California has more charter schools than any other state. In part, this is because Governor Jerry Brown is a charter school ally, having opened two charters when he was mayor of Oakland. This great progressive governor had a blind spot about charters and ignored the proliferation of charters that were fraudulent and openly embezzled money from taxpayers to fatten their own wallets.
The study linked below lists the billionaires who bought the LAUSD election in 2017.
These are the same billionaires who are now bankrolling Marshall Tuck in his bid to become State Superintendent of Public Instruction. In that role, he would manage the growth of the charter industry and the decline of public schools. This is exactly the goal of Betsy DeVos.
A vote for Tony Thurmond is a vote to stop privatization and to improve public schools.
See the entire report on “out of town billionaires” here.
Learn the names of those who want to purchase the public sector and hand it over to pother entrepreneurs.
Will the voters be hoaxed?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
They’ll stop at nothing and unless people pay attention, they’ll be successful.
LikeLike
ED reformers are calling this an “apprenticeship” but it actually costs students 24,000 dollars a year:
https://www.the74million.org/article/bailey-income-share-agreements-are-an-innovative-way-of-financing-tuition-and-an-investment-in-the-workplace-of-tomorrow/
Someone should tell them that this isn’t how “apprenticeships” work- they’re supposed to actually pay students, not charge them. This is a “free student labor plus tuition” deal.
LikeLike
I posted the report at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/California-The-Out-Of-Tow-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Election_Public-Assets-To-Private-Wealth_Public-Education_Public-Graft-181101-136.html
with comments that have great LINKS!
like this one Comment one from an earlier blog by Diane.
This is a great article, written in 2015. Education “reform’s” big lie: The real reason the right has declared war on our public schools! https://www.salon.com/2015/05/09/education_reforms_big_lie_the_real_reason_the_right_has_declared_war_on_our_public_schools/
Comment 2
You cannot have an educated citizenry and elect a Trump. Shared knowledge that MAKES DEMOCRACY POSSIBLE. https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/hirsch.pdf An ignorant citizenry is the goal.
A Layman’s Guide to the Destroy Public Education Movement;The DPE Movement is Well Financed and Determined https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/A-Layman-s-Guide-to-the-De-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Democracy_Education_Education-Curriculum_Education-Funding-180909-50.html#comment710970
This comprehensive overview by Tom Tultican (also from Diane’s posts) shows the movement to destroy public education (DPE) and describes the methods & names the leaders–a small group of billionaires undercutting democracy and privatizing public schools. It is financed by several large non-profit, tax-exempt organizations. Without this spending, there would be no wide-spread public school privatization. The game plan, aims for the same result: The dismantling of democratic control of public schools. “Almost all of the education reform initiatives coming from the DPE forces are bunkum, but their hostility to democracy convinces me they prefer a plutocracy or an oligarchy to democracy. The idea that America’s education system was ever a failure is an illusion. It is by far the best education system in the world plus it is the foundation of American democracy. If you believe in American ideals, protect our public schools.”
Comment 3
Another look, by Diane at this link https://dianeravitch.net/2016/09/01/california-meet-the-billionaires-who-are-financing-the-spread-of-school-privatization/ at what the California Billionaires are doing to privatize education and be aware that this is a worldwide takeover of education by the oligarchs who KNOW that getting people as kids, wins the battle to take over any nation.
Anya Kamenetz wrote an illuminating and actually frightening article about Pearson’s ambitious plans to introduce for-profit education around the world. Pearson’s Quest to Cover the Planet in Company-Run Schools https://www.wired.com/2016/04/apec-schools/ Diane quotes the article at length because it is so important. and urges you to read it in full. It appears in “Wired” magazine. Public schools are disappearing and with it the road to income equality as well as a democracy. Shared knowledge is a requirement for a democracy, and when Billionaire Koch can write North Carolina’s social studies curricula https://dianeravitch.net/2014/12/07/civics-lessons-financed-by-the-koch-brothers/
LikeLike
I don’t want to share this as my guts churn, but Politico.com posted this about 4 hours ago.
“In the race to be California’s top educator, charter schools ally Marshall Tuck registered a substantial 12-point lead (48 percent to 36 percent) over state Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, as Tuck takes his second shot at the position. In the insurance commissioner contest, Republican-turned-unaffiliated Steve Poizner has carved out a slimmer, five-point lead (49 percent to 44 percent) over state Sen. Ricardo Lara.”
The state superintendent race has attracted the most outside spending of any statewide contest, some $35 million: Teachers unions have showed up big for Thurmond, while rival EdVoice — whose campaign warchest is stocked by a small cast of individuals that includes Bill Bloomfield, Arthur Rock, Eli Broad, Richard Riordan and Jim Walton — have poured it on for Tuck. Both sides are saturating the airwaves; illustrating the stakes, the California Democratic Party just launched a $2.3 million ad blitz for Thurmond, and Sen. Kamala Harris appeared in a new pro-Thurmond ad.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2018/11/01/tuck-poizner-up-in-final-poll-tracking-the-state-senate-race-money-harris-carves-out-advantages-swalwell-heads-to-new-hampshire-338167
LikeLike
Let’s hope that voters reject Tuck’s billionaire funded campaign of slander.
LikeLike
I think the Alt-Right billionaires like the Koch brothers, Betsy DeVos, and Eli Broad are experimenting to see what works as they infiltrate the Democratic Party with candidates that are wolves pretending to be sheep that get booed at state Democratic conventions.
This time, the Republican Party in California did something I haven’t seen before. To let registered Republicans know Tuck was a fake Democrat they endorsed him. Has the GOP ever endorsed an alleged Democrat before?
Then they flood mailboxes and TV screen with a blizzard of misleading ads and flyers aimed at registered Democrats to fool them into voting for their wolf in sheepskin.
With registered Republicans voting for the Alt-Rights minions and a minority of registered Democrats being fooled, they manipulate a majority so their candidate wins.
That’s why the Alt-Right billionaires are spending more money than ever for a position like California Sectary of Education. If Tuck wins, in future elections, they will run more fake Democrats using the same tactics.
Eventually, there will be more fake democrats like Tuck running for elections and the real democrats will be forced to the shadows as their influence in the party vanishes. That’s why the Alt-Right has bankrolled Tuck through several elections that he has lost spending more money and altering their tactics each time looking for a method that works.
LikeLike
Polls are so accurate — not.
Thurmond is going to clean Tuck’s clock.
LikeLike
I want that to happen.
I want to see Thurmond “trump” Tuck’s bottom-dealing hand and “beat” Tuck with an Ace high straight flush all “clubs” to double-beat Tuck and his backers.
Remember all the polls that said Hillary was going to win and Trump didn’t have a chance. The next morning the country saw what double-fraud “trump” is.
What goes around comes around.
LikeLike
The ads run by Tuck supporters against Thurmond are such blatant lies and so defamatory that he should sue for libel. Left Coast Teacher, my dear old friend, please contact me at my email address so we can catch up…and it is
elubic@aol.com
LikeLike
It’s easier to lie about an elected official and/or a celebrity and not get taken to court than if you lie about a private citizen that is not an elected official and/or celebrity.
Once you become a public figure, it’s like you are a target and the lies become foot long throwing knives that are not responsible for any injury and damage they cause.
“Courts are much less likely to award damages to public figures in defamation cases for a couple different reasons. First, courts have made a normative decision that the reputations of public figures are less deserving of legal protection.”
https://www.nationwideconsumerrights.com/public-vs-private-figures.html
LikeLike
I’m sharing this widely. Excellent report. Love the graphics.
LikeLike
Please share this video with people from California: The billionnaires truly are trying to take over public education in our state. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4O9zPgxe2w&feature=player_embedded&fbclid=IwAR0jHJhNbz5IkiGwa3f5cLgZlDcD7U074HRvl_gyTE_wxG5Qlh95wB8P7Pc
LikeLike
It is so important to vote in this election, and this is another piece of evidence supporting the need for high level voter turn out. Charter schools have many problems, in my view, with many not serving our students effectively. While there are some charters that have good results, many do not, and many teaching strategies employed are not proven techniques being applied by qualified educators.
Remember, it’s easier to control people with limited knowledge. My guess is our current administration is well aware of that notion.
LikeLike
My perception is that Democrats are the ones who depend on an ignorant electorate and that the push for charters is an effort to restore understanding of and commitment to capitalism among what will become a permanent winning majority of the American citizenry.
At present there is a stereotyped equivalence in the minds of many that public education teachers, for all their idealism, are fundamentally committed to socialism and communism.
It seems so on this blog, at least.
LikeLike
Wrong on both counts.
In one of the few, maybe the only public referenda, the expansion of charters was decisively defeated in Massvin 2016.
I have never met a Communist teacher. Have you?
LikeLike
I taught for thirty years (1975-2005)and I never met a “Communist teacher” or even a hard core socialist. Most teachers I knew were moderates or conservatives. Most of the conservative teachers that voted Republican were history teachers and science teachers.
What’s strange is that all those moderates and conservatives supported Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and even food stamps (SNAP) for the students that lived in poverty with their families. It’s not easy to teach children that are hungry and malnourished. It’s even harder to teach children that are homeless and hungry/malnourished. We had a few of those too.
Harlan, if your “perception is that Democrats are the ones who depend on an ignorant electorate” then you must be spending too much time listening to FOX news and racist, haters like Hannity and Limbaugh.
Back before President Ray-Gun, I actually listened to Limbaugh and still remember him telling his audience that they didn’t have to think because he’d do their thinking for them.
What Limbaugh said back then (I don’t know if he still says it since I stopped listening to him back in the early 1980s) pretty much describes the deplorable voters that support Donald Trump.
The GOP has spend decades with help from the Kochtopus and the Wall-mart Walton family recruiting and brainwashing uneducated Americans through fear and hate.
LikeLike
Those who conflate public goods with socialism and communism– who see the push for privatization of public goods as “an effort to restore understanding of and commitment to capitalism”– are purists of the libertarian philosophy. It’s a very small slice of the voting public. They manage to bring uneducated conservatives into their corner with fear-mongering about impending socialist/ communist ‘takeover.’ They are pawns of corporate industrialists, who cynically ape that and any other philosophy that fools the public into hoping their success will “lift all boats.”
LikeLike
I wonder when the libertarians and crackpots on the right will complain that public highways are socialism, as are public parks, police, firefighters, national parks, public beaches. Communism! Marxism! Let the fracking in the Grand Canyon begin! Get a voucher to hire your own security guard!
LikeLike
Thanks for commenting! While capitalism has it’s strong points, let’s be clear that meritocracy is not one of them. In a system where marginalized children are not served well, it does potentially set up a permanent system of haves and have nots, even if intelligence and ingenuity are not required to be counted among the haves.
As far as communism and socialism are concerned, each one has strong and weak points as well. Socialism, as Lewis Black suggests, is akin to forced Christianity, which is something we should never have to employ in a God fearing, neighbor loving “Christian country.”
Finally, big business should not attempt to bend education to fit its political goals, especially if the public is expected to fund it; that’s simply not its lane.
I’m not a public school teacher, by the way.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on It's Not Easy to Have Faith and commented:
Voting is not simply a civic responsibility; it can also be consider an act of love. Our neighbors depend on our help to realize a more people-oriented society.
LikeLike
Diane and friends…I have not been writing since this site did not accept my comments and we seemed not to be able to fix it. As of today, I joined Facebook, ugh, and hope I can get here through this circuitous plan. Miss reading all your thoughts, and miss letting you know mine. Ellen Lubic
LikeLike
Ellen, your comment was posted. Glad to have you back.
LikeLike