Democrats for Education Reform is an organization founded, funded, and led by hedge fund managers who support charter schools and high-stakes testing. They raise money to elect likeminded people across the country and are a key part of the Dark Money world of fundraisers for privatization of public schools.
On Saturday, the Colorado Democratic Party passed a strong resolution opposing privatization of public schools and demanding that DFER stop calling themselves “Democrats.”
Here is the story of the state Democratic convention, as reported in Chalkbest.
Colorado has been fertile ground for corporate reform, and DFER has been a source of funding for candidates for the state board, the Denver board, and other critical races. Senator Michael Bennett, once a superintendent of the Denver public schools, is a DFER favorite. So are two current candidates for governor, Jared Polis (who is so rich he doesn’t need DFER money) and former TFA State Senator Michael Johnston, who drafted the state’s harsh and ineffective teacher evaluation law.
“Vanessa Quintana, a political activist who was the formal sponsor of the minority report, was a student at Denver’s Manual High School when it was closed in 2006, a decision that Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, then Denver’s superintendent, defended at an education panel Friday.
“She said that before she finally graduated from high school, she had been through two school closures and a major school restructuring and dropped out of school twice. Three of her siblings never graduated, and she blames the instability of repeated school changes.
“When DFER claims they empower and uplift the voices of communities, DFER really means they silence the voices of displaced students like myself by uprooting community through school closure,” she told the delegates. “When Manual shut down my freshman year, it told me education reformers didn’t find me worthy of a school.”
I am a registered Colorado Democrat and I denounce the DFERS, too.
Polis’ is running for Governor of Colorado. Wish he would get a real job.
Polis opened two charter schools.
He is listed as one of the 10 richest members of Congress, derived from two online marketing firms he (and his family) founded. Blue Mountain greeting cards and ProFlowers.com.
He doesn’t need DFER money but he is aligned with the DFER agenda.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
Explained: Why corporate, authoritarian, greedy education reformers don’t find children worthy of a school.
The sanctimony in the response is incredible. Rather than engage in the discussion of any of the issues that might have led to this decision, instead the speaker cries victim and implies that this may be motivated in part by discriminatory motives because one of the DFER spokespeople happens to be gay.
I was a delegate in attendance and the response to the minority report’s amendment to admonish DFER was overwhelming. The platform committee took a different approach this year and greatly scaled down the state platform because they wanted it to me more a document about what we’re for rather than against. That this amendment was presented at the assembly and that there were only ten minutes for debate by the 3000+ delegates in attendance and was against something made the vote even more impressive. Clearly, many of the delegates already were in-the-know about DFER.
It’s also disheartening however, that so many erstwhile Democrats/liberals/progressive clearly think reform is good without apparently being troubled by the corporatist baggage. I also have had recent experience working in the central office of a major district and it was all GSE Relay/Broad all the time. That my colleagues would not push back or ironically not engage in self-critical or institutional reflection was quite sad. Soon, I and others had our job titles changed with pay cuts. The people who replaced me and my curriculum team were both from charter schools. I then went back to teaching science with no textbooks and no materials in a co-located school building. This is not an exaggeration.
I am no longer a teacher.