This is getting ridiculous. We know that billionaires like Betsy DeVos, the Koch brothers, Reed Hastings, and Michael Bloomberg have been underwriting candidates for local and state school boards.
Now Teach for America’s political action arm, called “Leaders in Education Fund,” which is part of LEE (Leadership for Educational Equity), is also intervening to elect local school board candidates.
Got that? TFA created LEE, which is part of Leaders in Education Fund, which funds candidates.
(Who supports LEE and TFA? The same billionaires who support charter schools: the Waltons, Eli Broad, Bill Gates, etc. One of the Waltons is on the board of LEE.) Any candidate funded by Leaders in Education Fund is funded by the Waltons and the rest of the billionaire privatizers.
Debbie Truong in the Washington Post writes about TFA intervention into a race in Alexandria, Virginia, where its preferred candidates spent ten times (10X) as much as the other candidates and won.
The winning candidates, both TFA alumni, insist that they are not planning to promote charters.
Why would TFA invest in local school boards? In Virginia, only school districts can authorize charter schools, and Virginia has only eight charter schools.
Why would TFA/LE/LEF/Waltons support candidates unless they intend to support TFA and charters?
Read the NPE/NPE Action report on the billionaires buying candidates for office, Hijacked by Billionaires. Of course, the report only scratches the surface, because it does not capture the full list of billionaires supporting privatization, like Republican Bill Bloomfield in California and the Koch brothers. One of the billionaires listed in the report, Arthur Rock, subsidizes TFA alumni who work as staff in Congressional offices, supplying “free” staff who are looking out for the interests of TFA.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
TFA is basically a front for money laundering by billionaires.
Robber E. LEE
Always has been
Always will be
TFAs sin
Is Robber E. LEE
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Robbin the Hood
Robbin the hood
Of public schools
Fillin with flood
Of charter tools
Over the hedge
With his merry men
Robbin the Hood
Has struck again
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Robber E. LEEs middle name is Ed, by the way.
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“Ed”…good one, SomeDam Poet.
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When TFA first appeared, it was lauded by the media because it represented bright young people helping poor students. Now that that the public is rejecting the charter invasion and TFA recruitment is in decline, TFA has morphed into a lobbying group for the interests of the 1%. If they can pour money into school board elections and gain seats, they will be able to influence policy. With enough seats, they can impose charter expansion even if it is unneeded.
Local people that care about public education need to mobilize to stop these billionaire backed carpetbaggers. They want access to public money while they destroy the public schools that serve all students. School board elections are opportunities for locals to vote against the corporate outsiders that seek to impose privatization on the community.
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TFA is a business. It has $300 million in assets. It lobbies for itself and for more charters, because TFA provides the cheap labor force for non-union charters. It exploits idealistic young college graduates.
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It also exploits schools in inner cities by using them as career ladders for TFA scabs padding their resume to land their first REAL job after TFA.
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I spoke with a TFA person who is still on “CONTRACT.” I will keep my opinion to myself, but DO draw conclusions from my OMG.
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yes; so few people see this connection when voting (or more notably not voting — so many school board races are known to have notoriously low voter participation ) in school board races
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Just curious, how much did the NEA, UFT, AFT, NYSUT, etc donate to political causes & why is that ok?
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Tim,
Whatever they gave, it came from the pockets of hardworking, underpaid teachers.
Whatever they gave, it can never match the Walton family (net worth: $175 Billion), Bill Gates (net worth: $75 Billion), the Koch brothers ($100 Billion), Michael Bloomberg (net worth: $50 billion), and that’s only for starters.
You may recall that the billionaires spent double what the unions spent in Massachusetts, and double what the unions spent in the California superintendents’ race.
Sorry if that upsets you.
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I’m not sure why you would assume this upsets me? I was just asking why you call out one group of political donors while giving another group a free pass. Neither group is doing anything to help children. Both are serving their masters. I watched NYSUT turn their back on a very hardworking dedicated Assemblyman that fought long & hard for teachers, but because he had an R next to his name, he was out!
As for that twit, Linda, commenting here, you would fail a remedial reading comprehension exam. I don’t see how my question determines what “side” I’m on. Just pointing out the hypocrisy or double standard.
And for the record, I have no idea what a “ditto head” is but I’m assuming it’s not flattering.
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Tim,
I don’t see how you compare the teachers’ unions to the Waltons (net worth $175 Billion), the Koch brothers (net worth $100 Billion), and Bill Gates(net worth: $80 Billion).
Or do you think no one should oppose them and they should own our democracy?
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Tim,
The money that billionaires and corporations spend are dollars from consumers. Capitalism’s legitimacy hinges on the basic foundation that profits reward entrepreneurs for risk taking and profits are used to improve products. The use of buyers’ money to corrupt the election process undermines capitalism.
Unions are collectives of millions of people who cobble together funds from their paychecks which they ask elected representatives to use in their behalf.
Tim, you would fail a test that required the compare and contrast skill.
On the other hand, you have cemented your position as the oligarchy’s ditto head.
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Supposed to go with Equity comment below.
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In the end, does it matter, to the kids, WHO hands out the tests?
Be it from the hands of TFA, or traditional certified teachers,
the T-est F-ragging A-pparatus, continues to waste minds and money.
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Wouldn’t the legislative, judicial or executive branches in a democracy prohibit taxpayer fleecing?
I must misunderstand what’s going on. Citizen money is given to TFA which is then spent on the election of candidates who can then be expected to give the organization more taxpayer money? Say it isn’t so.
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TFA lobbies for TFA and calls it equity.
They get the Equity.
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Good one.
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Indeed.
Whoever came up with the language of Deform is a true genius.
Even George Orwell would have been impressed.
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Truth be Told”
Truth be told
I never lie
Hot is cold
And live is die
Up is down
Wrong is right
Square is round
And day is night
Deform’s reform
Deformspeak game:
Lie is norm
And truth is lame
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“Loopy Reform”
Möbius loop
Escher stair
Bottom is top
Cheat is fair
Up is down
Back is fore
Round and round
Reformer lore
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