Archives for category: Corporate Reformers
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BREAKING NEWS! Bombshell Report on Dark Money Behind School Privatization in Massachusetts

By dianeravitch
December 15, 2015 //
35

Massachusetts Jobs with Justice released a well-documented report on the dark money behind a shadowy group called “Families for Excellent Schools.” FES is leading the campaign for more charter schools in Massachusetts. Of course, FES flies under a fake flag, because the “families” are not representing the families of Boston or the families that need excellent schools. FES is a gross deception. They are representing hedge fund managers and other wealthy individuals. Their idea of “excellent schools” is Exeter, Andover, Deerfield Academy, Groton, Sidwell Friends, and other elite schools that their own children attend. But these are not the excellent schools they want for the children of Massachusetts; they prefer no-excuses schools, where discipline and uniformity produces higher test scores. In the battle between Eva Moskowitz and Mayor de Blasio over the expansion of the charter sector, FES came up with nearly $10 million to beat the mayor. That’s not the kind of money that one gathers in needy communities, but it is the kind of money one collects with a few phone calls to Wall Street movers and shakers.

 

The JwJ report tears the veil away from FES, revealing where the money comes from. Up until now, it had pretended to be just another grassroots group working for “excellent” schools, and not a hedge fund-front group pushing privatization.

 

The report also revealed that one of the directors of FES is James Peyser, the Massachusetts State Superintendent of Education. This was another shocker. Why should the public official responsible for the maintenance and improvement of public schools serve on the board of an organization dedicated to privatizing public schools. Peyser holds the same position as Horace Mann. He should be embarrassed and the people of Massachusetts should be outraged.

 

Just bear in mind that the push for privatization is occurring in the state that is far and away the best performing state school system in the United States. The expansion of the charter sector will undermine public education and divide communities. FES should be ashamed. Why don’t they take their millions and open health clinics for poor children?

 

 

Categories Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Massachusetts, Privatization

Gary Rubinstein, TFA Critic, Will Attend the 25th Anniversary of TFA

By dianeravitch
December 14, 2015 //
20

Gary Rubinstein, the most thoughtful of Teach for America’s critical alums, plans to attend the 25th anniversary of Teach for America. Gary’s blog has punctured the illusions of TFA and other corporate reformers again and again. Will he be shunned? Will anyone speak to him?

 

When I read Gary’s post, my first reaction was that the party would be “a conclave of losers,” considering how many of the TFA stars have faded or failed or disappeared into obscurity.  Not to mention the fact that TFA has not–in its 25 years–closed the achievement gap in any district or turned any district into a paragon of excellence. “One day,” the TFA slogan (“one day all children will have an excellent education”) seems as far away as ever.

 

But what a meeting it will be!

 

Gary writes:

 

 

Of the 200 speakers listed so far, there is only one ‘reform critic’ I see, Los Angeles Board President Steve Zimmer. Then there are about 150 people I’ve never heard of, but who are mostly from different ed companies or charter schools, and then there are about 50 A and B list ‘reformers’ and charter leaders. These include Jeremy Beard (YES Prep), Karolyn Belcher (President of TNTP), RiShawn Biddle (Dropout Nation), Tim Daly (Former President of TNTP), Mike Feinberg (KIPP), Heather Harding (former VP of research at TFA, now with Gates), Kevin Huffman (former Tennessee Education commissioner and former husband of Michelle Rhee), Michael Johnston (State senator in Colorado who got a teacher evaluation law passed where 50% of the evaluation is based on value-added), John King (current acting Secretary of Education), Dave Levin (KIPP), Kira Orange Jones (New Orleans Board Member), Paymon Rouhanifard (Camden Schools Superintendent), Alexander Russo (Writer and reform cheerleader), Hannah Skandera (secretary of education for New Mexico), Preston Smith (CEO Rocketship Charter schools), John White (State Superintendent of Louisiana), Joe Williams (DFER and now Walton). Not yet on the speakers page, but listed on some of the panels are Joel Klein (Amplify and former chancellor in NYC), John Deasy (Former head of Los Angeles Schools), Jon Schnur (Architect of Race To The Top), Chris ‘Citizen’ Stewart (blogger who I’ve sparred with on Twitter), and, of course, Michelle Rhee (StudentsFirst and star of Waiting For Superman).

 

Many of the sessions also have a ‘reform’ slant. There’s a session called ‘Becoming an Education Influencer on Twitter’ that I think I’d be an ideal candidate to be on. But instead of me there’s ‘Dropout Nation’s’ RiShawn Biddle and Alexander Russo.

 

There’s one called “Alumni Trailblazers’ Perspectives on the Path to One Day in Our Lifetime.” The panelists are the queen reformer Michelle Rhee, the prince, Louisiana Education Commissioner (for now) John White, and KIPP founders Mike Feinberg, and Dave Levin.

 

Joel Klein is moderating a panel called ‘What Will It Take To Reach One Day?’ and on the panel are Kevin Huffman and Kira Orange Jones.

 

One with an intriguing title is “What should we do when the whole school fails?” It is moderated by the husband of TFA CEO Elisa Villanueva-Beard, Jeremy Beard, who has apparently left his post at Houston Independent School District leading their failed turnaround program ‘Apollo 20’ and is now the head of YES Prep Charter Schools in Houston. On this panel is Chris ‘Citizen’ Stewart, who has been known to accuse me of being a racist from time to time. This panel also has the one and only ‘reform critic’ that I know of, Steve Zimmer, who is the head of the school board in Los Angeles.

 

Michael Johnston is on a bunch of panels. One is called ‘What Works and What Doesn’t in Education Policy” I think he is an expert on the latter as his horrific ‘accountability’ plan in Colorado where 50% of teacher evaluation is based on value-added scores has accomplished absolutely nothing in terms of test score increases. On that panel is ‘Chief For Change’ Hannah Skandera, New Mexico Secretary of Education , and Jon Schnur, ‘architect’ of Race To The Top.

 

Perhaps the craziest session is called ‘Exploring the Role of Joel Klein as Mentor and Role Model: A Case Study.’ The CEO of TFA, Elisa Villanueva-Beard is actually the moderator on this one. Most of the people who Klein mentored are no longer in power, the most recent to be forced out was Cami Anderson in Newark. I’m hoping that John White in Louisiana will be out by then and then there will be a full turnover of the Klein mentees.

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Teach for America

Jeff Bryant on the Charter Gravy Train Report from NEPC

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2015 //
4

Here is Jeff Bryant’s take on the Baker-Miron report on the Charter Gravy Train.

 

In one of the more bizarre schemes the authors examine, charter operators will use third-party corporations to purchase buildings and land from the public school district itself, so taxpayer dollars are used to purchase property from the public. Thus, the public ends up paying twice for the school, and the property becomes an asset of a private corporation.

 

In other examples, charter operators will set up leasing agreements and lucrative management fees between multiple entities that end up extracting resources, which might otherwise be dedicated to direct services for children.

 

These arrangements, and many others documented in the brief, constitute a rapidly expanding parallel school system in America, populated with enterprises and individuals who work in secret to suck money out of public education.

 

Charter Schools Aren’t Really ‘Public Schools’

 

The first secret of charter schools that keeps their financial workings hidden and their funding prone to exploitation is that they aren’t really public schools, despite what charter advocates say.

 

As Baker and Miron explain, charters generally aren’t subject to the same disclosure laws that apply to state operated entities and public officials, especially when the governance bodies for these schools outsource management services to for-profit management firms, as is increasingly the case.

 

As the brief explains, outsourcing school operations to private entities has the potential to make transparency laws – for open meetings, public access to records, and financial disclosures by public officials and state operated institutions – subject to court interpretation. Courts across states have offered mixed opinions as to whether and to what extent to apply transparency laws to charter schools, their authorizers, operators, and governing boards.

 

Further, the public-private arrangement of charter schools often place new limits on the constitutional (and some statutory) protections that are customarily guaranteed to school employees and students in state operated institutions.

 

These important differences between charter schools and traditional public schools are not generally understood or appreciated by even the most knowledgeable people, which is why charter advocates put so much energy and resources in marketing their operations as “public” schools.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

Bruce Baker and Gary Miron: The Business of Charters, Or, The Charter Gravy Train

By dianeravitch
December 10, 2015 //
10

Bruce Baker and Gary Miron have written an important new study of the business of charters. It was released overnight by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado. The report proposes regulation of charter schools to remove the corruption and money-making that is currently an embarrassment to the charter sector. So far, so good. As I have told the authors, I don’t agree with their proposal that states declare charter schools to be public schools and to regulate them as public schools. Several states already have labeled them public schools and don’t regulate them. In those states where the governor and the legislature have been captured by charter industry financiers, it is not likely that there will be either regulation, transparency, or accountability because the lobbyists will never accept it. Nonetheless, this is an important report because it lays out the specific ways in which charter operators have gamed the system for the sake of lucre.

 

The Lucrative Side of Charter Schools

 

New report puts first pieces together on how charter schools are profiting through the privatization of public assets

 

Contact:

William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.net
Bruce D. Baker, (848) 932-0698, bruce.baker@gse.rutgers.edu Gary Miron, (269) 599-7965, gary.miron@wmich.edu

 

URL for this press release: http://tinyurl.com/py94cuk

 

BOULDER, CO (December 10, 2015) – Charter schools are educational providers, but they are also businesses. A large portion of them are run by private corporations, and receive taxpayer dollars to provide their services. Yet there is very little public understanding of the often- convoluted ways these companies use those dollars and take advantage of laws in ways that enrich owners, officers, and investors.

 

A new research brief from Bruce Baker and Gary Miron details some of the ways that individuals, companies, and organizations secure financial gain and generate profit by running charter schools, leading them to operate in ways that are sometimes at odds with the public interest. In The Business of Charter Schooling: Understanding the Policies that Charter Operators Use for Financial Benefit, they explore the differences between charters and traditional public schools, and they illustrate how charter school policies sometimes function to promote profiteering and privatization of public assets.

 

The authors explain, for example, how charter operators working through third-party corporations can use taxpayer dollars to purchase buildings and land. The seller in these purchases is sometimes the public school district itself. That is, taxpayer dollars are used to purchase property from the public, and the property ends up being owned by the private corporation that operates or is affiliated with the charter school.

 

“This particular type of transaction is usually legal and it can be very logical from the perspective of each of the parties involved,” said Baker. “But we should be troubled by the public policy that allows and even encourages this to happen.”

 

“In addition,” Miron explained, “less than arm’s-length leasing agreements and lucrative management fees are extracting resources that might otherwise be dedicated to direct services for children.”

 

The authors conclude with eight recommendations for policies to help ensure that charter schools pursue their publicly established goals and that protect the public interest.

 

 

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Privatization

ESSA Contains Good News for the Charter Industry

By dianeravitch
December 8, 2015 //
8

Reader Chiara points out that the Every Student Succeeds Act contains a big fat plum for the charter industry, which will expand privatization of public education. No wonder Arne Duncan is happy. He gets his top two priorities: annual testing (a George W. Bush innovation) and charters (a win for Gates, Broad, Walton, and ALEC):

 

Chiara writes:

 

 

I’m surprised you guys missed this in the ed bill:

 

 

“The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that passed the House of Representatives last week by a vote of 359-64 and will be passed with an overwhelming margin today by the U.S. Senate, will put into statute, for the first time, President Obama’s program to replicate and expand high-performing public charter schools.

 

Over just the past five years, this program has made it possible for tens of thousands of parents to enroll their children in great schools, most of which have long waiting lists. The infographic below summarizes the enormous payoff this program has had, and will continue to have over the years to come based on grant awards made up through this year.”

 

DC Democrats got their two top priorities into that bill- charters and testing.

 

Shortly before Mary Landrieu lost her Senate seat, she said she wanted to federally fund 500 new charter schools a year, presumably until public schools are replaced completely. She’s a lobbyist for the Walton heirs now, in addition to some other revolving door profiteering. I bet she lobbied her former colleagues on this bill, in fact.

 

I guess she’ll get her wish.

 

https://edreformnow.org/infographic-the-impact-of-president-obamas-program-to-replicate-and-expand-high-performing-charter-schools/

 

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization

Mercedes Schneider on David Hursh’s New Book on Corporate Reform

By dianeravitch
December 7, 2015 //
2

Mercedes Schneider really liked reading David Hursh’s new book, The End of Public Schools: The Corporate Reform Agenda to Privatize Education.

He identifies the major players in the corporate reform movement: Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, Pearson, and many more. He sees the clear linkage between high-stakes testing and privatization.

We can’t let this happen.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization, Testing

The Weekly Standard is No Longer Owned by Rupert Murdoch: It Is Worse Than That

By dianeravitch
December 3, 2015 //
8

In a post about Campbell Brown’s quest to find someone to take her seriously, I said that the article appears in The Weekly Standard, and  I erroneously said that the magazine is owned by Rupert Murdoch. I was wrong. In 2009, Murdoch sold the magazine to fellow billionaire Philip Anschutz.

 

Anschutz made his billions in many industries, including railroads, sports teams, oil and gas, and movie theaters. He is a big player in fracking. So far, just your run-of-the-mill billionaire.

 

His political views are far, far right. He supports the Discovery Institute, which favors “intelligent design,” not evolution. He underwrote anti-gay initiatives in Colorado and California. He was a producer of the anti/union, anti-public education “Waiting for Superman.” He funds anti-environment causes. He funded “Won’t Back Down,” a paean to charters and the Parent Trigger, a box-office flop.

 

When I make mistakes, I own up to them. For me, that’s the best policy.

 

 

Categories Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Privatization

Peter Greene: Won’t Someone Please Debate Campbell Brown?

By dianeravitch
December 3, 2015 //
16

Peter Greene reviews a puff piece about Campbell Brown in the Murdoch-owned conservative journal, and woe is Campbell. She wants to be taken seriously, but everyone ignores her. Worse, she has to share office space, because with a $4 million budget, apparently she can’t afford space of her own. We know she hates the unions and she sees them behind every conspiracy to foil her success. We know she also thinks that teachers should have no tenure or any other kinds of job protections because the ranks of public school teachers are loaded with sexual predators, or so she believes. Apparently, she loves to tell the story over and over to everyone who will listen that I once referred to her as pretty, or something like that, because it implied that she was on TV for her looks, not her brains. In other words, she is playing the victim.

 

It is not easy to see Campbell Brown as a victim. We know that her children attend an expensive Yeshiva (sorry, Campbell, my grandchildren went there too), and that she has a good life, except for her need to slam and belittle people who do work that is far more socially valuable than her own.

 

Peter notes the recently released FBI tapes of conversations between disgraced and indicted State Senate leader Dean Skelos and his son (also indicted); father Skelos told his son that he was heading into Manhattan to meet with Campbell Brown and some billionaires.

 

Maybe they were separate meetings. Maybe he wanted to assure Campbell Brown of his admiration for her brains and beauty, while he was meeting with the billionaires to pledge his support for more charter schools. Or maybe they were all at the same meeting, all agreeing that teachers are paid too much, have too much job security, and all public schools should be replaced by charter schools, where there are no unions.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Unions

Shocker! Howard Blume, L.A. Times: Secret PAC Funded Pro-Charter Candidates with $2.3 Million

By dianeravitch
December 2, 2015 //
32

Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times reports that a secret PAC assembled $2.3 million and funneled it to the political arm of the California Charter Schools Association, which used it to finance the campaigns of three pro-charter school candidates in the recent school board election. Two of the three won their seats, including Ref Rodriguez, who founded and runs a chain of charter schools. The names of the donors were not revealed until the election was over.

 

Those contributions — from philanthropist Eli Broad, heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune, former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and others — were made prior to the May 19 election to California Charter Schools Assn. Advocates, a political action committee in Sacramento. That group then forwarded campaign funds to a local affiliated committee.

 

The Los Angeles-based PAC was required by campaign laws only to identify the state charter group as the source of the funding, not the individual donors.

 

As a result, the donors remained anonymous in Los Angeles campaign filings. In September, the state charter group filed a required state report listing all its contributors.

 

While the practice appears to be within the law, state campaign regulators said they are concerned about how the contributions remained unreported for so long.

 

A spokesman for the Charter Association said it turns to outside backers because it would otherwise be outspent by the teachers union. In fact, the CCSA spent $2.7 million, compared to the union’s $1.6 million. So, follow the logic: funding provided from the salaries of teachers is comparable to funding from billionaires like the Waltons, Broad, and Bloomberg.

It’s sad that billionaires have no way to make their voices heard. So they feel compelled to try to buy the school board because they know more than the teachers who work there.

 

 

Among the charter donors not disclosed in L.A. filings was Bloomberg, who gave $350,000 in 2015. Bloomberg already had contributed $250,000 in 2014, an amount that was disclosed prior to the election because the funds arrived before the end of 2014.

 

Other donors from 2015 who were disclosed after the election included:

 

• Gap clothing co-founder Doris Fisher ($750,000). The longtime charter supporter also gave $550,000 in 2014.

 

• Wal-Mart Corp. heirs Carrie W. Penner ($150,000) and Jim Walton ($225,000). The two also gave a combined $620,000 in 2014.

 

• Grower Barbara Grimm ($500,000), owner of one of California’s largest farming operations, who started a charter school near Bakersfield. Grimm also gave $586,400 in 2014.

 

• Emerson Collective ($150,000), a corporation under the control of Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, which supports charitable and political causes.

 

• Investor John H. Scully ($100,000). He and his wife also gave $400,000 in 2014.

 

• Philanthropist Eli Broad ($50,000). He also gave $305,000 to the state charter PAC in 2014.

 

 

The issue of so-called “dark money” has touched Broad and the Fisher family before. In the 2012 election, the Fishers gave $9 million and Broad, $1 million, to groups that concealed the sources of these donations. The money was used to oppose a tax increase to fund education and in support of a ballot measure to limit union participation in political campaigns. The tax increase passed, the anti-union measure failed and the dark money maneuvering led to fines for some of the participants, although not the donors.

 

As in this year’s elections, the mega-donors have not always carried the day. In the 2013 elections, candidates backed by wealthy donors lost two of three contests, including one in which incumbent Steve Zimmer prevailed. He used the identity of the donors as an effective counterpunch to their resources.

 

“They’re truly funded by and accountable to the 1%,” Zimmer said of the charter advocacy group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Politics, Privatization

Who Is Funding the Charter Industry?

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2015 //
47

Ever wonder who is the supplying the money behind the privatization of public schools?

It is a long list, and it starts with the U.S. Department of Education. Every year since 1994, your taxpayer dollars have been used to open schools that drain resources from your public schools while selecting the students they want. If your state has charters, you can expect that they will lobby the legislature for more charters. They will close their schools, hire buses, and send students, teachers, and parents to the State Capitol, all dressed in matching T-shirts, to demand more charters. Since the children are already enrolled in a charter and can’t attend more than one, they are being used to advance the financial interests of charter chains, which want to expand.

The big foundations support the growth of the charter industry: the Walton Family Foundation has put more than $1 billion into charters and vouchers; the Gates Foundation and the Eli Broad Foundation also put millions into charters, often partnering with the Far-right Walton Foundation.

There is a long list of other foundations that fund the assault on public education, including the John Arnold Foundation (ex-Enron trader), the Dell Foundation, the Helmsley Foundation, the Fisher Family Foundation (Gap and Old Navy), the Michael Bloomberg Foundation, and many more.

Here is a list of the funders of 50CAN, which started in Connecticut as ConnCAN, created by billionaires, corporate executives, and hedge fund managers, led by Jonathan Sackler, uber-rich Big Pharma.

Here is an example of a foundation that is very active in support of privatization. Check out where their money goes.

ALEC uses its clout with far-right legislators to promote charters and vouchers, as well as to negate local control over charters.

To see where the Walton Family Foundation spread over $202 million to advance privatization, look here.

The money trail is so large, that it is hard to know where to begin. Certain recipients do collect large sums with frequency, including KIPP, Teach for America, Education Trust, to name just a few.

As we say at the Network for Public Education, we are many, they are few. They have money, we have votes. Out ideas for children and education are sound, their ideas fail every time, everywhere.

Categories Charter Schools, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York
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