in social justice or, for that matter, anyone in “other” classes, as in “social” and “economic.”
Melvoin will lose many votes when people here on the Westside read the article linked.
Snakes under the ricks
Speaking of Families for Excellent Schools, our friend Eva is back at it again, advertising during prime time evening hours. This advertisement features a cute young boy doing math. Nothing extraordinary. Next scene he’s standing and jumping up and down saying, “Practice, Practice, Practice.” Weird. (I wonder what parent would volunteer their child for such an activity. He was also curiously wearing a uniform with the old Success Academy logo.)
Next screen says, “Excellent public education.” (I know some of you are gagging.) The final screen shows that Success Academy logo, which looks like prison bars. We all know that Success Academy is not a public school, and if the education offered was truly excellent, they wouldn’t have to advertise. However, parents of preschoolers who have been brainwashed with the “public schools are bad” nonsense may fall prey to this ads.
Knowing that Success Academy always advertises strategically, I took a look at the NYC DOE calendar. What a surprise! The Kindergarten Connect deadline was a week prior. Television ads cannot buy this company credibility, no matter how hard they try. Students, teachers, and staff will continue to leave.
Beth,
I too saw that TV ad for Success Academy, and I was puzzled. They allegedly have a long waiting list. Why are they advertising for students?
The waiting list is probably full of kids they don’t want.
speduktr: Why do they keep advertising? My guess: .someone in the family owns an advertising agency.
Got to find those strivers!
They’re advertising for a different audience, not school parents. They’re promoting the political agenda.
I guess Riordan hasn’t seen Zimmer’s voting record. He voted yes on almost every single charter that came before the board, pushed hard for a TFA contract with LAUSD, and rammed a new segregated school through the board for white families who don’t want to send their kids to neighborhood schools with declining enrollment.