Archives for category: Billionaires
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Jan Resseger: Is the Charter School Romance Winding Down?

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2018 //
27

Jan Resseger notes a few straws in the wind that suggest a lessening of enthusiasm for charter schools.

First, she says, is the close race between Tony Thurmond and Marshall Tuck in California. The usual charter-loving billionaires poured millions into Tuck’s campaign, who had twice as much money to spend as Thurmond. The polls predicted a romp for Tuck, given his name recognition (he ran for the same position four years ago, but especially his money in hand. Early returns showed Tuck winning. But then the results reversed, and Thurmond has been leading. Are Californians waking up to the threat posed by charter schools, where accountability is minimal?

Then there was the legislative elections in New York State. Governor Cuomo had a $35 million campaign chest, largely from the Wall Street-Hedge Fund crowd who want to privatize everything. Cuomo rewards his donors. But woe to the charter industry, Republicans and fake Democrats were booted out of the State Senate, and the New Democrats want to improve public schools, not charter schools.

Important straws in the wind.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools

Cost to Protect Betsy DeVos: $20 Million

By dianeravitch
November 18, 2018 //
45

Why is Betsy DeVos afraid? In her first year in office, some protestors in Washington, D.C., objected to her visit at a public school.

Since then, she has had a special detachment of U.S. Marshalls giving her round-the-clock protection.

Other cabinet secretaries have encountered protestors. None of them are guarded by U.S. Marshalls.

Of course, she is very special. She is a billionaire.

She doesn’t leave her office much. She has many days off.

She seldom visits schools, and in the few instances where she does, it is either a religious school or a charter school.

Her public schedule indicates that she doesn’t have much to do, perhaps a meeting once a day, perhaps not.

Others have commented on her many “unexcused absences.” A year ago, the media realized that she was absent from her job about 1/3 of the time and that she has poor work habits. Presumably she still has round-the-clock protection even when she skips work. A teacher who skipped work 1/3 of the time would be terminated.

Does she lack grit?

Does she have a guilty conscience about removing protection from transgender students, indebted college students, and sexual assault victims?

My guess is that she has led a sheltered life and wants to avoid public contact to the greatest extent possible.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Billionaires

California: Tony Thurmond Wins Election as State Superintendent of Instruction!

By dianeravitch
November 17, 2018 //
10

Tony Thurmond tweeted that Marshall Tuck called to congratulate him on his victory in the race to become State Superintendent of Instruction in California.

At last count, Thurmond was leading Tuck by 4,632,425 (50.8%) to 4,480,240 (49.2%).

There were not enough votes outstanding to change the outcome.

First of all, congratulations to Tony Thurmond for winning and fighting clean.

Second, condolences to Marshall Tuck.

Above all, a Bronx cheer for the billionaires who thought that they could buy this office by heaping millions on the Tuck campaign, twice as much as Tony Thurmond was able to raise.

It is no secret that most of the money for Tony Thurmond was contributed by the teachers’ unions. Their money was not inherited, nor did it come from speculation on Wall Street. Their money came from the dues paid by teachers and other members of the union, as well as other unions.

This race was not between two men, but between two competing ideologies.

On one side, behind Thurmond, were the hardworking women and men who teach every day, most of them in the classrooms of California.

On the other were billionaires, who want to impose their DeVosian ideas about the free market on the public schools. They make no bones about their desire to encourage more privatization of public schools.

Tuck’s leading contributor, who gave more than $6 million, was billionaire Bill Bloomfield, a venture capitalist and a Republican. Close behind him were the Walton family (who don’t believe in paying their 1 million workers at minimum wage), Eli Broad, Doris Fischer, Arthur Rock, and Richard Riordan. It is likely that none of these people have entered a public school since they were children, if then.

In time, the full list of contributors will be published, and it is sure to include other billionaires who have taken it upon themselves to inflict their wrongheaded ideas on America’s children.

My wish is that their loss in this election humbles them, but in reality, I know that those who are billionaires never learn humility.

My wish is that they learn that the voters and parents don’t like what they are offering.

My wish is that they would find a new hobby and make a pact to pay higher taxes so that teachers might have a good salary, not only in California but in every state.

Here are some suggestion for what they might do instead of pushing charter schools: build health clinics in every poor community; support school nurses for every school; establish well-supplied libraries in every school; give schools money dedicated to buying musical instruments and hiring someone to teach music, band, and orchestra; build playgrounds where they don’t exist and pay schools to set aside time for recess and play. The best idea of all: Insist on paying higher taxes to support education! You can’t take it with you, and your children don’t need to inherit billions of dollars. It will make them lazy and ruin their lives.

There are so many useful ways that these very rich people could spend their money, ways that would help children and communities.

If they care about our national future, they would invest in good ideas instead of spending hundreds of millions to privatize public schools.

They would be revered instead of wasting their money trying to gain control of something they do not understand.

And, yes, one more thing!

Congratulations, Tony Thurmond for a race well run!

Categories Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Education Reform

California: Tony Thurmond’s Lead over Marshall Tuck Just Grew to 160,000

By dianeravitch
November 16, 2018 //
18

The vote totals have been growing.

The last report, published by the Secretary of State at 4:59 pm PST, shows a big increase for Tony Thurmond. His total is now nearly 160,000 more than Tuck’s.

https://vote.sos.ca.gov/returns/superintendent-of-public-instruction

This is nearly a two-point lead.

The charter billionaires spent twice as much on Tuck’s campaign as Thurmond received, mostly from teachers and unions.

Passion beats money. Not always. But maybe in this race.

Wow!!

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

California: Tony Thurmond Vs. Marshall Tuck: More Than $50 Million Spent

By dianeravitch
November 15, 2018 //
22

I have been watching the website of the California Secretary of State to follow the close contest between Tony Thurmond and Marshall Tuck. The polls and pundits predicted that Tuck would win.

When the polls first closed, Tuck had an early lead, but millions of votes had not been counted. In California, mail-in ballots postmarked on the day of the election must be counted, and they are still being counted.

After election day, Thurmond went into the lead, then Tuck came back, then Thurmond opened up a lead of 65,000-85,000 votes. That lead has held steady over the past couple of days as the vote total grows.

The vote is not final, and the numbers obviously could change in the days ahead.

Thurmond is winning heavily in Los Angeles (the city that should be Marshall Tuck’s base, where the most charters are located) and in San Francisco, which is Thurmond’s base.

On October 28, EdSource in California reported that at least $50 million had been raised for the race, and that Tuck had outraised Thurmond by 2-1.

When all the reports are in, the total amount of spending will surely be even more.

Thurmond was backed by the California Teachers Association and labor unions, meaning that his campaign was paid for by the dues of working people.

Here is a partial list of Tuck donors, a veritable Who’s Who of the school choice movement:

Bill Bloomfield: $6.761 million

Bloomfield is a billionaire Republican mega-donor who has become a charter school advocate.

The Walton Family: $5.138 million

Walmart billionaires

Eli Broad: $3.2 million

The Los Angeles billionaire who believes in closing public schools and privatizing them into charters.

Arthur Rock: $3.2 million

A California venture capitalist and billionaire who gives millions to Teach for America

Doris Fisher: $3.1 million

A billionaire, thanks to The Gap and Old Navy; the family gives heavily to KIPP

Richard Riordan: $2 million

The former Mayor of Los Angeles

These were the totals as of October 28. We will have to wait a few weeks for a complete accounting.

Undoubtedly these donors could have given twice or three times as much, but must have decided that it might embarrass Tuck to have three times as much money as Thurmond. Twice as much should have been enough.

One thing is certain. This is the most expensive contest in history for the job of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, a job that pays $175,000 and has limited authority.

The symbolic importance of this race, however, cannot be overstated. If the charter lobby prevails in a deep blue state, it can prevail in every state. It already owns Governor Cuomo in New York (but lost control of the State Legislature, when progressive candidates ousted fake Democrats in the State Senate). It tried and failed to lift the charter cap in Massachusetts in 2016, routed in a public referendum, even though the Governor and the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is in the hands of the charter industry.

So, we will continue to keep a close watch on California, where the teachers and the charter billionaires are in a face-off.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Chicago: CEO of Noble Charter Network Resigns Due to “Inappropriate” Relationships with Former Students s

By dianeravitch
November 14, 2018 //
19

Fred Klonsky has the charter scandal of the day in Chicago. The founder and CEO of the Noble (no excuses) Charter Chain is stepping down after being accused of inappropriate conduct towards former students.

Public radio reporters Sarah Karp and Adriana Cardona-Maguigad of WBEZ broke the news of the latest Chicago charter school scandal.

Michael Milkie, the CEO of Noble, the city’s largest charter school network, is being investigated following complaints of “inappropriate behavior toward young female alumnae.”

Milkie has resigned in disgrace but without further consequences.

Noble runs 17 charter high schools and one middle school that serve more than 12,000 students.

Read the ugly details.

Noble has been considered Chicago’s premier charter chain.

One of the charters in named for billionaire Governor Bruce Rauner (just defeated). Another is named for billionaire heiress Penny Pritzker, who was Obama’s Secretary of Commerce. Her brother J.B. Pritzker, another billionaire, just defeated Rauner.

Categories Billionaires, Charter Schools, Chicago

Laurene Powell Jobs Wants YOU to Run for School Board and Implement Her XQ Program

By dianeravitch
November 14, 2018 //
11

It isn’t enough that billionaires are pouring big money into school board races.

Now Laurene Powell Jobs is urging her allies to run for the local school board and become advocates for her ideas about the importance of reinventing high schools along the lines that she and Arne Duncan have chosen.

She has even provided a handy kit about how to do it.

Good move on her part. She doesn’t have to spend millions to elect her candidates. She just asks for volunteers for the XQ army.

Categories Billionaires, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization

If Amazon Opens Its Second Headquarters in….

By dianeravitch
November 12, 2018 //
23

The latest speculation is that Amazon will
split its second headquarters between northern Virginia and Long Island City, in Queens, New York City. The following story assumes that Amazon will choose northern Virginia, but wherever the giant corporation locates its second headquarters, this is a fascinating article about Amazon and Jeff Bezos.

This is a fascinating article that appeared in The New Yorker about Amazon, the financial behemoth of our age. It is based on the guess that Jeff Bezos will choose to locate in northern Virginia, for reasons explained in the article. Cities have been offering Amazon all sorts of tax breaks and incentives to choose them. But the smart money is betting on the proximity to DC.

Amazon has made Bezos the richest man in the world, with an estimated wealth of $150 billion.

This will be his new home:

“On October 21, 2016, an entity called the Cherry Revocable Trust purchased two adjacent buildings in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C., for twenty-three million dollars. The buildings, which previously had housed the Textile Museum, were to be converted into a private residence—at twenty-seven thousand square feet, the largest in the city. In January, it was revealed that the anonymous purchaser represented by the Cherry Revocable Trust was Jeff Bezos, the founder and C.E.O. of Amazon. The finished property will have eleven bedrooms, twenty-five bathrooms, five staircases, and a large ballroom suitable for gatherings of Washington’s notables. It will be, in the words of the journalist Ben Wofford, “a veritable Death Star of Washington entertaining.”

Americans have long been fascinated with the lifestyles of the rich and famous. But there is something obscene about the accumulation of $150 billion—and growing.

Will any party have the guts to raise taxes for the wealthy now that the 1% of the 1% has amassed so much wealth?

Growing inequality endangers the well-being of our society, as do concentrations of vast wealth in the hands of a small number of people. Their wealth is weaponized when they use it to undermine and control public institutions.

Categories Billionaires, District of Columbia, Seattle

Inside Philanthropy: Billionaires Buying Political Support for Charter Schools, or, Democracy for Sale

By dianeravitch
November 12, 2018 //
6

The veil is beginning to fall away from the billionaire-funded charter activity. There are no grassroots in this billionaire-driven “movement.” It is all about money. Without the billionaires’ money, the demand and the supply would dry up.

Inside Philanthropy looks at the funding behind Marshall Tuck, and the article assumes he has won. But millions of votes remain uncounted in California and the contest is not yet decided. At last count, the candidates were less than one percentage point apart. We will have to wait to see who wins the contest between Big Money and teachers.

On the eve of the election, spending for this election had risen to $50 million. The total is likely to be even higher when final reporting is in.

The apparent winner of the contest, Marshall Tuck, is the former president of Green Dot, a charter school network. He wants to expand charters in a state that already leads the nation in the number of such schools. The other candidate, Tony Thurmond, argued for putting the brakes on charters to address issues of transparency and accountability.

Tuck ran unsuccessfully for the same office in 2014 in a race that cost $30 million. In both cases, Tuck outspent his opponent. This year, his campaign had raised $28.5 million by election day.

The money has come from a who’s who of charter school backers and K-12 philanthropists, including Eli Broad, Reed Hastings, Lynn Schusterman, Julian Robertson, Laurene Powell Jobs, Laura and John Arnold, Dan Loeb, Michael Bloomberg and his daughter Emma, and three Waltons: Carrie Walton Penner, Alice Walton, and Jim Walton.

Among Tuck’s biggest backers was Helen Schwab, wife of the finance billionaire Charles Schwab, who gave $2 million to EdVoice for the Kids PAC, which managed independent campaign committees for Tuck; Arthur Rock, the venture capitalist, gave $3 million to EdVoice, while Doris Fisher gave over $3 million. Along with the Schwabs, Fisher has been a huge backer of charter schools as a philanthropist and a consistent mega-donor for political campaigns in this space.

A less familiar name on the list of top backers to EdVoice is businessman Bill Bloomfield. In fact, Bloomfield was the single biggest supporter of the PAC this year, with $5.3 million in donations.

What is crucial in this article is that it recognizes that the push for charters depends on billionaires who have no direct interest in public schools other than to destroy them.

Elected school boards are accountable to the people. To whom are the billionaires accountable?

The most important line in the article is the last one, which recognizes an obvious fact:

Regardless of what you think of charter schools, this seems like no way to make policy on public education, long regarded as among the most democratic institutions in America.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Arizona: After Crushing Defeat in Prop 305 Referendum, Voucher Advocates Renew Call for Voucher$$$

By dianeravitch
November 9, 2018 //
32

The Arizona Republic reports that voucher advocates are undeterred by their overwhelming defeat at the ballot box on Tuesday. The fact that the public rejected vouchers by 65-35% at the same time that rightwing Governor Doug Ducey was re-elected does not deter the Koch brothers and the DeVos family. Very likely they presume that the parents and teachers who beat them exhausted their funds.

Less than a day after the crown jewel of their school choice policies was crushed at the ballot box, prominent school choice advocates doubled down by calling for the Arizona Legislature to promote school choice and vouchers laws.

Both the Goldwater Institute and American Federation for Children issued statements backing school choice in the hours after voters rejected by a 65-35 margin Proposition 305, a massive expansion of school vouchers.

The vote overturned the Empowerment Scholarship Account expansion that would have allowed all 1.1 million Arizona public school students to use public money to attend private school. The number of students receiving the money would have been capped at 30,000.

In a statement to supporters, the Goldwater Institute said “the fight for school choice continues.”

“Empowerment Scholarship Accounts help families create a custom educational experience— one as unique as each child. Unfortunately, school choice opponents were successful in denying this option to all Arizona families, regardless of income,” Goldwater Institute President Victor Riches said in the statement.

“Across the country, ESAs have garnered the support of Republicans and Democrats alike because they provide a commonsense way for families to help pay tuition, provide tutoring, and purchase the tools they need to give their students the best chance at success in school and down the road.”

He said other states — including North Carolina and Florida — have followed Arizona and instituted ESAs for selected students.

ROBERTS: Arizona voters said ‘Hell no’ to Ducey’s school voucher plan. Will he listen?

“Arizona has been a national leader on the path to greater school choice for families,” Riches said. “The Goldwater Institute will continue the fight to give students and their families a greater say in their education in Arizona and across the country.”

Meanwhile, American Federation for the Children congratulated Republican Gov. Doug Ducey for defeating “anti-school choice” candidate Democrat David Garcia in the race for governor.

“Governor Ducey is a pro-education, pro-school choice Governor whose leadership has resulted in higher pay for teachers as well as more educational choice options for families,” said the statement from AFC’s Arizona communication director Kim Martinez. “Ducey is a staunch supporter of Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program, which helps disadvantaged children, many with special needs, access different types of schools or curriculum.”

The statement didn’t mention Prop 305.

The current voucher program, which enrolls 5,600 students at a cost of about $62 million– gives parents 90% of the funding that would have gone to their local public school district. The parents get a debit card which is supposed to cover non-public school expenses, whether for private or religious or home schooling. The program has minimal oversight or accountability. A recent survey by the Arizona Republic showed that some parents were using the debit card for personal expenses, such as cosmetics or clothing.

The ESA program gives parents 90 percent of the funding that would have otherwise gone to their local public school districts. The voucher money, loaded on debit cards, is intended to cover specific education expenses such as private- or religious-school tuition, home-school expenses and education-related therapies.

A spokeswoman for SOS Arizona, the anti-voucher organization, said they would fight renewed efforts to enact a program that the voters opposed overwhelmingly.

But of course the Koch brothers and the DeVos family have unlimited resources. The parents and educators rely on volunteers.

Categories Arizona, Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Koch Brothers, Vouchers
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