Bob Braun was an investigative reporter for the New Jersey Star Ledger for many years. After he retired, he began blogging and is a reliable source for exposes of the inner workings of the state and the city of Newark.
Braun tells the story of the Newark public schools, with accounts of back-scratching, lavish contracts that produced nothing, well-paid consultants and a revolving door of officials. You will encounter familiar names. Chris Christie. Cami Anderson. Chris Cerf. Michelle Rhee. TNTP (The New Teacher Project.) It feels like a rerun of a very bad movie, the one where the bad guys take the money and run and they don’t get caught.
Lots of money for everyone.
And what about the children? Oh.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Where does Corey Booker’s act play out here? His hijack of the African- American community’s concern about educational equity needs some discussion here. Posing as a liberator and operating as an educational 5th columnist is his MO
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The TFA connection is, frankly, remarkable. They are connected to every single echo chamber org and initiative.
I don’t think it was ever about creating teachers. I think it’s an organization dedicated to producing ed reform MANAGERS who have a specific, narrow view.
It’s a federally-funded management training program to keep the echo chamber staffed with like-minded individuals. I think public schools should give some serious thought to hiring some consultants who don’t come out of this pipeline. They’ll have to search for them- all of the high profile elite ranks are ed reformers. Maybe develop a pipeline of their own? Managers and consultants who value their schools and seek to improve them?
I feel as if public schools don’t effectively advocate on their own behalf. Eva Moskowitz would never pay a consultant who spends a good part of their career attacking charter schools. Why do we?
We’re buying ed tech product from people who choose Jeb Bush as their keynote speaker? Jeb Bush, who has made a political career out of denigrating public schools, teachers, and students? So we’re actually FUNDING attacks on our schools? It’s nuts, and charters would never do it.
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“I feel as if public schools don’t effectively advocate on their own behalf.” Public education is designed to be a public service. There is no mechanism or money for advertising or self promotion. Public education was never intended to be in a marketplace. Unions lobby for public schools, but they have small budgets compared to the billionaires. What has caused the most people to understand the crisis in public education are the teacher strikes in states and cities. The walk-outs have brought the crisis out into the open.
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I’m not talking about marketing. I’m talking about having enough confidence in their own abilities that they don’t end up paying “consultants” who appear to be bent on promoting a charter school chain or ed tech product.
Say “no”. There’s no obligation to adopt every dumb ed reform gimmick or fad that comes down the pike.
When the Obama Administration tells you you have to sign a “contract” vowing to purchase ed tech product tell them to go jump in a lake and find advisers who have some interest in and experience with PUBLIC schools.
We have a track record on ed reformers now. Have they benefited public school students? No? Then hire someone else.
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Unfortunately, there are too many administrators that jump on whatever bandwagon comes their way like “personalized learning” or “test and punish.” Many of them will yield to pressure from above, and “reform” is a top down imposition.
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SO MUCH like the Broad Academy game: “I think it’s an organization dedicated to producing ed reform MANAGERS who have a specific, narrow view.”
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Individuals after TFA, land in management with charter school investment funds.
Similarly, Arne Duncan’s chief of staff landed at an investment firm, in the education shop.
It’s the equivalent of the congressional revolving door where people without scruples promote the interests of an industry while in office and, then go pick up paychecks from them.
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Our public school district once hired a “consultant” who spent the entire (community) presentation promoting High Tech High:
“High Tech High is a San Diego, California-based school-development organization that includes a network of charter schools, a teacher certification program, and a graduate school of education”
Why are we hiring these people? There’s literally no one who supports, understands, has some experience in PUBLIC schools we could possibly hire? What about just hiring someone who runs a strong/successful public school in Ohio? Wouldn’t that be more relevant to our communities, given that we’re there to talk about strengthening existing public schools rather than replacing them all with a national charter chain?
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“Charlatans profiting off the monetized starvation and exploitation of urban schools…a traitorous lot” (Dr. Keith Benson, “To the Black Education Reform Establishment: Be Real with Who You Are and Who’s Interest You Serve”.
The open letter is a must read for all who oppose an American oligarchy operating like Putin’s in Russia.
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“But when the Georges sought an independent review of Evan’s suspension, they found they had nowhere to turn.
Arizona’s charter schools are primarily run by private companies. They must have a governing board, but school owners get to pick who’s on the board, so many are stocked with relatives, friends and even the charter’s owner. In some instances, boards have just one member — the charter operator.”
Can you blame them for thinking they would get some process? They are told over and over these are “public schools”.
When local media write about charter school problems in Ohio no one has a name. They refer to “the authorizer”, which is an entity. “A spokeperson for the authorizer” said…
Maybe the Arizona parents should petition “the authorizer” for a hearing on why their son was expelled- good luck with that.
https://www.azcentral.com/in-depth/news/local/arizona-investigations/2019/03/05/arizona-charter-schools-parents-complaints-objections-find-nowhere-turn-american-leadership-academy/2871812002/
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Close look at many public schools will reveal they exist to meet the needs of the adults who run them first like administrators, district leaders, union heads, then come the teachers, then the crony vendors and consultants who loot public school budgets, and after all these grownups have taken their shares, the children come last. Affluent families in property-rich districts know this is how schools operate so they strenuously advocate and lobby for their own children in these places to compel some child-centered distribution of resources. This is what a centralized mass education system divided by class and race leads to for the majority of students who are not affluent, whose parents are not effective advocates for children.
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Great points. That is why local control is so important. I worked in a smaller district where the students were always the priority. Parents were advocates for students, and they served on decision making committees. Bigger systems, particularly if run by corporations, provide more opportunities for waste and fraud. Privatization is definitely targeting poor, minority students under the guise of improved education.
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Everything is local… grassroots is the only way these days. Local school boards are being co-opted by the legislatures, where the lobbyists of those in power rob the system. Grand theft is what we are seeing.
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Exactly!
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Another of the posts that I add to my file LOT: Loss Of Trust. The rule of law is being demolished in every domain, every business, as the US is being plundered by the power elite.
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AND, NO thanks to the DFERS. And now there’s “grit.” Good gawd. Who makes this stuff up?
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Here’s Biden’s promotion of Arne’s book, How Schools Work. Sickening.
“This book merits every American’s serious consideration” (Vice President Joe Biden): from the Secretary of Education under President Obama, an exposé of the status quo that helps maintain a broken system at the expense of our kids’ education, and threatens our nation’s future.”
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Now that’s a reason not to vote for Biden. My hunch is that he never looked at Arne’s Book. But if he agrees with Arne, that’s a bad sign and shows how little he knows about education.
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Joe Biden’s brother runs a chain of for-profit charter schools. https://www.phillymag.com/news/2012/01/27/vice-presidents-brother-sports-bars-school-vouchers-dwyane-wade/
Another reason not to vote for Biden was his backing of the 2005 bankruptcy bill, backed by big banks & the credit card industry. THe bill made it harder to declare bankruptcy and made bankruptcy impossble for student loan debt.
https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/24/434331154/the-biggest-divide-between-joe-biden-and-elizabeth-warren
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I don’t blame people for what their siblings do. I’m from a large family and I can’t be responsible for my brothers and sisters’ actions and views. But I do blame him for praising Arne Duncan, who is aligned with Jeb Bush and others of his ilk.
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There’s a submission form at the Democratic Governors Association website. We should all tell DGA that we vote for candidates who oppose school privatization and corporatization.
Presumably the DGA chair, R.I. Gov. Gina Raimondo, is promoting her hedge fund and tech monopolists- supporting friend, Cory Booker.
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