In Rhode Island, Governor Gina Raimondo is Charter-mad. This makes sense since she used to be a hedge fund manager and most HFMs are Charter zealots.
What was not so well known is that Jonathan Sackler has contributed large sums to support more charters in RI and to help Raimondo’s political career.
Sackler’s billions are derived from the marketing and sale of opioids, which have killed more than 200,000 people.
The Massachusetts Attorney General is suing the Sackler Family, not just Purdue Pharmaceuticals.
Raimondo won’t return the bloody Sackler money.
“A GoLocal review of federal tax documents has found that Jonathan Sackler — who is now being personally sued by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Suffolk County New York for his role in the illegal marketing of opioids which is tied to the deaths of tens of thousands overdoses — has funneled millions of dollars to charter school company Achievement First. The company runs three schools in Rhode Island.
“As GoLocal has previously reported, Jonathan Sackler and his wife Mary Corson are significant donors to Governor Gina Raimondo and the Governor has repeatedly refused to donate or return the donations.
“Sackler has served as a board member for years for Achievement First, but disappeared from the list of Board member in mid-2018 — about the time that hundreds of lawsuits were filed by states and municipalities against Sackler’s company Purdue Pharma. Purdue Pharma is controlled by the Sacklers and Jonathan has served on the Purdue board for years. The State of Rhode Island and a number of municipalities have filed suit against Sackler’s company Purdue — and other firms.”
Is it “for the kids”?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Governor Gina Raimondo”
Ugh. She’s the worst. She also volunteered every public school student in the state to be guinea pigs for ed tech companies. At least Maine had the good sense to reverse that disaster. She’s too arrogant to admit it’s a disaster.
Can you say “captured by lobbyists”? There is no gimmick or fad she won’t sign on to. She sees public school students as a “market” – it’s appalling. She’s no different than the idiots who put pop machines in public schools 2 decades ago. She’s selling them cheap garbage.
In Ohio, public schools actually bore the brunt of the opioids crisis. Ed reformers were busy putting in the Common Core tests, blissfully unaware that public schools were dealing with this public health crisis that was dumped in their laps by cowardly, bought-off politicians who refused to admit it was happening.
They don’t know anything about our schools or our communities or our students, yet they’re all professional public school critics.
No practical use to anyone.
ALWAYS they seem to admit reality only years and years after it exists…
“They don’t know anything about our schools or our communities or our students, yet they’re all professional public school critics.”
And people who actually do know a thing or two about education have zero influence. What’s wrong with this picture?
great article and I spread it all over…people in RI need to read this. Thank you. I hope you survived the snow storm. Some parts of RI got as much as 16 inches-Prov got 12 and over 6000 people lost power! I thank the good Lord that I don’t have to deal with snow, shoveling, bad roads not plowed and cold temps, anymore. In fact I kept my ice scraper to remind me of those days and to be grateful I won;t ever have to use it again! But I had to say thank you for writing this… jo ann
On Mon, Mar 4, 2019 at 10:01 AM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” In Rhode Island, Governor Gina Raimondo is > Charter-mad. This makes sense since she used to be a hedge fund manager and > most HFMs are Charter zealots. What was not so well known is that Jonathan > Sackler has contributed large sums to support mo” >
Gina also screwed pensioners for the benefit of hedge funds (reporter Matt Taibbi, “Looting the Pensions”. Rolling Stone.
Reportedly, Cory Booker got campaign money from Jonathan Sackler in 2013. Gina probably introduced them.
School privatizer, Sen. Michael Bennett (Colorado) was also a favorite politician of Jonathan Sackler. I hope they all go down with the Sacklers.
In 2014, Diane wrote at The Nation, “The Secret of Eva Moscowitz’ Success”. The article includes mention of Jonathan Sackler’s daughter, Madelaine. Her movie lent to the hype surrounding Success Academies.
Reuters reports that they’re considering other legal shenanigans to avoid accountability:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-purduepharma-bankruptcy-exclusive-idUSKCN1QL1KL
One of the funniest legal maneuverings is Robert Kraft’s.
The faces of school privatization and corporatization- the Sackler family, Harvard’s Roland Fryer and the NFL’s Robert Kraft.