A reporter in Dallas wants to know why social impact bonds are a bad idea. Or if they are a good idea.

Please write him.

Categories Education Reform

18 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

Laura H. Chapman says:

January 31, 2019 at 5:24 pm

I did research on the journalist. The journalist has a credible history. not that you would refer anoyone to a hack. https://www.brettshippmedia.com/about-me/ ,

I suggest he and anyone else start here. https://www.pay-for-success-and-the-human-value-chain.

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- Linda says:
  
  January 31, 2019 at 11:13 pm
  
  Laura
  Your comment at SSIR about DIB’s -well done.
  
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- bethree5 says:
  
  February 1, 2019 at 7:36 am
  
  Laura, link didn’t work for me, I think this is it:
  
  Pay for Success and the Human Value Chain
  
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m4potw says:

January 31, 2019 at 7:39 pm

Thank you Dr. Laura H. Chapman, for your provided link about the link:

https://www.brettshippmedia.com/about-me/

His journalist career is very impressive. I hope that Dr. Ravitch, NPE, veteran teacher Susan Schwartz and “wrong accused teachers in LA should contact the best investigator, Mr. Brett Shipp in order to have the best result.

Respectfully yours,

May King

Here is a snap hot about him for anyone who is interested in his WINNING work.

BRETT@BRETTSHIPPMEDIA.COM

INVESTIGATE:

For 25 years I have been recognized as one the top investigative reporters in the country. My job and my journalistic duty has been to help citizens and businesses get justice, equity, publicity and in some cases, revenge. My specialty is digging, researching, compiling and digesting information, oftentimes complex in nature.
The result of my many investigations has ranged from public apologies to reformation of laws to criminal convictions and incarcerations. Want to avoid costly litigation or need someone to dig and help expose the truth? That’s what I did daily for 25 years in North Texas. Before that I covered politics in Oklahoma where one of my investigations led to the indictment of a sitting Governor. Now I’m ready to go to work for you and help you get justice, get your story told and most importantly, WIN.

ADVOCATE:

Over the course of my 35-year journalism career I have frequently been accused of siding with victims, some calling my stories one-sided. But those doing the complaining were generally in the businesses of gaming the system or government officials who were callously misapplying the law. In short, I have been accused of being an advocate and not a reporter. My response? Damn right. In fact, put that on my tombstone. With the decline in investigative reporting in this country, there are fewer public advocates. That’s where I come in. Who better to have on your side when you’re under attack, in a fight or feel the deck is stacked against you? At City Hall. At the State Capitol. In the courthouse or in the court of public opinion. Let me be your advocate, your defender and help you get justice or your story told.

COMMUNICATE:

Clear. Concise. Compelling. Engaging. Market the message. Sell the sizzle. Have a story, a client or a candidate who needs a boost? Need an idea sold? Don’t have the connections or a powerful voice to amplify your position or product? Let Brett Shipp Media be that marketing vehicle. I have access to all of the major local and national news outlets and a network of influential allies to make sure that your voice is heard. I’ve been covering news in North Texas for 25 years and have keys to the halls of power.

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bethree5 says:

January 31, 2019 at 8:51 pm

Wrench In the Gears blog has just completed a six-part research series whose subtext throughout is social impact investing. Part 6 is here, & has links to the previous 5 entries:

Stanley Druckenmiller and Paul Tudor Jones: The Billionaire Networks Behind Harlem’s Human Capital Lab

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  January 31, 2019 at 11:24 pm
  
  I sent him another link to Wrench in the Gears on social impact bonds
  
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  - Laura H. Chapman says:
    
    February 1, 2019 at 1:31 pm
    
    I figured there was something going on in Texas, and sure enough, the SIBs are being proposed in the legislature to take a school subject–in this case math–and offer investors state money if they develop and instructional delivery sysrem that will improved the math scores of Texas students because (you know) the fate of the Texas economy depends on something related to that. I confess: I did not listern to the whole rationale nor take a look at the legislation itself. I am reasonably confident that this may be the reason Brett wanted more information.
  - ciedie aech says:
    
    February 1, 2019 at 1:35 pm
    
    Excellent source
GregB says:

January 31, 2019 at 9:50 pm

I hate it when my narrow prejudices about Texas are shattered. I respect them, but still hate them. I too have my bigotries.

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joe prichard says:

February 1, 2019 at 9:24 am

Some of the most up to date information about what we need to learn from presidential candidates in the often hard to be taken seriously issues of public education…”The Battle for New Orleans Public Schools” January 24, 2019, by Zoe Sullivan. Co-ordinated outside assaults on public school board elections are sophisticated, down to key words most likely to inspire emotional reactions. It is not a source of support for democracy…it adds up to a way of finessing the problems presented by genuine democracy reflecting support from the public. New Orleans after Katrina has long been a source of misleading, to the point of inaccuracy propaganda on behalf of privatization efforts. Sarah Reckhow is a significant source used by Zoe Sullivan. Google her on Scholars Strategy Network…access to more than 20 articles, with extraordinary levels of expertise.

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Hathaway Ferebee says:

February 1, 2019 at 12:30 pm

Vote: NAY to Social Impact Bonds. YEA to Opportunity Compacts
The Social Impact Bond (SIB) is a big money game with players – such as Goldman Sachs — whose slick advertising teams market their investments as “donations” and with whom elected officials are eager to curry favor. SIBs present their investors as charitable donors and innovators when, in reality, they are creating new lucrative ‘bond’ markets at the expense of marginalized citizens and local governments already unable to provide basic public services.

Opportunity Compact (as implemented in Baltimore Maryland) is a racial equity and equal opportunity financing instrument that produces better outcomes for the same people in failing systems and a fraction of the cost. The Compact is seeded with a grant — not a loan that the government must pay back with interest –if the goals (with a very low bar for SIB) are met.

With the vast majority of public dollars for human development locked into custodial, high cost, ineffective systems (foster care, juvenile detention, juvenile incarceration, jails and prisons) there is simply no political will to raise enough new public dollars to alleviate the harm caused by these programs or diminish their influence in keeping select Baltimore City neighborhoods poor, violent and without employment opportunities.

The Compact goes far beyond testing a social service or demonstrating ways government can operate more effectively. Whereas a Social Impact Bond is accountable to performance goals that produce a return for the outside investor; the Compact is accountable to three outcomes: 1) a better result; 2) less public cost; and
3) reallocation of a portion of the savings to sustain the intervention and fund opportunities to strengthen families and communities.

Compacts financed programs are fully funded with the public savings their programs and participants produce.

Any determined, thinking person can create an Opportunity Compact. Foundations are eager to provide the seed grant — if the program works — the state picks up the funding; if it doesn’t then it stops operating. The Opportunity Compact is the only answer to Foundation’s boilerplate question: What will you do after our grant runs out.

contact me to start an Opportunity Compact where you live. – no charge. HFerebee@safeandsoundcampaign.org. or text 410.812.0247

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Laura H. Chapman says:

February 1, 2019 at 1:53 pm

In my imagination, I can see every “school subject” offered up as a SIB for investors, and the subjects set up to compete for investors.
The sellers of SIBs (they are financial products) will rush to capture the market for preferred outcome-based school subjects and/or career-prep programs.

Readers should understand that SIBs are “hot” as a new way to market the idea that private control of almost everything is better and produces better outcomes than anything govment-run. You all should get on board the train with Charles and Chase Koch and the ghost of Milton Friedman with a little help from Marguerite Roza at the Edunomics Lab and her associates at Georgetown University, on the web at:
http://edunomicslab.org/

And it is time for me to get out of here.

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- retired teacher says:
  
  February 1, 2019 at 2:35 pm
  
  One criticism of social impact bonds is that they do their own evaluation. There is no way of knowing if the evaluation is legitimate or a form of gaming the system. Would anyone in his right mind trust Goldman Sachs to do an unbiased evaluation after 2008? Evaluation should have to be by an independent agent.
  
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  - Laura H. Chapman says:
    
    February 1, 2019 at 6:32 pm
    
    I believe the “intermediaries” are hired to create the illusion of no conflict of interest. The evaluator is supposed to be one of the “intermediaries,” along with various accountants, lawyers an middle-persons.
dienne77 says:

February 1, 2019 at 7:11 pm

Broken record alert: Wrench in the Gears has just about covered everything there is to know about social impact bonds. Everyone should make her blog a regular stop.

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- dianeravitch says:
  
  February 2, 2019 at 12:08 am
  
  I wrote to ask her to contact the Dallas jourtbalist
  
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m4potw says:

February 3, 2019 at 10:15 pm

m4potw
February 2, 2019 at 3:25 am

To whom may be interested in SIB (Social Impact Bond) as if they are intermediate seller or a naive investor:

First of all, I appreciate the link provided by bethree5. Here it is:

Stanley Druckenmiller and Paul Tudor Jones: The Billionaire Networks Behind Harlem’s Human Capital Lab

All that I can recall in this link as follows:

1) Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) are a mechanism by which to “”shift financial risk”” from service providers to investors

2) Social Finance therefore specifies that the investment is from non-government bodies, whereas the Young Foundation envisages that “”public bodies”” could be potential investors.

3) Pay for Success projects that provide employment services to formerly-incarcerated individuals in order to increase employment and reduce “”recidivism””.[53]

re•cid•i•vism (rĭ-sĭd′ə-vĭz′əm) n.
The repeating of or returning to criminal behavior by the same offender or type of
offender

4) Katrina Stevens, former senior advisor on ed-tech to the US Department of Education and now head of Learning Sciences for Chan Zuckerberg, consulted on both projects.

In 2017, Weinstein left Robin Hood Foundation to head a new consultancy to match “smart givers” with “high impact” non-profits. The organization, ImpactMatters, has a small board with an interesting range of experience. Paul Brest is one of these board members. A long-time professor of law at Stanford, Brest took on the role of Co-Director of Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, an incubator for “”impact investing”” and digital innovation, late in his career. He currently teaches courses in the business school on “”strategic philanthropy”” and “”impact investing””. There are also connections between Brest and the pay for success initiatives in Santa Clara County. Brest co-taught a law school practicum on structuring social impact deals with Keith Humphreys that focused the Partners in Wellness SIB model.

Would you, as being smart and money makers like top notch LAWYER, CONSULTANT for government and 1% the rich corporate, create new regulation and innovative program and want to lose money in billions of dollars or want to LOOT public tax payer fund AFTER SHIFTING “”financial risk”” from service providers (=INTERMEDIATE SELLERS) to investors (= NAIVE INVESTORS)???

I hope that all teachers will have time to digest and to be smart up to learn all TRICKS from corrupted CORPORATE regarding their SLOGAN, such as: “”to match “smart givers” with “high impact” non-profits”” or the sound from corporate organization, such as: “”The “”ImpactMatters”” has a small board with an “”interesting range of experience.”” IN OTHER WORDS, The Master Mind is getting a win-win position, the gullible PUBLIC investors and the public tax payers fund is getting burned down to the ground for life. OUCH!!!

In short, all MASTERED MIND lawyers, ULTRA RICH corporate, all consultants for both Investment Corporation and US Department of Education, THEY CORRUPT by drafting the law, promoting INNOVATIVE PROGRAM in order to LOOT TAX PAYER FUND and to MISLEAD NAIVE PUBLIC through made-believe front line corporate philanthropy who will have TAX DEDUCTIBLE (= NO LOSS TO THEM IN THE END, BUT LOOTING TAX PAYERS FUND). Sigh! That is how it works for “”THE U.S. Department of Labor awarded nearly $24 million in grants for Pay for Success projects.”” Back2basic

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Roxana Marachi, Ph.D says:

February 7, 2019 at 1:09 am

The following page includes a collection of posts with critical perspectives on “Social Impact Bonds,” Pay for Success programs, and related topics
http://bit.ly/sibgamble

Be sure to also check out Kenneth Saltman’s new book:
“The Swindle of Innovative Educational Finance”
https://manifold.umn.edu/read/untitled-85740014-9b15-46f2-be8c-5d261d587877/section/41eb7da5-10e1-4768-83d8-586e038591d6

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