Tag Archives: Eli Broad
Review and Preview Thurmond v Tuck
This year's biggest election win in California was for the down-ballot office, Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI). Tony Thurmond defeated Marshall Tuck in a proxy battle between billionaires supporting public school privatization and teachers' unions fighting for democratically run neighborhood schools. More than $61,000,000 was spent on the SPI office doubling the previous $30,000,000 spending record set in 2014 when Tuck lost to Tom Torlakson.
Director of research at California Target Book, Rob Pyers, reported this year's total election spending in California realized a new level. Target Book publisher Darry Sragow commented, "If blowing through the billion-dollar campaign spending ceiling in California doesn't give pause to everyone in politics, I don't know what will."
Of the eight state-wide constitutional offices on the ballot, the governor's race topped spending at $108,221,028 and the SPI race came in second totaling $61,170,451. Spending in the governor's race was also heavily impacted by billionaires supporting the charter school industry. California has an open primary in which the top two vote getters reach the general election ballot regardless of party. Before June's voting, billionaires lavished Anthony Villaraigosa's campaign unprecedented independent expenditure money trying to get him to the November ballot.
Spending By Eight Billionaires for Villaraigosa over Newsom in 2018 Primary Election
When Villaraigosa lost badly in the June 6 primary, many of the same billionaires listed above turned their full attention toward electing Marshall Tuck SPI.
Following a brief career in investment banking, Tuck took a job at the politically connected Green Dot charter schools. Steve Barr a former chair of the Democratic Party who had served on national campaigns for Bill Clinton, Gary Hart and Michael Dukakis founded Green Dot charter schools in 1999. He hired Truck in 2002 to be Chief Operating Officer (COO) and eventually promoted him to President and COO.
When Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa was rebuffed in his efforts to take control of Los Angeles Unified School District, he convinced a few donors to underwrite the takeover of ten schools in areas which had suffered years of poor standardized testing results. They created a non-profit called Partnership for LA. Villaraigosa tapped Marshall Tuck to lead the Partnership.
Tuck was extremely unpopular at the Partnership. The Sacramento Bee reported, "Teachers passed a vote of no confidence at nine of the schools at the end of the first year, leading to independent mediation."
During this education reform era in which connections are more important than skill, experience and training, Tuck remained in good standing with the Destroy Public Education (DPE) financiers. Subsequent to loosing the formerly most expensive SPI race in California's history; Tuck's benefactors took care of him. Despite no training as an educator, he was given a job as Educator-in-Residence at the New Teacher Center. Bill Gates provides much of the centers funding including grants totaling $26,305,252 since 2009.
Reviewing the Campaign Contributions
Direct contributions to a candidate are no longer of primary importance. The money given to "independent expenditure" committees has no contribution limits. Legally, these committees are supposed to be separate from the candidate and are not to coordinate with the candidate's campaign; however, the committees are often doing the bidding of the same people who created the candidate.
In Tuck versus Thurmond, the direct giving only accounted for 12% of total money spent. Although the direct money spent was comparatively small, it was revealing. In this race the contribution limit was $7,300 and it could be given twice (once for the primary and once for the general). Tuck received 377 maximum contributions for a total of $2,748,500. Thurmond received 170 maximum contributions for a total of $1,234,854.
The race is generally viewed as a battle between billionaires and teachers unions, but that obscures some realities. Tuck's maximum contributions came from 259 sources of which 257 were individuals. Thurmond's Maximum contributions came from 129 sources of which 16 were individuals. Tuck received max contributions from 76 non-employed people, 65 financial industry employees, 39 corporate executives and 29 billionaires. Thurmond received a maximum contribution from one billionaire, Tom Steyer and two corporate executives, Stewart Resnick and Linda Ray Resnick, who also were maximum contributors for Tuck.
The groups who gave maximum contributions to Thurmond were almost all organized by labor unions. Surprisingly, much of the money came from voluntary contributions and not union dues. For example, the California State Retirees PAC, made a maximum contribution to Thurmond. The largest amount contributed to the PAC by the 1404 contributors was $15.50. Another example is The California Federation of Teachers COPE which made two max donation to Thurmond. The money came from 1326 member organizations like the San Jose Federation of Teacher Local 957 whose members made voluntary contributions totaling to $73,391.
It was the PACs who drove the election financially.
Independent Expenditure Example Map of EdVoice for the Kids PAC
The LittleSis map above shows eight billionaires contributing $9,769,200 to EdVoice for the Kids PAC. Plus four of them send $2,664,600 to Charter Public Schools PAC sponsored by the California Charter Schools Association. That PAC contributes another $2,900,000 to the Ed Voice PAC. EdVoice then sends $17,953,882 to Students, Parents and Teachers Supporting Marshall Tuck which spends $22,013,408 on things like TV ads, radio spots and mailers.
The spending by the three PACs and the billionaires were verified using records provided by the Cal-access data base for major donors. The total of independent expenditures for Tuck is a conservative estimate based on multiple news reports. The independent expenditures on behalf of Tuck were more than the record setting $30,000,000 total for this contest in 2014.
Students, Parents and Teachers Supporting Marshal Tuck was a project of EdVoice. No students, teachers or parents are listed among the contributors to this PAC unless George Hume, Chairman of Basic American or investor Michael Stoppelman have children. This PAC name looked and sounded good when providing a deceptive and legally required source for political advertisements.
The opening page of EdVoice's internet site says, "EdVoice is a nonprofit organization advocating for policies to increase measurable student achievement for all students in California and eliminate inequality of educational opportunity in public schools." In other words, they promote using testing to label public schools failures and promote Betsy DeVos's school choice ideology.
Bill Lucia, a connected Republican operative, is President and COO of Ed Voice. His Ed Voice biography states, "Prior to joining EdVoice, Lucia served as Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy, leading the advocacy and legal defense team at the California Charter Schools Association(CCSA). Before joining CCSA, Lucia worked as Senior Assessment Policy Liaison for Educational Testing Service, and prior to that, spent five years in Washington D.C. working as a senior official in the U.S. Department of Education and in the U.S. Senate."
EdVoice is not a big money organization. In 2016, its total income was $400,136. However at least two billionaires associated with privatizing public education are board members, Eli Broad and Carrie Walton Penner. Susan Bloomfield is also on the board.
In March 2017, Marshall Tuck announced his candidacy for SPI. In April, Tony Thurmond announced. By the end of 2017, four candidates had joined the race with the addition of Lily Ploski and Steven Ireland.
Marshall Tuck had name recognition and solid campaign funding. By August 2017, Thurmond announced $1,000,000 in campaign contributions and early endorsements from Senator Kamala D. Harris, SPI Tom Torlakson, the California Federation of Teachers, and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California. From that point on, the race was mainly between Tuck and Thurmond but Ploski's and Ireland's entry made it difficult for either Tuck or Thurmond to win 50% of the votes during the primary which would have ended the race.
When the year began, many supporters of public education were concerned because the candidate apposing Marshall Tuck was a one-term Assemblyman from Richmond, California with no name recognition. Not only that, he was a black man vulnerable to the race card. Then the Judases at the Association of California School Administrators endorsed Marshall Tuck for SPI.
That might have been the point at which Thurmond demonstrated he was a special guy. On the weekend of January 20th he spoke at the CTA delegates meeting. He already had their endorsement since October, but in this speech the delegates met a charismatic candidate who brought them to their feet cheering. He declared "no privatization of public schools in California. Not in this state. Not on my watch."
At the California Democratic Party convention in February, the delegates overwhelmingly endorsed Thurmond over Tuck. Much of the sentiment at that San Diego convention was that Tuck was not a real Democrat. He was seen as being awash in Republican money while espousing their policies.
When Tuck tried to speak to the convention delegates, he was booed off the stage. Amusingly, Lee Ohanian of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University wrote an article titled "David Versus Goliath: A School Reformer Takes on the Democratic Party and Unions." Amazingly in this article Tuck is David and Thurmond is Goliath. Ohanian wrote,
"A few months ago Marshall Tuck, a Democratic candidate who is running for the state office of California Superintendent of School (sic) Instruction, went to the California Democratic Party Convention to speak to his party about how to create better K–12 education in California. He went to the podium, but didn't get a word out. Well, he may have said "I," but that would have been about it. He was shouted down with a chorus of boos that drowned out his voice. The boos continued until his allotted time expired. No state Democratic party (sic) official quieted the crowd. The message was clear: this particular Democratic candidate, who wishes to change the status quo, is not welcome in his party. And you thought that the Democratic party embraced diversity?"
And you thought Stanford University was a credible research institution?
Thurmond turned out to be a consistent and gifted politician who won support at almost all debates, editorial interviews and campaign events.
A San Diego Union editorial read, "In his interview with us, Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, D-Richmond, who finished second to Tuck in the June primary, seemed just as affable but not nearly as ambitious as Tuck." In case that was too subtle; Tony is a black man.
On November 6, Thurmond became the first African American elected to statewide office in four decades.
The Preview is Looking Good
Calmatters interviewed Thurmond during the campaign.
'"We talked to voters across the state and told them what this election means for each of us: it means giving every kid the opportunity to succeed in the 21st century, not just the ones that show the most potential,' Thurmond said.
'"It means funding our public schools at the level they deserve, not pouring money into our jails in prisons. It means providing mental health treatment for kids, not arming them with guns."'
Calmatters also stated,
"Thurmond had said he favored a 'pause' on the growth of charters in California while the state examines the long-term impact they've had so far on its public education system. The assemblyman also said he supported more charter-school oversight and sympathized with school districts that had taken financial hits after losing students to charter schools."
Politico reported on Thurmond's first public statements since Tuck conceded.
"He called for a temporary ban on any new K-12 charter schools in the state, addressing reporters at the Sacramento union hall of the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California. He said the state has reached a 'tipping point' with too many charters that have financially harmed public school districts, POLITICO's Angela Hart reports."
'"I believe that we shouldn't open new schools without providing the resources for those schools,' said Thurmond, a Democratic assemblyman. 'It is time to have perhaps a pause on the opening of new schools until we get clear about how we will fund any new schools."'
"While charter school advocates believe their programs can force positive changes in traditional campuses, Thurmond took issue with the notion of 'competition,' which he framed in a negative light."
'"The truth of the matter is you cannot open new schools — charter or otherwise — and serve all the students in this state," he said. "So if the model is built on saying let's have competition in education, then you're certainly leaving certain students to suffer and to not have the resources they need."'
Tags: Alice Walton, California Charter Schools Association, Campaign Spending, Carrie Walton Penner, CTA, EdVoice, Eli Broad, James Walton, Politics, Public Schools, Reed Hastings, teachers unions
School Choice is a Bamboozle a Hornswoggle a Flimflam
Two central ideologies behind school-choice are markets always make superior decisions and the cost of having local control of schools is poor outcomes. Both ideas are demonstrably untrue, but big money and power politics keep them alive.
In 2017, a national survey showed a dramatic drop in support for charter schools. A related Chalkbeat article said,
The survey, conducted by the school choice-friendly journal Education Next, found that slightly more Americans support charter schools, 39 percent, than oppose them, at 36 percent. But that marks a drop from 51 percent support just last year — one of the biggest changes in public opinion seen in the long-running survey, according to Harvard professor and the magazine's editor-in-chief Marty West.
An internet search of "charter school growth slowing" brings up articles from around the country concerning the charter slow down. Education Week noted, "Last year, more charter schools closed than opened in the Bay Area for the first time since California passed its charter law in 1992. (California was the second state to allow charters to open.)"
To address this choice crisis, two Billionaires are starting a new national organization. A July 31, 2018 Chalkbeat article by Matt Barnum explains,
"The City Fund, as the group is being called, will push cities to expand charter schools and district schools with charter-like autonomy. It represents a big increase in visibility and influence for advocates of the "portfolio model" of running schools, a strategy that's been adopted by cities like New Orleans, Denver, and Indianapolis.
"The group was announced Tuesday morning on the blog of Neerav Kingsland, who leads education giving at The Laura and John Arnold Foundation. According to a separate presentation created by the group and viewed by Chalkbeat, the Arnold Foundation and the Hastings Fund have already given the group over $200 million."
Reed Hastings (Netflix Founder and CEO) is a charter school advocate who served on the board of the California Charter School Association; was the primary advocate of California's charter school co-location law; and was also a key supporter for lifting charter school limits in California. He is a primary investor in DreamBox Learning, a company creating software to teach kids at computers. He famously stated that elected school boards need to be done away with.
John Arnold made his fortune at Enron and a hedge fund. He retired at 38-years-old. His private non-profit, the Laura and John Arnold foundation supports privatizing schools and ending democratic local control. He gives lavishly to charter schools (example: Gifted the Charter Growth Fund – $13 million).
The portfolio model of school reform calls for viewing schools like assets in a stock portfolio. Based primarily on the results of standardized testing the bottom scoring 5% of schools should be closed and replaced with new charter or innovation schools (charter like district schools). A serious flaw in this plan is the problem of error causes standardized testing to be useless for evaluating schools or teachers. Testing is a terrible ruler.
Former Assistant US Secretary of Education, Diane Ravitch, reacted to Arnold and Hasting promoting portfolio districts noting,
"Bonafide Reformer Jay P. Greene of the University of Arkansas has written several posts arguing that the portfolio model is a failure and that it is no different from a school district (although it is privately controlled). Read here. and here. The latter post is advice written to the Arnold Foundation about why it should not invest in the portfolio model. Sad. They didn't listen."
Innovation schools are promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). They are district schools which present an operation plan for improving test outcomes and then receive autonomy to carry out the plan. Whether innovation or charter, local control of schools by democratic means is ended.
Disruption is not a good feature in education. The portfolio theory violates the need for stability. Brooke Havlik writing for Nova Education's "Science and Learning" published "Psychologists Find School Stability a Factor in Achievement Gap." Brooke stated, "Two new studies published this month suggest that changing schools may have a negative impact on cognitive development and student performance, especially for students experiencing chronic, high-levels of poverty." (emphasis added)
In cities like Denver and Indianapolis, the portfolio model almost exclusively effects schools in poor and minority communities. In other words, the students most negatively impacted by this theory have their schools closed and the community loses its democratic rights.
A New Paper from In The Public Interest (ITPI) Documents the Flimflam
This spring, ITPI published "Fraud and Waste in California's Charter Schools." The report documents $149,000,000 fraudulently purloined by factions of the California charter-school industry. The total of stealing stated is a summation of cases cited in media reports. The actual amount stolen is much larger.
The ITPI report also reveals how fortunes are created by gaining control of publicly financed assets. The report discloses,
"While charter schools constructed with general obligation bonds cannot be sold or used for anything other than the authorized school, schools constructed with tax-exempt conduit bonds become the private property of the charter operator. Even if the charter is revoked, neither the state nor a local school district can take control of this property. Additionally, schools constructed with private funding subsidized by New Market Tax Credits or acquired with private funds but whose mortgage payments are reimbursed through the Charter Facilities Grant Program (known as "SB740") are typically owned without restriction."
The American Federation of Teacher (AFT) released a new white paper, "Report on the Aftermath of the Great Depression: A Decade of Neglect." It shares,
"Moody's Investors Service, the bond rating agency, found that not only do charter schools tend to proliferate in areas where school districts already are under economic and demographic stress, but that charter schools tend to "pull students and revenues away from districts faster than the districts can reduce their costs." As a result, charter schools also can add to school district credit risks, increasing the cost of borrowing. A growing body of research documents this impact."
"Los Angeles: Each student leaving for a charter cost the district $3,900 in lost services.
"Philadelphia: Two different studies in Philadelphia found the cost of lost services to be between $4,828 and $6,898 per pupil leaving.
"North Carolina: A student leaving an urban North Carolina school district costs between $500 and $700 in lost services. The effect is smaller in non-urban districts."
A Case Study in Destroy Public Education (DPE) (Part 1)
R.B. Buzz Woolley is a wealth philanthropist and venture capitalist from La Jolla, California. A San Diego Reader report from 2011 said of him,
"On the political front, meanwhile, Woolley personally donated $6500 to the California Charter Schools PAC in March and $25,000 to the Alliance of California Charter Schools Independent Expenditure Committee in June. In May, he also kicked in $10,000 for Californians Against Special Interests, a primarily GOP group mounting an initiative for a so-called paycheck-protection measure banning direct deductions of labor union dues."
In 2015 Woolley Purchased the Mushroom House for $5 Million
In 2005, Buzz Woolley and longtime columnist Neil Morgan founded Voice of San Diego. It was the first digital nonprofit news organization to serve a local community in the country. Besides his interest in using new technologies for media, Woolley also is enthusiastic about education technology in the classroom. In 2013 Woolley's Girard Foundation sent over $500,000 to companies developing software for "personalized" education and competency-based education.
In 2004, Buzz Wooley was the President of the then new Charter School Growth Fund. That year, Don Fisher (Gap Inc.) and Wooley each contributed $100,000 to the fund. They were the only contributors. John Walton (Walmart) and Greg Penner (Walmart) joined the board. The next year, Buzz Wooley resigned as President.
Image is from the Charter School Growth Fund 2005 Tax Form
The other important figure in the Thrive Public Schools case study is Nicole Assisi. Nicole attended Coronado High School and UCLA where she earned a multisubject teaching credential. Her first teaching job was leading English classes at San Diego's Mira Mesa High School – 2002-2003 school year.
In 2003, she moved on to High Tech High where she was a teacher and project-based learning trainer until 2005 or 2006. Her linked in profile says she worked at High Tech until 2006 but it also says that in 2005 she went to Los Angeles to be an Assistant Principal at Camino Nuevo Charter Academy. In 2008, she moved on to be Principle on special assignment at De Vinci Schools (Formerly Wiseburn 21st Century Charter). She left De Vinci schools and returned to San Diego in 2013.
Nicole Assisi from the Thrive Public Schools Web-Site
Along the way, Nicole earned a master's degree in English and Communication/Media Studies from University of San Diego – 2004 and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Southern California – 2010.
The 34-years-old Nicole was provided with $8,960 from the Charter School Growth Fund and $100,000 from the Gates supported Educause to come to San Diego and start a charter school.
In the fall of 2013 she submitted a charter proposal to San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) and then withdrew it. Soon after, she did the same thing at the Grossmont School District. Finally, in November, she resubmitted her completed proposal to San Diego Unified.
SDUSD's charter review committee recommended her proposed Thrive Public Schools be authorized to start September 1, 2015 instead of 2014. They felt she needed more time to get a school organized and populated. In a surprise move the SDUSD Board voted 3-2 to reject the petition.
The next day Buzz Woolley's Voice of San Diego ran an opinion piece by Nicole. She called herself "a sacrificial lamb" and said the Board "made a mockery of the entire charter-approval process, which I worked diligently to navigate." She also wrote, "Thankfully, the County Board of Education has an opportunity to right this wrong when our appeal comes before them next week."
The county also turned down the charter with a 3-2 vote. The county review committee had recommended against approving the charter.
Nicole really had no worries because the pro-school-privatizing State Board of Education (SBE) would come to her rescue. Though the law encourages the SBE to respect the decisions of counties and districts, it seldom does. In the spring, SBE voted 9-0 to authorize Thrive Public Schools.
The money started flowing Nicole's direction. The known list of 2014 donations: Woolley's Girard Foundation $108,000, Gate's Educause $254,500, Charter School Growth Fund $175,000 and the Broad Foundation $150,000 for a total of $688,000. The next year, Broad gave another $50,000 and the New Schools Venture Fund sent $100,000. There is another $144,000 promised from Educause.
Nicole has opened two more schools and a fourth set to open in September. Choice promoting publication, The 74, describes a co-located Thrive elementary school,
"The Juanita Hills campus is co-located with Carver Elementary, a pre-K-5 school that enrolls much higher proportions of disadvantaged students and English learners than Thrive. The two facilities share the same lot, but a long blue line has been painted down the center to separate them. A Thrive parent complained that though Carver had its own library on-site, Thrive kids couldn't use it."
Tom Vander Ark is a well-known promoter of education technology and public-school privatization. He described the Thrive education program,
"Curriculum such as Readers' and Writers' Workshop and CGI Math provide collaborative opportunities for small groups to work directly with the teacher, while other students work on Chromebooks or iPads.
"The middle school team uses Google Classroom to make and manage assignments. Math software includes ST Math and Zearn.
Kids at computers running software programs is lifeless, boring and de-personalized. It is bad education.
Thrive has actively developed the support of many neo-liberal and conservative politicians. Among their listed supporters are: State Senator Ben Hueso (D); Dede Alpert (D), Former Assembly Woman and State Senator; Kerry Flanagan, Chief of Staff, California Charter Schools Association; Tom Torlakson (D), Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of California; Jed Wallace, President and Chief Executive Officer, California Charter Schools Association; Mark Wyland (R), State Senator. These people are enemies of public education supporting the same benighted policies as Betsy DeVos.
The three existing Thrive schools opened in the administrative area of SDUSD known as the Crawford Cluster. Like most cities, it is in San Diego's poor and minority communities where the privatization efforts are focused. One of the reasons SDUSD's Board rejected the Thrive petition was to protect the existing schools. There were already four charter schools within the cluster boundaries.
Crawford Cluster Map from SDUSD
In 2017, Thrive announced its big advance which stands to make founder and CEO Assisi a wealthy woman. The report in the San Diego Union says,
"The 35,000-square-foot facility will be the fourth San Diego campus for Thrive Schools and will open in about 12 months at the former site of Bayside Community Center at 6882 Linda Vista Road."
"The project's cost became more affordable for Thrive through the federal New Markets Tax Credit Program, which gives tax credits to for-profit businesses that are helping revitalize low-income communities."
"Civic San Diego was eligible for the program and was allowed to sell the tax credits to whoever was making the investment. In this case, the credits were sold to the bank lending money to Thrive to buy the site."
Although paid for with tax money, the deed will belong to Thrive Public Schools and CEO Nicole Assisi.
Some Ending Observations
Thrive Public Schools is a net negative for San Diego. SDUSD is far more professional, stable and capable. Thrive undermines SDUSD budgets and divides people like the students at Carver Elementary. The charter school experiment has failed. It was a bad idea and needs to end.
Put these schools under the supervision of elected school boards and quit stealing tax payer money. School choice truly is a Bamboozle; a Hornswoggle.
Tags: Bill Gates, Buzz Woolley, California Charter Schools Association, Charter School Growth Fund, education, Eli Broad, Nicole Assisi, philanthropy, Portfolio Model, Public Schools, testing
Categories DPE, education, Justice, technology
California's Charter School Led CBE Invasion
This January (2016), Fortune Magazine announced that Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, has launched a new $100-million-dollar fund to support education initiatives and other groups. The notice goes on to state:
"Hastings is the fund's sole trustee while Neerav Kingsland, the former CEO of charter school supporter New Schools for New Orleans, is serving as CEO. The fund's website explains its philanthropic mission: "Currently, too many children do not have access to amazing schools. Our aim is to partner with communities to significantly increase the number of students who have access to rich and holistic educational experiences."
The "rich and holistic educational experience" is to be delivered by charter schools employing competency based education (CBE).
Competency Based Education
The United States Department of Education promotes and describes CBE:
"Transitioning away from seat time, in favor of a structure that creates flexibility, allows students to progress as they demonstrate mastery of academic content, regardless of time, place, or pace of learning. Competency-based strategies provide flexibility in the way that credit can be earned or awarded, and provide students with personalized learning opportunities. These strategies include online and blended learning, dual enrollment and early college high schools, project-based and community-based learning, and credit recovery, among others."
Instead of a structured course with a teacher, students will log into a computer and earn badges for demonstrating competencies in an online environment. "Personalized learning opportunities" is a euphemism for a computer based course delivered in isolation.
It is a terrible idea! The last thing a 21st Century student needs is to be shoved in front of another inert digital device. Students need to interact with "highly qualified" certificated teachers, adults who they can trust. Students need to; measure, calculate, weight, work in small groups, discuss ideas, write, and get professional feedback. Students need structure, stability and direction. None of this is provided online.
Technology in education is more of an expensive mirage than a useful tool and competency based education (CBE) is fool's gold.
In 2003, I took the state of California's 52-hour life insurance course. That meant 52 hours of seat time with an insurance industry veteran who made the subject come alive. Today that insurance course is online with an online exam. No real industry context is imparted and cheating on the exam is rampant.
This is the kind of education Hastings and his ilk are vigorously promoting. CBE means lower quality education delivered at great profit to corporate providers and testing companies.
CBE learning is embraced by President Obama, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Reed Hastings, Education Secretary John King, The Walton family, the new federal education law, Pearson Corporation and many business executives. Few experienced education professionals not profiting from one of these entities support it.
Computers are good at drilling information and conducting fact checks. However, educators have known for more than a century that this kind of teaching is destructive. To create understanding, all of the modes of learning must be actively engaged. Drill and skill destroys the desire to learn and undermines development of creativity.
Big Money Being Poured into CBE
In 2004, the Don and Doris Fisher Foundation along with the Schools Future Research Foundation each provided $100,000 to start the Charter Schools Growth Fund in Broomfield, Colorado. The Fisher Foundation is based on profits from GAP Inc. and the School Future Research Foundation was a Walton Family Foundation supported fund that seems to have disappeared. The original elected board of directors for the Charter School Growth Fund was comprised of John Walton, Don Fisher, and John Lock.
In 2010, the President-CEO of the Charter School Growth Fund, Kevin Hall, decided to purchase the struggling Dreambox Inc. of Bellevue, Washington for $15,000,000. By then the fund was so large and he could do it. He subsequently invested another $10,138,500 into Dreambox. [data from 2014 form 990]
A recent National Public Radio report on the Rocketship schools reported:
"Rocketship students often use adaptive math software from a company called Dreambox Learning. The company was struggling when Reed Hastings, the Netflix founder turned education philanthropist and investor, observed it in action at a Rocketship school several years ago. His investment allowed Dreambox to become one of the leading providers of math software in North America, currently used by about 2 million students."
Kevin Hall left his $465,000 a year position at the Charter School Growth Fund to join Hastings on the board of Dreambox Inc. This company is now positioned to be the dominant supplier of software products into the CBE market. Pearson corporation has positioning itself to be the company that tests students and issues completion badges. If the big standardized test goes away, Pearson will do just fine supporting CBE.
In March, Emily Talmadge wrote a very interesting piece about CBE from a more national prospective. She reported:
"Since at least 2009, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation has poured millions of dollars into the latest ed reform craze that has made headlines recently due to investments of billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Reed Hastings of Netflix. When stripped of the misleading rhetoric that often surrounds it, "personalized learning" is the digital, data-driven system of schooling designed to trigger giant corporate profits along with tightly controlled, work-forced aligned learning outcomes."
The foundations working to privatize public schools are almost all organized under IRS tax code 501(c)(3), which means they cannot engage in direct or even indirect support of political candidates and they must file an IRS form 990 every year. These forms detail who they gave money to and how much they pay top fund administrators. For following these and other rules, they become a tax free entity. The latest complete set of form 990's is from tax year 2014 which details spending in 2013. The chart below is based on an analysis of selected 2014 form 990's
Fund Spending on Organizations Implementing CBE
The 2013 spending of the following list of seven funds was analyzed: California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), The Edythe and Eli Broad Foundation (Broad), New Schools Venture Fund, Charter School Growth Fund, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates), The Silicon Valley Fund, The Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Other than the data for the Gates fund, the information all comes from 2014 form 990's. The Gates data came from his foundation web site.
The spending on these five schools was extraordinary in that the amounts given are far greater than the amounts these organizations typically give to other charter schools. Most grants to charter schools from these funds are significantly less than $50,000 unless it is for startup purposes. So what made these five schools worthy of $33,000,000 in 2013? They are all testing CBE principles on their students.
A look at some of the key board members of these funds reveals a small community of wealthy true believers.
KIPP Foundation: Doris Fisher, John Fisher, Reed Hastings, Carrie Walton Penner
Silicon Valley Fund: John Fisher, Ted Mitchell
New Schools Venture Fund: Lauren Powell Jobs, Ted Mitchell
Edythe and Eli Broad Foundation: Eli Broad, Gregory Mcginity
Charter School Growth Fund: Kevin Hall, John Fisher, Carrie Walton Penner
California Charter Schools Assoc.: Reed Hastings, Carrie Walton Penner, Gregory Mcginity
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation is a little different than the other six organizations. It is not significantly about privatizing schools. There are many large community funds in California like this one and they support things ranging from community art to homeless shelters. However, funds like the San Diego Foundation and the Los Angeles Community Foundation have huge assets and they support charter schools at a much higher rate than they support public schools. A little light shined on these community foundations might make it less likely that they continue spending patterns that many of their board members probably do not understand.
All of this spending to undermine the present public education system is predicated on an article of faith held by wealthy (amateur education policy experts) reformers – "public schools are failing."
In a June Atlantic Magazine article, Jack Schneider put it this way:
"Thus, despite the fact that there is often little evidence in support of utopian schemes like "personalized online learning," which would use software to create a custom curriculum for each student, or "value-added measures" of teachers, which would determine educator effectiveness by running student test scores through an algorithm, many people are willing to suspend disbelief. Why? Because they have been convinced that the alternative—a status quo in precipitous decline—is worse. But what if the schools aren't in a downward spiral? What if, instead, things are slowly but steadily improving? In that light, disruption—a buzzword if ever there was one—doesn't sound like such a great idea."
The evidence says America's public schools are indeed continuously improving. But, misguided "do-gooders" are threatening to destroy the system and charter schools are the vehicle implementing their schemes. It is time for an OPT OUT of charter schools movement and a halt to CBE.
Tags: Bill Gate, Carrie Walton Penner, CBE, Charter schools, Competency Based Education, Corporate Education Reform, Dreambox, education, Education Reform, Eli Broad, John Fisher, Reed Hastings
Categories Corporate Education Reform, technology
Lily's Betrayal Letter
Yesterday was the worst of days and best of days. In the morning as usual I checked email and social media and there was Steven Singer's post, "Teachers Told They're Endorsing Hillary Clinton by NEA Leadership. Membership Opinions Unnecessary." When I finished his post I saw my friend Paula Meyers had posted the Seattle area justice fighter, Susan Dufresne's graphic #NEADoesntSpeak4Me; that caught my emotion exactly. With this in mind, I went to the Kearny Mesa Buddhist Center for World Peace Prayer. In the afternoon, things seemed improved; the San Diego Chargers won an exciting game over the Cleveland Browns.
Then I got an email message from Lily Eskelsen-Garcia, president of the NEA. Lily has been a great disappointment to me. It is not her fault. It's mine. I believed she was a breath of fresh air who rose to the leadership of the NEA by merit and was willing to speak truth to power. Fooled again! Then this April in Chicago she stood on stage and lied to us. She pledged to no longer take money from Bill Gates but her fingers were crossed. Now, she employed power politics to get Hilary Clinton the NEA endorsement; personal power and influence have trumped democracy, public education and the teaching profession. I will attempt to analyze her message.
"My fellow educators,
I wanted to be the first to let you know that your elected representatives to the NEA PAC Council and the NEA Board of Directors took action to recommend Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary for President of the United States. I am so proud of the thoughtful, thorough and incredibly rich discussion that your elected leaders held. It was truly what democracy looks like."
Balderdash! I live in California, my elected representatives didn't even vote. We have the largest delegation in the United States.
I heard that you argued against those who said there is no reason to give our endorsement this early, saying we would lose political clout if we don't. It is also said that you felt that Bernie Sanders would never be able to mount a credible winning general election effort.
"I am also extremely proud of this decision because I know that Hillary is a strong leader who will do what's best for the future of all of America's students and public schools."
Anthony Cody is correct, clear and succinct on this point: "The current field of candidates in the Democratic party is limited to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Clinton has a close association with the Gates Foundation, which has been a major donor to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton has made it clear that she is a solid supporter of the Common Core and believes that such a testing system 'helps you organize your whole education system.' So if we want a change from the nation's current trajectory in education, we need to look elsewhere."
It is beyond my most optimistic reach to see Hilary Clinton as being more than marginally different than Barack Obama when it comes to education policy. There is a reason that Marc Tucker wrote the infamous 'Hilary Letter' to her. He saw a like-minded individual that would support the tenets for education reform that Diane Ravitch later labeled "corporate education reform." This is education reform that views students as economic assets to be cultivated for the benefit of the state.
"After an extensive review of the candidates and an in-depth discussion, your leaders saw what I know – Hillary Clinton will be a champion for students and educator in the White House. She has a 30 year history of standing up for students and strong public schools and has actively engaged in conversations with educators in this campaign. Secretary Clinton told your leaders today that she won't make a single decision about developing education policy without educators being in the room."
This is complete prevarication. She has a close supportive relationship with both Bill Gates and Eli Broad. She was billed as co-President by her husband when he signed legislation taking power from Washington DC's school board and authorizing charter schools. It was from that administration that we got "Goals 2000" and its call for national standards and testing. She voted for "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB). That is not a 30-year history of standing up for students and strong public schools. And her friends from her days as a member of the Board of Directors at Walmart have to be counted among the nations biggest enemies of public schools.
"As a U.S. Senator, Hillary Clinton was a champion for our cause, earning an "A" grade from the NEA for her support on the issues most important to our students, but even before serving in the Senate, Clinton was a champion of the students we educate. While every first lady has an admirable cause, Hillary chose to stand up to the for-profit healthcare industry to advocate for children's healthcare. Her campaign ultimately led to the largest expansion of public health care in decades, when millions of American children received health coverage under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)."
Clinton voted for the punitive anti-teacher NCLB in 2001. This March, Edweek reported: "And earlier this year, the American Federation of Teachers, which endorsed Clinton in her 2008 race, and the Center for American Progress, a think tank closely aligned with the Obama administration that also includes some former Clinton aides among its top ranks, came out with a proposal to test students every year, but only use the results for school accountability in certain grade spans." So, did she get that NEA "A" grade for supporting testing or was it her work on health care?
"Even before running for president, Hillary championed early education and affordable college, and she sponsored efforts to ensure equal pay for equal work and to make it easier for workers to join a union."
This sounds like pretty much what all Democrats say they stand for and it is hard to see how this makes her so much better than other Democrats vying for the nomination. Why didn't the NEA keep its powder dry and see who was willing to save public education form greed driven reform? Get some real and substantial commitments? It appears that this endorsement is more about currying favor for national union leaders with the Clinton's than it is about fighting for teachers and public education.
"And in 2016, the stakes for strong public schools will be too high to sit on the sidelines! Right now, there are presidential hopefuls who have made a career of attacking educators and public education to the detriment of students. They have allies like the Koch brothers, who have committed to spend $1 billion to defeat a pro-public education candidate like Hillary Clinton and taking control of the White House.
"With so much at stake, you cannot sit on the sidelines – America's students need you today! And that is why I am asking you to join our campaign stand up for our students and make sure that we give all students the opportunity to a quality education."
Yes, it is true that a lot of money is being spent to destroy public education in America. Unfortunately, a lot of that money is from people like the hedge fund fake democrats at the Democrats for Education Reform who support Hilary. There is nothing here that says she is clearly the champion for public education that we must support. She looks a lot more like a corporate education reformer who will continue the disastrous Obama agenda.
"Together, we can help elect Hillary Clinton as our next president and ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed.
– Lily
Lily Eskelsen Garcia
National Education Association President"
Lily, you need to rethink your course. You are a smart beautiful spokesperson for the NEA. You are dumping that great opportunity to make a real difference and playing value degrading power politics that has eliminated the democratic process in our union to get this endorsement. Two other major unions – the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees – have indicated that they will take more time to consult their members about an endorsement in the primary.
Tags: Bill Gate, common core, Corporate Education Reform, Democratic Party, Eli Broad, Hilary Clinton, Lily Esckelsen-Garcia, NEA, Standardized Testing
Categories Corporate Education Reform