Politico reports that two groups advocating for privatization and against teacher tenure are merging.
The merger is presented in typical “reform” doublespeak as a “victory,” but to the naked eye it appears to be an admission of defeat, an admission that neither group has been successful.
50CAN began as ConnCAN, with billionaire funding (supplied largely by the infamous Sackler family, which gained billions by producing and marketing Oxycontin, which is at the center of a national opiod crisis). 50CAN is supposed to spread privately managed charters everywhere, but what it can’t do is cook the research, which shows that charters don’t perform better than public schools unless they cherrypick their students, and many underperform public schools. Their new partner, Campbell Brown’s PEJ, has brought law suits intended to destroy the rights of teachers, but none of its lawsuits has been successful; its lawsuit in Minnesota was thrown out without so much as a hearing. You might say it was laughed out of court, by the judge.
EXCLUSIVE: GROUPS TEAM UP TO MAKE BIGGER MARK: Two reform groups are teaming up to drive change in state education policy by using the courts. The nonprofit 50CAN is joining forces with the Partnership for Educational Justice, a nonprofit founded by former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, which is known for lawsuits targeting state policies the group says allow ineffective teachers to remain in the classroom. The partnership will allow 50CAN to get involved in litigation for the first time. And it will allow the Partnership’s small staff to draw on 50CAN’s policy expertise to better determine where lawsuits might be successful.
– The Partnership for Educational Justice will retain its name and pro bono legal help, but 50CAN will serve as PEJ’s fiduciary board. Both organizations will continue their push against teacher tenure laws in three states – Minnesota, New Jersey and New York – and may look at litigation on other issues, like school funding. “50CAN has never done any impact litigation work, so we see an opportunity to provide the backend support for their work in a way that helps them go further,” said 50CAN CEO Marc Porter Magee. “I really think the next set of successes in education reform are going to come from these kinds of collaborations.” Ralia Polechronis, executive director of the Partnership for Educational Justice, said “the beauty of a partnership like this is that PEJ can take advantage of the policy expertise that 50CAN has at a very local level.”
– The Partnership for Educational Justice has yet to prevail in lawsuits aimed at ending teacher tenure policies in Minnesota, New Jersey or New York. And the organization suffered a setback Monday when the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a dismissal of its lawsuit, The Star Tribune reports. Porter Magee said the lawsuits aren’t intended to bring about quick change, but are “long-term commitments.”
As long as the money keeps coming in, the groups will survive. Results don’t matter.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great! They’ll be even more lock-step than they already are. In 5 years they’ll all be supporting “backpack vouchers” and the capture will be complete.
They don’t need mergers. They need a couple of dissenters who aren’t somehow on the payroll. Summit Charter Schools were supposed to be an “experiment”. They’ve now rolled it out to 130 systems. These aren’t “experiments”. They’re announcements of decisions. They have REAMS of studies questioning “online learning” yet the big machine rolls on! Dissenters are purged as “protecting the status quo” and public schools are spending billions of dollars on this stuff based entirely on marketing by ed reform groups. An entire generation used as lab rats, but don’t question it! Go sign up another school.
Earlier, 50CAN merged with the failing StudentsFirst. Michelle Rhee left the scene and was replaced by Campbell Brown as the public face of the corp reform movement; now that Brown has left to work for Zuckerberg at Facebook, who will replace her?
The echo chamber at work:
“Bipartisanship on #edreform: Dem and GOP lawmakers touted the legislation as a true compromise, saying that nobody liked 100% of it.”
No discussion at all of what the Illinois bill means for public school families. Public school families should be grateful lawmakers saw fit to allow their schools to open. That’s a “win” in ed reform terms. Yippee! 90% of families will be permitted to retain public schools this session. Let’s all rally ’round and return all these people to office. They’re lousy advocates but at least they stopped punching us!
HS, I see nothing wrong with this picture. 🙂 Charter schools and oxy, yet to big deal. This entire country is going Bat$hit crazy and the government is in on it.
So SICK! I am tired of those yahoo DEFORMERS sucking up everything.
So many have forgotten what education is about. How do we perceive our children, people,”its”, “objects” to become just workers for the rich and powerful or as human beings to be nurtured to their highest potential as such. After well over half a century in being involved with American education I have never known a time in which preparation for the work force was not an included item BUT we cared about people, our children as human beings to function in a democratic society. Of course if we do not have a democratic society any more that item is unnecessary.