To get some insight into the mind of the privatizers, read this article in Forbes.
The author is very unhappy because of the Los Angeles teachers strike, which has called out the billionaires’effort to destroy public education and enjoys overwhelming public support. Besides, he expects that enrollments, including charter enrollments, have maxed out in CA and are likely to decline.
The next target: Texas.
Teams funded by the usual billionaires are moving in to disrupt and privatize public schools in Houston (state takeover), El Paso, San Antonio, Dallas, and elsewhere.in San Antonio, they are abetted by the collaboration of the Castro brothers (alleged Democrats, one of whom is running for the 2020 nomination) and the billionaires. The governor is a hard-right Republican, and the legislature is controlled by Republicans in both houses. Ideal conditions for charter growth. Hard-right Republicans, villainthropists, and neoliberals Democrats.
But, thanks to Beto O’Rourke’s coattails, the zrepunlicans no longer have a super majority in the Senate. And thanks to the determined work of Pastors for Texas Children, vouchers are a dead issue.
So the privatizers are concentrating on districts with a majority of lack and brown children, where they can sing their false siren song about “saving poor kids from failing schools,” while they collect fat six-figure salaries to disrupt and privatize public schools.
My advice to the privatizers: DOMT MESS WITH TEXAS!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The voters will target for defeat the political candidates of choice zealots starting with Rep. Susan Davis of California, Cory Booker of N.J. and Hakeem Jeffries of N.Y. It will send a message to other states.
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They are also coming for Oklahoma with the help of the legislature and misleading information!
https://newsok.com/article/5620363/a-broader-focus-ahead-on-oklahoma-education?fbclid=IwAR2tAhlAcW1SrqzpmUsmJF001yOd_0paZlEWjTH3WdvUzb2mZ6-zMq1QxGY
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I guess I’m behind the 8ball, but I’ve heard very little about efforts to establish a broad range of “special” schools via ESAs as described in the article. It sounds creepy. Like they’re trying to get all the disabled & disadvantaged kids out of the public school system– hide them away– in the name of school choice. What ed rights will those kids have & where’s the oversight? This sort of segregation is a terrible idea. There were some big scandals around special-needs Abbott schools in NJ yrs ago. Trashy places w/crooked nepotist admins depriving kids & pocketing the funds. At least that was done w/taxpayer $ under the aegis of state govt, so it was eventually exposed.
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School choice always creates segregation. By race, income, ethnicity, religion.
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School choice is about JIM CROW wrapped “all pretty.”
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It will be a blow if we can stop them here – but that has not been accomplished yet. The teachers are determined, the parents are with us, but they have a lot of money and power.
This fight is nowhere near done.
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The fight goes on. They will be beaten wherever they go.
They are rich losers.
Losers.
They can’t buyeveryone.
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Judging that the LA teachers are fighting the same problems they fought 30 years ago plus charters, victory is not on their side.
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Nonsense. You don’t know what you are talking about.
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Would “choice zealots” find commonality with Liberty University? Redfinch Solutions is in the news today related to a funny story about Michael Cohen’s fan twitter account. A RedFinch web page has an ad for the Liberty education alternative- its on-line academy.
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If Texans are as independent and tough as we keep hearing/reading, maybe they will be the ones to implement the Thomas Jefferson solution to save the US Constitutional Republic.
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This ‘Forbes’ article definitely presented charters with a positive slant by calling charter “public schools of choice.” It also maintains that charter competition improves rather than undermines public education. Facts tell a different story.
Texas like Florida is vulnerable to charter expansion due to the conservative leadership in the state. The privatizers smell opportunity for more $$$. Texas also contains lots of minorities that are rife for exploitation. Parents of minority students should be offended by any marketing campaign intended to make them accept the notion that their children deserve education that is separate from and unequal to that to which white students are entitled. Texas public schools are already seriously under funded as a result of embedded right wing leadership. They do not need more charter drain that leads to being declared “wealthy” because of the imposed inefficiencies of privatization under the Texas recapture funding law.
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“Few of the elite parents in Silicon Valley send their children to public schools. The advent of charter schools allowed working class parents to be similarly unconstrained by their ZIP Code or family income levels.”
This sentence is funny because it almost gives the impression that Silicon Valley’s elite send their children to charter schools! See? You working class folks can have choice which is almost the same as wealth!
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Silicon Valley elites send their kids to private schools where the tuition is $40,000 ++++
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Let’s set the record straight then:
Inside the $28,000-a-year private school where children of tech workers learn to become the next Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk
https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-basis-the-school-where-silicon-valley-tech-workers-send-kids-2018-2
Santa Clara County
Santa Clara county is home to more than 60 charter public schools serving over 29,000 public school students. Located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, Santa Clara County is the heart of Silicon Valley, the technology capital of the world.
http://www.ccsa.org/regions/bayarea/santa-clara-county.html
But K-12 enrollment in Santa Clara County was 272,132 during the 2017-18 school year.
https://www.ed-data.org/county/Santa-Clara/
About 10.6-percent of the K-12 student population in Santa Clara County attends corporate charter schools.
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Is this for real?
https://thinkprogress.org/americas-biggest-right-wing-homeschooling-group-has-been-networking-with-sanctioned-russians-1f2b5b5ad031/
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The authoritarianism of homeschooling is a perfect fit with dictatorships. The incidence of child abuse in homeschooled children is much higher than for children in schools. The same families who homeschool are often 2nd amendment zealots which is one more way they are sidling up next to Russian influence, through the NRA.
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If I offer a slight edit: “The authoritarian, willful ignorance of…”
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The last time I checked with MSM, Soviet Russia was authoritarian. In Soviet Russia homeschooling was not allowed. What do you make of this, Linda?
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What I make of it, BA, is that there are different paths to authoritarianism.
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Well, ok. But A –> B does not prove that B –> A.
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It seems BA had to drop Logic 101 before getting a failing grade.
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GregB, don’t be shy, if you see a mistake in my statement just say it, I don’t need a gold star for simply bringing in my homework.
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BA,
Racists fit perfectly in Trump’s political party. That doesn’t mean that all Republicans are racists. A very small number of them have an unconscionable level of personal greed like Paul Allen did and their bigotries are unknown.
And, some Republicans are just stupid.
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Putin appeals to the right wing because he may be the only dictator in the world who they would classify as White.
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I have often scratched my head over boneheaded rwnj callers-in to CSPAN’s a.m. show who praise Putin/ Russians on the one hand & fear communism/ socialist takeover on the other– seeming not to make the connection to how things were run there pre-’89 even w/an ex-KGB premier! But I think you nailed it 😀
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Whew! That was a maddening article. Oh, the half-truths made my everything hurt. The whole truth is that if the public knew how charter schools and management organizations spent the money the taxpayers give them, they wouldn’t be allowed to stay in business. Private boards, secret meetings, back room deals…
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Well the taxpayers are getting a glimpse at just how unaccountable the Military Industrial Complex is (see semi-audit of it). And it’s still more of the same with even more funding for the profiteers of death and destruction.
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for anything different (actual accountability) in the private charter sector. Grab the money and run, to hell with children’s educations.
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And, again, Chicago (see an earlier post on this blog about Walton PAC putting money into Chicago aldermanic & mayoral races. (You can look up contributions on “Reform Illinois,” which used to be known as the IL Campaign for Political Reform). However, I’m thinking that this money will be dark, so will not be found, but worth a try.
Anyway, when I was looking for the aforementioned post, one happened to come up from almost 3 years ago, April 22, 2016: “Catalyst: Walton Drops Chicago Charter School Expansion Due to ‘Politcal Climate’. !!! Well, now, I guess the “political climate” here in Chi-town has MUCH improved for the Waltons.: big races, big money, buy-me! candidates.
We always have to be ready–these people will NEVER stop trying to keep “other people’s children” down and, in the process, making more money than anyone on Earth would ever need. Chicago readers/voters, please spread the word to everyone you know who is a Chicago voter, attend those aldermanic & mayoral forum, read & ask questions.
Be careful out there.
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And the new Education commissioner for Tennessee is a TFA alum who comes from Texas with a charter voucher agenda on her knee. I love my state. I just wish everyone else did.
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I’m not sure what you’re saying about Beto. His wife either runs a charter or is somehow involved with charters. Beto is not a friend to public schools. I will try to find some links and post here.
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What the “so-called” reformers are doing I call “child trafficking and racketeering.”
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Beto’s Wife runs a charter school. Read it on his Wikipedia page.
Beto’s excellent but unsuccessful run for the Senate lifted many Democrats running for the Legislature and other seats.
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Thanks for this information, Diane. Beto should be supporting Texas Public Schools and Public School Teachers.
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LG,
I will get to him.
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Beto’s wife: https://spectator.us/beto-orourkes-wife-billionaire/
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Good people do not let their friends read Forbes.
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Peter Greene writes for Forbes. And when a hostile article appears, you find out what the anti-teacher, anti-public school zealots are thinking
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The Forbes of the past is not the Forbes of today. BA , read about the changes in the magazine’s source content which have been reported and summarized in media.
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