Billionaire Eli Broad decided long ago that one of his missions in life would be to privatize public schools, even though he and his wife are graduates of Michigan public schools. He has never explained his passion to stamp out the institution that educated him. He has spent years funding organizations committed to diverting public dollars to private hands. I once was invited to meet him in his glamorous penthouse apartment in New York City, and he explained that he didn’t know anything about education, but he knew management. He believes that non-educators should run education, especially if they surround themselves with people who have degrees in business and business experience. When I was on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, he funded a “manifesto” declaring that principals should be managers, not educators. He started a Superintendents Academy to train urban superintendents in his philosophy. A startling number of his graduates have failed or been driven out by the local community. He has learned nothing from the failure of his business ideology in education. But children are not widgets. He doesn’t understand that.
This is the man behind the candidacy of Nick Melvoin for the Los Angeles school board, the man who wants to replace Steve Zimmer and has unleashed a barrage of negative ads.
A parent, Tracy Bartley, received a letter from Broad that was part of a mass mailing that his organization sent to everyone in Steve Zimmer’s district. Tracy is a parent activist who has spent years developing school gardens. She is for real. Unlike Eli Broad, she is committed to improving the Los Angeles public schools, not closing or privatizing them.unlike Eli Broad, her children are students in the public schools he wants to control and privatize.
Tracy wrote:
Eli Broad
2121 Avenue of the Stars
L.A., CA 90067
Dear Eli,
Enough IS enough.
Since you last wrote to me encouraging me to vote for Nick Melvoin for LAUSD school board, I have doubled down on my own research into the claims you’ve made regarding Steve Zimmer and his opponent.
– While Nick Melvoin has earned endorsements of a FORMER Senator, FORMER Secretary of Education, and two (!) FORMER Mayors of Los Angeles, Steve Zimmer has been endorsed by our CURRENT Mayor Eric Garcetti, a strong and smart CURRENT Congresswoman Maxine Waters, CURRENT Secretary of Instruction for the State of California Tom Torlakson, and numerous others including activist Dolores Huerta, and public education policy activists Jonathan Kozol and Diane Ravitch. (Full list here: http://stevezimmerforschoolboard.com/endorsements/) These are the leaders taking us forward in Los Angeles, in California, and across the country, and I am impressed that they want Steve Zimmer fighting alongside them.
– Studying Nick Melvoin’s LinkedIn profile, it appears that he “worked in the Obama Administration” as a White House intern for four months as well as a turn as a clerk at the ACLU for four months. Contrast this with Zimmer, who spent 17 years at LAUSD schools and the last eight working as a tireless advocate for our kids as our school board member, fighting for them in Sacramento and Washington.
– I wouldn’t expect anything less from Nick than having a “genuine and selfless commitment to children, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, special needs or socio-economic class.” This is L.A. after all! (I love my city!) And I am sure you would agree Steve Zimmer has the same commitment. Along with the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club, Planned Parenthood, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights… Steve Zimmer has a proven track record on this front.
– I struggle with the “Nick is a teacher” bit I’m afraid. I don’t feel 2 years a teacher makes. My mom was a teacher. I should say IS – because I think it is a calling rather than a profession 95% of the time. Steve Zimmer IS a teacher. I’ve witnessed his past students interacting with him at events. I’ve seen how he greets students at our community schools. It is very much who he is. I don’t get that from Mr. Melvoin. If he was a teacher, he’d be a teacher. (Yes – there is the adjunct position at LMU – though from my research it appears this is not a current gig, and was a special situation through TFA, am I right?)
So, you tell me we “need a school board member who will advocate for our children. who will strengthen our public schools ,and who will work tirelessly on behalf of families to make sure every child receives a world-class education.” I’ve found that. It is Steve Zimmer. You say he is supported by “special interests and bureaucracy” but I see it as 35,000 teachers alongside labor groups that work to ensure our schools are safe, clean, healthy environments for our kids to learn in. I see people doing much with little funding. I see communities forming around neighborhood schools. I see my LAUSD family. On the other side, I see a half dozen or so billionaires with a specific privatization agenda backing the special interests behind Nick Melvoin. I’m not ok with that.
As for a candidate who will work against the new administration that “preys on our fears… and engages in reckless information…” I will not “allow the election of our school board – the stewards of our children’s future – to be determined by damaging falsehoods.” I will continue to dig, and I fear learn more about the incentive for you, and the others in the privatization movement backing Mr. Melvoin. I’ve already learned of Doris Fisher’s (The Gap) support of Tea Party and Conservative candidates as well as her funding the opposition to Prop 30 (!), and Alice Walton’s (Walmart) donations to the privatization efforts of Betsy DeVos and the PAC supporting the election of Donald Trump. With you, and others, they are both supporters of Nick Melvoin’s campaign via the CCSA / Parent Teacher Alliance.
So, today, my husband and I will sign on again to volunteer for Steve Zimmer’s campaign. We will walk our community. We will call our neighbors. We will encourage them to cast their ballot for the best candidate for all LAUSD kids – for all LAUSD families.
Steve Zimmer for School Board 2017
Thank you,
Tracy
Proud LAUSD Mom
p.s. Looks like you spent $131,708.60 on printing and postage for your letters! What this could’ve done for a neighborhood school orchestra, or a school garden, community school park, or to fund an outdoor education experience! Oh well.
It’s your money.
It’s our kids.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am not in LA but parents are among the most important advocates for their public schools.
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Has anyone ever seen this before?:
https://www.charterschoolcenter.org/sea-webinar-registration-logic-models-and-theories-change-webinar-2-developing-and-using-tools?utm_source=All%20Contact&utm_campaign=df632c2543-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_75086510bb-df632c2543-86115261
It looks like it the US Department of Education has been privatized.
I can’t tell if this is some ed reformer creating a site that looks exactly like a government site to mislead the public or whether this IS a government site.
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U.S. Department of Education
This website was produced in whole or in part with funds from the U.S. Department of Education under contract number ED-OII-13-C-0065-. The content does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S. Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the federal government.
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That LA Times editorial endorsing the charter promoters was just shameful.
Did you notice what they left out? Kids in public schools. They completely omitted kids who attend traditional public schools.
It’s as if those kids don’t exist. All charters, all the time.
I read that 16% of LA kids attend charters. If that’s true the powers that be are simply omitting the vast majority of kids. They won’t have a single advocate in government.
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AND if those in charge of protecting public school employees would assertively spend the same amount of time and energy in endorsing and advertising the wonders of our nation’s great public schools, we wouldn’t always be at the mercy of those who advertise and promote charters, charters, charters…
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I have never understood, and never will, how Broad “graduates” are even qualified for the positions in education to which they are appointed. APPOINTED…is that always the case, or are they sometimes actually hired for the jobs? Eli is a turn whose own children, it has been written, have zero relationship with him. He will die being an arrogant wealthy turd – and no one will miss him, excepting the benefactors of his cash. Has he personally benefitted financially from sticking his finger in education?
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Eli Broad is worth many billions. I don’t think he profits from his meddling in education.
I don’t think any of those who have taken his money will remember him when he is gone. He was useful for the moment.
I always compare an Eli Broad with teachers that I regularly meet and know well. Young people come up to the teachers, and say, “Are you Ms. ___? I loved your class!” or “Hi, Ms. So-and-so, you were a great teacher. I will never forget you.” Who will “never forget” Eli Broad?
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He may not profit directly (though he is still deeply involved in real estate development, and charter schools are a real estate play, among other things), but he is certainly doing his utmost to solidify his class dominance, which is much the same.
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I am put in mind of a documentary I watched about Ford and his huge influence in our nation as he pushed the idea of an automobile assembly line. He changed the lives of so many, and he made SO much money. Then, as he became an über-rich, socially recognized leader, he got in to a lather about certain cultures which he did not like and began to put much time and energy into “anti-others” campaigns.
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Some states should tighten up their rules for certified personnel in leadership positions. Why any public schools would hire a “Broadie” is beyond me? Broad grads are administrative imposters whose goal is to destroy the institution they were hired to serve, sort of like our DOE leader,DeVos.
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Appointed and then through his great generosity- supply a grant to pay for all or part of their 6 figure salary. Why else would anyone hire them unless of course they have been brainwashed by the Broad Center to do so.
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I sent the following email to the LA Times Education desk and all its writers last week:
“Along with myriad other progressives in L.A., I eagerly await your coverage of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ endorsement in our upcoming school board run-off election. A serving U.S. senator (who nearly won the democratic presidential nomination on a populist, progressive platform) is endorsing Steve Zimmer.
I fear that neglecting to report this would too closely resemble “editorializing by omission.”
I understand that news failing to advance the school privatization movement presents your team with a conflict of interests. Perhaps, then, Education Matters staff will not be reporting on this story at the behest of Mr. Broad or his designer at the paper. However, the remaining journalists have a civic obligation to announce to Los Angeles that here, in the bluest of blue cities, the bluest of blue senators is pulling for Steve Zimmer.
I imagine many of you consider yourselves progressives, or at least democrats. But, like Nick Melvoin’s, your paper’s stance on education is incompatible with true liberal values. Until your education reporting ceases to march lockstep with Broad, Sarah Angel, and other neoliberal profiteers, you remain propagandists.
The people of this city adore Bernie Sanders and view him as the embodiment of progressive thought and values. Unless you report on Sen. Sanders’ endorsement of Steve Zimmer, you are hiding it from your readers. Is this how you want to be remembered?”
Of course I received no reply. To his credit, Mike Szymanski at LA School Report actually added a bit about Sanders to his piece when I wrote him with a similar email. Still, the only paper in this town is actively hiding the facts leading up to tomorrow.
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Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
A parent’s letter to autocrat billionaire Eli Broad. It’s your money. It’s our kids. I want to add that it is the people’s democracy, and not Broad’s or other billionaires.
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Thank you, Tracy Bartley.
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“I once was invited to meet him [Broad] in his glamorous penthouse apartment in New York City, and he explained that he didn’t know anything about education, but he knew management. He believes that non-educators should run education, especially if they surround themselves with people who have degrees in business and business experience.”
Eli Broad is the ideal icon of what’s wrong with educational reform in the 21st century. Such a figure can be found in every community in every state … on nearly every level, too … and their negative impact on the discussion of educational reform is disturbing. And worse.
This sort of national weirdness appears to be a trendy development even beyond education … as self-anointed experts catch the right ear and find themselves in positions for which they’re hardly qualified. We see this in education, healthcare, and law enforcement … essential societal linch-pins now being influenced by know-nothings who have the right connections, the right amount of money, or the right microphone.
This is the Age of the New Know-It-Alls.
They’re all over the place.
They all share the crazy commonality of telling people what to do … while never following their own advice … never content to do what they know best … only what they imagine best.
Some are wealthy and have this sudden need to drive over to the next lane and think that what they’ve learned … about microchips or copying machines or oil rigs or movie watching … constitutes suitable qualifications to screw around with schools … and the small humans who live in them.
Others have flapped their lips and somehow cajoled a whole lot of important people to believe that they themselves are pretty important people. They’re adamant that they know more about schools and faculties and learning and leadership than most seasoned educators who were grown into those positions. They had epiphanies, you see … and others did not. That’s why they’re special-special.
Their philosophy presupposes that actual educational experience really isn’t necessary. How necessary can it be? Everyone knows how to teach, right? Second nature stuff, right?
So, they set out to blaze new trails and actually set fire to a whole lot of good stuff.
I’m not aware of another time during the last few decades when we had more self-anointed geniuses on display. Why is our generation so special?
Everyone of the new Know-It-All class has a distinct remedy for all that ails education. For some it’s the structure, others the curricula, and others fancy that it’s all in the technology.
None is a practicing teacher. None could survive a classroom experience of any duration beyond hours. The only thing that interests them is their own supposed wisdom … and this extraordinary determination to impose their educational stamp on an institution they don’t understand, barely care for, and insist is a mess.
That apparently is quite enough for these folks to create educational havoc. That’s their justification.
But how do they explain their laziness? Their limp research? Their absolute misunderstanding of the human factors involved in education?
They don’t.
And won’t.
Because they can’t. Not in a circle of real-deal educators free to speak their minds and tell it like it is. That, of course, will never happen … because their mind-magic never translates into reality. The real wizards … the magic makers … don’t live in lush apartments … and they don’t clink glasses with other fat-wallet sorts.
But they know the secrets the Eli Broads will know. Not ever.
Denis Ian
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Yes, he has explicitly stated that his concern is not the education students receive, but “governance,” which is to say, “power.”
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“They’re adamant that they know more about schools and faculties and learning and leadership than most seasoned educators who were grown into those positions. They had epiphanies, you see … and others did not. That’s why they’re special-special.
Their philosophy presupposes that actual educational experience really isn’t necessary. How necessary can it be?”
Sadly, many of those administrators (whom I consider as adminimals-probably 95% of all those administrators) have little experience in the classroom. By “little experience” I mean less than 10 years, the ten years it takes to actually begin to master the craft of teaching. The vast majority are ass kissing yes men/women whose own interests-salary and authority, in their position will do anything to keep that position and move up the ladder to their Peter Principle position, that level of incompetence which for most is the assistant principal position.
Grievously, it is the students who bear the brunt of that incompetence as the adminimals implement the many malpractices that are today’s supposed “pedagogical wisdom”, even when the adminimals agree that the practices harm students. Cojoneless SOBs are what the vast majority of adminimals are.
They have no clue that their personal expediency is trumping justice for the students (either that or they don’t care):
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than (self) interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Comte-Sponville [my additions]
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Then there’s Broad’s support of Stand for Children. No doubt cow-towing to him and another backer, Walton, Stand didn’t endorse our state’s measure for increased funding for health care and schools.
The unholy trinity of Broad, Walton and Gates is at work everywhere to erode public schools.
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