Mercedes Schneider has developed a specialty as a detective of Follow-the-Money. A forensic accountant of financial transactions in the corporate reform world.
In this post, she tries to figure out who funded Campbell Brown’s “The 74.”
It is harder than you can imagine to untangle this web, woven of money and connections. Behind it all: privatization and union-busting. “O what a tangled web we weave…”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“….when first we practice to deceive.”
And deception it is.
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The 74 and Brown certainly lack a “fidelity to truth” perspective/philosophy.
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Without having yet read the article, my (much less than his) money…is on Gates.
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I don’t know if he funded “The 74” but one of the big donors to the privatization movement and pro- Betsy DeVos charter networks is Paul Tudor Jones. Big hedge fund donor to right wing Republican PACs. Big funder of Cuomo. Big funder of Success Academy. He may also been a funder of the Massachusetts fight to get more unsupervised charters in the state.
Until this weekend, Paul Tudor Jones proudly sat on the board of the Weinstein Company where presumably he was made aware of all the settlements involving Harvey Weinstein.
Paul Tudor Jones admired Harvey Weinstein so much that he installed Weinstein on the board of his children’s charity “The Robin Hood Foundation”. I kid you not. Weinstein just resigned from the board of Tudor Jones’ children’s charity and they quickly erased his name but he was on the board up until the NY Times story broke.
These privatizers don’t really care about kids at all. Their concern with children is about as deep as Trump’s. If children can be used to further their agenda, they will reward them. If children can’t be used to further their agenda, they will work hard to cut funding to all the programs to improve their lives. While at the same time loudly proclaiming that any children who dare to speak out are violent and unworthy.
These people don’t care about children.
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Some Winestains are hard to remove.
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So your point is that a Republican contributor and a Democratic contributor are having some sort of nefarious affair . Sadly Weinstein who I should know ,(but can not remember) as we went to the same public Schools a year apart , has contributed to many in the Democratic party that I support.
So perhaps Democrats have to establish a litmus test on economic issues . Let the Republicans run on the social issues and see how that works out.
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Joel says: “So your point is that a Republican contributor and a Democratic contributor are having some sort of nefarious affair . ”
I don’t even know what this comment means so no, that isn’t my point.
Just pointing out that some of the reform movement’s biggest funders don’t really seem to have children as their primary concern, although they talk a good game.
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My point was perhaps we have a different definition of what the definition of being a Democrat should mean . Certainly we differ on the definition of what Progressive means . The social issues do not count aside from equal access to the economy for all (regardless of race ,religion or sexual preference ) including a helping hand and affirmative action to make up for past evils . That said the other issues have no place in Government and thus Government has no business in them . To make them a central issue rather than the side show is destructive . Especially when one party has spent years trying to do just that.
Perhaps that is because we may have different definitions of populists another term that has been stolen by the right along with Rednecks.
There are no Democrats for Education Reform , they are Republicans
The only thing that counts is the economy. That is the Dialectical materialist in me coming out again.
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Joel, I can’t even follow your comments because you seem to keep contradicting yourself.
“we differ on the definition of what Progressive means”
“There are no Democrats for Education Reform , they are Republicans”‘
Then what do you call Tom Perriello? A Republican? Was Bernie Sanders endorsing a Republican for Virginia Democrat?
“The only thing that counts is the economy. ”
What??? That’s what Bill Clinton said and you’ve already told me he was a complete tool of the right wing (although I’m not sure if he was nearly as evil as “rabid dog” Hillary to you).
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^^^Also, what about Black Lives Matter?
Is it “allowed” for a Democrat like Hillary Clinton to embrace the notion that there are issues with policing that affect non-white Americans — especially African-Americans — in a way that is wrong and should be addressed? It is “allowed” for Democrats not to be like Republicans who say “shut up the police are always right.”??
Is that a “social issue”? Is it just not “important” to you so how dare Dems make it an issue to try to effect change?
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NYC public school parent
More complete nonsense out of you ,go man a phone bank .
Keep the sales pitch under 50,000 words or Bill will be unemployed in January. On second thought just stay home, I like big bird.
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Oh, for pity’s sake, Joel. I usually admire most of your comments, but this is beyond the pale.
I mean, really, my brother, have you been drinking, or what? Because this is not like you.
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This really was interesting. I was surprised the coordination of ed reform groups with anti-union groups was such a straight line.
You wonder how much of this goes on. I bet there’s direct coordination between ed reform and the people selling ed tech, for example. Looking behind Jeb Bush’s org might reveal that.
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Bill Gates is all the proof one needs that there is coordination between Ed deform and Ed Tech — assuming, of course, that his Ed deform personality talks to his Ed tech personality.
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I’ve said this before but I tend to disagree on Gates and a hidden agenda. I think he’s the MOST transparent of the ed reformers. Obviously I think he’s horribly wrong and extremely arrogant but
I don’t think he’s secretive.
I think it’s much more likely the ed tech sales job is backed by Google, Apple or Facebook. Google and Apple have a much bigger presence in schools and Facebook obviously has designs on the market. I saw an ad for an Ohio “blended learning” charter and there was Google-branded swag in the photograph. The US Department of Education “technology plan” looks to me like it was lifted almost directly from Google Education. The language is remarkably consistent.
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I didn’t say he was secretive.
He made no secret that the primary purpose of Common Core was to open up markets for Ed tech.
“When tests are aligned to the common standards, the curriculum will line up as well — and that will unleash powerful market forces in the service of better teaching” — Bill Gates in a speech in 2009 to the National council of state legislatures
The market forces he was referring to were those associated with Ed tech.
And Gates own company has actually collaborated with Pearson to cash in.
I would not go so far as to claim that profiting personally from Common core was Gates primary purpose, but there is absolutely no doubt that in his mind there is a direct — indeed inseparable — relationship between Ed “reform” and Ed tech — and has been from the very beginning.
He himself made that very clear at the very beginning of his efforts to develop Common Standards.
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The 74 is amusing to read because so much of it is anti-union.
It’s an anti-union platform with a thin layer of “education” on top.
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What do ed reformers do once the Supreme Court guts and then eradicates teachers unions? After the champagne toasts end, I mean?
Their funders will cut off the spigot once they reach the goal, and that’s the goal.
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