Retired physics and math teacher Tom Ultican continues his investigation of the Destroy Public Education movement with this post about a new organization determined to extinguish public education by privatization.
He begins:
Billionaire Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, has joined with billionaire former Enron executive, John Arnold, to launch an aggressive destroy public education (DPE) initiative. They claim to have invested $100 million each to start The City Fund. Neerav Kingsland declares he is the Fund’s Managing Partner and says the fund will help cities across America institute proven school reform successes such as increasing “the number of public schools that are governed by non-profit organizations.”
Ending local control of public schools through democratic means is a priority for DPE forces. In 2017, EdSource reported on Hastings campaign against democracy; writing, “His latest salvo against school boards that many regard as a bedrock of American democracy came last week in a speech he made to the annual conference of The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in Washington D.C., attended by about 4,500 enthusiastic charter school advocates, teachers and administrators.”
When announcing the new fund, Kingsland listed fourteen founding members of The City Fund. There is little professional classroom teaching experience or training within the group. Chris Barbic was a Teach for America (TFA) teacher in Houston, Texas for two years. Similarly, Kevin Huffman was also a TFA teacher in Houston for three years. The only other member that may have some education experience is Kevin Shafer. His background is obscure.
The operating structure of the new fund is modeled after a law firm. Six of the fourteen founding members are lawyers: Gary Borden; David Harris; Kevin Huffman; Neerav Kingsland; Jessica Pena and Kameelah Shaheed-Diallo.
Ready to Pilfer Community Schools and End School Boards
In a 2012 published debate about school reform, Kingsland justified his call for ending democratic control of public education writing,
“I believe that true autonomy can only be achieved by government relinquishing its power of school operation. I believe that well regulated charter and voucher markets – that provide educators with public funds to operate their own schools – will outperform all other vehicles of autonomy in the long-run. In short, autonomy must be real autonomy: government operated schools that allow “site level decision making” feels more Orwellian than empowering – if we believe educators should run schools, let’s let them run schools.”
This is a belief in “the invisible hand” of markets making superior judgements and private businesses always outperforming government administration. There may be some truth here, but it is certainly not an ironclad law.
Please open the post to read the rest of this shocking story of arrogance and contempt for democracy, as well as many links.
If we lived in a society that took democracy seriously, the perpetrators of the City Fund would be ridiculed as agents of plutocracy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“I believe that true autonomy can only be achieved by government relinquishing its power of school operation.”
Nothing worse than ideologues with money— in a Wild-West system that ignores its own laws:
“Regarding non-profit spending, the IRS rules state that tax-exempt funds, ‘may not attempt to influence legislation.’ The Silicon Valley Community Fund, The City Fund, and many other funds spending to change how education is governed are breaking this rule with impunity.”
Enron’s John Arnold funds the Penn Wharton Budget Model and he funds the pension papers at the Urban Institute. The world would be better off if Arnold had never been born, the same is true of Reed Hastings.
Bitsy’s brother continues to scheme to privatize the war in Afghanistan for the benefit of his corporation of mercenaries. Reed Hastings, John Arnold and Erik Prince- scourge of the earth.
These greedy, democracy crushing ideologues should realize that there is available research showing there is no magic in the market or invisible hands. When applied to public education, market based education creates more inequities by producing winners and losers, no better academic results, waste, fraud, embezzling and increased segregation.
I would like to see a succinct summary, perhaps with bullets, summarizing the research on the failure of market based education. It could be a useful tool as more profiteers move in to take over school districts and boards of education.
Good GAWD. I seem to saying that a lot these DAZE.
You wrote this: “When applied to public education, market based education creates more inequities by producing winners and losers, no better academic results, waste, fraud, embezzling and increased segregation.”
THIS IS WHAT THE DEFORMERS WANT…Jim Crow.
The public needs to understand that privatization has been a “net flop.”
That’s what my new book is about. The massive failure of the privatization movement
“I believe that true autonomy can only be achieved by government relinquishing its power of school operation. I believe that well regulated charter and voucher markets – that provide educators with public funds to operate their own schools – will outperform all other vehicles of autonomy in the long-run. In short, autonomy must be real autonomy: government operated schools that allow “site level decision making” feels more Orwellian than empowering – if we believe educators should run schools, let’s let them run schools.”
It’s amazing how far Right ed reform has gone and in such a short period of time. They went from ignoring and neglecting public schools in favor of privatized systems to proposing completely eradicating public schools and this happened over 20 years.
Not even Barry Goldwater went this far- 100% privatization is now the uniform position in mainstream ed reform.
They don’t even mention existing public schools anymore. They have “debates” that consist solely of discussing how the privatized systems they seek should be funded and regulated.
The next lurch to the Right will be universal vouchers. They’re 3/4’s of the way there already. The vouchers will be low value and we’ll see a massive public disinvestment in public schools. People will be given a low value voucher to subsidize the cost of k-12 education. If you think it’s unequal now wait until everyone gets a 5k voucher to cover the annual cost of school.
The arrogance just blows me away. That they would pitch an existing universal public system in the trash and replace it with a privatized model with NO thought to the downside risk. There’s not even a recognition that there COULD be downside risk.
Notice the language too- “I believe” “in the long run” – there’s no way to disprove ed reform dogma. They’ve given themselves a limitless period of time to show privatization is superior to public systems. They can never, ever be proven wrong.
Chiara,
Relax. The public is catching on. Vouchers fail everywhere to “outperform.” They “underperform.” Charters fail too unless they cherry pick their students.
It is disgusting that Neerav Kingsland calls his blog “relinquishment,” a term I believe was concocted by Andy Smarick. Smarick, a veteran of rightwing think tanks, who was appointed to the Maryland Board of Education by rightwing Governor Larry Hogan.
NPE Action has endorsed his Democratic challenger, Ben Jealous, former chair of the National NAACP.
Posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/The-Destroy-Public-Educati-in-General_News-Arrogance_Billionaires_Diane-Ravitch_Education-180821-263.html with comment that have links to this blog.
Is there any connection between Jonathan Lavine’s City Year and John Arnold’s City Fund?
Both men are associated with colossal failures in business- Drexel Burnam Lambert and Enron, respectively. Both men, as part of the financial sector, drug/ drag down GDP.
Both mask themselves as “philanthropists” instead of plutocrats. Both are posers, Lavine at the Center for American Progress and Arnold, giving money to the ACLU, while funding aerial surveillance of neighborhoods without the knowledge of elected leaders.
Their plot to destroy America’s most important common good, Lavine at Bain Capital and Arnold’s profligate spending against the 99%, is an affront to decency.
The destroy public education movement creates a new vehicle: That would be the EDsel.
They tell us that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector. Really? Anyone remember the debacles of ENRON, Countrywide, Adelphia, Bear Sterns, IndyMac, WorldComm, Lehman Brothers, Arthur Andersen, Merrill-Lynch, AIG, Tyco, Global Crossing, Imclone, Dynegy, etc., ad nauseam?
I remember. It makes the point that only a religious type belief in market structures would justify “relinquishment.”
Relinquishment is a vile word used by vile people.
How about we ask them to relinquish their income? Their fancy offices? Their bonuses and perks?
Neerav is something else. He is such a libertarian he rejects Democracy. Calling his blog “Relinquishment” may indicate his ultra-right political ideology. Or is he just selling his soul for 30 pieces of silver?
a very apt name for ed reform: EDSEL.
Sure those schools will be non-profit–with lots of pay and perks for the executives and no job security for the teachers. Non-profit does not mean that you can’t have highly paid administrators. It means only that you can’t have shareholders who profit and that you don’t show a profit on paper.
Many nonprofit charters are managed by for-profit EMOs and CMOs.
Well the same story with a different name. The endless feeding at the trough for public education funds is non stop. Parents are smart and they are the only ones who can stop the process by not engaging in it. The founders of this country believed in public education no ifs or but’s
Diane, why don’t you tell us where the last decade of ed reformers are now.
The last decade of reformers are rolling in dough because so much money is pouring on from billionaires and hedge fund managers. Reed Hastings just hired a bunch of the old timers to run the City Fund, with $100 million, to privatize schools in black communities, take away parents’ voices.