Lisa Haver and Deborah Grill pose this question in an incisive article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
There was a national media flap when billionaire investor Stephen Schwarzman offered his alma mater in Abington, Pennsylvania, $25 million in exchange for renaming the school, putting his name over six entrances, and changing the curriculum to meet his demands. Ultimately, the board refused some but not all of his requirements.
Haver and Grill worked in the Philadelphia public schools. They say, “Welcome to our world,” where the Uber-rich have owned the public schools for years and run them into the ground.
”In November 2011, the state-imposed School Reform Commission (SRC), absent any public deliberation, approved a multimillion-dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In return, the SRC agreed to several conditions, including yearly charter expansion, implementation of Common Core standards, more school “choice” and testing, and permanent school closures. No one elected Bill Gates, typically portrayed in the media as just a very generous rich guy, to make decisions about Philadelphia’s public schools. But his mandates have had devastating and lasting effects on the district, much more than renaming one school.”
No one elected Bill Gates. An unelected board outsourced control of the Philadelphia public schools to an unaccountable billionaire. Why? Money. No evidence. No research. No wisdom. Just money. Goal: Privatization. Means: Silence the public.
“Here in Philadelphia, the Gates Compact conferred authority upon the Philadelphia School Partnership (PSP) “to provide funding …to low-performing or developing schools.” PSP has since raised tens of millions from a stable of wealthy donors; most has gone to charter schools, in keeping with Gates’ pro-privatization ideology. PSP’s influence has grown in the last seven years: the group now funds and operates teacher and principal training programs, oversees a website rating all Philadelphia schools, and holds the district’s yearly high school fair. PSP’s money, like Schwarzman’s, always comes with strings attached, whether that means changing a school’s curriculum or a complete overhaul of faculty and staff, as its 2014 grant to two North Philadelphia schools mandated.”
The PSP meetings are closed to the public. Its board members are wealthy suburbanites.
There is something to be said for democracy. Why has Philadelphia prevented its citizens from having any role in the o ersight of the public schools? Could those who have a genuine stake in them do worse than the rich dilettantes who control them now?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have made many repeated attempts to visit a local middle/high school. I offered to speak at an after-school girls STEM club. I requested an opportunity to visit and observe a class.
ALL attempts were refused. NO school principal in Loudon or Fairfax county will permit their schools to be observed by the citizens who pay for the schools.
One school principal suggested that I visit the school after the students had departed.
So, you tell me. Who owns the schools?
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Maybe they knew who you really are and how you think.
When I was teaching, I had an open door policy for the parents of the children that I taught to come and observe. Few ever took advantage of that invitation.
That open door policy did not extend to any adult that did not have a child in my classroom.
In addition, the public elects the school board members and I recall that some of those elected school board members who were elected to represent parents did visit schools and classrooms to see firsthand what was going on.
In today’s insane world, public schools can’t let just anyone drop in at to witness what is going on in our public classrooms.
If you want to visit classrooms, go to a school board meeting and speak to the board and ask if one of the board members would be willing to take you along next time one of them visited a school in that district. Don’t be surprised if none of them take you up on your request. I think in today’s violent world, they would have to know who you were and if you were safe and sane.
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None of the people I contacted had any idea who I was. I identified my self as a private citizen, and not a salesperson. I went directly to the principals, and never contacted a teacher.
Of course schools must be careful, and not permit anyone off the street to just walk around unescorted. I offered to bring the proof of my government security clearance.
All refused permission for me to have an escorted visit to their schools. All refused to permit to speak to any after-school clubs. One principal suggested that I tour the empty building.
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Charles, I suggest you keep trying. Why don’t you call the district office to arrange a visit to a school?
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Why didn’t you mention my suggestion that you attend a board meeting of the elected school board and present your request to the school board members?
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I have been considering “escalating” my request. I am going to send certified letters to the school board, and to the local media. I think the TV stations would like to see how a private citizen is getting “stonewalled”. Remember, this is the town of Woodward and Berstein. I have a friend who is a reporter at the WashPost.
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Go for it, Charles.
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Charles, while I was out working in the yard this afternoon, I thought of another way for you to discover the real public schools in your area.
Become a substitute teacher or find out if you can volunteer to work with teachers in math or science.
It is much easier to become a substitute teacher than a full-time certificated teacher and then you will really find out what’s going on but from a substitute teacher’s perspective.
Every state has different requirements for becoming a substitute teacher. In California, we have to go through an FBI search to make sure we aren’t a danger to the children. I’m not sure about the other states.
Easy to find out. Just Google the requirements to become a substitute teacher in your state.
And don’t limit yourself to one school district. If there are several school districts within an hour’s drive of where you live, apply to all of them. There’s a shortage of substitute teachers too so it shouldn’t take long once you become a substitute teacher before you will be working and getting paid to find out what’s going on in America’s public schools.
Why limit yourself to thirty minutes or an hour to walk around, chaperoned, and observe teachers for such a small amount of time when you can become a substitute teacher and experience what it is like to teach in a different setting and school every day. That will allow you to eat lunch with the full-time staff and have conversations to find out what they think of teaching.
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I had tons of visitors as a teacher. I considered myself a public servant that was open and transparent. I also worked with student teachers to “pay it forward.”
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@Lloyd. I am already a certified substitute teacher for Fairfax County schools. I have a full-time job already. I am not going to use my vacation time, for this purpose.
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Charles, wonderful to hear you are a sub. When do you start?
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Really, I’m interested in knowing why and how you went through the process to become a substitute teacher when you already have a full-time job and don’t plan to give up your vacation time to sub?
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Q wonderful to hear you are a sub. When do you start? END Q
@ Diane: I told you some time ago, that FCPS accepted me as a substitute teacher. When I was doing contract work in Iraq/Afghanistan, I would often have some weeks or months between contracts. I signed up with FCPS, so that I could make a few bucks, while waiting for a new contract to begin.
They never called me in. Now that I have a full-time job at the Pentagon, I do not need the job with FCPS.
I still have a plan, that after I retire from engineering, to be either a full-time or sub teacher. The VA dept of education, has a program, to assist career switchers.
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VA???
Are you talking about the Veterans Administration or Virginia since both have the same acronym, VA?
The Veterans Administration also has an educational plan. It’s called the GI Bill.
Tuition paid directly to schools
A housing allowance
Money for books and school supplies
Up to $2,000 for tutorial services or
certification examinations
$500 to individuals relocating from
highly rural areas to attend college
I also checked out the Virginia Department of Education and found this link.
Job Opportunities in Virginia Education
School Division Websites – find teaching jobs through individual school division job postings.
TeachVirginiaThis link takes you out of the Virginia Department of Education website – electronic job bank and hiring hall for school divisions and teachers.
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/teaching/jobs/index.shtml
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VA Dept of Education, means the Virginia Dept of Education see
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/teaching/educator_preparation/career_switcher/
For some years, the state of Virginia has provided a means for people to “fast track” to a teaching certificate. This has brought people from other fields into teaching. I think it is a terrific program.
It has the support of the Virginia Education Association.
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Charles, you have a right to your wrong-headed opinion. Fast-tracking teachers (like TFA does) into the profession will never be a good idea.
Only someone that has never taught in an urban public school and/or a public school with a high ratio of child poverty would think this.
Like the blind leading the blind.
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Hi Charles:
First of all, we need to assess the basic step: pros and cons reasons for the action.
If we bring benefits or troubles according to our actions, we surely know the answer from authority.
I acknowledge from your words that your friend are reporter for the Wash-Post and your profession is related to secret security etc…
I honestly know if anyone really wants to rapport quickly with your profile! Especially, if you do not have children or grandchildren attends in any classroom in that specific school district…
I am just parents, but your articulation seems a bit weird. Please do not be offended. I have worked for free to many schools when my child was little. I do not see your particular case.
For example, I have volunteered at my child’s classroom from Kindergarten to grade 12 like participated in pizza day, supervised children on field trips, soccer games, swimming lessons, skiing trips,…at my own expense plus I happily supplied snacks and drink for my child’s class.. Back2basic
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Who owns schools?
Who owns schools?
The billionaires
With software tools
And techy wares
The people dont
And that is clear
They simply won’t
While Gates is here
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Michael Bloomberg owned the NYC schools system for several. years – 12 to be exact and he single handily destroyed the NYC school system. You would be hard pressed to find one – and I do mean one – educator who works in the NYC schools system that would tell you that Bloomberg did good for our schools.
For example, all the schools are now merged into one building sharing space and squished together like sardines. There are no more music classes or art, schools have to fight over common space such as gymnasiums and lunch rooms. Staff members such as secretaries, guidance counselors, social workers are also squished into offices with some as many as 5 people in one office with counselors trying to counsel kids..Bloomberg also created the ATR pool where he put thousands of teachers in schools to sit in the lounge hoping they would quite because they make more money than the newbie educators coming into the system.
Yet Michael Bloomberg walks away and tells people how he “transformed” the schools of NYC. This is just another example of how we have people like the Bloombergs of the world, who somehow have accumulated tons of money and they are throwing their money around to satisfy their sick egos. This is what is going on in the so called red states now. Soon we will hit bottom and then start to rise but until then we just keep sinking and sinking to low depths.
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Hello Diane: I hate to say this, but I wouldn’t want a Trump voter to come near my child’s school. So there’s some truth (only SOME) in the argument that the “elite” (so called, in this case) know better. What they don’t know, is their own democratic roots and how they are in the process of poisoning them.
The truth is that there IS a “know better” but it’s not necessarily in the present set of so-called “elites.” Also, the loss of democracy must be shared by those who live in it.
The other truth is that public board meetings are where real “know betters” are worked out. But if “the public” who attend do not share at least a basic education about their own responsibilities and the covert issues that are going forward (including the presence of double-speak), then we are setting ourselves up for the truth of the “we know better” argument to ascend . . . put forward by those who really don’t.
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in newly gentrified Napa, the school board picked a venture capitalist with private school ties over a classified employee and union member. Shame!
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Abington High School has been around for some time. In fact, my mother graduated from this school in the 1930s. Since that time this suburban area has morphed into an affluent area with lovely older and many newer “McMansions.” A couple of my cousins still live in Abington today. Most of the parents in the district of professionals, and there are many people in financial services as Abington is a convenient commute to Philadelphia. According to one of my cousins, the other parents had no intention of allowing their beloved high school become a vanity project of Swarzman. The parents petitioned the board to reject the name change. Unlike poor areas, this district is full of savvy, educated parents. They united to defend their school. Unfortunately, poor parents often lack the time and skills needed to launch a campaign, and when they do manage to resist, they often get steamrolled by those in charge.
Sadly, the Philadelphia schools are still on the chopping block. They should be able to have an elected board like the districts in the rest of the commonwealth. That fact that they do not is another example of more separate and unequal treatment. The appointed board mostly represents the interests of “reform” and cronies of the mayor.
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By the way, off topic but timely, Vice on HBO is running a special this week on guns in schools. They usually do more than just scratch the surface of the topics they explore.
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My take….
The oligarchy wants and needs SLAVES. This is why they pour money into controlling public schools and public school teachers. It’s ALL ONE BIG SCAM! So, these scam artists give enough to do damage, then they REAP PROFITS in more ways than one…over and over again ad nauseum while laughing and counting their money all the way to their off shore accounts and all the other places they “hide” money.
Btw, Polis (House Rep. and DFER) is now running for governor of Colorado. He OWNS two charter schools in Denver and has always lived in Boulder, CO.
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Polis is one of the strongest proponents of the DFER agenda; he could, in fact, be the poster child for DFER do-gooders. “I am a middle-aged white man with massive personal money, but, from the far reaches of my almost-all-White upper-middle-calss enclave, I care deeply about those poor, non-white inner-city kids and will make sure that they can have more and more access to the charter school system…that charter school system from which I personally benefit.”
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Ciedie,
I have had very awful personal experiences with Polis.
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His attacks on you and your writing are more proof that he is a DANGEROUS candidate.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Billionaires want to own schools in order to cash in on kids or to make sure the kids never grow up to be critical of billionaires.
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An observation that’s a tad off topic, but I can’t resist: This would be the same Stephen Schwarzman who likened eliminating the “carried-interest loophole” to Hitler’s invasion of Poland.
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Well, now we have an idea what the social studies curriculum at the school will soon look like…
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Politico.com ran a piece that might offer some if not all of the answer to reveal who thinks they own our public schools … or wants to own and profit off them.
“How the Kochs are trying to shake up public schools, one state at a time”
“With school choice efforts stalled in Washington, the billionaire Koch brothers’ network is engaged in state-by-state battles with teachers’ unions, politicians and parent groups to push for public funding of private and charter schools.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/kochs-public-schools-shakeup-244259
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Lloyd,
This is a great article in Politico. I reported on it at the time.
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Here is another source, clearly revealing that US wealth is rolling into education and perhaps to avoid having to confront the god-awful poverty and income inequality. Just repeat the idea that education is the key to being lifted up from poverty.
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2018/04/27/big-philanthropy-democracy-deferred-global-study-shows-power-ultra-rich/?utm_source=cerkl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter-04272018&cerkl_id=1731993&cerkl_ue=w1lgssYRVwl8i%2FeQbiv%2FZmiPaHKDzoxEmIN9XO1ojxA%3D
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Poste at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Should-the-rich-rule-the-s-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Democracy_Philadelphia-Inquirer_Schools-180427-435.html#comment698548
with this comment that has embedded links to this blog.
THE FRAUD IS NATIONWIDE…but with 15,880 separate school systems in 50 states, the billionaires who support the privatization of our public education are killing our schools.
Jeff Bryant, writing for the Education Opportunity Network, analyzes the U.S. Department of Education’s recent award of $253 Million to the Failing Charter Industry. He is especially appalled by the funding of charters in New Mexico, whose state auditor has identified numerous frauds in the charter sector, and whose public schools are shamefully underfunded.
Here are but a few of the scams. see my serieshere for more, or go to the Ravitch blog.
In the report, Fraud and waste in California’s charter schools,In the Public Interest reveals that total alleged and confirmed fraud and waste in California’s charter schools has reached over $149 million. Yet this is likely only the tip of the iceberg, as the state lacks the oversight necessary to proactively identify fraud and waste.
Community activist Tamar Manessah wrote an eloquent plea in the New York Times to save public schools in Chicago–from Rahm Emanuel and the charter industry.
Texas Charter Schools Have No Effect on Test Scores and a Negative Effect on Earnings “This is a favorite of mine,” says Diane. Roland Fryer is an economist at Harvard whose work has been heavily subsidized by Eli Broad and Bill Gates. He is a great believer in incentives and choice. Thus, it was quite surprising to read this study This is the key finding (which Diane Ravitch wrote about here).
We estimate the impact of charter schools on early-life labor market outcomes using administrative data from Texas. We find that, at the mean, charter schools have no impact on test scores and a negative impact on earnings. No Excuses charter schools increase test scores and four-year college enrollment, but have a small and statistically insignificant impact on earnings, while other types of charter schools decrease test scores, four-year college enrollment, and earn- ings. Moving to school-level estimates, we find that charter schools that decrease test scores also tend to decrease earnings, while charter schools that increase test scores have no discernible impact on earnings.
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