Laura Chapman explains the nature of “Education Cities,” the latest plaything of the Billionaire Boys Club!
Here is the latest reformy initiative: Education Cities!
Our dear friend Laura Chapman has deciphered what this latest disruptive program is.
She writes:
“Here is some information about Education Cities.
http://www.educationcities.org/
“It is connected to the Education Entrepreneurship Trust (CEE-Trust) launched by The Mind Trust in Indianapolis.
“Both ventures have received Gates Foundation money to push “personalized learning.”
“About Education Cities:
“FUNDERS Laura and John Arnold foundation, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and Walton Family Foundation.
“PARTNERS
“Education Cities works with leading organizations to help our members achieve their missions.”
1. “Bellwether Education Partners works with Education Cities on research and capacity building projects. Bellwether is a nonprofit dedicated to helping education organizations—in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors—become more effective in their work and achieve dramatic results, especially for high-need students.”
“In Cincinnati, Bellwether was the recruiter for the “Accelerate Great Schools,” initiative that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, pushed by high profile local foundations and the business community—all intent on marketing the need for “high quality seats” meaning you close and open schools based on the state’s weapon-ized system of rating schools, increase charter schools, and hire TFA. (We have a TFA alum on the school board). The CEO of Accelerate Great Schools recruited by Bellwether was a TFA manager from MindTrust in Indianapolis. He lasted about 18 months and accelerated himself to a new job.
2. “Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at the University of Washington partners with Education Cities to analyze and identify policies that create the conditions that allow great schools to thrive. Through research and policy analysis, CRPE seeks ways to make public education more effective, especially for America’s disadvantaged students.”
“CRPE should be regarded as an operational arm of the Gates Foundation. It marketed the Gates “Compacts,” a make-nice-with-your-charters MOU giving district resources to charters with charters promising to share their “best practices” and other nonsense. The bait included $100,000 up front with the promise of more money to the district if they met x, y, z, terms of the memorandum of understanding. Only few districts got extra money. Many reasons, some obvious like the departure of the people who signed the MOUs.
3. “Public Impact” partners with Education Cities (and Bellwether Education Partners) on research and capacity building projects. With a mission to dramatically improve learning outcomes for all children in the United States, Public Impact concentrates its work on creating the conditions in which great schools can thrive. The Opportunity Culture initiative aims to extend the reach of excellent teaches and their teams to more students, for more pay, within recurring budgets. Public Impact, a national research and consulting firm, launched the Opportunity Culture initiative’s implementation phase in 2011, with funding from The Joyce Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.” Current work is funded by the Overdeck Family Foundation and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.”
“Public Impact is marketing 13 school turnaround models, almost all of these with reassignments of teachers and students to accommodate “personalized” something. One arm of the “opportunity culture” website is a job placement service for teachers. In prior administrations Public Impact and Bellwether worked together to get USDE support for charter schools.
4. “Thomas B. Fordham Institute partners with Education Cities to analyze and identify policies and practices that create the conditions that allow great schools to thrive. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute works to advance educational excellence for every child through research, analysis, and commentary, as well as on-the-ground action and advocacy in Ohio.”
“Well, we have a pretty good idea in Ohio of how all of that pontification worked out.
“Here are the cities in the foundation-led move to eliminate democratically elected school boards and substitute public schools with contract schools that receive public funds but usually privately operated. At one time the number of Education Cities was 30, then 28, now 25.
1. Albuquerque, NM, Excellent Schools New Mexico
2. Baton Rouge, LA New Schools for Baton Rouge
3. Boise, ID Bluum
4. Boston, MA Boston Schools Fund, Empower Schools
5. Chicago, IL, New Schools for Chicago
6. Cincinnati, OH, Accelerate Great Schools
7. Denver, CO, Gates Family Foundation, Donnell-Kay Foundation
8. Detroit, MI, The Skillman Foundation
9. Indianapolis, IN, The Mind Trust
10. Kansas City, MO, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
11. Las Vegas, NV, Opportunity 180
12. Los Angeles, CA, Great Public Schools Now
15. Memphis, TN, Memphis Education Fund
16. Minneapolis, MN, Minnesota Comeback
17. Nashville, TN, Project Renaissance
18. New Orleans, LA, New Schools for New Orleans
19. Oakland, CA, Educate78, Great Oakland Public Schools Leadership Center, Rogers Family Foundation
20. Philadelphia, PA, Philadelphia School Partnership
21. Phoenix, AZ, New Schools for Phoenix
22. Richmond, CA, Chamberlin Family Foundation
23. Rochester, NY, E3 Rochester
24. San Jose, CA, Innovate Public Schools
25. Washington, DC, Education Forward DC, CityBridge Education
“These cities have been targeted for capture by promoters of choice, charters, tech, poaching talent and resources from public schools, and pushing the idea that established public schools are failures.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks. I think it’s important the public know about ed reform organizations sometime BEFORE the public finds out the ed reform organization has “transformed” their schools.
The “partners” are all organizations that promote charters and vouchers:
http://www.educationcities.org/who-we-are/our-consulting-partners/
Will anyone who represents a public school be invited? They are, after all, “transforming” public schools.
There is no bigger privatization cheerleader than this guy:
“Neerav Kingsland of Kingsland Consulting partners with Education Cities on a variety of different projects to build the capacity of harbormasters”
Are public schools sure they want to take direction from consultants who are ideologically opposed to public schools? Would charter schools do that? No. Of course not.
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I see on the US Department of Education Twitter account that the US Department of Education is now promoting online “credit recovery” schemes for lower income rural kids.
This stuff is garbage. “Credit recovery” is a scam. Why is a federal agency selling scams to low income rural schools? Is this their role? To market ed tech product? This is why we’re paying them?
I don’t think so.
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Because Jeb Bush is a lobbyist for the tech industry and witless Betsy does whatever Jeb tells her to do
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I have been suspicious of the Gates Foundation and any other foundation that supports Vouchers and Charter Schools.
Public Education must be supported. These billionaires are not educators. Perhaps each one should be required to teach for 30 days with a class of 32 students in an inner city school. Then maybe, they have the right to make decisions re our educational system.
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Who do ed reformers believe that government paying private contractors to provide services is “innovative”?
What is the difference? Because they invent words like “harbormaster” to describe public employees who grant and manage contracts?
They’re “inventing” government contracting? I think that’s already been invented.
Why not just say “we propose a system where we award contracts to private entities to provide public services?” That’s EXACTLY what this is. It is EXACTLY what they propose.
They quibble over REGULATION of the contractors- DeVos wants none, the other ed reform faction wants some minimal regulation, but that’s all they “debate”
Can’t I just go to any 1950’s government contracting manual and crib from that?
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I really think they’re playing with fire, the “disrupters”. Americans are more divided than ever. The ONE thing most of us have in common is public schools.
I cannot imagine what this county would be like if everyone was taking their backpack voucher and heading off to their private contractor for educational services.
Kids my son’s age could be the last group to have any shared idea of “public schools”.
That’s a really radical change and what gets me is there NO consideration of ANY POSSIBLE downside. It’s all hearts and flowers- “everyone gets to choose! everyone gets exactly what they want and there are no trade-offs!” That is a FANTASY. There is no system that works like that, where it’s all upside and no downside.
There’s not even the first inkling of a recognition that throwing an existing system in the trash could have unintended consequences.
I don’t care how many time they say they are “humble”. That’s not humble. It’s WILDLY arrogant.
I read a lot of ed reformers and many of them mention they never attended public schools. I wonder if that has anything to do with how little they value them.
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The circus continues. Have you tried the Whack a Mole game yet?
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Bellwether-funded by Gates- an organization that describes schools as “human capital pipelines”.
“Russia and the U.S. are nearly tied as leaders in income inequality”- a situation brought about by the richest 400 U.S. families, many of whom plot to destroy public education.
Gates, Arnold, Walton heirs, Pew Trusts,… are the scourge of American democracy.
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Thank you Laura for your brilliant connecting of dots!
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Gates’ toxic footprint is all over Los Angeles with “Great” “Public Schools”, alright. He’s taken over the District and the universities (with help from the horrible Howard Group at UCLA, bigly). Thank you, Laura and Diane.
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Yes, they are purchasing as many state assembly seats to pass Broad- backed charters as quickly as possible. The latest one is a k-12 charter STEM that will take more money away from LAUSD.
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