Jeb Bush has been promoting school choice and disparaging public s hoops for years. Betsy DeVos was a member of the board of his Foundation for Excellence in Education until Trump chose her as Secretary of Education.
Jeb Bush invented the nutty notion of giving a letter grade to schools.
Jeb Bush zealously believes in high-stakes standardized testing and VAM. In Jeb’s Odel, Testing and letter grades are mechanisms to promote privatization.
Who funds his foundation?
The biggest donors in 2017 were Gates, Bloomberg, and Walton, each having given Jeb more than $1 Million for his privatization campaigns.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Not surprising. Just appalling. The hypocrisy abounds.
Sent from my iPhone Carole Artigiani http://www.globalkids.org
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KA-CHING for them; THEY want SLAVES. THEY want Jim Crow.
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All the usual suspects, with cameo roles by other billionaires and supported by a cast of multi millionaire extras. I think there may be a herd effect amongst the billionaire class, as well as those wanting to kiss up to the likes of Gates and the Waltons. There are the true believers like Gates and the Waltons and then there are the hangers on and opportunists who see even more dollar $igns in their future. The result is school privatization and the destruction of a public good, public schools as we know them.
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the Pandora’s Box now opened: Big Money Players have gotten into that public education tax funding, and an entirely new ‘hanger-on’ education economy is born.
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Despite Jeb’s dislike for Trump, they share the common value of opportunism. Bush has figured out that the way for him to make millions is to move public education money into his pockets. Like so many second generation politicians that trade on their names, he is less about public service and more about self interest. In Florida his fingerprints are all over the horrible legislation that allows for maximum “choice” and movement of public funds into charters and vouchers as “opportunity scholarships.” Bush, a friend of DeVos and ALEC, continues to influence educational policy in Florida, and I believe he and his foundation are behind some of the misleading “log rolling” amendments to the state constitution on the November ballot designed to further undermine public education.
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George Carlin was addressing this issue decades ago.
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Same old list of ed reformers. Over and over and over again.
“Several months ago Jeb Bush publicly praised President Obama for selecting Arne Duncan as education secretary. “I think Arne Duncan has done a good job,” the former Florida governor said in this CBS interview. Perhaps to return the favor, Duncan is now scheduled to deliver a keynote address at Bush’s fifth annual Excellence in Action Summit later this month in Washington.”
It’s an echo chamber. They hire one another, they fund one another, give out awards exclusively TO each other….I’d call it a club but there are no clubs that wholly dominate policy decisions like ed reform does, so “club” isn’t right.
There are no real debates in ed reform. All of the big decisions have been made. They have mild disagreements on things like how big vouchers should be or who should run privatized systems but there’s only one idea, and that idea is to replace the existing system with a privatized system of their design.
It’s a real shame, because the inevitable result of that focus has been the complete and utter lack of interest in the schools most families use- the existing public system.
The only time Jeb Bush’s lobbying org mentions public schools is when they’re lobbying against labor unions, selling testing systems, or selling ed tech.
They don’t assign any value to our schools, and it shows.
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This is what Democrats are supporting when they support this organization:
“Today, the United States Supreme Court sided with Mr. Mark Janus in the case of Janus v. AFSCME, ruling that it is unconstitutional to force public-sector employees to pay mandatory fees to a union.
“Public employee unions, including teachers unions, have long been able to put the agenda of Big Labor bosses above the needs of the broader membership they serve. No longer forced to fund an organization unaligned with their values, teachers now have the power to consider a union’s agenda on their own terms.
“I am hopeful that the era of teachers union bosses playing politics with our schools will give way to a 21st-century model of education that focuses on the students, not the adults. Today’s decision ushers in a real opportunity to transform education in America.”
-Governor Jeb Bush, Chair of the Foundation for Excellence in Education ”
I mean, honestly. Who are we kidding with this? This is the ed reform agenda.
This is ALL they offer the 85% of families public schools. Political campaigning against labor unions and selling us cheap ed tech garbage and testing systems.
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DeVos and Jeb call their version “child-centered” because the money follows the child to the school of god or her parents’ choice, regardless of its quality, lack of accountability, for-profit status, or lack of certified teachers. Their vision will produce a nation of idiots.
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When they use tax dollars to fund reform agendas, there is a fiscal responsibility to taxpayers to demonstrate clear transparency and accountability. Their version is ” Corporate-Profit centered” children are used to bring their agendas to fruition. Perhaps Jeb should call for all charters to follow the ALEC playbook on state transparency-
“Citizens deserve to know how their government spends their hard-earned tax dollars. With this mission in mind, the ALEC Task Force on Tax and Fiscal Policy has worked hard to develop policy solutions to keep state governments open and accountable to their hard working taxpayers. The Taxpayer Transparency Act, the Taxation Disclosure Act and the Federal Receipts Reporting Act all help to promote fiscal transparency.”
https://www.alec.org/article/keeping-state-governments-open-and-accountable-to-taxpayers/
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ALEC is the most anti-democracy organization in the nation. It’s funded by Charles and David Koch who are known for the duplicity described in the training manual of ALEC’s founder (Paul Weyrich – Theocracy Watch). The Koch’s use the terms “freedom” and “liberty” as bait and switch for oligarchy. When ALEC (legislators who are wined and dined and industries opposed to regulation) meets to draft state laws, the public is denied access. The Koch’s talk about keeping government out of people’s lives while they insert themselves nationally, with big bucks to politicians, at the state level, through ALEC and, at the community level, through the American City and County Exchange. All of us can learn about the diabolical ALEC from the Center for Media and Democracy, “ALEC Exposed” and “UnKochMyCampus”.
Only the intellectual prostitutes paid by the richest 0.1% propose “transparency” and the temporary ruse of charter school accountability in lieu of the current local public school control by democracy.
David Koch can’t die soon enough. He seeks to yoke Americans who, in creating GDP gains, have to overcome the 2% drag from Wall Street. The Koch’s who live far from the communities that they seek to influence e.g. funding for city zoos, can vacation with their rich friends to distant continents to see animals on safaris, unlike the 99% that they plot to enslave. Labor gets the lowest share of national income in recorded U.S. history.
A high proportion of Americans pay no income tax because by definition slaves don’t pay taxes. The 99% pay excessively for the benefits the Koch family and its businesses enjoy, when they pay regressive state consumption taxes. The Koch’s exploit free markets by using consumer dollars, not to improve products but, to influence political and social policies.
The Koch’s plot is colonialism. They undermine all that is good about the nation and demean all of the sacrifices made for the U.S.A.
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no surprise here.
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I wish more people knew that Bloomberg and the Gates share an agenda with the Kochs and Bushes, and stop thinking there is any difference between them.
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They all share billionaire status and see an easy way to shift public money into wealthy pockets under the guise of the fake “reform” agenda.
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My forthcoming book (almost finished) makes the connection clear. Koch brothers, DeVos, Gates, Jeb Bush, Eli Broad, Stand with Children–all in the same boat.
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Diane-
The nation thanks you for writing the book. You build on the foundation and promise of 200+ years of American sacrifice.
Russian and American oligarchs, many of whom are both greedy and
“fancy racists “, plot treachery against the U.S.A.
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Ah – No child will be left behind –
Two paths:
1) Funding, tax credits, and vouchers for Private/Religious/Selective and
2) Warehouses (for-profit to segregate kids and destroy urban schools) and public warehouses for the rest because there won’t be any funding to do much else
well – three if you count the camps and cages of children separated from parents
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Please please stop the typos!!! They do not enhance your credibility one bit.
> public s hoops >
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Seriously?
1. You should have a comma between your pleases.
2. Spoiler alert – comment underneath yours has a sentence that ends in a preoposition.
3. “The fall is gonna kill you.” (They’re trying to warehouse kids and kill public education for all.. but we’ll get that typing accurate).
ok – back to education reading
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Dude. She’s often doing these posts on a tablet or a phone as she travels. She has no staff. Be grateful for Diane, instead of nit picking.
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Sue, would you like to be my proof reader? Sometimes I write posts while traveling in a bouncing taxi or bus. I would love to have you help out. Let me know whenever you see a typo and I will correct at once.
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Good one, Diane.
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I have been building some spreadsheets on who is funding what. There are so many interconnected initiatives that Jeb Bush and friends are part of.
For example. Bush’s projects are connected with another big reform outfit: Partners for Innovation in Education (PIE) an outfit with at least 180 affiliates (in my spreadsheet) all connected to many others and all seeking national, state, and large metro area policies that favor charter school expansion (marketed as innovative), along with Teach for America (mostly on the job training), and active interference with teacher union contracts.
The PIE website still includes a guide for “Rabble Rousers” who were given quidance on how to work on legislated policy changes to favor charters, TFA and privatizers and how to enlist active support from civic and business organizations. It is a guide for lobbying and controlling narratives about education in the press.
The 47-page PIE Rabble Rousers handbook (2010 funded by the Joyce Foundation) includes this statement about the process of changing state policy:
“Most of the groups we spoke with (about shaping state polcies) declined to involve educators on their governing boards; if they did so, those groups do not make up a majority of the governing board. The rationale was clear enough: if the goal is to be a voice for the public’s interest, educator involvement confuses that message. As one group leader explained: “Educators already have the overwhelming voice in our state capital through their various associations. If we brought the interest lobby to our meetings, our discussion would get rutted in the same issues that already complicate the public debate. Our goal is to have a conversation that looks at the issues differently, considering only the students without the adult agendas.” An even blunter explanation was: “We tell our teacher associations that when they invite our leaders to vote on their boards, we will include union representation on ours (p. 32).” http://pie-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/rabble-rousers.pdf
Since that 2010 publication, PIE has shifted its strategy to include carefully selected educators. Most are working in charter schools or they have been willing to be indoctrinated into PIE’s agenda. Indocrination is the correcy word.
In Oakland, CA, for example, the bait for PIE’s program has been a two-year “fellowship” with $1000 for the first year, and $2000 for the second year for attendance at two-hour meetings twice monthly plus readings and research. (I could not determine if the “year” was a calendar year nine month school year). In a series of tasks, the Oakland Fellows were given preferred data about their union to think about, along with model language for changes.
There are similar programs in multiple metro areas and states, with teachers working as if hired hands of PIE, token payments or emblems of prestige by virtue of becoming “fellows” or “ambassadors.”
Here is a list of organizations and financial supporters of “teacher voice” in the PIE Network–all recruiting teachers to advocate for policies favoring TFA, charters, and dismantlying unions and more under the banner of “innovation.”
Advance Illinois “Every Student World Ready”; Chalk Board Project; Ed Allies (Minnesota); Educators for High Standards; Go Public Schools (Oakland CA); Hope Street Group (multiple states); National Network of Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY, nominated by governors of states and celebrated by the Council of Chief State School Officers); Rodel Foundation of Delaware; State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE, Tennessee); Stand for Children Louisiana; Teach Strong (National, with one year “ambassadors” who lobby politicians), Educators for Excellence (in Boston, Chicago, Connecticut, Los Angeles , Minnesota, New York); Teach Plus (in California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts); and Texas Aspires.
PIE Board members are powerbrokers. Many are veterans of reformy projects to undermine public education through draconian standard-setting, exemptions for and expansions of charter schools, and killing collective bargaining by teachers.
1. Derrell Bradford, Executive VP of 50CAN, recruits state executive directors, fellows, and YouCAN advocates; known for leadership of legislated tenure reform in New Jersey.
2. Rachael Canter, Executive Dir. and co-founder of Mississippi First. Two years Teach for America; successfully lobbied for Mississippi Charter Schools Act of 2013.
3. Jonah Edelman, co-founder and CEO of Stand for Children Leadership Center and Stand For Children with affiliates in 11 states (Edelman is son of civil rights activist and lawyer Marian Wright Edelman). A political scholar (Ph.D Oxford, Yale) with deep family connections to the Democratic Party. SFC works for privatization with major funding from the Gates and Walton foundations among others. Major promoter of Read-by-Grade-Three policy.
4. Chris Korsmo, CEO of the League of Education Voters, backed by The Broad Foundation and supporters of projects to undermine teacher unions.
5. Scott Laband, President of Colorado Succeeds, coalition of business executives for corporate friendly education, including school policies that subsidize workforce preparation.
6. Patricia Levesque, CEO Foundation for Excellence. Was Jeb Bush’s Chief of Staff for education promoting corporate friendly education, six years as Staff Director for education policy in the Florida.
7. Lillian M. Lowery, Ed.D. V.P. of Ed Trust’s PreK-12 Policy, Research, and Practice, former state superintendent of schools in Maryland and state secretary of education in Delaware.
8. Nina Rees, President and CEO of National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, first Deputy Under Secretary for Innovation and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education.
9. Aimee Rogstad Guidera, former president and CEO of the Gates-funded Data Quality Campaign for enganced surveillance of K-12 school and “teacher of record” performance, with a variant tracking workforce outcomes of pre-K to post-seconfary workforce outcomes.
10. Evan Stone, Co-CEO and Co-Founder in 2010 of Educators for Excellence. Yale University thesis on No Child Left Behind in urban school systems, Master degree in teaching, Pace University.
11. Suzanne Kubach, Executive Dir. PIE Network. Appointed to California State Board of Education, former Chair of Los Angeles Charter School Board. Ph.D. in Education Policy, University of Southern California.
12. Tim Taylor, co-founder and Executive Dir. America Succeeds, founder of Colorado Succeeds, seeking corporate friendly policies.
13. Jamie Woodson, Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), Former legislative leader for expansion of Tennessee’s public charter schools. J.D., the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
And that is just for starters. What “innovative policies” are being marketed in your state, by whom, and why?
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Laura-
You have a superb intellect, a moral compass and a work ethic that shames the academic and think tank prostitutes of the richest 0.1%.
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Just took a look at Gates Web site. In 2017 the gifted Bush $2,600,000. https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2017/09/OPP1178333
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Total from Gates is $10,651,665 for nine grants since 2010, more than one of these for operating expenses. When Gates supports operating expenses, I think it is correct to say that organization is an operating arm of the Gates foundation.
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The Center for American Progress got $2,000,000 from Gates. The founder of CAP is in a video with Chester Finn (Fordham) and Jeb Bush asking donors to fund candidates who will work to destroy public schools.
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Anti-pension, John Arnold, from Enron, drops money on the University of Pennsylvania, University of Kentucky, etc., drops money into the outreached hands of many professors and, into the think tanks, that were once thought of as liberal.
Is he astroturfing like Gates?
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I agree.
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The Harvard Kennedy School of Government gave Jeb Bush a guest lecturer position to sell his privatization. Gates gave Roland Fryer of Harvard $1 mil. Fryer concluded that kids, like his own in the wealthy suburbs should be treated differently. Kids in other areas should be tested everyday. All Americans should be reminded that racist Gov. and Sen. Talmadge of Georgia first proposed privatization to avoid integration.
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Eli Broad gave Roland Fryer’s Center $6 Million.
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