In an insightful article in the Washington City Paper, Rachel Cohen describes how the charter industry in the District of Columbia has organized campaigns to prevent any accountability, and has arranged that taxpayers fund their lobbying efforts, with the help of a few billionaires.
It takes money to persuade politicians to vote your way, and the charter industry has figured out how to get the public to foot the bill.
She writes:
Lobbyists mobilized quickly when they learned the D.C. Council would be proposing legislation to subject the city’s charter schools to freedom-of-information laws. The day before the bill was released in mid-March, charter leaders were armed with a list of talking points divided into two categories: “soft response” and “harder-edge messaging.”
The “soft response” included points like: “this bill cares more about paperwork than school performance” and “devoting schools’ resources to yet even more compliance will divert from more important student needs, such as mental health counseling.” The “harder-edge messaging” went further, charging the legislation with “bureaucracy-building and political playback masquerading as watchdogging.”
The legislation is intended to let parents, teachers, and journalists access more information about the schools’ internal operations, and it comes on the heels of a series of scandals that fomented public distrust. But the talking points encouraged charter advocates to tell their councilmembers that it’s insulting to suggest that the schools need additional oversight. “We resent the implication that the hundreds of community and parent volunteers who serve on charter schools’ boards are not putting students’ needs first,” the talking points read. “The real agenda that needs uncovering is the union strategy to force charter schools to behave exactly like the school district bureaucracy.”
This coordinated pushback didn’t come out of thin air. In fact, D.C. taxpayers might be surprised to learn they helped fund the lobbying themselves. Every year D.C. charter schools collectively funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars from their budgets to private organizations that then lobby government agencies against efforts to regulate the schools. Between 2011 and 2017, for example, local charters paid the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools, which calls itself “the collective voice of DC’s Chartered Public School Leaders,” more than $1.2 million in membership dues for its advocacy services, at a rate of $8 per student annually.
While most D.C. charters contribute to the Association, nearly all also pay $8 per student annually to a second group called Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, better known as FOCUS. Last year all but three charters kicked over FOCUS’ “voluntary student payments,” totaling more than $340,000…
For those who envision public-school politics as frazzled parents huddled in middle school gymnasiums, the world of D.C. charter advocacy might come as a strange sight. It’s a place where philanthropic money, revolving political doors, high-dollar galas, and a bevy of well heeled organizations have all been deployed to help charter schools shape their own regulations—or, more preferably, keep regulation away. Now, in the face of questions and community frustration, lawmakers are again under pressure to act. But if city leaders are going to bring newfound transparency to the charter world, they’re going to have to overcome a formidable influence machine with a long history of winning fights in D.C.
Cohen explains that the initial push for charter schools began with Newt Gingrich.
Many D.C. residents balked at Congress’ actions. When Clinton signed the School Reform Act into law in the spring of 1996, it was over the strong objection of D.C.’s non-voting Congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who protested Congress’ interference in the city’s local affairs.
Josephine Baker, board chair and executive director for the city’s charter authorizer, the DC Public Charter School Board, from 1996 through 2011, reflected on this process in her 2014 memoir: “The way [D.C. charters were established] left a terrible taste in the mouths of many life-long and civically engaged Washingtonians. It also represented a selling out of sorts to some community members who felt Republicans in Congress were acting as political imperialists.”
These misgivings over home rule did not stop charters from claiming legal independence, however. Professional advocates worked for years to convince the public and elected officials that D.C. lawmakers were legally unable to regulate their city’s charter sector if doing so conflicted in any way with the letter or spirit of Congress’ law. As Baker put it, “We used the charter law, deemed one of the best in the nation by the Center for Education Reform, as our shield.”
FOCUS, the charter advocacy group, has been the driving force behind these efforts. FOCUS was founded in 1996 by Malcolm Peabody, a Republican real estate developer who had strong political relationships in Congress and the local business community. A quarter-century earlier, Peabody helped pioneer the very idea of housing vouchers for low-income renters, when he served a stint under his brother, the governor of Massachusetts, and then later at HUD under President Richard Nixon. Peabody’s belief in vouchers for housing paved the way to supporting vouchers for schooling, but he understood the lack of political support for the concept in D.C., so limited FOCUS’ focus to charters.
FOCUS insisted that charters should not be regulated and that the District had no authority to hold them accountable.
FOCUS’ lobbying efforts were enhanced by millions contributed by the Walton Family Foundation. Other players included Democrats for Education Reform, Education Reform Now, and City Bridge. Money was plentiful, and the goal was to make sure that charters remained unregulated and unaccountable. Cohen is surprised that many of the charter lobbyists never bother to register as lobbyists. They operate in a zone where laws do not apply.
Advocates for public schools have been underfunded and lack the infrastructure of the charter lobby.
Now a new battle is brewing. D.C. charter schools are not subject to public records laws. They are not transparent and zealously defend their lack of transparency. They claim that transparency equals bureaucracy, and they need freedom from oversight.
Imagine if any public school made such a ridiculous claim!
This past spring, Education Reform Now, DFER-DC’s affiliate, funded a text-message campaign against the proposed transparency bill, using the same internal talking points endorsed by FOCUS and the Association. “The D.C Council is considering legislation that would divert resources in quality public charter schools away from helping students achieve to completing onerous paperwork and bureaucracy,” one text read. Another encouraged recipients to click on a link, which provided them with a pre-drafted email to send to their local representatives opposing the legislation. “I am writing to express disappointment in your recently introduced bill to unfairly target public charter schools,” the form email read. “Our kids need teachers and resources not more legal burdens.” DFER-DC did not answer City Paper’s inquiries regarding how many residents received the texts.
At the June hearing some charter leaders made similar points against additional oversight.
“I see this Council and others moving in a direction that troubles me, treating public charter schools as public agencies,” testified Shannon Hodge, the executive director of Kingsman Academy, a charter located in Ward 6. “We are not public agencies and we are not intended to be.”
Royston Lyttle, an Eagle Academy principal, agreed. “We don’t need more bureaucracy and red tape.”
Interesting that the executive director of Kingsman Academy insists that her charter is “not a public agency.” She is right.
Any organization that receives public funds should be subject to public oversight. Clearly the charters are private schools that use their powerful friends to get public money.
No oversight, no transparency, no public funding.
This was a really thorough article. What strikes me overall is how NARROW charter advocates are- they do absolutely nothing for public schools in these places. They all promote themselves as “agnostics” and say they support “good schools” but they don’t- not in any real or practical or useful way.
They really seem to have come to some internal and undisclosed consensus that public schools have no value and are not worth investing in- which public school parents should know! They should know this. It explains a lot of ed reform policy and practice. Certainly they should know this before hiring any of these people for positions in government.
It’s also interesting how the lobbyists directly contradict the idea that they are “public” when lobbying against transparency, oversight and regulation. They deny they are public. That is opposite to what national ed reform lobbyists claim when promoting privatization. They say one thing behind closed doors and tell the public another.
If the objective is to “wind down” existing public schools don’t the people who attend those schools have a right to know that? Isn’t that the least they could do? Especially when they’re in public positions and accepting public paychecks?
This is really a bait and switch tactic used by privatizers. The uninformed believe they are paying for public schools. What they are paying for is lobbying for privatization, This definition of “public education” is deceitful and intentionally misleading.
“FOCUS’ executive director thanked the school leader for their annual donation, which ensures “a strong, steady, and committed” voice “to preserve your autonomy, increase your funding and improve your access to facilities and government services.”
So here’s my two questions for ed reformers. If there is an “army” of advocates working to increase funding to charter schools and increase access to government services, why shouldn’t public school students also have advocates?
Why are our advocates smeared as “supporting the status quo” and yours hailed as heroes and given awards? Supporting and advocating on behalf of a public school is somehow forbidden?
Also- why are paid advocates for charter schools portrayed as benefiting charter school STUDENTS but paid advocates for public schools are NOT portrayed as benefiting public school STUDENTS? If advocacy benefits students it should benefit students in both public schools and the privatized sector, correct? How is a charter lobbying for more money somehow better and more pure than a public school lobbying for more money, other than ed reformers belief that they are somehow more ethical and upright than public school supporters and/or their ideological preference for private schools?
Why is advocacy on behalf of our schools sneeringly dismissed as supporting “buildings” but advocacy for your schools is lauded as helping students?
Do public school students not deserve actual advocates? They are somehow stuck with “agnostics” while private and charter students get committed cheerleaders? How is that fair to them?
“We were interested in vouchers before Congress passed the law, but when it became clear that charters were a better way to go, we shifted over,” he tells City Paper.
Yet the public is told over and over that these folks support “public education”. Come on. It’s just not true! Just go ahead and tell them the goal is a wholly voucherized system. It simply isn’t fair to public school families and students to just quietly decide to slowly eradicate their schools! That’s information they need prior to voting and making hiring decisions! The Movement doesn’t support the schools these kids ARE IN and we have seen the reality of that position play out in state after state and district after district. Public school students are an afterthought. The dead-last priority after ed reformers tick off every demand on their wish list. That’s essential information for the public. They simply don’t serve our students and there’s a very good reason for that- they hope to replace our schools.
Chiara, your comments are. wonderful. So smart. Essential information is UNKNOWN FOR DECADES.
Tomorrow, I am being interviewed for a podcast by Karen Horwitz, who wrote White Chalk Crime” which deals with the original hoax, when the propaganda machine demonized those. ‘bad, lazy, experienced (tenured) teachers, and the authentic teacher-practitioners were sent out the door. Now the schools would certainly fail, and the kids could be tested to prove the failure.
Hundreds of thousands of teachers across the 15,880 separate systems in 50 states were harassed out of their careers, and there was not a shred of accountability for the criminal behavior.
They took o ut NYC the largest system, and then went on to LA
the first assault that took out NYC teachers, and went on to fabricate charges and remove the most experienced teachers in LA. http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/LAUSD-OR-TARGETED-TEACHERS-in- Best_Web_OpEds- Deception_Evidence_Fired_Innocence-150720-360.html#comment555646
The ED DEFORMERS should be in JAIL for ALL of their crimes … and there are many.
Most of the vulgar-corrupt rich (the king of the vulger-corrupt rich is Donald Trump, a title he deserves not by how wealthy he really is but by how corrupt he is) made their money using other people’s money. Trump has done that all his life.
That helps explain why billionaires and multi-millionaires won’t even spend their own money to make even more money and have found ways to use public money to increase their wealth and power.
it’s up at OEN https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/District-of-Columbia-How-in-General_News-Accountability_Billionaires_Charter-School-Failure_Fundraising-190909-77.html#comment744139
with this comment:
There is a paucity of writers discussing education (what learning looks like and what is required), and nothing about the assault on public schools” which is easy to understand when you realize the power-elite that want an ignorant citizenry owns the media.
This wonderful article “Who should be writing about education and isn’t?” https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/09/03/who-should-be-writing-about-education-isnt/ looks at how elite media outlets address education. He points out that even in the New Yorker, where the 63% of the 38 articles about medicine were written by doctors, in the meager 17 articles about education; not a single one of them is written by a professional educator, nary a classroom teacher or educational researcher among the authors… ” this disparity in authorship, this absence of people closest to the remarkable act of educating, has come to represent a much bigger issue having to do with the place of education in our society.
If you want to know what is happening, you should subscribe to Diane’s daily posts, which nail the war on education in America and the world! This link, will take you to all the articles on charter fraud, at the blog of Diane Ravitch former ass’t Secretary of Education
This link is to the posts where legislatures are replacing local school boards, with not an educator on board. https://dianeravitch.net/?s=Legislatures
If you wish to be informed about what is going on in the 15,880 systems in 50 states– the real, hidden assault on education”.get em young and keep ’em dumb so you can re-write history, and create ‘alternative facts’ in this post-truth world. And enrich the corporations that push privatizations (this link is to my series) at OpED News!! https://www.opednews.com/Series/PRIVITIZATION-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150925-546.html?f=PRIVITIZATION-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150925-546.html
Thank you Guru Master Lloyd Lofthouse for the best example to show that all GREEDY + CUNNING crooked KINGS OF RICH HAVE DONE :
“…found ways to use public money to increase their wealth and power.”
However all the GULLIBLE middle class ADMIRES and supports plus volunteers to be their advocates or followers blindly, WHY???
Probably, SOME of crooked high academy enable all crooked KINGS of RICH for fake fame and real fortune in life, for example: the high education institute from (?) where created so many PhDs in Education to hold title of superintendent and chancellor like a well-known (?) in DC and in LA (+ City Sacramento). …May
Me a guru master!?! Irony or Sarcasm, who cares. I still laughed.
LOL
It’s always good to laugh in the morning. That helps set the tone for the rest of the day.
Hmm, when the sun is shining and life looks good, get ready for a storm to darken the sky and the earth beneath our feet to quake.
You asked, “However all the GULLIBLE middle class ADMIRES and supports plus volunteers to be their advocates or followers blindly, WHY???”
Their brains have been hacked.
Hi Guru Master Lloyd Lofthouse:
Thank you for your sincerity to show me this video about brain that is hacked. But this video is not available in Canada as it apologized on the screen,
I am glad that you had a modest laugh. I really admire your bravery to conquer your nature eyesight in reading at young age, Mostly, I truly love your answer to those bad and bully students when you were a new teacher about your challenging of their threat to fight you physically after school.
To be honest with you, body, mind and spirit are needed to be sharpened. I admire this strength, but I stay from whoever has no compassion in humanity. To me, since I was at the young age, fame and fortune never affect my soul.
People can praise or insult me, this cannot influence my emotion after I had the second stroke. I truly call all people Guru Master when this title suits their personality more than their academic certification paper.
Sincerely yours,
May
Maybe this written piece will help explain how minds can be hacked by our phones and other devices linked to the internet.
“Technology steers what 2 billion people are thinking and believing every day. It’s possibly the largest source of influence over 2 billion people’s thoughts that has ever been created.”
https://www.wired.com/story/our-minds-have-been-hijacked-by-our-phones-tristan-harris-wants-to-rescue-them/
Since Faux (Fox) News is a cable network and many people watch Faux through their smartphones, tablets, et al, Faux uses the same methods to hack the minds that now support some corrupted freak like Donald Trump