In a post from 2019, Mercedes Schneider reviewed the spectacular career of a TFA “reformer” who became a star in Nevada, briefly disappeared, then resurfaced with a cushy job in the booming IDEA charter chain in Houston (Betsy DeVos’s favorite).
Alison Serafin flourished in Nevada when there was a Republican Governor. She was vice-president of the state board. She launched a start-up called Opportunity 180 to foster charter schools. She resigned from the state board in December 2015 since her Organization was seeking state funding. In April 2016 her Opportunity 180 won a $10 million grant to being high-performing charters to Nevada.
Opportunity 180 was supposed to create the Nevada Achievement School District, modeled on Tennessee’s failed program.
By 2017, Serafin resigned, and her name was scrubbed from the website of the organization she founded.
Not to worry. Now Serafin works for IDEA in Houston, which has big plans for expansion.
Reformers fail upwards.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“There are eight million stories in the Naked City….”
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🙂
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Charter schools have had so much bad publicity in the past two or three years fewer people are willing to entrust them with their children. Fewer victims are falling for the hype and spin, and the bad publicity, some of which is thanks to the hard work of NPE, is making families reluctant to sign on the dotted line. Profiteers like Sarafin, even though she clearly mismanaged funds in Nevada, get passed around like bad pennies in the alternate universe of privatization.
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From Urban dictionary
Serafin:
“That who pursuits and enjoys the destruction of the very science he is interested and employed in.
Person with a tendency to watch calamitous events in the first row, in particular if related to scientific or philosophical paradigm changes.”
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I hope we arrive at the day where people can see privatization for the scam it is, and we will stop sinking more and more money into a failed escapade.
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Opportunity 180
One eighty opportunitie$
Or maybe even more
To get the public’s cash, with ease
And haul it out the door
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“She was vice-president of the state board.”
Great! She actually launched and a ran a charter promoting org WHILE supposedly serving the public school students in that state?
Not that hard to figure out why public school students never seem to benefit when you hire ed reformers. They don’t serve them.
In between launching and funding charters and the huge voucher campaigns they run, does anyone have any time to perform some actual work on behalf of the majority of students who attend the public schools in that state? I’m guessing “no”.
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Meanwhile, in true ed reform fashion, the thousands of federal employees we’re paying continue to focus exclusively on promoting and marketing private schools while doing absolutely nothing for the 90% of students who attend the unfashionable public schools:
“U.S. Department of Education
The Park School developed a comprehensive safety plan, mandated masks, and organized students in small groups based on both academic and social-emotional needs.
Their goal: a smooth learning experience for students whether learning at school or remotely. ”
I know none of these folks attended public schools themselves and wouldn’t dream of sending their children to one, but they are aware public schools exist, correct?
Shame we can’t get anyone to do any work on behalf of 90% of students. Obviously a low priority.
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harshest reality: “that we are paying…”
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Here’s typical ed reform “discussion” inside the echo chamber:
https://www.the74million.org/
Every single story about public schools is negative and every single story about charter or private schools is positive.
This is what they bring to policy. The sad part is, they so dominate in elite circles they set policy for every public school student in the country. They don’t support our schools or students, didn’t and don’t attend our schools, yet our students are subjected to their faddish and gimmicky experiments.
What if the people who directed what happens in and to public schools actually supported and valued public schools and public school students? Would that go better or worse for our kids? I’m guessing “better”.
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I think so many reformers fail up is because there are not enough frauds, fascists, bullies, and liars out there for all the positions that are available in the charter school industry.
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Exactly right, Lloyd.
I often hear from young people looking for a job after college. I can’t think of any but if they want to destroy public schools there are many jobs at good wages. No experience needed.
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The only qualification is “willingness to sell your soul”
Sell your soul to Satan
Sell your soul to Satan
Sell it here today
Sell it for the hatin’
Sell it for the pay
Sell it for the limelight
Sell it for a song
Sell it cuz the time’s right
Might not last too long
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That’s right. Plus, so many of the corporate reformers are so indoctrinated with the gospel of St. Milton Friedman that they can only think of themselves as exemplars of virtue: the richer, the more virtuous. Not sure what it takes to get their attention or change their minds.
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