The invaluable Nonprofit Quarterly asks whether Harvey Weinstein cynically used philanthropy to cloak his unconscionable actions.
We might ask the same questions of many of the heartless corporations and individuals now poring hundreds of millions into charter schools, simultaneously destroying democratic public schools.
What about the Waltons? They claim they love poor children and children of color, so they spend at least $200 Million every year to dismantle their community schools and replace them with privately managed charters.
They break the unions that assure the parents of these children a living wage. They refuse to pay their own 1 Million plus workers a living wage.
If they really cared about the children, why don’t they care about the conditions in which they live?
This is what NPQ calls depravity.
The story includes this quote:
“Jelani Cobb, a staff writer at the New Yorker, offers us something new to consider about this ugly story. “The great mystery of evil is not that it persists but, rather, that so many of its practitioners wish to do so while being thought of as saints.” As the idiom “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” warns, beware of the champions of progressive causes with whom contact is dangerous. According to countless reports, Weinstein was apparently a wolf in wolf’s clothing.”
How many corporate reformers are impoverishing the people of Puerto Rico by demanding that PR pays 100% on the bonds they scooped up at a deep discount? Their advice to PR: pay us back and close schools and hospitals and all other public services. Maybe they should send in KIPP, Eva, Uncommon, and Achievement First. Oops. You can’t get blood from a stone. They may have to write off their losses on their tax returns.
Call them what they are: predators.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Yes. The tax breaks for charities-in-name-only are part of the problem. Your example of Puerto Rico hits home..no word from a friend trying to reach her home in Ponce after flying there five days ago with canned food, mosquito repellent, antibiotics, and other care items for family and caregivers. The sluggish response of this administratiom is componding problems and putting lives at risk–literally causing people to die.
Puerto Rico is going to be the Devos family privatized playground, like Katrina was to NOLA. Their souless plans have determined that the most expensive kids in special education & children at-risk for disabilities are disposable. IDEA is the federal law that protects the rights of children with disabilities that members of both parties bypassed with toxic regs and ESSA tricks & traps.
http://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25920011&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Fblog%2F58%2Findex.html%3Fuuid%3D73996&cmp=eml-enl-eu-news3&M=58232229&U=2434811
Think carefully about these 2 statements and the implications to kids with disabilities:
“Keleher said she looks at the funding package given to schools in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and says something similar would be appropriate for her schools.
“Those restart funds were huge [after Katrina],” Keleher said in an interview here with Education Week. “If we’re strategic about it, it’s only going to advance our reforms quicker.”
“With Education Department approval, states can choose cut their special education spending under a provision of special education law that allows funding reductions in “exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances.” Some states received permission to do this during the Great Recession. Without such a waiver, federal special education law says that states may only maintain or increase their special education funding from year to year. ”
In light of the DeVos’ history of looting public education, her loose definition of exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances could potentially set a standard for future SPED budget cuts. While Duncan back-doored IDEA by deregulating SPED compliance & by decimating SPED research funding, DeVos will use the hurricane devistation to “suspend” children’s rights to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)- the very foundation of IDEA.
Sen. Alexander made it clear during the ESSA process that Congress & the Senate change the law. DoEd follows the law. In Puerto Rico’s case it’s the responsibility of Congress & DoEd to provide immediate resources to bring all of their public schools back up to standard as soon as possible so there’s no loss.
IDEA, Part B allows federal funds for Facilities: “Cost attributable for keeping
the physical plant open for use,keeping the grounds and building in effective working condition and cleaning and maintenance which are clearly and directly related to the provision of services to children with disabilities.
There’s no reason for DeVos or anyone from this administration to suspend the rights of kids if they actually gave a damn about their education. In just 3 days in 2016, congress gave Wall St a $700 billion bail out.
When will our public schools be deemed ‘too big to fail’?
Never.
“Too big to fail” applies only to Wall Street
“Too big to bail” applies to public schools
When? Nearly always.
The older I get the more skeptical I become. I rarely accept things on face value unless someone’s selfless deed is so clearly helping someone else I have no reason to question the decision. I find myself looking for the hidden agenda behind an action especially when it comes to corporations and their henchmen, our so-called representatives. I once heard someone trying to justify slavery by claiming that “at least the slaves got room and board.”
Weinstein is a predator, not a sex addict as he has claimed. Lots of corporations are predators as well that pull the legislators strings to get tailor made legislation with the help of equally predatory “think tanks” like ALEC. Big Oil, Big Pharma along with host of lobbyists write legislation, and pay enough “representatives” to get laws passed that benefit them.
The “reform” movement in education has morphed into a gigantic pay to play scheme. Like other predators, they hide motives behind benevolent language like civil rights. Legislators are reluctant to openly support public education because the charter lobby is watching their every move. During the campaign when Hillary made a comment that was critical of charter schools. Due to pressure from charter supporters, she “refined” her statement the next day.
Unfortunately, our system is owned by billionaires and corporations. We still have the illusion of democracy, but the game is rigged by those that can afford to buy representation. This oligarchy will continue to privatize until such time we can get money out of politics.
I agree with pretty much everything you say here, but I would disagree on one point.
I think “reform” was envisioned as a pay to play scheme from the getgo, at least for the small number of people at the top who were making policy. People like Bill Gates made no secret of the fact that they saw schools as “markets” and students as customers.
As the architect of the Iraq invasion (Wolfowitz — an apt name if ever there was one) admitted,”For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.”
That’s the way it works. The people at the top come up with a plan and then convince others to follow by inventing convenient rationales that will bring others on board but which are not the primary reason and in some cases, have nothing to do with that reason.
Hence we got “school reform is the civil Rights issue of our time” because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.
The article is marred by the inclusion of the quotes from Weinstein’s brother, who should at this point have the good sense to keep his mouth shut and not throw stones. There is no way on earth, being both brothers and business partners, that he didn’t know about Harvey’s “issues”, yet he enabled it all. If he wants to make this situation any better, he too can resign and do some deep soul searching about how it got to this point.
Every person who dealt with Weinstein closely undoubtedly was well aware at least of the verbal abuse that he apparently dished out on a regular basis.
The sexual harassment and assault are part of a larger issue: bullying.
It’s all about controlling other people.
In the latter regard Weinstein is not unlike many of the billionaires who are currently meddling in nearly every aspect of our society, trying to exert their control over as many people as possible.
“Window Washing”
To wash the Windows clean
You need to spend some money
An artificial scene
In Land of Milken honey
Diane,
You are so amazing. I thank you.
Love your last line: “…predators.” So TRUE.
Diane Yes: “Predators.” They use their power, money, connections, like trappers use meat in their traps. It’s a brand of extortion. And as the article suggests, they excuse themselves with their philanthropy which pays off doubly: (1) it excuses their criminal acts (in their own minds); and (2) it portrays (brand) them as selfless and blameless givers, aka “saints.”
Many of the fake do-gooders are the very same people that want to control the uterus of all women, but who are concerned about only their unborn children. Once the babies are born, moms should not get government help and their children should be made to work if they want to survive.
Newt Gingrich is an example. He wanted to bring back child labor and require that kids in poverty have menial janitorial jobs at their schools, because poor kids should learn there’s no such thing as a free lunch –so of course the federal food program that provides meals for poor kids in schools should be abolished.
That’s like being born into indentured servitude. It should come as no surprise though, since we’re talking about people who cling to all remnants of the good old days when slavery and Jim Crow were considered to be perfectly acceptable ways for the betters to treat the lessers.
No person should ever be considered a better or a lesser in this country. And poor children should not be held responsible for securing their next meal themselves –just like all the rich kids who never have to wonder who’s going to pay for them to eat.
People born with silver spoons, like our president, will have to grow a heart to be able to acknowledge, comprehend and remedy the human condition.
I just read the article about the Sackler family on the Esquire website. They are super-donors, and I had no idea that much of their wealth derives from Purdue Pharma, the makers of Oxycontin.
The Sackler family wealth is about $15 billion.
It is all derived from Purdue Pharmaceuticals, whose best selling drug is OxyContin. They are literally merchants of death.
There is a Sackler wing at the Metropolitan Musem of Art in NYC.
They are huge donors to charter schools. Jonathan Sackler founded ConnCAN, now 50CAN.
His daughter Madeline Sackler made a documentary promoting Eva Moskowitz called “The Lottery.”
Purdue is not only a Merchant of Death, they are also largely responsible for the explosive growth in opioid addiction over the past 2 decades due to false advertising.
From a 2011 Fortune article
http://fortune.com/2011/11/09/oxycontin-purdue-pharmas-painful-medicine/
“Among the sellers of opioids, none has been more successful — or controversial — than Purdue Pharma, maker of the No. 1 drug in the class: OxyContin, which generated $3.1 billion in revenue in 2010. Purdue and its marketing prowess are the biggest reasons such drugs are now widely prescribed for all sorts of pain, says Dhalla: “Purdue played a very large role in making physicians feel comfortable about opioids.” And as we’ll see, Purdue’s past and present go a long way toward explaining how so many Americans came to be in the grip of potent painkillers.
When it was introduced in the late ’90s, OxyContin was touted as nearly addiction-proof — only to leave a trail of dependence and destruction. Its marketing was misleading enough that Purdue pleaded guilty in 2007 to a federal criminal count of misbranding the drug “with intent to defraud and mislead the public,” paid $635 million in penalties, and today remains on the corporate equivalent of probation.”
// End quotes
The fine that they paid is only a small fraction of what they have earned on OxyContin over the past two decades.
By any reasonable standard of justice, they should have been shut down entirely.
“Purdue Pharma: corporate fraud with a body count”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-frydl/purdue-pharma-corporate-f_b_9877236.html
See also
“The Opioid Epidemic: How big pharma and Congress created America’s worst health crisis”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-opioid-epidemic-how-big-pharma-and-congress-created_us_59e4e02ee4b003f928d5e8bf
And this, from just a couple days ago in Esquire
“The Secretive family making billions from the opioid crisis”
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a12775932/sackler-family-oxycontin/
Diane, there is a very big connection between educational reformers and Harvey Weinstein.
Megarich billionaire, Republican donor Paul Tudor Jones sat on the board of the Weinstein Company. The board obviously knew about all the settlements.
Despite knowing about all those settlements, Paul Tudor Jones rewarded Weinstein by giving him a seat on the board of his children’s charity, the Robin Hood Foundation. Paul Tudor Jones — after sitting on the board of the Weinstein Company and being privy to all that information — thought Harvey would be a terrific person to oversee a children’s charity.
Paul Tudor Jones is one of the billionaire funders who sits on the board of StudentsFirst right next to Daniel Loeb and Eva Moskowitz. He donatees millions to Success Academy.
Tudor Jones represents the small group of billionaire funders who call the shots of all the supposed “grass roots” organizations that promote charters and say “we need to let them suspend all those violent non-white kindergarten children and do whatever they want to do to get rid of unworthy children who don’t make us look good and we will reward them for it.”
Those funders basically OWN Andrew Cuomo, Joseph Belluck and the entire SUNY Charter Institute board.
So when you think of Harvey Weinstein, think of prominent StudentsFirst board member and educational reformer Paul Tudor Jones who sat on the Weinstein Company board and loved Harvey’s “actions” so much that he placed Harvey on the board of his children’s charity.
They are not predators. They are a virus that causes the worst possible pancreatic cancer.
Both DNA and RNA viruses have been shown to be capable of causing cancer in humans. Epstein-Barr virus, human papilloma virus, hepatitis B virus, and human herpes virus-8 are the four DNA viruses that are capable of causing the development of human cancers.
They are not predators. They are a combination of all the viruses that cause cancer.