Blogger. And former state legislator Jonathan Pelto must raise $250,000, in amounts no larger than $100 to challenge Governor Malloy.
The laws protect incumbents and those with deep pockets or friends with deep pockets.
Archives for category: Corporate Reformers
Jersey Jazzman goes through the reasons why the corporate elites and rightwing think tanks love charter schools.
It is not because they get better results. They don’t.
It is not because they save money. They don’t.
They are very effective at busting unions. Nearly 90% of the nation’s charters are non-union. This makes possible a flexible workforce that works long hours, accepts whatever pay management wants to pay, and makes no demands.
Carol Burris eloquently explains why she will vote for Anybody But Cuomo.
She remembers when Democrats fought for good public schools for all.
She remembers when Democrats saw funding public schools as a civic obligation, not as “throwing money at the problem.”
She wants a governor who believes in public schools, and that is not Andrew Cuomo.
She writes:
“I stood with one thousand others on a Wednesday evening outside the recent Democratic Convention. The chant of the crowd was clear—ABC—Anybody but Cuomo. There was a hunger in the crowd for a candidate who will respect the work of teachers. There was hunger for someone who will respect the pleas from parents to roll back testing and the Common Core. There was hunger for someone who instead of claiming he will be the “student lobbyist” will actually stand up for all children, by equitably funding their schools rather than cutting taxes on millionaires. Words and commissions are not enough. A change in direction is what is needed.
“Now is the time to courageously stand and say we will not be bullied by the fear posed by false choices. The Working Families Party must put forth a candidate who respects its ideals if it is to have credibility and voice. I want to be able to respond to the question, “Where will you go?” with an answer. I want that answer to be, “I will go to the WFP who believes in our public schools.”
“If you feel the same, contact the Working Family Party today. Email director Bill Lipton at blipton@workingfamilies.org.
“Let him know that you too want an alternative to Andrew Cuomo, too!”
Camden, Néw Jersey, is one of those impoverished districts that lost local control and was taken over by the state in 2013. Recently, the Chris Christie administration hired a young, ex-TFA, ex-Joel Klein guy as superintendent, and it was clear that the district was headed for demolition.
This past week, the trouble started as layoff notices went out to more than 200 teachers. Students walked out in mass protest, but the plan began to reveal itself. Nothing innovative about it. Layoffs, charter schools, TFA, community outrage, officials indifferent to community outrage.
Thanks to Race to the Top, which dovetails neatly with the privatization goals of rightwing governors and relies on TFA scab labor, the demolition of public education in Camden is underway.
A reader added this note:
1) Buried in the numbers is the fact that the layoffs are only of general education NOT special education teachers. The reason being that as charter schools expand in Camden they cream and refuse to take special needs kids leaving almost all of them in district schools.
2) While firing staff, Paymon brought on a score of staffers from Tweed. None of them has any direct experience supporting schools. They are all young office workers with little knowledge of schools or of teaching.
The recent victory of Ras Baraka in the mayoral race in Newark was truly a people’s victory.
The central issue was the future of Newark’s schools, which have been under state control since 1995.
Baraka was opposed by a charter school supporter named Shavar Jeffries, who was bankrolled by out-of-state hedge fund managers, Democrats for Education Reform, and other Masters of the Universe.
Blogger Darcie Cimarusti, aka Mother Crusader, decided to deploy her extraordinary research skills to find out where the money came from.
Darcie was able to get the latest available financial disclosure forms that list the contributors to both candidates.
She determined that Jeffries outspent Baraka by 8-1.
Education Reform Now’s Super PAC kicked in $3, 050,000.
Michael Bloomberg added $400,000.
Other financial moguls brought the total to $4,779,040.
After she listed the financial filings, names and locations, she made the following startling point:
“I hate to belabor a point, but once again, not a soul from Newark. Instead, huge donations rolling in from Greenwich, CT; Boca Grande, FL; Denver, CO; and San Francisco, CA.”
But what about those unions. How many times have critics complained that the unions outspend everyone else?
New Jersey unions spent a grand total for Baraka of $31,450. Of that total, $450 came from the Newark Teachers Union.
The Working Families Alliance, which includes unions, spent $400,000 for Baraka.
The national AFT added $93,000 for Baraka.
The total spent for Baraka by unions and others: $604,211.
The total spent for Jeffries by his supporters on Wall Street, Greenwich, Ct.; Boca Grande, Florida; Denver; and San Francisco: $4,779,040.
Yup, Jeffries outspent Ras Baraka by 8-1.
What’s the point?
Baraka’s victory was a big setback for corporate reformers.
Democracy can beat Big Money.
Newark finally has a mayor who will fight for its people and its children, and who will stand up to the plutocrats instead of joining their club.
As segregation grows worse than it has been for decades, the problems are worsened by current “reforms.” School privatization intensifies segregation, high-stakes testing creates cause for closing struggling schools instead of helping students.
As Wendy Lecker writes, there is a growing grassroots to prevent the corporate takeover of public education and to turn schools into profit centers. The victory of Ras Baraka in Newark is the latest example of a community fighting for dignity.
In many cities and states, this is a bad time for public education. Plutocrats want to take control of the schools and decide which children to educate.
Over time, history teaches us that bad things don’t last forever. This is a democracy, and when people organize and unite, the plutocrats lose.
Grassroots community groups in Néw Orleans, Newark, and Chicago filed complaints of violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the Justice Department and the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. They seek an investigation of racially discriminatory school closings in their communities.
They wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary Arne Duncan:
“Journey for Justice is a coalition of grassroots organizations in twenty-two cities across the country. The coalition has come together because, across our communities, education “reformers” and privatizers are targeting neighborhood schools filled with children of color, and leaving behind devastation. By stealth, seizure, and sabotage, these corporate profiteers are closing and privatizing our schools, keeping public education for children of color, not only separate, not only unequal, but increasingly not public at all.
“Adding insult to injury, the perpetrators of this injustice have cloaked themselves in the language of the Civil Rights Movement. But too many of the charter and privately-managed schools that have multiplied as replacements for our beloved neighborhood schools are test prep mills that promote prison-like environments, and seem to be geared at keeping young people of color controlled, undereducated, and dehumanized. Children of color are not collateral damage. Our communities are not collateral damage.
“Thus, we stand in solidarity, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization in Chicago, Coalition for Community Schools and Conscious Concerned Citizens Controlling Community Changes in New Orleans, New Jersey’s Parents Unified for Local School Education in Newark, and Journey for Justice member organizations across the country, to shed light on the racial injustice of school closings.
“Neighborhood schools are the hearts of our communities, and the harm caused by just one school closure is deep and devastating. This is death by a thousand cuts.”
There is deep irony and sadness in the fact that these community groups are appealing for justice even as the nation commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision striking down legal segregation.
There is deep irony and sadness in the fact that these complaints are filed to the administration of the nation’s first black president.
There is deep irony and sadness in the fact that these complaints are directed at the policies not of racist governors but of the Obama administration itself.
Secretary Duncan has encouraged and funded the school closings that are at the heart of the complaints. He has applauded and funded the privatization of schools in black communities. He openly admires the “no excuses” charter schools that emphasize control over education and that teach strict conformity to arbitrary rules, not the habits of mind and dispositions of a free people.
In effect, the Obama administration is being asked to overrule its own education policies. How sad. How ironic.
The marvelous film, created by educators, “Rise Above the Mark,” will be shown at Mary Gage Peterson Elementary School, 5510 N. Christiana Ave, Chicago on Thursday May 29th at 4:30 pm and 7:00 pm.
Following each viewing there will be a panel discussion about the challenges raised and any action steps we can take. Please help us spread the word. Thank you!
“Rise Above the Mark” was made by public school educators in West Lafayette, Indiana. It includes interviews with experts from across the nation and shows the damage done by the corporate reform movement.
This is news you need to know.
The American Federation of Children is a rightwing organization that spends heavily to promote vouchers and to support candidates in state and local races who support vouchers.
When Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin was under siege for attacking public sector workers, he was honored (along with Michelle Rhee) by the AFS.
The AFS is funded by the DeVos family, whose fortune comes from its ownership of Amway.
It belongs to ALEC.
AFC is opposed to public education.
It is one of the main forces funding privatization, along with the Walton family of Walmart fame and fortune.
The House Rules Committee, dominated by a conservative Republican majority, rejected efforts by Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva (D) to insert amendments into federal legislation to require charter schools to be transparent and accountable.
Conservative Republicans want deregulated, privately managed charters to be the centerpiece of their privatizing education platform this fall. It is hard to understand why hostity to public education should be a winning issue for rightwingers. Only 6% of US students attend charter schools.
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Grijalva Expresses Deep Disappointment At House Refusal to Improve Charter School Bill, Highlights Findings of Costs to Taxpayers
Washington, D.C. – In the wake of recent news about potentially widespread charter school waste, fraud and abuse, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today expressed his deep disappointment at the House Rules Committee’s decision last night not to allow debate or a vote on his amendments to HR 10, the Success and Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Act. Grijalva’s amendments, which the Committee ruled out of order, would have made charter school operations more transparent and financially accountable to the public.
HR 10 is expected to get a House vote before the end of the week.
As reported by Salon today:
Just in time for National Charter School Week, there’s a new report highlighting the predictable perils of turning education into a poorly regulated business. Titled “Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud and Abuse,” the report focused on 15 states representing large charter markets, out of the 42 states that have charter schools. Drawing on news reports, criminal complaints, regulatory findings, audits and other sources, it “found fraud, waste and abuse cases totaling over $100 million in losses to taxpayers,” but warned that due to inadequate oversight, “the fraud and mismanagement that has been uncovered thus far might be just the tip of the iceberg.”
While there are plenty of other troubling issues surrounding charter schools — from high rates of racial segregation, to their lackluster overall performance records, to questionable admission and expulsion practices — this report sets all those admittedly important issues aside to focus squarely on activity that appears it could be criminal, and arguably totally out of control. It does not even mention questions raised by sky-high salaries paid to some charter CEOs, such as 16 New York City charter school CEOs who earned more than the head of the city’s public school system in 2011-12. [. . .]
The report takes its title from a section of a report to Congress by the Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General, a report that took note of “a steady increase in the number of charter school complaints” and warned that state level agencies were failing “to provide adequate oversight needed to ensure that Federal funds [were] properly used and accounted for.”
Grijalva’s amendments, respectively, would:
– require public disclosure of all private contributions made to charter schools.
– require the development and public disclosure of charter school conflict-of-interest guidelines; require open meetings at every charter school governing board, including parent, educator and support staff representatives; require meetings to be held at times when parents can attend, announced in advance, and made open for the public to attend and testify; and mandate that governing board minutes are published and available online.
“Our school system exists to serve students, not to pay for administrators’ personal luxuries,” Grijalva said. “Our children deserve a good education no matter what school they go to, and taxpayers deserve a return on the investment they make in young Americans’ upbringing. This bill leaves a broken system in place, and I will not support it.”
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