Archives for category: Billionaires
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Jeff Bezos Pledges $2 Billion for Homeless, Preschools

By dianeravitch
September 14, 2018 //
39

Jeff Bezos, who may now be the richest man in the world, has pledged to spend $2 billion to aid the homeless and to establish preschools for low-income children.

“Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced Thursday that he will give $2 billion to help homeless families and create a new network of nonprofit preschools in low-income communities.

“The pledge, announced in a tweet, fulfills the promise he made last year when he tweeted that he planned to give money to charities that help people facing the most desperate, immediate need. Bezos asked for feedback from nonprofit leaders working on the front lines to help the planet’s neediest people….

“The $2 billion gift establishes the Bezos Day One Fund, which will support two missions. The Day One Families Fund will steer money to existing charities that help the homeless. The Day One Academies Fund will create the preschools.

“When he first asked for suggestions on how to jump-start his philanthropy, Bezos got an earful. The feedback was swift and high-volume with nonprofits bombarding Bezos with requests. He responded to at least one request for a gift early this year with a $33 million donation to TheDream.US, a charity that provides college scholarships to undocumented students, but no other large donations were publicly announced.

“Bezos also entered the political arena. Earlier this month, he and his wife, MacKenzie, gave $10 million to With Honor, a veterans-focused political-action committee.

“Until now, Bezos and his family have given a total of about $160 million to nonprofits over the past decade, according to the Chronicle’s analysis of the gifts he has announced publicly. Critics have complained that wasn’t a lot for a guy whose net worth Forbes recently pegged at nearly $163 billion.“

I know that many of us are skeptical, if not downright hostile, to billionaire gifts, which typically seem to be about telling people what to do, and privatizing the public sector, leaving people dependent on them.

I say, let’s wait and see how the Bezos philanthropy plays out. What will he do to help the homeless? A handout or a fresh start? What kind of preschools will he create? Developmentally appropriate models that allow children to play and learn at their own pace or test-prep centers?

Let’s watch and see.

Categories Billionaires, Early Childhood Education, Philanthropy

Oakland: The Laurene Powell Jobs XQ School That Never Happened

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2018 //
34

Jane Nylund, a parent activist in Oakland, read about the Guide prepared by XQ Project, the vanity program of billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs. She felt inspired to share the Open Letter that she wrote to Powell-Jobs in 2016. It is about a “super-school” that didn’t happen.

She wrote me a few days ago:

Enjoyed the post about Ms. Jobs and the XQ project; this was an old msg from 2 years ago I wrote as a response to a lot of ego and self-promotion; not much has changed, but thankfully, the door did hit Ms. Jobs on the way out. The project miraculously went away, along with Antwan Wilson, who was its champion. As we now know, Antwan Wilson was hired from Oakland to be the chancellor in D.C., but fired in D.C. after he pulled strings to get his daughter into a favorable school, violating a policy he had just promulgated.

———- ———
From: Jane Nylund
Date: Sun, Sep 18, 2016 at 11:25 PM
Subject: An Open Letter to Ms. Laurene Powell Jobs
To: oaklandpublicschoolparents@yahoogroups.com

After hearing about the new Summit School experiment that Laurene Jobs plans to fund here in the city of Oakland (once again, corporations telling us what we need, because they know better!), I just had to put together a really good rant. Here are some links to information regarding my rant. It would be laughable if so many of those power brokers didn’t think it was just the greatest school project ever for the city of Oakland:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/14/100-million-jobs-widow-aims-remake-schools-high-tech-age/90353636/
http://xqsuperschool.org/abouttheproject

Dear Ms. Jobs:

I read with great interest your newest philanthropic project: to bring a brand new super(!) school to the city of Oakland, I am writing you to please consider rethinking that $10 million bet (that’s what it’s called in the USA Today article) and consider the following:

While your idea of “virtual chemistry labs” sounds utterly fantastic to your software programming team, the fact is that children require actual hands-on lab training in order to properly study science. While I understand that the procurement of Pyrex glassware, microscopes, lab benches, hoods, and other equipment isn’t quite as sexy as, say computers and software, it’s really what’s needed in Oakland schools (and elsewhere). What you are telling us is that even though you have the means to distribute all kinds of school equipment and supplies (have you even heard of Pyrex), none of this makes you or your Silicon Valley friends and relations any money. So instead of providing students what they need and deserve, you provide them with your idea of the kind of chemistry labs that are good enough for you, and your friends and relations. There is also the added plus of another glowing screen for our kids to stare at during the day.

So from the website, here is your idea of a Super School in Oakland. The other schools on your site sounded a lot cooler, but this is what Oakland gets:

“Summit Elevate will bring world-class education to Oakland and innovate further, taking student achievement to new levels. At Summit Elevate, students will benefit from learning that integrates fine arts, architecture, and arts and sciences. Partnering with California College of the Arts and Oakland Unified School District, students will truly be “in the driver’s seat” of their own educations, whether selecting their own network of personal advisors and mentors from education and industry, or using Basecamp’s digital platform to ensure college- and career-readiness.”

Well, you kind of missed the boat on that one. Oakland already has high schools that integrate most, if not all those subjects (Oakland Tech and Skyline). Other high schools have struggled for years to provide a similar curriculum, but programs were cut. We old-fashioned types call this newfangled idea of yours an enriched curriculum, the kind I grew up with and which disappeared during the Prop. 13 days. There’s nothing new about it; sorry you didn’t get the memo. Oakland already has charter schools that focus on the arts (OSA and COVA), technology (BayTech and EBIA), and language immersion (Francophone, Yu Ming).

So, in conclusion, how about spending that $10 Million this way:

1) The Montera woodshop teacher needs some upgraded tools and safety equipment-maybe a student taking the class will end up building you some world-class kitchen cabinets. The local community just ponied up the first $5000 for the teacher; hey, go crazy and do a company match!

2) The Montera music teacher needs supplies and funds for music purchases, chairs, and field trips/band camps-maybe one of his students will end up becoming a jazz/blues/classical/rock/pop/latin musician. You could see him/her performing at Yoshis

3) The Montera art teacher needs newspaper, yogurt containers, milk jugs-get ’em from your friends and drop them off

4) Every teacher in the district needs Kleenex and paper towels. They can’t reuse those (well, they could, but there’s a serious yuk factor), but they reuse practically everything else. They also each need a raise and a mani-pedi

5) Oakland Tech (Tech stands for Technical-maybe you didn’t know that) needs plotter ink and copy paper

6) Several schools need earthquake safety retrofits-no explanation needed, I hope

7) Castlemont recently started its music program back up again-see #2

8) Restart some industrial arts classes in the schools again, but not virtual ones. The students need to use real tools.

Thanks for thinking of us here at OUSD. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Categories Billionaires, Failure, Oakland, Resistance

Mercedes Schneider: The Important NPE Report on Dark Money and How You Can Learn to Follow the Money

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2018 //
6

Mercedes Schneider reviews the new NPE report “Hijacked by Billionaires” and discusses her role in its early days.

She adds:

“For those wishing for more insight on following the money behind elections, I can offer another resource. Along with New York professor, researcher, and journalist, Andrea Gabor, Darcie Cimarusti and I will be participating in the following presentation at NPE’s 5th Annual Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, October 20 – 21, 2018:

“Where Did All of This Money Come From?? Locating and Following the Dark Money Trail

“In this session, presenters will discuss the ways in which they use publicly available sites, including those of secretaries of state (campaign funding) and nonprofit tax form search engines, to discover individuals and organizations seeking to systematically spread ed reform privatization to cities and states across the nation. Audience members will be afforded opportunity to engage in Q&A with speakers and with each other. The intended audience includes individuals seeking practical information on how to discover exactly who is funding local/state elections, ballot initiatives, and pseudo-grassroots education groups.

“Come and learn how to expose the billionaires’ election purchasing.

“The more attention that is brought to this issue, the better.”

Categories Billionaires, Corporate Reformers, Dark Money, Network for Public Education, Networkfor Public Education Action Fund

Opioid Manufacturer Patents Drug to Treat Addiction His Company Created

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2018 //
19

This is true chutzpah.

Purdue Pharmaceuticals, manufacturer and marketer of opioids, has won a patent for treating opioid addiction.

The Sackler family became multibillionaires pushing opioids. They have their names on museums in many countries. Opioid addiction was responsible for 72,000 deaths last year. Altogether more than 300,000 people have died from opioid addiction.

Now they will make more millions or billions selling a treatment for the addiction they promoted.

Did you know that the Sackler family is one of the biggest donors to charter schools?

Jonathan Sackler founded CONNCan. Then 50CAN. His daughter Madeline Sackler made a fawning documentary about Eva Moskowitz called “The Lottery.”

The nefarious role of their company is described in a new book called DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America. I am in the middle of reading it now. It’s shocking and maddening. Purdue encouraged doctors to prescribe Oxycontin as a painkiller with very little likelihood of addiction. They paid thousands of salesmen big bonuses to push the pills. The book tells the horrifying stories of the families destroyed by Purdue, seen the vantage point of from Appalachia.

Will families sue the Sacklers for their suffering and hold them accountable?

I wonder how it feels to know that your luxury, your homes and limousines and caviar, were purchased with so many deaths.

Do these people have no sense of shame. Do ghouls flit around their dinner tables and disturb their sleep?

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corruption, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

Two Veterans of Disgraced “Families for Excellent Schools” Plan a New Charter Effort in Chicago

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2018 //
13

Chalkbeat reports that two veterans of the disgraced Families for Excellent schools are heading for Chicago.

Since there is so much money available to launch new charters, someone has to do it.

Families for Excellent Schools was a front for tycoons and billionaires who despise public schools and advocate for privately managed charter schools. When Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to rein in zeta Moskowitz’s power grab (she wanted to open 14 new charters, he approved only eight), FES unleashed a $6 million TV blitz attacking de Blasio for trying to ruin the lives of black and brown children, who would be thrown out of schools that did not yet exist. Cuomo was showered with money by FES supporters, and he announced himself to be the charter industry’s champion, even appearing at their lavish rally. Cuomo persuaded the legislature to give NYC charters whatever they wanted, including free public space.

In 2016, FES became the lead financier of the pro-charter coalition in the Massachusetts refendum on whether to expand the number of charters. FES raised at least $15 million and tried to hide the names of its donors. Despite heavy spending, Question 2 was overwhelmingly defeated. After the election, the state’s political ethics office demanded that FES release the names of donors, which it did. The donors were super-rich and included both Democrats and Republicans. The state fined FES $426,000 (all the money on hand) and banned it from Massachusetts for the next four years. Soon after, the FES executive director was accused of sexual misconduct at a Reformer retreat (Camp Philos) in DC. He was fired, and FES closed its doors.

Professor Maurice Cipunningham of the University of Massschusetts chronicled the role of FES and Dark Money in the 2016 election. Google his 2016 and 2017 articles about FES.

Now, of course, not everyone went down with the ship. There’s lots of millions out there for ambitious young people who want to undermine and privatize public schools.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Chicago, Disruption, Education Industry, Illinois, Massachusetts

Jan Resseger on Dale Russakoff’s Article about Dark Money Vandals in Arizona

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2018 //
12

It is useful to read Jan Resseger on anything but especially her summary of Dale Russakoff’s fine article about the Dark Money that robbed the schoolchildren of Arizona. (In case the Russakoff article is behind a pay wall.)

Resseger describes what happened as “cannibalizing” the schools.

This was no accident. What happened to Arizona was a deliberate effort by the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity and the DeVos’ American Federation for Prosperity to execute a plan:

1. Reduce income taxes to zero
2. Defund public education
3. Shift school funding to charter schools and vouchers

She writes:

“What has driven political leaders in Arizona to collapse the state education budget, cut taxes, and expand school privatization? Russakoff explains: “In 2016, the Brennan Center for Justice at N.Y.U. School of Law issued a report called “Secret Spending in the States,” finding that dark-money political contributions in Arizona increased from about $600,000 in 2010 to more than $10.3 million million in 2014, the year Ducey was elected governor… In his 2014 gubernatorial campaign, Ducey ran on a pledge to cut taxes every year and drive income tax rates in Arizona ‘as close to zero as possible.’ That year, six dark-money groups spent almost $3.5 million supporting him or attacking his opponents… In 2017, the Koch brothers’ political advocacy arm, Americans for Prosperity, named the Arizona voucher-expansion bill its No. 1 education-reform priority in the country. The American Federation for Children, another bundler of anonymous contributions, funded by the family of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and focused on expanding school choice through charter schools, vouchers and private school scholarships, made it their top priority in the state… For weeks after leaders of Save Our Schools delivered their petitions to the secretary of state, a phalanx of activists from Americans for Prosperity and the American Federation for Children submitted multiple daily objections to individual signatures…. When the state nonetheless certified more than enough signatures as valid, lawyers representing the Koch network filed legal challenges that went all the way to the State Supreme Court but ultimately failed.”

“Russakoff quotes Kelly Berg, a 20-year high school math teacher from Mesa and lifelong Republican, describing her sudden realization last May—as she sat through an all-night deliberation of the State Legislature—of the enormous barrier she and her colleagues face: “We were told to sit down when we stood in agreement…. We were told to remain quiet when applauding when a teacher, who was in tears, was pleading for support for our classes and our students… We were disrespected. We were mocked. We were listened to, but not heard. That’s what radicalized me… As the kids would say, ‘I’m woke.’ ”

“Please do read Dale Russakoff’s fine article. She connects all the pieces of this story—school funding—the role of taxes for buying public services—the impact of tax cuts—the role of far-right money buying politics—the ideology of privatization—and the cost to state budgets and to local school districts when a state undertakes to run a system of private tuition neo-vouchers along with a system of charter schools along with the state’s public school districts all out of one fixed pot of money.

“As Russakoff narrates Arizona’s story, she is also providing an account of what has been happening in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Kansas, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Indiana.”

When you meet progressives who favor charter schools but not vouchers, send them a copy of Dale Russakoff’s article, or Jan Resseger’s summary, so they understand that they have been duped by the billionaires who are behind the curtain. Charters are part of the Dark Money plan to destroy public education.

Categories Accountability, Arizona, Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Dark Money, Education Industry, Koch Brothers, Privatization

Fawning Over Billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs and Her XQ Competition to “Reinvent” the High School

By dianeravitch
September 10, 2018 //
53

Politico Morning Education reports on Laurene Powell Jobs venture into redesigning the American high school:

FIRST LOOK: A GUIDE FOR STATES ON REVAMPING HIGH SCHOOL: A private philanthropic effort led by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs, has given millions of dollars to high schools across the country with the goal of rethinking the traditional notion of high school and better preparing students for success in life.

— Now that initiative, called XQ: The Super School Project, is out with a guide for state policymakers on how to do that. “To prepare for the future of work, we must set a clear agenda to prepare the future workforce — and that agenda ties directly to our high schools,” Russlynn Ali, CEO and co-founder of XQ, told Morning Education. “We need high schools that are designed intentionally for the modern world.” Check out the guide here.

— What does that look like? XQ cites examples from high schools that it has funded. For example, the Grand Rapids Public Museum School received a $10 million grant from XQ. The school, which opened this year, is housed on a floor of the Grand Rapids Public Museum. “The curriculum will focus on big issues related to sustainability, technology, and design explored through a local lens — the history, culture, economy, and ecology of the Grand Rapids region itself,” XQ’s guide for state policymakers says. “Students will take on projects that contribute to the community in tangible and positive ways. One project is designed to become the largest river-restoration initiative in the United States.”

Forgive the apparent digression, but this guide should be read in conjunction with a new book by Beth Macy called Dopesick, about the opioid addiction epidemic. More than 300,000 Americans have died in recent years, 72,000 just in 2017. More will die next year. Many of them will be high school students. A wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee book that makes the XQ competition sound like something from the 1950s.

Categories Billionaires

“Hijacked by Billionaires:” The Shameful Role of Big Money in Buying Education and Undermining Democracy

By dianeravitch
September 8, 2018 //
21

This morning, the Network for Public Education Action has published a major report on the role of Big Money in buying elections to control education and undermine democracy.

“Hijacked by Billionaires: How the Super Rich Buy Elections to Undermine Public Schools” examines several districts/states where the super-rich have poured in money from out-of-state to buy control of school boards and buy policy, with the goal of advancing privatization.

The case studies include: Denver, Los Angeles, Newark, Minneapolis, Perth Amboy, N.J., Washington State, New York City, Newark, Rhode Island, and Louisiana.

This carefully documented report deserves your attention. It names names.

The rich use their money to steal democracy and local control.

Their only idea is privatization. They use their vast wealth to take away what belongs to the public.

Read it. Share it with your friends and colleagues. Post it on social media.

If you want to help the Network for Public Education and the Network for Public Education Action Fund continue its work to support public education, sign up, donate, come to our annual meeting in Indianapolis on October 20-21.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Networkfor Public Education Action Fund, Privatization, Scandal, School Choice, Vouchers

Betsy DeVos and Erik Prince: On a Religious Mission to Change America

By dianeravitch
September 7, 2018 //
35

Sam Tanenhaus writes here about Betsy DeVos and Erik Prince, the siblings intent on turning America into a business.

Their mission is religious in intensity.

They were born to fabulous wealth.

They are the Medicis of West Michigan, as Tanenhaus describes them.

They believe that God helps those who helps themselves, and they want to get the government out of the way of God’s plan to pick winners (people like them) and losers (who have to fend for themselves).

Their worldview does not seem to include empathy, compassion, or any sense of the common good.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Billionaires

Andrea Gabor: School Reformers are Going Local, But….

By dianeravitch
September 6, 2018 //
30

Andrea Gabor, author of Education After the Culture Wars, believes that the latest Gates grant for “networks” is evidence that corporate reformers have decided to “go local” instead of funding big national plans like the Common Core.

“For two decades, the prevailing wisdom among education philanthropists and policymakers has been that the U.S. school system needs the guiding hand of centralized standard-setting to discipline ineffective teachers and bureaucrats. Much of that direction was guided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has spent billions since 2000 to influence both schools and education policy.

“But as schools open this year, top-down national initiatives based on standardized testing and curricular uniformity are in retreat.

“Last fall, the Gates Foundation ended its support for a $575 million, six-year teacher-effectiveness project; the initiative had failed to meet the foundation’s goals to “dramatically improve student outcomes,” according to a recent study commissioned by the foundation.

“Two dozen states started backing away from the Gates-backed Common Core State Standards not long after they were first embraced in 2010 (though many of these states retained “key elements” of the standards, according to a 2017 report by an education organization the foundation helps fund.) Earlier, the foundation acknowledged that “many of the small schools” that it invested in — the foundation’s first major education initiative — “did not improve students’ achievement in any significant way.”

“Now, the foundation seems to be stepping back from sweeping national initiatives in its bid to remake education. In the coming years, its K-12 philanthropy will concentrate on supporting what it calls “locally driven solutions” that originate among networks of 20 to 40 schools, according to Allan Golston, who leads the foundation’s U.S. operations, because they have “the power to improve outcomes for black, Latino, and low-income students and drive social and economic mobility.”

She believes this represents a significant shift from the top down mandates of No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and similar efforts cheered on by Gates and other titans.

I am not so sure.

The Gates grant of $92 Million for “networks” is chump change. It’s amorphous.

Besides, Gates is still funding Common Core, despite its failure to fulfill any of the bold promises made on its behalf eight years ago.

Worse, as Gabor notes, Gates and Arnold and other malefactors of great wealth are funding another “go local” project called City Fund, which draws together the leaders of privatization to plant charter schools in many cities. “Going local” in this case means trying to fly below the radar to push privatization in many places, whether the local people want it or not. Eli Broad has “gone local” by buying control of the Los Angeles school board (that is, until the swing vote was convicted and removed from the board. But he won’t give up.) Betsy DeVos went local by buying the state of Michigan. Jeb Bush engineered the hostile takeover of education policy in Florida. DFER long ago went local by bundling campaign contributions for state and local candidates who support charter schools and high-stakes testing.

Going local may be more insidious than pushing a noxious national agenda, which, in the Trump era, brings resistance to a boil.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Common Core, Disruption, Education Industry, Funding, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Privatization
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