Tom Ultican, retired teacher in California, is a dogged researcher of school privatization. He recently examined the origins of the Oakland Public Education Fund” and found that much of its funding comes from Dark Money.
It’s worthwhile to remember that the public schools of Oakland, California, have been a Petri dish for privatizers and corporate reformers for years. Billionaire philanthropists took control of the district and named its superintendents. The charter sector mushroomed. Superintendents came and went, each one hailed as a savior.
Read Tom’s analysis of the Dark Money pursuing privatization in Oakland while posing as avid supporters of public schools.
He writes:
Recently the Oakland Public Education Fund (OPEF) posted, “OUSD Board of Education Renews Long-standing Partnership with The Ed Fund.” OUSD is the Oakland Unified School District and “The Ed Fund” is the latest of many names used to identify OPEF. A quick look at OPEF’s tax forms (TIN: 43-2014630) reveals that they have assets of about $25 million and a yearly income of more than $15 million. The question becomes who is this wealthy group and do their purposes include something more than just good education?
OPEF, formed in 2003 and was originally called “Oakland Autonomous Small Schools Foundation Inc.” EdWeek reported that in 2000 and 2003 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided two grants totaling more than $25 million some of which was designated for small school incubators. It seems likely some of this money was used as seed money to establish OPEF.
The founding executive director of OPEF was Jonathan Klein, a 1997 Yale graduate who became a Teach for America (TFA) fifth grade teacher in the Compton Unified School District. After coming to Oakland in addition to founding OPEF, he went on to become CEO of GO Public Schools, became Bay Area executive director of TFA and chief program officer at the T. Gary and Kathleen Rogers Foundation. In 2013, he was named Change Agent of the year by New Schools Venture Fund. In other words, he is an education profiteer closely associated with enemies of public schools.
According to the OPEF web-page, the organization relaunched as the Oakland Schools Foundation in 2012 and then relaunched again in 2014 as the Oakland Public Education Fund. Today they refer to themselves as the “The Ed Fund.” In 2016, they put in motion a corporate partnership with Salesforce which provided $2.5 million for middle school computer science and math. This raises concerns that “The Ed Fund” is inappropriately employing wealth to drive public school curriculum using other than democratic means.
Billionaires Finance OPEF
A change in the way data was reported appeared in the OPEF tax forms for 2024. Previously, their reporting on the contributor’s page simply stated “RESTRICTED.” The new report still hides the contributor’s names but provides the amounts given by seven individuals.
In addition to the contributors not listed above, the T. Gary and Kathleen Rogers Foundation have granted OPEF a total of $785,833 (IN: 65-1202020), the East Bay Community Foundation contributed $557,760 (IN: 94-6070996) and the Silicon Valley Community Fund provided a whopping $8,349,085 (IN: 20-5205488). The Silicon Valley Community Fund is a dark money site where extremely wealthy people can provide money without their name being attached. It is worth noting that the T. Gary and Kathleen Rogers Foundation has granted the East Bay Community Foundation $6,165,000 since its founding in 2003.
Since 2014, OPEF has averaged giving more than $5 million a year to the Oakland Unified School District for a total of $51,885,477. However, their other spending undermines public education and promotes privatization. Educate78 has received significant support from both the Hastings Fund and the City Fund, known enemies of the public school system. GO Public Schools has been a consistent advocate for expanding the charter school movement. TFA has foisted unqualified teachers with 5 weeks of training on classrooms throughout America. The New Teachers Center is a Bill Gates developed center in Santa Cruz.
Anyone working in a public school knows that charter schools directly compete with and undermine public schools.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Utican writes, “OPEF is a billionaire funded-organization that is exerting undo control on Oakland public schools. Some of their spending is laudable like their generous giving to OUSD. However, so much money in the control of a few not well-known individuals undermines the democratic process.”
I would also add that these foundations are often a tax write-off scheme for the ultra-wealthy so their generosity does not necessarily come from the goodness of their hearts. Throughout the past twenty years of the education wars, the privatization of education has often been about the right to have publicly supported education versus the interests of the super wealthy that would like to skirt their public obligation to support them. While the efforts of the OPEF has provided students with updated access to technology, it has also made lots of money for Silicon Valley. However, all this spending has failed to dramatically improve education outcomes in Oakland. According to AI there have been no “miracles” in student performance in Oakland. “There are indicators that test scores for schools in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) have seen declines or stagnation, with some reports indicating a post-pandemic backslide in student achievement across reading and math subjects. While there are efforts to address these trends, the district has faced challenges including budget deficits and a complex history with school reforms, making it difficult to point to a single trend for all scores and schools within the district.” Disruption and donations do not eradicate poverty.
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retired teacher: Really great post!
“Disruption and donations do not eradicate poverty.”
Yes, it is that simple.
And it is opportunities that DO help to eradicate poverty, such as those provided by Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) measures –and which are especially needed to promote equity for people who have been historically marginalized in our nation.
This administration and MAGAt cultists despise DEI and have taken steps to eliminate that, because they think white men in particular, who have long benefited from the advantages of being born white males, should still be the privileged ruling class of this country.
Other populations, like people of color, females, and those who have developmental or health issues, are supposed to accept going backwards –to being treated differently and unfairly. That is intentional cruelty, so kind people with heart and brains MUST do virtually all they can to prevent it from happening AGAIN!
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