50CAN is a corporate reform organization that originated in Connecticut as ConnCAN. It was led by the billionaire Jonathan Sackler. Sackler owns Purdue Pharmaceuticals, which created the drug OxyContin, which is a highly addictive painkiller. The drug financing the expansion of charter schools made the Sackler family very wealthy (at last count, a net worth of $14 billion), but it is also implicated in the nation’s opioid crisis.
ConnCAN went national as 50CAN. (I learned from reading Elizabeth Young Bruelh’s book “Childism” that CAN is an acronym in the psychiatric literature that stands for “child abuse and neglect.”
Laura Chapman did some research and this is what she learned:
“According to Media Matters.org, 50CAN stands for the 50 State Campaign for Achievement Now. 50CAN is a network of state-level organizations pushing for pro-voucher and free-market education policies across the country. It has affiliates in Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, and “fellowships “in California, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, and Wisconsin.
“The 2016 policy goals focused on passing state legislation in affiliate states to spur the rapid expansion of charter schools and to reduce state oversight of these schools.
“50CAN “partners” with many conservative and rightwing organizations that want to control school policy. Among these partners are the Commonwealth Foundation (a member of the State Policy Network) which, according to Politico includes these “associate members”: ALEC, David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity Foundation, FreedomWorks, Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, the Cato Institute and The Heritage Foundation. Add the Thomas B. Fordham Institute (see Wikipedia and board of directors); and Policy Innovators in Education Network (PIE) active in 34 states promoting market-based education.
“Each state in 50CAN has strategic partners and interlocking directorates among members. This inbreeding is planned and extensive. It is masked by the ambiguous language of “strategic partnerships” for policies and for advocacy, a relationship of “affiliate status,” and for “campaigns” (lobbying initiatives) with right wing organizations and projects. 50CAN state affiliates know how to find and to co-opt groups that should be defending public education. Go to jonathanpelto,com for a chilling report from early this year about the activities of ConnCAN.
“Here is another example. PIE (Policy Innovators in Education Network) is a sprawling network of deep-pocket and dark money power-brokers promoting market-based education in 34 states and Washington, DC. Members can be found here: http://pie-network.org/pie-network-members/
“Who finances PIE? Foundations set up by billionaires who have no respect for public education and othe institutions with democratic governance. PIE is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, New Venture Fund, and McKnight Foundation.
“In March, 50CAN and Michelle Rhee”s StudentsFirst announced that they would merge and begin operating under the 50CAN name nationally, although state chapters of StudentsFirst will, for the most part, retain their “brands.”
“All of that is a a fraction of what’s going on, and with tax breaks for the “non-profits” who are working together for a “collective impact.”
My addendum: the PIE Network was launched by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Sackler family is one of several tumors on the American body. Their deadly strategic plan to control the populace and to end democracy is to “dumb ’em down and get them hooked.” Sad.
MD public schools clearly are under an orchestrated attack now that Chester Finn of The Fordham Institute now serves on the State Board – this is no coincidence. Unlike its neighbor (DC), MD has not yet been overrun by charters. This must be Finn’s agenda.
Unless you travel into PG County or into Baltimore City. That’s where there are the charter schools. In MD there is some strange way that the charters operate that keep them more “in check” than in other states? Finn and his buddy Smarick would love to expand charters and choice (BOOST program) in MD. I’m not sure that parents in MD will tolerate this nonsense and would fight this to the bitter end….although Montgomery Co is owned by Pearson/PARCC and there hasn’t been much of a revolt except that the rich kids are sent to private schools.
I live in Maryland.
Much to the chagrin of the charter school proponents, who would love to have their own way with no public accountability, current Maryland state law mandates that the charters are governed by and under the authorization of the local school boards.
Which is at it should be. But the charter proponents are fighting this tooth and nail.
PG County has some charters but not that many. Baltimore perhaps more. But I was referring to areas where the goal is complete replacement of public schools by charters. Good question you raise about MD policy perhaps keeping charters in check. I am sure that Finn and Smarick are working on that as I write this 😦 !!
was replying to Lisa M!
My addendum: the PIE Network was launched by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Thanks for that.
Is it time yet?
Thomas Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
The best defense is a good offense . We need tax reform. It is time to make the top marginal rate 93% once again and take the disposable income away from the idle rich. While taking democracy back.
A great suggestion, but this is easier said than done.
Is it time yet?
Thomas Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Can always count on you Lloyd to say something that puts me on a watch list. I am not quiet ready to go there yet. Perhaps after he fires Mueller.
I think I’ve said this before but I agree with “The only thing to fear is fear itself.” You might even know who said that. Someone Republicans really love to hate.
For me, I don’t care if I’m on a watch list, because I will be in good company. Don’t you think that the British Empire had a watch list back in the 18th century and America’s Founding Fathers were on it? For sure, if the American colonies had lost the Revolution, the Founding Fathers would have been tortured and hanged and their families would have lost everything. Any survivors would have fled to France and asked for asylum.
Thomas Jefferson, who was on King George’s short list to hang, once said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
And now we have King Trump, the Kremlin’s Agent Orange, that malignant narcissist in the White House, and a GOP cancerous with corruption and rife with lies and misinformation.
“50CAN state affiliates know how to find and to co-opt groups that should be defending public education.”
January this year the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the “spiritual home of Martin Luther King, Jr.” currently operating under the leadership of Senior Pastor Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, hosted the GeorgiaCAN-sponsored town hall that gave the pulpit to African-American “choice” advocates Roland Martin, Kevin Chavous, and TFA-managed asset and Atlanta Board of Education chairman Courtney English. Also on the pulpit was Georgia NAACP President Rev. Francys Johnson who found himself having to defend the NAACP call for a moratorium on charter schools.
The topic was “Is School Choice the Black Choice?”
Sad.
Sad, but an excellent example of 50CAN at work.
50CAN should be called 50SCAM.