Archives for category: Democrats for Education Reform
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Valerie Jablow: DFER, Fake Democrats, Spent More Than $500,000 for “Reform” in D.C.

By dianeravitch
November 3, 2018 //
10

Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) is an organization of faux Democrats. Some are Democrats, some are Republicans, all of them give generously to undermine public schools and the teaching profession.

D.C. parent blogger Valerie Jablow gives an overview of how DFER in pouring obscene sums of money into education races in D.C.

DFER was denounced formally by the Democratic party conventions in Colorado and California; both called on DFER to stop corrupting the term “Democrat” by using it in their title, since they are a front for Wall Street and corporate America.

She writes:

How much money have you–as a parent, teacher, or student in DC’s publicly funded schools–given to political causes around public education in 2018: $5? $50? $500? $5000?

How much money did your spouse/parents/children/relatives give?

How much money did any union at your public school give?

It is not easy to know all these answers–but chances are good the total is less than $522,393.74.

That amount–$522,393.74–is what I calculated was given between January 1, 2018 and October 26 to the independent expenditure committee (IEC) of the DC chapter of the education advocacy organization Democrats for Education Reform (DFER). If you add in what was given to DFER DC’s political action committee (PAC) in the same time–about $7,400–you get almost $530,000 donated in just 10 months in the name of education reform in DC. Most of those 2018 donors appear to be outside DC.

Some familiar names appear, like the Waltons (of course) and Reed Hastings’ wife, who lives in California. The Waltons were the single biggest funder of charter schools in D.C. The Waltons own Walmart, which does not pay its workers a living wage. I seriously doubt that they are Democrats.

After listing the donors and recipients of DFER money (which does not add up to over $500,000), Jablow writes:

If wealthy people giving to a cause to tilt public education away from the public seems deeply undemocratic, it’s helpful to recall two recent, undemocratic, actions in our public schools:

–No DC citizen voted to have charter schools in our city. While many DC families are happy with their charter school(s) and appreciate the horizons these schools have opened, it is well worth recalling that we did not get charter schools because of popular will or votes. We got them because Congress–a body in which no DC citizen has representation equal to that of the rest of the country–said we had to. (And charmingly decreed that we had to pay for them, too.)

–No unelected DC citizen voted for mayoral control of DCPS. (In fact, there were only 9 people in the entire world who voted for mayoral control of DCPS. They were all members of the city council.)

Through this lens, one could construe DFER DC’s 2018 wealth gathering and deployment not merely as success, but custom!

Too bad for taxpayers and democracy.

Categories Accountability, Democracy, Democrats for Education Reform, DFER, District of Columbia, Education Reform

Mercedes Schneider Reveals Where Billionaire Alice Walton Is Financing School Choice

By dianeravitch
October 20, 2018 //
1

Mercedes Schneider, Teacher-researcher extraordinaire, has dug into state campaign finance files to track the spending of Walmart heiress and billionaire Alice Walton.

The Walton Family is extremely conservative. They despise unions, and they are contemptuous of punlic schools.

They favor charter schools, vouchers, and Teach for America, which provides the low-wage workers for their charter schools. They partner with Betsy DeVos’s voucher-loving American Federation for Children and also “Democrats for Education Reform,” which is charter-happy.

The Walton Family claims credit for financing one of every four charter schools in the nation.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Privatization, Unions, Walton Foundation

Nevada: Republicans Promise to Create More Charter Schools and Vouchers if They Win State Races

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2018 //
9

There has never been a bigger hoax than the claim that Democrats and progressives support school choice.

School choice has always been the rallying cry of segregationists and the rightwing of the Republican party.

The latest evidence comes from Nevada, where the Republican party has promised to create more charter schools and expand the voucher program if they win control of the Governorship and the Legislature. They warn that Democrats will curtail privatization (aka, “school choice”).

Of course, promoters of school choice go out of their way to pretend to be “reformers” and Democrats. That is why there is an organization of hedge fund managers called “Democrats for Education Reform,” when their goals are exactly the same as Betsy DeVos and ALEC.

School choice was born as the rallying cry of southern segregationists in the wake of the Brown decision. For many years, its advocates kept a low profile because the public understood that school choice=segregation.

You must always remember that “reformers” are privatizers, and they want to “re-form” the public schools into privately controlled market-based entities, whose books are closed to the public and whose governing board is self-selected, not elected.

If you live in Nevada, please vote.

Every vote counts.

If you don’t vote, you will see an unprecedented attack on your community’s public schools and an explosion of privatization, with your tax dollars going to privately managed charters and religious schools.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Democrats, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Nevada, Privatization

A Hedge Fund Manager Is Puzzled by Infatuation with Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
October 7, 2018 //
12

I received this letter a few years back, before I started this blog. It has haunted me. I responded offline. I wondered what it feels like to be part of this world. I will never know.


I manage money and I’m black. I am distressed by the barrage of mail I’ve been getting from fellow money managers who somehow think there is a fairly easy solution to educating the “underclass” by using charter schools. I’d like to share with you a few points from my experience which may help you contextualize my concern.

1. Hedge fund managers typically don’t add value to society.

2. Hedge fund managers often have very little practical real world experience. Many have not worked for anyone else. Yet activist managers are very comfortable giving advice to operating managers of companies in which they take a stake.

3. Hedge fund managers virtually never hire minorities outside of Asians

4. Hedge fund managers have attended exclusive private schools and almost always send their kids to the same.

5. Hedge fund managers know virtually nothing of incentive systems and largely supported the Wall Street incentives which nearly created the demise of our society as we know it.

6. Hedge fund managers and private equity managers typically don’t pay their share of Federal taxes. (I personally elect to pay my carried interest as regular income)

With my experiences as a backdrop, I’m somewhat concerned that groups such as DFER (Democrats for education reform) are receiving so much positive press.

As I have begun to research education I wonder if you can point me in the right direction?

1. Has there been a study on the effect of educational lotteries (like the kind that are run to select students for some charter schools) on the students who aren’t picked? It seems a bit demoralizing to me…

2. Has there been a study of teachers who would work for incentives? In other words I’m not sure free market incentives work for professionals like all the teachers I know?.

Categories Charter Schools, Democrats for Education Reform

Who Is Hakeem Jeffries?

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2018 //
82

Hakeem Jeffries is a Democratic Congressman from Brooklyn. He is part of the Democratic leadership team. Some people believe he might be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, the successor to Nancy Pelosi. He is a favorite of hedge fund managers and the charter school industry. He recently was honored by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools as an African American charter school leader (why the organization established a racially segregated award is unclear, as it is unclear why Congressman Jeffries would accept it).

It is not “progressive” to support privatization of public services. It is not progressive to support schools staffed by non-union teachers. It is not progressive to support a “movement” that ignores racial segregation and even celebrates it. It is not progressive to support a movement financed by the anti-union Waltons, the DeVos family, the Koch brothers, and ALEC.

Progressives support public schools.

Dorothy Siegel, a longtime activist in the Working Families Party, wrote this comment about Congressman Jeffries:

“I know Hakeem well. I worked very hard to get him elected, first, to the NYS Assembly, and then to Congress, in order to defeat the even worse Democrat Ed Towns. I even raised a bunch of money for him. Then I saw him slip over to the dark side. But, make no mistake, I believe that his embrace of privatization is NOT (as he claims) primarily about wanting poor black and brown kids to get a good education, but about the fact that there is more money and power on that side than on the side of public education. That money, the hedge funders who provide it, and the corporatist establishment Democrats, were the drivers of Hakeem’s political rise. Money and power have totally corrupted him. Hakeem, like Cuomo and Booker, has and will continue to sell out our public schools when they are in the inner sanctum of their party leadership positions. Hakeem’s rise within Congressional Dem leadership is helping him to thwart ALL our efforts to reign in Congressional support for privatization. On education issues, he wis arguably more powerful than all the new progressive congresspeople we will elect in 2018, combined.

“Sad to say, we must recognize that Hakeem is THE ENEMY. He can not be defeated in his very safe Brooklyn seat, so we must all ORGANIZE to EXPOSE him as the corporate shill that he is. We must tell our progressive Congressional friends that it is NOT ok to go along with Dem leadership (Hakeem) on charters and privatization. Believe me, Hakim will have the tools he needs to fight harder for his corporate friends than anyone on our side will have, so we need to be loud and clear. We also have to insist that, for politicians to gain our support, it’s NOT ok to be “progressive” on reproductive choice and Medicare for All, etc, etc, but anything less than TOTALLY AGAINST corporatism and privatization. Time to take a stand!

“BTW, Hakeem was a key supporter of Zellnor Myrie, the victor in one of the races against the IDC traitors we defeated in the NYS Dem primary. We need to watch what Zellnor does in Albany to make sure he doesn’t pay back his mentor by supporting Hakeem’s education agenda. I’m not at all worried about the other five IDC-slayers. They are solidly and deeply pro-public education. Zellnor may be, too, but he will certainly get pressured by Hakeem and that ilk. So we need to let him know that “progressive” means 100% pro-public education.”

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, New York, Privatization

Leading Democratic Congressman Honored by National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

By dianeravitch
September 17, 2018 //
14

Hakeem Jeffries from Brooklyn is one of the leaders of the Democratic Party in Congress. He is considering a bid to be chair of the Democratic Caucus.

On September 13, he was honored by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and received its first “African American Charter School Leadership Award.” The event is referred to in the official invitation as #BringTheFunk. The award noted that he is a “faithful supporter” of New York City’s Success Academy charter chain, a favorite of the hedge fund industry, which may well be the best funded charter chain in the nation, known for its strict discipline, its high test scores, and its high attrition rates.

The event was sponsored by the rightwing, anti-union Walton Family Foundation, Campbell Brown’s “The 74,” and Education Reform Now. Campbell Brown is a close friend of Betsy DeVos; Education Reform Now is affiliated with Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), the hedge funders’ organization. Education Reform Now and DFER exist to promote charter schools.

Like so many privately managed charter schools, the new award is segregated, for blacks only.

To understand why Congress is paying $440 million a year for new charter schools, even when there is no need for funding for new charter schools, even though they are amply funded by philanthropists and billionaires, even though they draw funding away from public schools, even though the federal General Accountability Office found that they are rife with waste, fraud, and abuse, even though charter school scandals are increasingly common, even though the NAACP called for a national moratorium on new charter schools, start here.

Categories Charter Schools, Democrats, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Harlem Success Academy, New York City, Privatization, Race

D.C.: Help Elect an Ally to the State Board of Education

By dianeravitch
September 11, 2018 //
7

Emily Gasoi is running for a seat on the D.C. State Board of Education. She co-authored a book recently with Deborah Meier called ”These Schools Belong to You and Me.”

DFER has funded her opponent. They are outspending Emily 4-1. Please help her. Let’s crowd source her campaign with whatever you can afford to donate. She is far better equipped to serve the children of D.C. than her DFER-funded opponent, who will push more charters (the city’s schools are already 50% charter). Emily has promised to end the Rhee teacher evaluation system IMPACT. DFER favors more top-down punishments for teachers.

This is her website:

https://emily4education.com

My friend Joan Snowden in D.C. writes:


Dear Friends

I hope this note finds you well after a hot but enjoyable summer. I am writing because I need your help. My dear friend Emily Gasoi is running for a seat on the DC State School Board of Education from Ward 1. Emily is an accomplished educator, DC parent and social activist. She has a PhD in education policy, teaches at Georgetown University, runs a non-profit called Artful Education and previously trained teachers in DC at the Center for Inspired Teaching. Her most recent book, co-authored with world renown educator and MacArthur Prize winner, Deborah Meier, “These Schools Belong to You and Me-Why We can’t Afford to Abandon our Public Schools” makes an important and compelling argument on why we must stop the privatization of public education.

This is a critical election for the DC community. Privatizers have designs on our schools. Privatizing the schools in the Nation’s capitol would be a feather in their cap. Despite these privatizers best efforts, report after report has indicated that the hoped-for education miracle under Mayoral control and other policies have been a bust. Finally members of the DC Council and others are now beginning to listen to parents and teachers about what is wrong and what better reforms would look like. We are starting to have a more honest conversation about whether the top-down, standardized test-driven strategies long pursued by DC “reformers” are the right ones.

DC needs an educator and parent on the State Board now more than ever. But Emily’s challenger is a bank manager with absolutely no education experience and no children in the DC system. Until very recently he served on the board of Directors for DFER (Democrats for Education Reform-DC). If you don’t know about DFER, this link should help. Wall Street hedge fund managers started DFER in 2008 to promote the privatization of public education in key districts nationally and to counter the influence of teacher unions. They overwhelm local elections with outside cash. With DFER’s help, Emily’s opponent has already raised $60,000 for this race. Emily needs help to counter this negative, outside influence. You can be a big help.

Emily is the experienced educator, parent and underdog candidate. She may not have a big political machine behind her, but she is well organized, has the support of an army of committed parents and educators and is a serious contended.

Please join us 6-7:30 on Thursday, September 20, 2018 at my home in D.C. to meet Emily. If you can’t make it, please contribute to her campaign. She needs your support so that she can print literature and build out her campaign infrastructure to assure a win. If you can, please make a contribution Here. The maximum amount is $200 per contributor, which means she needs as many people contributing at that level as possible. Please share this request with your networks.

We must stop privatization efforts and preserve public education in the District of Columbia. Please get involved and enlist your friends. Thanks in advance.

Please RSVP to j-snowden@rcn.com. I look forward to seeing you on the 20th.

Joan Baratz Snowden

Categories Democrats for Education Reform, District of Columbia, Education Reform

The Legacy of Barbara Madeloni

By dianeravitch
August 29, 2018 //
5

Let us now praise a fearless street fighter, who beat back and defeated the corporate reformers, billionaires, hedge fund managers, and Dark Money in Massachusetts in 2016. Let us now praise Barbara Madeloni, who as president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, led the fight against the proliferation of charter schools in Massachusetts.

This article is a fitting tribute to her spirit and leadership.

The Reformers bundled millions of dollars and set their sights on Massachusetts as a ripe target. In 2016, the state voted on a referendum (Question 2) that would have allowed the addition of 12 charters schools a year for the indefinite future. It would have wreaked havoc on the budget of every school district in the state.

The “No on 2” forces included teachers, parents, and other citizens who believed in public schools. They were outspent 2-1 (both the AFT and NEA made sizable contributions). Almost every school district committee (elected school board) came out in opposition.

People power beat money power, by 62-38%.

After the election, the Massachusetts campaign finance officials fined the lead Reform organization Families for Excellent Schools nearly half a million dollars and barred them from the state for four years. Soon after, FES collapsed. Another organization soon popped up to take its place as a bundled of Dark Money.

But, let us not forget. We won. Public education won. Parents and teachers won.

Thank you, Barbara Madeloni!

I humbly add your name to the blog’s Honor Roll.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Dark Money, Democrats for Education Reform, Honor Roll, Massachusetts, Privatization, Resistance, Unions

What Is DFER (Democrats for Education Reform)? LINK ADDED

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2018 //
33

Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) was created by a group of guys who work as hedge fund managers. Some are Democrats, other are Republicans. They support charter schools and high-stakes testing. They never support public schools. They support Teach for America. They think that teachers should be evaluated by the test scores of their students, even though research overwhelmingly shows that this method is a failure (see the recent RAND-AIR report on the flop of the Gates-funded demonstration of evaluating teachers by test scores). They believe in merit pay, even though merit pay has never worked anywhere. There is no evidence that any active member of DFER ever attended a public school, ever taught in a public school, or ever sent his children to a public school. DFER doesn’t like public schools. Like Betsy DeVos, which it pretends to oppose, DFER believes in free-market reform of schools. If I am wrong, I hope that one of these hedge fund managers contacts me to let me know.

DFER loves corporate charter chains and doesn’t like local democratic control of schools. They see nothing unsavory about out-of-state billionaires buying an election for their favorite candidate, even in a local school board election. DFER is a PAC that collects and distributes fund to candidates who support its goals.

Here is the DFER list for this year’s election. Cory Booker and Michael Bennet are perennial favorites of DFER. I don’t know if Congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia is aligned with their philosophy or if DFER is trying to establish a relationship. He is the ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee in the Congress. Maybe DFER is currying his favor. His predecessor, Congressman George Miller of California, was fully aligned with DFER’s views and was richly rewarded with fundraisers, even when he didn’t have an opponent. His former chief of staff, Charles Barone, now runs the DFER office in D.C.

Suffice it to say that DFER pays no attention to research that does not support its fervent belief in charters, private management, and high-stakes testing. DFER believes in the free market, punishments and rewards for performance. That works on Wall Street. It should work in schools, even if it doesn’t.

Here is a graphic that shows the links among DFER and unsavory characters who also want to privatize public education. There is a factual error in the graphic. Political money is spent by 501c4 organizations. Those designated as 501c3 are supposed to be non-political. The non-political wing of DFER is called ”Education Reform Now.” It has a political advocacy group called “Education Reform Now Advocacy.” Of course, it advocates for high-stakes testing and charter schools. “Education reform,” in the eyes of those connected to DFER, means replacing public schools with private management that is neither accountable nor transparent.

DFER puts out a list of candidates (all Democrats) and invites its members to send them contributions. In this way, it is able to raise very large sums for friends of charter schools in Congress and in important state races, even school board races. Its mailing list includes many very wealthy people, so DFER is a major source of money for candidates like Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, and other charter-friendly Democrats.

The Democratic Party conventions in both California and Colorado denounced DFER for calling itsel “Democrats” when they undermine public schools.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, DFER, Education Industry, Privatization, Testing

Steven Singer: DFER and DeVos Think Alike about School Reform

By dianeravitch
August 10, 2018 //
24

Steven Singer hits the nail on the head: there is no difference between DFER and DeVos!

He writes:

“Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) put out a new video about what they think it means to be an education progressive.

“And by the political action committee’s definition, Betsy DeVos may be the most “progressive” education secretary ever.

“She champions “public charter schools.” Just like them!

“She is in favor of evaluating teachers on student test scores. Just like them!

“She is a booster for “holding schools accountable” through the use of standardized tests. Just like them!

“And she loves putting public tax dollars into private hands to run schools “more efficiently” by disbanding school boards, closing public debate and choosing exactly which students get to attend privatized schools. Just like… you get the idea.

“But perhaps the most striking similarity between DeVos and DFER is their methodologies.

“DFER announced it again was going to flood Democratic races with tons of campaign cash to bolster candidates who agreed with them. That’s exactly how DeVos gets things done, too!

“She gives politicians bribes to do her bidding! The only difference is she pays her money mostly to Republicans while DFER pays off Democrats. But if both DeVos and DFER are paying to get would-be lawmakers to enact the same policies, what is the difference!?

“Seriously, what is the difference between Betsy DeVos and Democrats for Education Reform?”

Singer concludes that faux progressive groups like DFER, who are indistinguishable from Republicans, are causing many people to abandon the party.

“Why do some progressives vote third party? Because of groups like DFER.

“Voters think something like – if this charter school advocacy group represents what Democrats are all about, I can’t vote Democrat. I need a new party. Hence the surge of Green and other third party votes that is blamed for hurting Democratic candidates.”

DFER and DeVos! Made for each other!

Categories Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Democrats, Democrats for Education Reform, DFER, School Choice, Standardized Testing, Teacher Evaluations
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