Charter zealots are running for board of education seats throughout the nation: Ohio is vulnerable
The
warning issued by the Cincinnati Education Justice Coalition should attract the attention of all traditional public school advocates.
The charter industry is immersed in cash from the federal government, philanthropists, billionaire charter-friendly folks and, of course, funds siphoned from school districts. The charter establishment uses a toolkit full of strategies to expand its footprint in American education such as:
· State takeover tactics
· Portfolio school districts
· Teach for America alliances
· Political campaign contributions that overflow politicians’ coffers
Packing school boards with charter activists is a winner-take-all tactic they also use.
Ohio is not immune from any of the charter-promoting tactics. In fact, Ohio’s loosey-goosey regulations for the charter industry attract entrepreneurial opportunists and a variety of non-educators to the charter world.
Some school districts have already been taken over by charter-addicted board members who are bent on privatizing the public common school.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When a country has FASCISTs in charge, those in power always “USE” schools and our young to their OWN ends of $$$$$ and power over others … case in point, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China, Putin’s Russia, Govt. schools for Native Americans, schools for those Japanese-Americans who were INTERNED,
https://www.rbth.com/education/330304-education-in-russia
https://www.thedailybeast.com/communism-and-fascism-the-reason-they-are-so-similar
LikeLike
Sadly, some of the corruption in the charter sector is rubbing off on ethically challenged public school administrators. Some are getting kickbacks that encourage them to adopt a particular platform or program. Sometimes the kickbacks allow the company to make more purchases without approval from the district. Corruption and brainwashing are becoming a problem. https://progressive.org/public-school-shakedown/investigations-corruption-school-leadership-byrant-191105/
LikeLike
Thank you, retired teacher. YES … “Corruption and brainwashing are becoming a problem.”
That is one of many reasons for the “Common GORE and relentless testing.”
When kids are being “COMMON GORED” and “TESTED ad nauseam,” there is not much room for TRUE LEARNING and THINKING DEEPLY. Not only is the SCRIPT given to teachers, but also the materials.
SICK.
LikeLike
Hi Diane, this is a bit off topic, but if you don’t already know Eva Moskowitz was a guest of Stephanie Ruhle’s yesterday on MSNBC to discuss the NAEP results. I thought it was a very soft ball interview and Eva as usual said the problem was how public schools were teaching, not poverty or underfunded schools. She said with great confidence that the US spends more on education than any other country in the world. At the end of the interview Ruhle congratulated Moskowitz on her huge success as an educator. It’s this type of media coverage that caused me to distrust the mainstream media narrative and get my facts from blogs like this one.
LikeLike
Eva should not say that funding doesn’t matter as she has a very very well-funded organization. In addition to state, federal and local funding, she collects many millions from Wall Street and a horde of billionaire financiers. She bought a very expensive building in one of the priciest neighborhoods in Manhattan, moved in one of her schools, and charges rent to the city. The city pays her rent for space she owns for her own school.
LikeLiked by 1 person
OMG …
Thanks for this information, Diane.
Eva has NO SHAME.
LikeLike
Some details on Cincinnati Ohio elections.
Ben Lindy won a seat on the Cincinnati School Board. Lindy is CEO of Teach for America (TFA) in Southwestern Ohio. He will NOT step down as regional CEO of Teach for America (TFA) in Southwestern Ohio. He has at least one conflict of interest of course, because Cincinnati Public Schools has been co-opted into sending about $100,000 to Lindy’s operation to hire TFA’s.
Lindy got 20% of the vote. Local editorials supported Lindy and attacked the teacher union for not endorsing Lindy. Lindy also raised MORE money than all the other candidates, a whopping $165,398, all for a seat whose pay is capped at $5,000 annually.
TFA executives and staff in 21 states and 26 cities outside of Ohio contributed to his campaign. About $13,000, came from Leadership for Educational Equity or LEE. LEE trains and supports TFA alums (like Lindy) who run for local, state, and national public office. In these positions, they launch unjustified criticisms of public schools, teacher unions, and elected school boards. They aggrandize test scores and they market computers as if these devices offered more “personalized” learning than human teachers.
Lindy was also supported by funders of Accelerate Great Schools. Accelerate Great Schools is the local version of the “Education Cities” effort to put more districts into a portfolio model, managed like stocks in a portfolio. You add, keep, or close schools based on their outcomes, meaning the test scores of students (and other measures in Ohio’s Report Cards where schools are graded, A-F). The Accelerate Great Schools coalition includes: • Cincinnati Business Committee, • Cincinnati Regional Business Committee, • Farmer Family Foundation (wealth from Cintas services), • Haile U.S. Bank Foundation, • KnowledgeWorks Foundation (promoter of computers to replace teachers), and • Archdiocese of Cincinnati. https://www.accelerategreatschools.org/who-we-are/^
Accelerate Great Schools hopes to call the shots if they can get enough people on the school board who approve of TFA temps, the charter school test-em-til-they-drop philosophy, and a portfolio model of privately-managed schools. Lindy and local reporters did not report this factoid: Ben Lindy’s wife, Paige Elisha Lindy, is the Chief of Staff and Operations at Accelerate Great Schools. It is not surprising that Arthur Rock, founder of Intel, worth $340 million, contributed to $4000 to Lindy’s campaign or that KnowledgeWorks, promoter of computer- centric education is in the orbit of the Accelerator. https://www.followthemoney.org/entity-details?eid=37970366
This will not stop the the Cincinnati Education Justice Coalition, advocates for traditional public schools, from calling out the many efforts to undermine public education and deprofessionalize the work of teachers.
LikeLike
Where were the signatures from the ed dept. at the University of Cincinnati on the public letter that Diane published a few weeks ago? Miami University administrators and faculty were represented.
LikeLike
Bellwether has a new site, RuralCharterSchools.org.
The founder/co-founder of Bellwether identified the goal of charters, “…brands on a large scale.” (Philanthropy Roundtable)
LikeLike