Please read Mercedes Schneider’s recap of the Georgia vote on an “Opportunity School District,” which was defeated by voters.
See who was funding this initiative in addition to the Walton family, the royal family of school privatization.
Archives for category: Charter Schools
This came in my email this morning:
For a short while in Boston last night, we were ecstatic. We beat the privatizers on Question 2, and we beat them across the state, with every demographic – except for the whitest, wealthiest towns. As Barbara Madeloni said from the stage at campaign headquarters, “We beat their money with our democracy.”
Our coalition victory against the privatizers was hard-earned and sweet. Our brave and beautiful young people were inspirational. Barbara Madeloni was electrifying. We were the righteous students, parents, and union members.
And then, as the national results started coming in and it became clear that Clinton was in trouble, DFER was spotted in the back of the hotel ballroom. As was Marty Walz, former state legislator-turned-paid-shill for the charter industry.
Some of us – those who’d been door-knocking, who had made calls, created charts, sent tweets, educated our neighbors, debated on stage – became angry. The Yes on 2 campaign, funded by so-called Democrats with zero history of being on the side of working people and the disenfranchised, had forced us to focus on a state measure, for months and months and months, at the exclusion of the presidential campaign. Not a single one of my comrades working themselves to exhaustion – unpaid – to defeat the ballot measure was also volunteering for Hilary. We couldn’t be in two places at once, and we rightly felt the urgency of defeating Question 2. We were also keenly aware that our colleagues in other parts of the country were counting on us to stop the charter tide in Massachusetts.
DFER and Marty Walz heard from us loud and clear last night. We let them know that their support for an expensive, divisive, diversionary campaign will not be forgotten.
Question 2 and the charlatans behind it went down in flames last night. Our bright spot on this dismal morning.
Be sure to watch this excerpt from Backpack Full of Cash, narrated by Matt Damon.
It is a powerful presentation about the corporate reform movement and the damage it has done in one of America’s greatest cities: Philadelphia, where public schools starve while charter schools are awash in cash.
All the Presidential polls were wrong. Clinton appeared to be headed for a big victory until FBI Director James Comey informed Congress that he had discovered a new trove of emails. He decided there was no problem on the Sunday before the election. I can’t help but think that she was never able to revive the momentum after Comey’s intervention. And so we have a President-elect who has never held public office, has no governmental experience, has made statements that are racist, misogynist, andxenophobic. His party will control Congress. He will select at least one and possibly two or three Supreme Court justices.
On the subject of education, he has shown little interest. He held one press conference at a for-profit charter school in Ohio and promised $20 billion in federal funds for charters and vouchers, transferred from existing programs. He has shown no interest in public education.
But there is a piece of good news in the midst of a dark night for public education.
Voters in Massachusetts overwhelmingly defeated Question 2, by a margin of about 62%-38%. Question 2 would have permitted the addition of 12 charter schools every year into the indefinite future.
A vibrant coalition of parents, educators, and students withstood a barrage of dark money and won. They organized, mobilized, knocked on doors, rallied, and they won. More than 200 school committees passed resolutions against Question 2. None supported it.
The bottom line that unified opponents of the measure was that charters would drain funding from the public schools.
Proponents spent at least $22 million, most of it from out of state donors. Big givers were billionaires and hedge fund managers.
This was the first contest over charter schools in which the key issues became public: the billionaire funding from out of state; the deceptive advertising that flooded the airwaves; the opponents’ recognition that the charter movement was an assault on public schools, an effort to privatize them.
On a sad night for the nation, it is heartening to see that the people defended their public schools…and won.
Dark money leads to dark actions.
The usual billionaires are funding a campaign to put pro-charter candidates on the Oakland school board.
Rather than openly debate the issues, they have attacked a school board member with negative ads and flyers.
Dark money is turning School Board races into ugly, partisan elections, not divided by party but by allegiance to either democratically controlled schools or privatization.
Jersey Jazzman, aka Mark Weber, updated his commentary on Question 2 after noting a tweet by David Leonhardt about his original post. Leonhardt said that JJ’s analysis was “based on a falsehood.” Leonhardt said the study in question compared lottery winners to lottery losers. JJ said that you can’t generate from a select sample to the entire population of Boston public school students.
Angie Sullivan, Nevada teacher, reports on the bizarre actions of Andre Agassi, one-time tennis star and high school dropout. His flagship charter school that bears his name is on the state’s list of persistently low-performing schools. It is also known for high rates of teacher and principal turnover. The state may give Agassi’s charter to another charter operator. But Agassi and his business partner Bobby Turner have raised nearly $300 million to build charter schools around the country.
Sullivan writes:
Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund II, L.P. raised $296,294,416 on 2016-06-16.
http://www.whosraisingmoney.com/turner-agassi-charter-school-facilities-fund-ii-l-p
Agassi has become a very very wealthy man selling his “charter doctrine”.
Unfortunately, his own flagship charter school shows charters are the ultimate tax payer scam.
The worst schools in the state of Nevada are charters.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7bJdQH4mFmEVktMRWhDWFY0Mm8/view
In particular, Agassi Preparatory is not graduating, not performing, not achieving.
Agassi has open the door financially for other Vegas charters which are also on the lowest performing list.
He preaches charter doctrine all over he United States selling real estate and profiteering.
This isn’t really about kids. This is about cold hard cash.
Now Agassi charter may be taken over by another charter.
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/possible-changes-ahead-for-agassi-prep-academy
The tax payer needs to be asking some serious questions about who is making money from these charter deals.
The tax payer needs to demand some accountability and transparency from Nevada’s charters.
This is some serious fraud and waste.
Someone needs to be accountable for this fiasco.
Maybe the Charter Authority needs to answer some questions.
Maybe the Nevada State Board of Education.
Maybe the Nevada Department of Education.
Who knew all these charters were failing and either covered it up or did nothing about it? It looks like it’s been going on for at least a decade too from the data I’ve been collecting.
Not good.
Dirty dirty dirty.
Andrea Gabor posted today an update on the Dark Money behind Question 2 in Massachusetts.
She begins:
“On October 24, I posted the story below about dark money–much of it from out-of-state–flowing into Massachusetts to support a “yes” vote on a pro-charter-school ballot question known as Question 2. In the days just before the election, those funds have increased dramatically, making Question 2 the most expensive charter-school ballot initiative in the country, ever. In Massachusetts, which has the most highly rated public schools in the nation, more has been spent by proponents of Ballot 2 than both sides spent on any other ballot initiative in state history, and more dark money has flowed to the initiative than to any state or federal election. Here are the latest totals via Peggy Wiesenberg, attorney, activist and public-school parent who did the analysis for the original post:
—Families for Excellent Schools, $15.6 million
—Other dark-money donors $2 million
–Hedge fund and other investment managers $1.9 million
–Jim and Alice Walton $1.8 million
–Other donors, $1.3 million, including a total $490,000 from Michael Bloomberg
By contrast, union spending in opposition to Question 2, was about $11 million.”
The people of Massachusetts will decide tomorrow who owns their public schools.
Denis Ian, an experienced educator in New York, has some friendly words of advice for the people of Georgia:
Dear Georgia,
Kiss your schools good-bye.
Unless, of course, you can shake yourself out of your slumber before it’s too late.
I know it’s unusual stuff for a Georgian to take the advice of a Yankee, but … here goes.
Here in New York, we woke up at the last minute … and now we’re in the fight of our lives. The tactics might be a bit different, but the aim is exactly the same: a state take-over of the schools we both pay for … and that our children attend. Now you can sleep-walk through this armageddon-in-the-making … or you can slam on the brakes and tell your governor “No, Deal”.
So … if you decide, that you’d like your state politicians to relieve you of this responsibility of managing your local schools, here’s what you can expect for your listlessness. Are you ready?
Your tax dollars will become “casino cash” for politicians. They’ll slurp up your school taxes and play politics with that loot all day long … awarding contracts to pals and getting lots of pocket-cash for themselves. Every ear-whisperer will have a chance to load up politicians with their ideas … most of which will involve experimenting on your own children. They’re the ones who get extra-screwed in this “Bad Deal” take-over madness.
You’ll see your schools change every time the political winds shift. Your kids are gonna be on this educational carpet ride … forever hostages in the game of grungy politics. Every child will be a pawn … a game piece … and you know how politicians love to play games, right?
Expect your schools to morph into unrecognizable messes with teachers more and more replaced by tablets and lap-tops and algorithmic strategies that’ll treat your kids like hamsters stuck on a wheel. I wonder if lunch will consist of pellet-food?
Expect the least qualified teachers to be hired … and for the turn-over rate to match McDonald’s. Teachers will become scripted care-takers and machine-mechanics. They’ll be data-dumpers … keeping an eye on your child’s computerized progress. Your kids’ noggins will be inventories several times a day … because they’ll be part of a living nyghtmarethat you allowed to happen.
Boards of education … those local school-governing bodies that you elect your neighbors to … will become patronage jobs … if they exist at all. They’ll be nothing for them to manage because the state bureaucrats and and legislators will be deciding what’s happening in every classroom in every county throughout Georgia. Let that sink in. Imagine … your schools run by folks who have zero expertise and less-than-zero concern for your children. Is that gonna disturb your sleep at all?
Get ready for carpet-baggers … again. Every soft-ware maker, computer tycoon, on-line executive, and textbook pimp will pitch a tent outside the governor’s bedroom. And they’ll be ready to pay-to-play so they can siphon off some of what’s left of your tax dollars. Isn’t this great fun? You get to work long and hard … and they get to play long and hard. With your hard-earned money. Who wouldn’t want a gig like that?
Let’s talk about taxes a bit more. Once this amendment passes, the fate of your schools passes into someone else’s hands … and so does your tax money. And that tax money is …. we’ll … too important not to grow over time … because the intrigue will grow every year. Do NOT LET YOUR PENS RUN DRY! … you’ll be cutting more checks every year for the rest of forever. These shrewdies will never run out of excuses to pinch your wallets and snatch your bucks.
Now … to the most important reasons to resist this laughably titled “Opportunity School District” lurch. Your children.
You are about to hand over your children’s education to the state government. Let that sink in. That’s the same authority that can barely repair the roads, deal with an ice-storm, paint a bridge, and keep their corruption to a semi-disgusting level. Do you think your kids are gonna be in good hands? Be honest.
Your life cannot be so complicated and so consuming that you can’t carve out time to vote on this asinine Amendment 1. And if it is such a busy life … explain that to your kids. Because it’s their future that’s on the line … and in your hands. Tell them what’s coming … and apologize for being too busy to care. That’ll soothe ‘em. For the rest of their lives.
Nothing … N O T H I N G … sets the course of a child’s life more than parents and schools. That partnership has made public schools the great equalizer in this nation for generations. My Irish grandfather dug tunnels in NYC … his son became a college professor. And all six of his sons … including me … own master degrees and lead professional lives. Why would you hand over your child’s future to political clowns in Atlanta? When have they ever done right by you?
So … there’s your Amendment 1 … your scheming “Opportunity School District” drivel.
It’s yours to accept or reject. One requires energy, the other requires nothing.
A Georgian warrior-mother … Stacey Freeman Gyorgy … left this simple wake-up missive for me last week. It’s about politicians. “They have become pantomime villains whose real job is to make us angry …” and, I would add, dangerously dependent.
Snatch your schools back from the brink. Shine your children’s future. Things don’t have to continue as they have. These are your schools … and your children.
You are in charge.
VOTE NO on Amendment !. It’s a BAD DEAL.
Denis Ian
p.s. pass this around … and wake some folks up.
Here is the latest poll on Question 2 in Massachusetts, whether to expand the number of charters by 12 a year indefinitely. See page 11.
Question 2 is losing in every demographic category except older Republicans.
Whites and blacks oppose Question 2 by similar proportions.
Younger voters (ages 18-39) overwhelmingly oppose it, by 71-21.
If the trends hold, this will be a massive and humiliating defeat for the corporate reformers, who have spent more on this election (at least $22 million) than on any education referendum anywhere. They won’t miss the $22 million, but they will have sustained a major setback in their plans for privatization.
