Overshadowed by two wars, a corporate financed health care debate, economic crisis, swelling unemployment, corporate theft, social unrest and reality TV, a discussion of educational policy is virtually impossible under the current corporate media regime. Unacceptable to most American citizens, the current public educational system is being radically disassembled, state by state, like Legos in a pre-school play room. In its stead is being built a new corporate educational model of non-profit and for-profit educational retail charter chains or outlets that will replace the decaying urban public schools. The public school water bag has burst and the Educational Maintenance Organizations (EMOs) are like kids scrambling for candy under a broken piñata.
For those witnessing the health care or health insurance reform dispute as it is playing out on the national landscape, they won’t be surprised when they begin to see the ‘astro turf’ groups assembled around charter schools emerge, if they haven’t already. This is another reason Arne Duncan, Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton are riveted on visiting major cities at the end of September for their whirlwind educational restructuring tour to promote educational reform, as they mendaciously refer to it (See Project Censored, http://dailycensored.com/2009/09/14/duncan-donuts-with-arne-gingrich-sharpton-and-duncan-do-education/). They want to be on hand to applaud and cheer on the ‘grass root’ efforts aimed at charterizing a way forward in the Great Race to the Top, the hallmark of Duncan ’s reform efforts.
As I mentioned in an earlier three part article for Counterpunch, Duncan loves charter schools and so does President, Barrack Obama and they’ve got pockets full of newly minted cash to fund them, along with the Walton Family, the Gates Foundation and of course the Eli Broad Foundation. Now that Los Angeles Unified School District has voted to turn over 250 public schools to the new ‘outside operators’ it’s time for them to move quickly to capture the headwinds of the coming educational ‘debate’; a debate which already happened, behind closed doors. The rest is show.
One week before the vote to handover the pubic schools to non-profit organizations such as Green Dot the LAUSD School Board voted to lay off hundreds of teachers. What followed were massive class size increases of fifty or more, with students sitting on the floors and teachers scrambling to accommodate the overflow (Landsberg, Mitchell, Budget cuts push some classrooms way over capacity http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ed-cuts20-2009sep20,0,2312077.story). But alas this is preliminary planning for the new neoliberal reformers, the way it is supposed to work; public schools are purposely starved to induce failure in order to bring in the new ‘turnaround artists’ and non-profit privatization outfits to ‘fix the problem’.
According to Los Angeles journalist and immigration rights activist, Robert D. Skeels:
Ms. Flores Aguilar’s (LAUSD School Board member) cynical vote to massively increase class sizes for public schools followed by her resolution to privatize nearly a third of the district comes straight out of the playbook of corporatization advocates like Newt Gingrich, the Hudson Institute, and the Cato Institute (http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/search/label/green_dot).
Skeels’s right, any cursory perusal of the neoliberal think tank proposals tell a similar sordid tale.
The Thinkeries and Those Who Inhabit Them
In the case of educational policy analysis, one way to begin to think critically on issues such as charter schools is to rightly focus on the highly vocal educational think tanks, corporate media coverage, grass-root groups and personalities that purport to be non-partisan and objective, but in reality are supported by huge economic interests. Within the corridors of the think tanks walk the researchers, scholars and intellectuals that produce research to justify neo-liberal public policies that support charter schools, vouchers and other privatization schemes. The talking points are then quarterbacked to the coin operated “people’s representatives” that then proceed to construct powerful scripts for dissemination by the corporate media designed to “sell the product” to a discouraged and deracinated public.
This of course is disconcerting for advocates of public disclosure, public transparency and political democracy in general and surely unacceptable for informed decision making and democratic oversight and governance of one of the most critical systems in the country – our nation’s schools. Yet this ghastly governance goes on seemingly unabated each and every day; non-disclosure and non-transparency are now more norm than aberration and the sock-puppet press more stenographers than journalists. One of the most insidious and popular efforts in arranging “consent generating” activities is to start educational ‘grassroots front groups’, as we’ve seen in the health care town hall fiascos.
Capitalizing on people’s real and legitimate frustration regarding public policy, many ‘astro turf’ organizations, as in the case of health care, are notoriously funded by corporations even though they prefer to pose as authentic grass-root driven protest groups. Disconcertingly, the same thing can be said about the new wave of ‘parent revolution groups’ you might be hearing about. These astro-turf groups are well schooled, well financed and powerful; in many cases they boast the membership of thousands and thousands of parents. The difference: they are largely funded by deep-pocket philanthropists whose preferred public persona is that of the non-profit public benefit corporation.
Parents Revolution and Green Dot
One place to start looking at the tremendous growth of these seemingly grass-root groups of parents is in the city of Los Angeles where not only 250 schools have been given the bums rush out of the corridors of public management, but they are due to be thrown into the laps of non-profit outfits like Green Dot Public Schools or Alliance Public Schools, to name just a few (see Weil, Counterpunch). It is truly astounding, for in the case of the non-profit school systems that are emerging, these non-profit EMO’s are bent on creating a new, national retail chain of charter schools with outlets in as many states and school districts they can possibly get their hands on and their tactics are not unlike the ‘grass-root’ town hall health care meetings.
Take the group ‘Parents Union ’. Steve Barr, the originator of Green Dot Public Schools, a non-profit EMO out of LA, started Parent Union in Los Angeles a few years ago. According to a document put out by Green Dot in 2008 entitled, Green Dot Public Schools & Los Angeles Parents Union the company said they realized the urban school failure and:
Green Dot responded to this grassroots demand for change by saying, in effect, it’s not that you want a charter school per se, you simply want – and deserve – a high-quality school for the young people in your neighborhoods. Recognizing the need for parents to organize and work collectively to demand high-quality education, Green Dot formed the Los Angeles Parents Union (lapu), a citywide grassroots organization of parents that pushes educators, administrators, and public officials to improve their schools (Green Dot Public Schools & Los Angeles Parents Union, 2008 http://www.annenberginstitute.org/pdf/EKF08_GreenDot.pdf).
And then there is the ‘Parent University,’ another laboratory experiment launched by Green Dot. According to Green Dot:
lapu developed an innovative program called “ Parent University ” in which parents gain skills to communicate with teachers and administrators to advocate for their children and use organizing tools such as primers on graduation requirements and school-quality scores, among other supports. The effectiveness of Parent University and the sheer number of parents attending serve as examples of the changing face of human capital in Los Angeles education reform, as parents gain both expertise and a voice to push for positive changes for their children and their communities (ibid).
Green Dot’s organizing efforts make them now poised to seize some of the 250 charter schools that LA has released from public governance. Why did Barr start Parents Union? Simple: to organize parents and teachers so they would rebel against their under-serving public schools and throw their lot in with Green Dot. According to minutes from the first Portland Public School branch of the Parents Union :
We talked about what our Parent Union is going to look like. From the beginning I have encouraged everyone to look at the Los Angeles Parents Union/Parents Revolution and the Chicago Parents Union/P.U.R.E. We are in contact with both groups they are elated that we are ready to go. It will be easier having models that will help give us insight on how we will customize our own Parents Union (PPSPU May 12, 2009 http://ppsparentunion.org/2009/05/18/notes-from-the-first-ppspu-meeting-may-13-2009/).
This is the Portland based chapter of Parents Union, mind you. But the minutes clearly show a connection to both Parents Union as well as LA Parent Revolution. This is not done to equate the two but only to show the organizing efforts of Parents Union and how they pose as a grass-root group fighting for working people when in fact they are created by Green Dot Public Schools. It is important to point out the Chicago PURE is in no way the subject of this article nor does it merit any criticism. It is Parents Union and how they capitalize on parent frustration and how they pose as a grass-root organization that is the appalling feature of the debacle.
For example, the Parents Revolution is not just based in Los Angeles and Portland but has also spread to Chicago , where Duncan ’s Renaissance 2010 is up and running with disastrous effects. Barr isn’t stopping there. In September of this year Barr was in Washington , D.C. home of the charter experiment managed by Michele Rhee, the notorious Chancellor of D.C. schools and highly visible proponent of the corporate model of education. According to Examiner.com Barr called a community meeting together:
A tiny handful of parents from the neighborhood attended the community meeting Barr called to rouse the masses to mutiny against D.C. public schools(Grannan, Caroline September, 13, 2009 http://www.examiner.com/x-356-SF-Education-Examiner~y2009m9d13-Breaking-news-from-afar-Edreform-darlings-Rhee-Barr-turn-on-each-other).
The publication went on to report however, that Barr also met with resistance from the parents at the meeting when he asked them to lead an uprising against D.C. Public Schools over the schools. According to Grannan:
My friend is decidedly not a fan of Rhee or of DCPS leadership, but she declared: “I will not help Green Dot create their own personal privatization laboratory for Congress to trot over to see whenever they want.” (ibid).
Just what is the Los Angeles Parents Union/Revolution?
The Los Angeles Parents Union, through its subsidiary the Parent Revolution, seeks to dismantle traditional Los Angeles public schools by getting parents to organize petition drives to have the schools ‘decertified’ or in the case of Locke High School and the hostile takeover by Green Dot, the mission was to organize disgruntled teachers. The Parent Revolution is funded at least in part by billionaire Eli Broad, however Service Employee International Union (SEIU) is also chipping in, making for another set of interesting bedfellows and a discouraging platform for the future of organized labor. Don’t forget about Bill Gates, he helps out when he can.
Ben Austin, who brought EMO Green Dot Public Schools in for the Los Angeles Locke High School “turnaround,” started the Parent Revolution. Austin , conveniently, is a city attorney for Los Angeles but he is also an executive employee of Green Dot, which raises grave issues of conflict of interest and obvious appearances of impropriety. Austin earns $119,031.66 as City Attorney. Just one of Ben Austin’s jobs pays roughly 2.5 times the median UTLA teacher salary (LA City Employees, Salary Base, http://lang.dailynews.com/socal/citypayroll/?appSession=356196676051698).
The organization boasts at its website:
watch our video and find out how you can transform your child’s school. If 51% of the parents at your school sign the petition demanding a better school, we will guarantee your child a great school, in your neighborhood within three years (Parent Revolution, http://www.parentrevolution.org/)
This is how Green Dot managed to pull off the hostile takeover of Locke High School in Los Angeles . They are very well connected to Mayor Villaraigosa’s executive suites. For example, Ryan Smith joined the mayor’s Partnership for Los Angeles Schools to oversee the Connected Communities Department within the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, Villariagosa’s outfit. His title: Director of Family and Community Engagement. According to Partnership for Los Angeles Schools:
Prior to joining the Partnership, Smith was the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Parents Union, a 5,000 member organization dedicated to empowering LAUSD parents to advocate for the transformation of failing public schools (Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, http://www.partnershipla.org//about?id=0004#ryans).
And then there is Ryan’s buddy, Marshall Tuck, who joined Villaraigosa’s Partnership in 2007. Partnership for Los Angeles Schools reports that:
Prior to joining the Mayor’s office, Marshall was President and COO of Green Dot Public Schools, one of the leading operators of charter schools in the country. At Green Dot, Marshall led a team of 250 employees that operated ten charter high schools in some of the most need-based areas of Los Angeles . Under his leadership, students at all Green Dot schools outperformed their peers at comparable schools in both academic achievement and graduation rates. Prior to Green Dot, Marshall acted as General Manager of the Strategic Accounts group at Model N, a successful enterprise software company (Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, http://www.partnershipla.org//about?id=0004#anchor1).
His title in the mayor’s office for which he collects taxpayer monies: Chief Executive Officer (Skeels, http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/search/label/green_dot).
Marco Petruzzi, the current President and Chief Executive Officer of Green Dot, is also the head of the Venice, California chapter of the Parent Union and although there is nothing to indicate he’s getting paid for his work with the parent organization, he’s certainly getting paid by Green Dot. How much? Hard to say for he became CEO in 2008 and the IRS 990 forms for Green Dot only run through 2007. Prior to joining Green Dot though, according to their website, Marco founded ‘r3 school solutions’, an organization that provided management and administrative services to charter management organizations, another burgeoning business. Prior to founding r3 school solutions, he was a Partner at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm. Petruzzi has fifteen years of consulting experience working with top management of major international groups in corporate and product-market strategy, channel management, pricing strategy, commercial organization, operations, R&D management and supply chain management assignments, in the USA , South America, and Europe . He also worked at McKinsey & Co. and for Enichem Americas, a petrochemical trading company based in New York (Green Dot Website).
But what about education, where are Mario’s credentials and experience in either teaching or working in the field of pedagogy? He doesn’t need any for he works with the Broad Superintendent Academy , which hosts such dignitaries as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Ray Cortines, the Superintendent of Los Angeles Schools who will implement the neoliberal takeover of Los Angeles Public Schools. According to the website for the Broad Superintendent’s Academy:
The Academy identifies and prepares prominent leaders—executives who have experience successfully leading large organizations and a passion for public service—then places them in urban school districts to dramatically improve the quality of education for America’s students (The Broad Academy,).http://www.broadacademy.org/about/overview.html).
In other words they train former Wall Street investment managers, not to mention former military, to become CEO’s of newly designed traditional public and publicly funded charter schools.
It seems rather ironic that these are the same people who rail against public unions and public employees while at the same time they punch a time-clock to receive public funds.
MSNBC Applauds the Revolution
As chapters of Parents Revolution pop up all over the state of California , in the Northwest and even in Chicago , some parents are concerned about what happens after getting the 51% of parents to sign. What to worry? With the plethora of EMO’s like Barr’s and the candied promises of the managerial elite who fund them, the gullible have found their answers.
When the LA takeover of 250 schools was passed by a 6-1 vote in a heatedly debated resolution on August 25, 2009, Ben Austin was quick to tell the Parents Revolution afterwards:
We made history today. All of us are living together in a revolutionary moment. Big, scary, good, revolutionary change is happening right now, and we get to be part of it. We have parents standing together alongside the President of the United States calling for a revolution. That’s exciting. But there are two reasons for us to temper our joy, just a little bit (Parent Revolution, September 9, 2009 http://www.parentrevolution.org/).
However as Robert D. Skeels noted:
Steve Barr, Marco Petruzzi, and Ben Austin don’t live in working class neighborhoods, have working class jobs, or working class concerns. Nor do any of them possess degrees in education. What they do have is a very lucrative CMO with sycophantic press and close allies in the Democratic Party’s DLC and DFER, all of whom seem bent on increasing their already substantial wealth. (Robert Skeels, http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2009/07/ben-austin-six-figure-salary-man-green.html)
Nowhere better could this sycophantic press be seen than on the MSNBC special that premiered on Sunday, the 20th of September. A two hour special, the program, entitled About Our Children, featured Bill Cosby who outright said at the beginning of the program why he was on the show; “I’m the draw.” And indeed he was, seen on stage and at times filming with kids and asking them if they could spell. Paul Rodriquez, the comedian, was on hand as well, condemning bilingual education. But besides the spectacle of the Opraization of American education through platitudes and self-help handwringing on the part of the upper class for the corporate media, the program also featured Chancellor of Washington D.C. Schools, Michelle Ree as well as Ben Austin.
Austin was on stage representing the Parents Revolution, but nowhere was his affiliation with Green Dot disclosed. Nor were viewers told of his work as the city attorney of Los Angeles . Portrayed as a frustrated parent leading a revolution of angry torch marchers, Austin told the audience that “parents can realize they have power.” The whole spectacle was a lead up to the Gingrich, Sharpton and Duncan show that premiers at the end of September. For as Robert D. Skeels astutely observes:
If Parent Revolution’s Austin or any of his network of rich boys with white savior complex were really children’s’ advocates, then where were they when the community was engaged in struggle against the budget cuts? Green Dot’s Ben Austin was almost certainly lounging at home in his gated Beverly Hills community while we supported the parent campers at John Liechty Middle School and Miguel Contreras Learning Complex. While LAPU’s Ben Austin enjoyed lavish luncheons with ever the opportunist Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, we supported the hunger strikers and parents in front of Cortines office. While Ben Austin was endorsing fat checks from Eli Broad and William Gates, we were raising funds for Aurora Ponce (Robert D. Skeels, September 20, 2009 http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/).
It seems that so far the rhetoric of “failing public schools” due to No Child Left Behind has clearly worked. Astro-turf groups such as Parents Revolution have been able to disguise their non-profit corporate masquerading by capitalizing on the disaster wrought by decades of neoliberal economics. But you won’t hear or see that on MSNBC.
You are right on target with this.
See http://seattle-ed.blogspot.com/ to see what parents and educators in Seattle are talking about.
The Washington Teacher’s Union must speak out about more than just jobs. http://www.dcvoiceostrich.blogspot.com/
I agree with DC Voice. You make very valid points but all I hear any of the Teacher’s Unions talking about is how to protect themselves not our kids. We need better leadership from them. Because in the absence of real leadership, parents will follow whoever is posing a solution…even if it is a bad one.
Neneki makes the point: no struggle, no opposition then people will gravitate towards what they think accomodates them and often it undermines their goals. We better start organizing unions and with some spine
Danny
[...] One can certainly empathize with both teachers and parents in this horrific situation begot by failing urban centers, a decimated economy, the disposability of youth (mostly working class and of color) gentrification and a lack of social investment in anything public. Yet the fact that the Detroit Parents Network is largely funded by private interests and philanthro-entrepreneurs looking to profit off the educational despair that is now a chronic feature of American cities, can lead one to believe that not only have many concerned parents been co-opted by giant business interests who have worked assiduously to privatize education for years, but they just might find they are allying with the same forces that helped bring down the American economy through profligacy, insidious and unleashed profit-seeking, deception, corruption, deregulation, or no regulation at all and a full out attack on the incomes and social benefits of American citizens (Say you want a revolution: Parents Revolution, ‘Astro turf’ organizations and the privatization of public schools, dailycensored.com, October 5, 2009. http://dailycensored.com/2009/10/05/say-you-want-a-revolution-parents-revolution-astro-turf-organiza…). [...]
You fail to mention in this well-researched article that Green Dot also has a teachers’ union but without the seniority our lifetime guarantees. Green Dot is not anti-union they are pro-kids. Danny, do you live in the inner city? Have you talked to any of the parents who actually are part of Parent Revolutions. Behind Ben, there are actual parents whose saw their kids’ lives transformed due to attending a school that actually cared. You focus this article on who gets paid what and leave out the graduation rates, college attendance rates, and higher performance. Have you even visited a Green Dot school? Where are your priorities? Are unions more important than kids. Does it matter if schools are what you call “privatized” as long as students are achieving? I am really confused. The conspiracy theories have gone to far. Is it really that hard to fathom that Steve Barr might actually care about improving education?
You fail to mention in this well-researched article that Green Dot also has a teachers’ union but without the seniority our lifetime guarantees.
Yes that is precisely the problem for without this goes academic freedom, participatory democracy and curriculum development. They are faux unions tha have given up collective bargaining and the fight for a better society.
Green Dot is not anti-union they are pro-kids. Danny, do you live in the inner city?
Look at my bio: I have taught k-1 in rural school districts, 2nd grade in South Central LA, California Youth Authority Prison system and now in Hancock College. I grew up in the city, taught i it, went to school in it and organized unions in it.
Have you talked to any of the parents who actually are part of Parent Revolutions. Behind Ben, there are actual parents whose saw their kids’ lives transformed due to attending a school that actually cared.
Sure these re parents who are looking for an individual solution to social problems like inequality, racism, sexism and poor educational institutions. So they hunt down lottery admission schools hoping their turn at American Idol will be picked. This is not public education it is class education, parceling out opportunities to a few priviled parents who wish their kids to have an education. And this is the problem, all kids are our kids anc charter schools and capitalists don’t want us to think this way. They want us on the individualistic egg hunt for our ‘own’. A form of tribalism, really.
You focus this article on who gets paid what and leave out the graduation rates, college attendance rates, and higher performance.
What higher performacne, every study except Hoxby who is employed by right wing think tanks have claimed that charer schools do not do bette than tradiitonal public schools. Unless they are boutique charters who set up their own class based communities and then police entry.
Have you even visited a Green Dot school?
Yes, I have and it is sad. The teachers remindd me of the Phoenix Univeristy or Wal-Mart. To begin with they are divorced from the conception of their lesson plans, having the lessons shoved down their thoat by private corporations that have been contracted out to make the conformist curriculum. Thus they do not teach, they dispense.
they also work more hours per day, burn out after three years and receive much less in the way of job security and benefits.
Where are your priorities?
Read any of my articles and you will find them: simple. Public education based on a morality of solidarity, we are all in this together, diversity appreciation for students and a curriculum that fosters it for teachers and students, equity in opportunity, and partiicpation in poer over the daily activities of the school. Charters fail on every moral front, they segregate, they cream and thus do not want diversity, too expensive, they provide no equity for one has to compete to get into them, hand to hand combat, and as to participation in power, they are non-disclosure factories of no transparency and no access to vital information for parents and their children to make infomred decisions. They are hoaxs, immoral servitude institutions that are being put forth as a solution to public education when what theyr eally offer is nothing more than charter retail chains. Did you see, Wal-Mart is thinking of starting them. See my article. Students as products to be sold and teachers as associates.
Are unions more important than kids.
no, without unions, without the right to collective bargaining, without out the right to curriculum development that is collaborative, without liveable wages, teachers cannot serve kids. Unless they want their education with ‘fries’. Unions protect kids, do the research, the history. They fight for kids to be treated fairly, they fight for higher educational standards, they fight for immigrants to go to school, they fight for working conditions conducive to teaching kids. Green Dot is an office, an outlet store.
Does it matter if schools are what you call “privatized” as long as students are achieving?
Yes, it does. First, one has to define achieving and of course this is NCLB. It has been deffined for you so your job is tomake them scorees go up. What is an educated persn? What does ‘achieiving mean”. No debate over this, for the philanthro-capitalists already know, they want conformity in schools, no critical thinking, dummied down canned curriculum and disempowerd teachers so they can make the decisions. And ‘achieving to them, means being a producitve citizen in the capitalist bought and paid for system. Thus, their achievement is really conformity, not critical thinking about students’ lives and what it means to live in the world. they are sordid centers of obedience trainig, anorexic bulimic models of despair.
I am really confused. The conspiracy theories have gone to far.
No, this is not a conspiracy theioy, it is a business plan. When Eli Broad and Bill Gates along with the Waltons and the other pilfferers of wealth, the pirates, get into a room and put together a plan to deform education it is a conspiracy, but under capitalism it is a business plan. To use the word ‘conspiracy’ to downgrade arguments is an old trick of fallacious thiniking. The facts are real, look at the contracting out, the salaries of the elites, who makes money and whjo doesn’t. Follow the money trail. I will tke you two places: 1) inordinate poverty among american citizens and 2). profits for a few elite that see education as the next big bubble. It is all in my posts, refute it.
You are getting a private option in health care and a private option in education. private military contractors, private media as corporaions control them, private housing, and a private life.. ‘Providers’ now replace schools and ‘associates’ replace teachers. Students are products to be worked on and contained. The text books re propaganda (see the article on Texas and their rewrite of history in the textbook industry). This is not education, not by any means and it does not foster critical thinking at all. It is top down hierarchal education based on the dispensation of offical knowledge conjured up in air conditioned offices by people who are not even educatd. . My analysis is hundreds of years old, nothing new.
Is it really that hard to fathom that Steve Barr might actually care about improving education?
sur3e, but the problem is we have not defined what it means to be ‘edcuatd’ and for Barr he has. Creating the conditions for global competition in the deteriorating capitalist world. Look around you, all of Europe is falling, the US, Russia, China and India soon. This is the world of education Barr and his courtesans conjure up. They do not even want music, humanities, history, socials tudies or civic education. REgimenttin of kids in Wal-Mart shirts and khakis. Controlling you. 19% of our country’s kids live in poverty. Where is Barr? Creating the sub prime schools for the sub prime kids. And Duncan, an elite horse trader who never has even taught.
Reply
Sure, good you wrote, glad to hear from you but you best see the connection between economics, the morality the supports capialism and the institutional arrangement or derangement of society for schools rae one of many public institions under attack. You want a managerial elite to control your schools. You are getting it but not without a fight back.
Every child is my child. The jungle life of you get yours i get mine which charter schools employ is the moral equivalent to Rome.
Best
Danny
Wow! I am the founder of Portland PPS Parent Union. Mr. Weil I think your
research was not that thorough. You took some words I said in the Portland Parent Union’s begining notes, to connect us as a chapter of Green dot. Shame on you. If you had done a thorough
research you would know that is not true.
You didn’t contact me if you had I would have told you who we are. For
you to say we are connected with Green Dot is a false accusation. I
challenge you to go back and read all my notes and the website.
Sharon, this is not done to equate the two but only to show the organizing efforts of Parents Union and how they pose as a grass-root group fighting for working people when in fact they are created by Green Dot Public Schools. It is important to point out the Chicago PURE is in no way the subject of this article nor does it merit any criticism. It is Parents Union and how they capitalize on parent frustration and how they pose as a grass-root organization that is the appalling feature of the debacle.
No, I never said you were connected with Green Dot. That would be an inference though. Green Dot is like dog doo doo, all over organizing unsuspecting parents thoughout the US, as stated. Chicago PURE certainly is not part of the faux parent unions but you did say:
According to minutes from the first Portland Public School branch of the Parents Union :
“We talked about what our Parent Union is going to look like. From the beginning I have encouraged everyone to look at the Los Angeles Parents Union/Parents Revolution and the Chicago Parents Union/P.U.R.E. We are in contact with both groups they are elated that we are ready to go. It will be easier having models that will help give us insight on how we will customize our own Parents Union (PPSPU May 12, 2009 http://ppsparentunion.org/2009/05/18/notes-from-the-first-ppspu-meeting-may-13-2009/).”
So Parent Union from LA was a prototype you looked at? Right? And did I say you were connected to the horror of Green Dot? No, I let the reader infer it, didn’t I?
As the founder of the Portland Parent Union perhaps you would wish to tell us who funds your organization? Do you work with venture capitalists and others, like Broad, Walton or Gates? Are you pro-charter school and do you support privatization and decertifying public schools that don’t cut it with AYP? Are you involved in conversion charter schools or start-ups?
You indicated that you were looking at Parent Union in LA and then stating the groups are eager and ready to go. You stated of both groups including Parent Union LA
“they are elated that we are ready to go.”
Go where Sharon? To do what? Take this time to explain to readers your goals, who fund you, how Parent Union in LA aided and abetted your decision to ‘go forward’. Where you are actually headed and of course sources of funding and privatization positions?
No where in this article did I state Portland Parent Union worked hand in hand with Green Dot. LA Parent unions is rolling out the red carpet to disenfranchised parents throughout the nation and any group who find them “elated to get going” after seeing who they are, owe an explanation to both Portland parents and the general public.
Danny
Other stakeholders have institutionally powerful support systems: teachers and staff have unions, principals have district administrators, district administrators have the superintendent, and the superintendent has the school board and full-time legal counsel. Against this institutional juggernaut, a family stands alone.
After many failed attempts to get a fair process and closure for her and her family, she was determined that no other family should go through what she and her family had gone through.
The Portland Parent Union was born of the desire to give parents representation and a collective voice equal with what teachers have. We will be a centralized group of parents and families connected to the resources and supports necessary to be powerful advocates for our children and for each other, and ultimately for positive institutional changes and the greater common good.
From what is said above, Sharon it sounds like the teachers re the problem and parents just do not have voices in relationship to the powerful teacher unions. Is this the position of Parent Union of Portland. What is the position on unions? Does Parent Union of Portland wish merit pay, the destruction of seniority, and longer working days for teachers?
What is the role of the Aniie E. Casey Foundation in supporting this movement? How much have they given and why? What is your group doing to assure public education is not put on the chopping block under Race to the Top? Why, when I read your literature I read about the ‘achievement gap’ but no reference to poverty and inequality that the entire system of capitalist economics reaps on schools?
People are becoming very distrustful of the Parent Unions and Revolutions for reasons my article mentions. If you looked at Green Dot as a prototype then best you tell us why you did not use their services or ideas (if this is true) and why you did not import their philosophy, if you did not, and what differentiates your organization, Sheila, from the faux groups we see being set up accross the nation.
The real issue is racism, privatization and anti-union sentiment. Please, take the time to address these questions for readers. For perhaps I am blind, but I see no reference to the economic issues underming both our schools and working class communities, which if true, can lead to non-progressive educational reform funded by again, billionaire organizations intent on pushing ‘parental choice”, or ‘private choice’ at the expense of a public choice and a community choice.
Danny
Mr. Danny why are you ranting and raving. Again I suggest you read all my notes and the whole website. Any one can interpret words the way they want to. All you are doing is spinning. We are the very people you are supposed to be behind but because you know you are wrong you have to spin even more. You can’t even get my name right how are you going to
get the information right. I loathe white liberal folks who think
they know what is best for folks. Your kind are the closet
racist.. You are the machine we as families of color and
poor white families are tired of. You always think you know what
is best. Remember Portland has been crowned the whitest city in America.
Portland Parent Union was born out of the need for parents to
have a voice at the table someday equal to that of teachers. You
like everyone else think we need to cow down and just let the white system take us where they think it is best for us to go. We don’t care about the politics. We don’t care about Green Dot schools or any of the folks you name. Who are they anyway?
I didn’t start out of a political movement I started out of desire to help parents have a voice. I and my family where treated pretty bad in a school my children went to and now my grandchildren are attending. It is our neighborhood school. All over our district parents and students are treated like second class citizens. The schools are not welcoming to us and if we do get in we are not seen as someone who can help but as someone who is in the way, instead of being respected as experts of our children.
We don’t advocate for the parents who already have a voice they can advocate for themselves. We advocate for immigrants, poor white families, black families, english as a second language, asian families, hispanics families, special ed families, foster families, grandparents raising granchildren and others.. Those who are always minimized or overlooked. Our school district has broken to many civil rights laws. All we want is equity. We are pro-public schools and I think we are the onliest city and state that have kept charter schools and those who wish them at bey. To take it even furthur we are pro-families this is our driver. Families can come from any educational system to get our help because there is exclusion and institutiional racism across the board even though our roots are public schools.
I am not a blogger or a debater. Mr. Danny you have been unfair.
If you really did your research you would know who we are. All that matters is that “we know who we are”. The time I am debating with you can be used to return phone calls to the many parents who’s children are not being treated so good in the system.
We are grassroots parents organizing around equity for our children and parents being treated fairly.The name of parent union came out of my head. It was only after I formed this group did I research to see there where other Parent Unions out there. If you notice in my statement I said we are using both LA Parent Union/Revolution and Chicago PURE as models. The key words here are “that will help give us insight on how to customize our own”. The contact with LA was one
Phone call to the Head Organizer who is an African American
grandmother like I am. She is pretty convinced her movement
is the right thing to do. I was not so convinced. This was
after I talked to an African American Grandfather in Chicago who
just started a Chicago Parents Union a little before we did. Their
Union is being backed by PURE. It seemed we would be more
in step with Chicago PURE than LA. Of course we were ready
to go we are all excited about our movements. The common thread being a good education for all children.
Danny you have turned us into this big political machine when
in reality we are a start up grassroots group who want our
public schools to treat us and our students equal. We have no
funding except for a start up grant. We are not a nonprofit we
are just grandparents and parents fighting for our rights as
citizens to be included. We are to different from LA and Chicago
to take on their movements.
own needs.
We talked about what our Parent Union is going to look like. From the beginning I have encouraged everyone to look at the Los Angeles Parents Union/Parents Revolution and the Chicago Parents Union/P.U.R.E. We are in contact with both groups they are elated that we are ready to go. It will be easier having models that will help give us insight on how we will customize our own Parents Union (PPSPU May 12, 2009 http://ppsparentunion.org/2009/05/18/notes-from-the-first-ppspu-meeting-may-13-2009/).”
“We don’t care about the politics. We don’t care about Green Dot schools or any of the folks you name. Who are they anyway?”
Sheila I am not ranting and raving nor trying to cover up any mistakes I made. Calling me a closet racist and liberal or some such thing is simply ad hominem and does nothing to further anyone’s goals. I am neither. Nor do you know my history in organizig teachers, parents, immigrant children, youth prisoners etc.
My concern is what is said above. Where is the economic analysis? It is fine to say we don’t care about politics but this is unfortunate. For it is the political policies of the last throyt years that has destroyed public schools, allowed for the ushering in of privatizers and Wall St. to now govern and run our schools. The Obama administration’s Race to the Top is certainly proff as is No Child Left Behind.
I congratulate any group thta seeks to have a voice, my conern is what is being said. I have no ‘answers’ for which you accuse me nor am I the problem, Sheila.
The problem is clear: late stage capitalism that forces parents to work two jobs to survive, if they are lucky. Half the kids in America come home from school to an empty home. Poverty is beyond comprehension, cuts in basic services are killing families.
To say “We don’t care about politics” simply will not work, Sheila. I wish your group well and hope it is a seed that will flourish into a movement for justice and equity which must of course confront both politics and economics.
Any legitimate unions of working people at this juncture is heartily apppreciated by all progressives.
As to turning your group into a political machine, this is and was not my intent. It was to ferret out groups that have well stated mission statements but that also are posing a danger to any notion of public schools. You can go heree: http://www.dailynews.com/ci_14401934
I hope that readers will take the time to research your organization, as you provided and more, and support you in acknolwedging that this struggle is political. And no, Sheila, I am in no position to lead it nor want to.
There is no reason to debate me. You are correct, the time you spend blogging can be used for more valuable activities that confront issues your group faces. I just hope, Sheila, that those issues become political for it is the only way we can restore any dignity to either parents, students and working families. And any advice from Parent Revolution in LA would be a tragedy for their agenda is clear.
Best
Danny
MR. WEIL hopfully someday we will become a nonprofit and a strong
organization. We are doing it on our terms so it might take a while. But
did you happen to read this on our website.
DISCLAIMER
The Portland Parent Union will not decide what’s best for the parents and families. *Nor will we push any political agendas. We are promoting support, education, information, collaboration and advocacy. We strive to provide as much information as possible to help parents make well informed decisions. Naturally they will be drawn to that which meets their particular needs.
Our mission is to provide credible information on matters of education and parent involvement.
Portland Parent Union actively seeks a diversity of viewpoints and actions around education, information, services, support and advocacy. Opinions expressed from our website blog partners, peers, affiliates, other parent union models or community partners are not necessarily intended to represent Portland Parent Union. They do not necessarily represent the views of Portland Parent Union.
*We refer any politcal or other strong issues to our Issues and Actions committee and/or eventually/Political (PAC) when it is developed down the road. This is the political and strong issues arm of PPSPU and will act separately with its own board and/or committee. Parents can choose to be a part of this or not.
Mainstream PPSPU will not give opinions on endorsements of candidates, elections, intiatives, NCLB, vouchers, school choice, school intiatives, etc. This committee will address those things. This Committee will be spokespeople for such issues. Our Media Specialist will be in charge of this Committee
This is the Whole thing Mr. Weil
WHY WE GOT STARTED
The Portland Parent Union was founded in April of 2009 by Sheila Warren a mother, grandmother, activist and advocate in the Portand Or. Public School Community. She saw the interests of the teachers, school administrators, and district leadership well represented and controlling decision making. The parents and students themselves suffering from the lack of a strong collective voice and support.
Tired of seeing parents – including herself and her family – pushed out, and after struggling with conflicts that should have been easily resolved, Sheila realized there was no organizational framework designed explicitly to advocate for parents and families and represent them when dealing with the school district. Other stakeholders have institutionally powerful support systems: teachers and staff have unions, principals have district administrators, district administrators have the superintendent, and the superintendent has the school board and full-time legal counsel. Against this institutional juggernaut, a family stands alone.
After many failed attempts to get a fair process and closure for her and her family, she was determined that no other family should go through what she and her family had gone through.
The Portland Parent Union was born of the desire to give parents representation and a collective voice equal with what teachers have. We will be a centralized group of parents and families connected to the resources and supports necessary to be powerful advocates for our children and for each other, and ultimately for positive institutional changes and the greater common good.
Mr. Weil I will bring the website to you!!
Welcome To Portland Parent Union
We are now organizing parents/families to connect to the resources and supports necessary to be powerful advocates for their children and all of Portland’s Children.
We encourage parent leadership. This is a parent lead effort and we believe when parents excercise their power the outcomes for children will be positive.
We are asking all parents to join the Portland Parent Union and to get the word out.
We have been advocating for change and an equal voice a few at a time and a group at a time with little results. We need to do this collectively to get big results.
Please join the Portland Parent Union today.
We trust that by empowering and collecting our voices we will be a force for Social Justice, equity, and progress in our communities.
Please get it out to all parents there is a place where they can be listened to, express themselves, and lead.
THE TIME IS NOW FOR PARENT POWER!!!!
Hi Sheila,
I am a local education activist here in San Francisco. I am encouraged, excited and awed by the efforts you have made in Portland. I would like to speak with you. My email address is donaldorite@yahoo.com. Please contact me.
Don Krause
HERE IS MORE OF THE WEBSITE
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
Our mission is to organize parents for better outcomes by enriching them through support, information and education. We are dedicated to parents: to involve their families, to anticipate their challenges and help them to take advantage of opportunities to guarantee a successful student.
We are dedicated to the Parent’s development of leadership skills, knowledge and responsibility. We intentionally involve community groups and organizations to help us provide the training and/or support to develop leaders.
HERE IS ALL THE NOTES SINCE YOU PULLED OUT ONLY THE
TEXT YOU WANTED FOLKS TO SEE. i WILL TAKE OUT NAMES.
MAY 13, 2009
We did it! We have gathered for the first time as the PPS Parent Union. This meeting was specifically to start the conversations.
We asked all present at this meeting: what came to mind when they heard the word Parents Union? Responses: Voice of a Union can be unified, parent leadership, parent development, solid and grounded, power, accomplish a lot more, gives a strong voice to parents, child advocacy, parent advocacy, we don’t have to be so nice, involving parents (Kim Melton’s article “What’s the most important for our families”), provide leadership training, Parent’s Union looks like a labor union? partnership with with all who are working towards better outcomes for families.
PPSPU will be a centralized place where families can get what they need. This could be: support, advocacy, education, partnering, inclusion, mentoring, services, engagement, relationships, a place to vent, tell their stories, and much more. The best thing: Parents will be working with parents.
We talked about what our Parent Union is going to look like. From the beginning I have encouraged everyone to look at the Los Angeles Parents Union/Parents Revolution and the Chicago Parents Union/P.U.R.E. We are in contact with both groups they are elated that we are ready to go. It will be easier having models that will help give us insight on how we will customize our own Parents Union.
My vision and long term goal is to have the Parent Union be as strong as the teachers union. We are pro-union and pro-PPS and will strongly support and include charter school parents and students, private school parents and students, home school parents and students, alternative schools parents and students. Please remind me of more. We are not here to bash any schools, groups or people. We are here to be all-inclusive. We do not want to create a climate of us against them but will take a strong stand together to push for change.
The Parent’s Union includes all parents, all students, all services, groups, and leaders that have an interest in better outcomes for our children. The Parents Union is driven by the Parents not the School districts or any organizations. We hope eventually to partner as an equal with all school districts, especially PPS and all unions who are dealing with families and education, especially PAT.
We don’t want to reinvent the wheel if it is not necessary. This is where partnering comes in. There are many organizations
and services out there that will have what is needed for parents and students already. Examples: leadership trainings, legal services, support services, parent’s academies, summer programs, etc.
It was agreed all PPS policies and procedures, archived info, documented promises, legislative mandates, initiatives, directives and more needs to be collected and centralized for access. We must be well informed and prepared.
A Research and documentation committee was formed. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx will do this work. If anyone else would like to join this committee, please notify us. We will be a clearinghouse for the collective maintenance and distribution of materials and information.
We are asking for all areas of expertise: Financial, business, organizing, archiving/documentation, legal, teaching, motivating, mentoring and more. Please let us know what you are good at and volunteer to help us.
The charge is given for all of us to act as sales-people when we are out and about to inform parents about the Union. We agreed that there will be flyers to pass out at the Roosevelt Rally and Jefferson meeting on Saturday, May 16. We need to be prepared from now until June to expose ourselves as a Parent Union through flyering and showing up anywhere we can to support and recruit. xxxxxxxxl donated money for brochures. Thanks xxxx. (brochures in the future, flyers for now)
Parent groups OR groups that include within the schools that need our support; TAG, Special Ed., PTA, ELL, ESL, Site Council, Action Team Partnerships, family groups, LSACs, Title 1 and all other titles, data wise teams and others.
—————————————————————————————————————————————–
April, 2009
The Parent’s Union is on its way. We will have our first meeting on May 13, 6:30 at my house. Please invite anyone or any group you think wants to be a part of this landmark gathering. Let them know they get to be on the ground floor in the creation of this important and imperative group.
I will present my vision. I have talked to people who are already doing this in other cities and will be sitting at their feet for help.
We need all your expert input. I am hopeful this will be a collaborative effort (sure of it). Some of you I have already asked to be the expert on certain issues since you already are.
Actions so far: We have been gathering parent’s and others’ stories of how they have been treated in our schools. Hope one or two will come to tell their story.
Groups who have committed to coming: PIRC-Parental Information and Resource Center, Urban League, People Celebrating People, N-NE Black Coalition, Taskforce on the achievement gap social justice committee, Ainsworth UCC, PFLAG-Parents and Families of Lesbian and Gay Children, PTA, Special Ed. PTA, CPPS-Community and Parents for Public Schools, Community Education Partners and GrandParents raising GrandChildren.
Groups on my radar: Stand for Children (Will meet with Portland director and Stand CEO Jonah Edleman at the end of the month),
Foster Parents Association, home school Parents, homeless families, Tag parents (the program at PPS is going to be fragmented),
Special Education Groups, Head start Parents, charter school parents, Multnomah Family and community Services, DCJ, Rethinking Schools, NAYA, IRCO, CIO, APANO, Latino network, Center for Educational Excellence, Resolutions NW. We know there are many organizations, groups and parents. We will compose a list at the meeting.
For the last week I have attended 3 events that focused on Parent Involvement and collective collaboration . The time is right! We do have Parent Power!! It’s time to bring it out of the closet.
Thank you, Sheila for the clarification and for informing readers.
I am still unsure touhg, of your group’s position of the privatization of education. I would also like to know, as would readers, the Portland Parent Union position on charter schools, EMO’s (Educational Management Organizations) and the move by the corporate system to close schools and take over public education.
Danny
Mr. Weil,
Have you ever tried to organize parents to participate in school reform efforts? Or just try to get them to attend a local school governance or PTA meeting? Parents can no more act cohesively as a group than teachers can without a union to represent them, particularly when it involves reforming the bureaucratic status quo. And considering the lack of compliance of school districts in training parents to understand school governance, despite the state funding for such legal requirements, it is unfortunate, but no wonder parents reach to groups like LAPU or Parent revolution for assistance.
I don’t see teacher groups acting in any concerted way to dispute their union leaders’ unwillingness to compromise on collective bargaining in getting through this budget disaster. Because of seniority, my childrens’ school just lost three of the best teachers while at least 2 utterly incompetent ones continue to drag down education at the site. The vested interests by the big pockets works both ways. This is no apology for the underhanded tactics of Parent Revolution. If they really want parent involvement they would invest more time training parents. If unions really want what is best for California public school students they would accept what every other worker in the private sector has had to accept: Either they take a temporary pay cut or children will suffer through increased class sizes.
Regarding the machinations of the charter movement, it is well known that for profit charters are on the decline. In fact, corporate run charters are a minority of the more than 5,000 charters currently in existence. Just as small business employs more than big business, small charters are far more widespread than corporate charter counterparts, despite the fact that the microphone is held by the large interests.
Your belief and the propagation of it that charters are aimed at destroying education in America is unfounded. You make it sound as if the students of America are being marched against their will into re-education camps. That any one who participates in this folly does so out of ignorance. That sounds like the same argument that social equity proponents use to bus kids out of low performing program improvement schools – schools that districts and their masters, the unions, continue to operate year after year despite their dismal results.
I am wary of the vested interests of some charter operators. But no more so than public school operators in goverenment that have, through their lack of accountability and outright hostility towards it, failed to reform from within. We should look at charters on their merits and potential – holding them accountable by the same standards we use for traditional schools. With the exception of independent charters, they are all, one way or another, controlled by a larger machine of one kind or another.
Mr. Weil,
Have you ever tried to organize parents to participate in school reform efforts? Or just try to get them to attend a local school governance or PTA meeting?
Yes, I have DSon both when I worked in South Central Los Angeles as second grade teacher, and in Santa Maria, California as a k-1 teacher. In LA we struck in 1989 and thus organized parents throoughout the city. We had to for they were the frontline of our support. And I engaged in this quite enthusiastically with newly arriving immigrant families many of whom were undocuemnted. 39,000 of us struck and due to parent and other support, we won our demands. So yes, for many years, Don. I also started a charter school with another person on the border sof Nogales and Mexico back in 1998. I served on the board, helped due the legal work, helped with teacher inservice and worked much with parents for the first group of kids had juvenile delinquency issues with the court.
Parents can no more act cohesively as a group than teachers can without a union to represent them, particularly when it involves reforming the bureaucratic status quo. And considering the lack of compliance of school districts in training parents to understand school governance, despite the state funding for such legal requirements, it is unfortunate, but no wonder parents reach to groups like LAPU or Parent revolution for assistance.
You make good points. Parent Revolution is successful because progressive educators and their supporters are not, I agree. They capitalize on very real grievances parents have with public schools, grievances I have written about for 20 years. Parents do not have to worry about losing their jobs, or being singled out for transfer due to their union activites.
I don’t see teacher groups acting in any concerted way to dispute their union leaders’ unwillingness to compromise on collective bargaining in getting through this budget disaster.
the budget disaster is not caused by working pweople, Don. It was caused by the same people implicated in the privatization of education. Wall St, entrpreneurs, billionaire philanthropists. Why should teachers, say like in Detroit, have to bail out the same people; the banks, the administrators, the rich who do not pay a fair share of taxes? We have budget deficits due to the theory of Milton Freidman Reaganomics. These deficits and broken infrastructures are the result of thirty or more years of neglect. Productivity and profits have risen while working people’s salaries have stayed stagnant or fallen in terms of inflation within the last 30 years. Here in California Exxon won’t pay taxes. Why? Their profits esceeded anything in the history of the world but they don’t pay taxes. The liesure class gets capital gains, they pay 15%, we as workers pay 33 federal 10 in some states state. Why? We accept these deficits as if they are inevitable and we fail to understand they were and are caused by an economic system that pushes wealth upward and destroys wealth at the bottom. Now you want us to give up more? What, our houses? Working pewople already have no health care, lowering standards of living, their wealth was stolen if they had 401 and such or pensions in 2008 crash, many face foreclosure and cuts in services, foodstamps and no safety net and now you want us to give up more? No, Don it is time to understand how this system of inequlaity works, this is part of eduation too and blame those that caused it and force institutional changes so they must pay their fair share and cannot steal from the government through neo-liberal policies.
Because of seniority, my childrens’ school just lost three of the best teachers while at least 2 utterly incompetent ones continue to drag down education at the site. The vested interests by the big pockets works both ways. This is no apology for the underhanded tactics of Parent Revolution
Sure, by not policing our own profession we are now taking blame for many off the poor teachers. I agree. We should have had and should have a polciing mechnaims though our unions. But we don’t. But it is the principal’s job to get rid of teachers under the existeing system and they won’t do it. They don’t want the fight, they don’t want to go through the process. But Don, under the current system, itis their job to get rid of teachers taht do not function. The fact they don’t more often than not is telling. But sure, under this system we get poor teachers. We need a mechanism to police ourselves
. If they really want parent involvement they would invest more time training parents.
Yes, but thw rod ‘traiing’ is troubling for we train animals and educate human beings. Yes, they need to be educated as to how the syste,m of education is set up, whose needs it serves, who controls it, why etc. More than that we need to figure out what it means to be an educated person in today’s society
If unions really want what is best for California public school students they would accept what every other worker in the private sector has had to accept: Either they take a temporary pay cut or children will suffer through increased class sizes.
No, we are sick and tired fo each and every crisis being asked to give back to the rich. go to the deep pockets who pay no taxes, profit off government subsidies or outsorucing, NAFTA, those transnational corporations that opreate state by state and pay little if anything to the commons. The liesure class who sits by the pool and pays 15% on their checks that come in the mail. No, Don it is not our place to give back it is our place to take back. And this is the problem, we will put up with clsoing schools, paying teachers less, more hierarchical control, less democracy and a broken capitalist system for we do not know really how it works.; It works in the favor of the ruling class not working people; the large corporations and Wall St and the coin operated politicians who capitalize on the very economic disaster they cause. Don’t ask our teachers and kids to give up more. Many have lost their homes, have no health care,, are saddled with debt and have no future.
Regarding the machinations of the charter movement, it is well known that for profit charters are on the decline. In fact, corporate run charters are a minority of the more than 5,000 charters currently in existence. Just as small business employs more than big business, small charters are far more widespread than corporate charter counterparts, despite the fact that the microphone is held by the large interests.
For-profit charters are on the decline, as I note in both my work at dailycnsored and in my new book on Charters. Why? Non-profits re more profitable and sellabel to the public. As an attorney I can tell you non-profits use the back door to contract out everything from adminsitrative duties to cafateria duties to for-profit corporations approved by their ‘baords’. And their boards are not made up of your family next store, they are made up of large venture capitalists and conservative professors and well heeled entrepeneurs. Go look at any EMO (educational maintanece organization) that is non -profit of any size and look up their board members. They are stacked. Non-profits not only ship jobs out the bakc door to chop shops that hire employees at minimum wage and no benefits, but they do the same thing to procure text books and other services. They are also protected from public disclosure and Public Records Acts due to the law. They are the favorite now of the privtizers for tyhey stack the boards, outsource through the back door, and keep the public thinking they do not make a profit when in fact look at their board salaries and business plans. They are the pass through to the for profit srevice industry. A ruse.’
Your belief and the propagation of it that charters are aimed at destroying education in America is unfounded.
No, my critique is of the charter movem3ent, not all charters. You can see my book, Don. There are boutique charters that serve a hundred kids here and there. Bu t this is not the movement. You must go read the literature of Pau l T, Hill (portfolio schools, diverse stragegy schools) he is the author of the New Orleans plan the granddaddy of the whole movement. go read Smarmack in the Hudson Institute and look at the plan to seize 75% market share in major urban cities. Why do you think mayoral control is getting all the heavy breathing? This business plan has been i the works for decades, Don. It is a move to set up national retail charter chains that have no unions with longer hours for teachers with less pay and benefits and canned curriculum for kids as teachers are divorced more and more from the conception of their own lessons. They are managers in the classroom, crowd control. the average charter teacher lasts three years, they burn them out in the Wl-Mart model, requiring overtime, they be on cell phones. Go take a look at KIPP, the article I did at dailycensored and look at the teacher agreements. You must understand that what you are seeing change in education is a complete takover by private interests. City by city
You make it sound as if the students of America are being marched against their will into re-education camps.
They are. For let us be honest, Don there is no work for student today nor will there be when they graduate. We are down to less than 20% manufacturing and thus we make nsothing. We have now outsourced all the jobs overseas so we really have a surplus population of kids, kids who will go onto “Do you want fries with that, Sir” jobs or no jobs at all. And this is what is very frightening for both the ruling class in this country and for all of us. For the ruling class needs a better method to contain kids, for the war on youth is in full swing. Where once youth was looked at as our future it is now looked at with a yellowed eye: they are violent, killers, gang members etc. So we are seeing now our children villified everywhere. Zero tolerance to culture. There are no jobs in Ameica, Don. Our students have little future other than to change the existing order. Americans sare broke, they have no savings, no credit and thus they cannot consume. This is a big problem for the system itself.’
That any one who participates in this folly does so out of ignorance. That sounds like the same argument that social equity proponents use to bus kids out of low performing program improvement schools – schools that districts and their masters, the unions, continue to operate year after year despite their dismal results.
Who are the masters of the distrcits, Donn? Certaily not the four hundred teachers just laid off in SF. Or the 100 laid off in Rhode Island? They wouldn’t lay themselves off would they? It is not the unions for they are suffering greatly now with less teachers. So who are the masters? See Gates, Eli Broad, Fisher Family, Walton etc. and you will see who runs education. Same people, city by city, Pastorke in New Orleans, Vallas in New Orleans. both of them Broad graduates who were at other districts doing the same thing they are doing in New Orleans Same in Detroit with Robert Bobb. Broad grad, Michelle Rhee in DC, Eli Broad graduate, Kevin Johnson Sacramento, Borad Grad, Atkinson in Philly, Broad grad and the list goes on and on. Charters are a business plan as is education with kids the consumers, teachers the associates, and the curriculum something akin to a cheap chinese good. This is deform you are seeing and what parents need to be educated about. It is the system aht fails, Don. Underachievement and poverty are related and inequality grows each and every day and now you ask that teacher dbridge the deficit? No, we don’t think so. We want the system to change and this will mean that all workers develop an understanding of how the systme works and thus class consciousness. If we want to think of every kid as our kid we need institutional change and not privtization. But the culture in America is so individualistic I am not sure people really care about other people’s kids.
Thanks, Don
Danny
I am wary of the vested interests of some charter operators. But no more so than public school operators in goverenment that have, through their lack of accountability and outright hostility towards it, failed to reform from within. We should look at charters on their merits and potential – holding them accountable by the same standards we use for traditional schools. With the exception of independent charters, they are all, one way or another, controlled by a larger machine of one kind or another.
One last thing, Don: charters cannot be held accountable thta is why the ruling class and venture capitalists love them. They are free free from most regulations other than NCLB. That is why they exist, to avoid any regulations and any oversight. Please read some of my articles on this issue under my name you will find posts for the last four months.
Danny
Mr. Weil,
I do not view every education issue through the prism of class warfare, even if admittedly the Business Roundtable ( re: Cathy Emery) exerts an influence upon American education policy as it does on society in general. I’m having a hard time understanding why billionaires would be interested in wringing out pennies from public education as a profit motive. Where is this elusive untapped gold mine? Can you provide an explanation as to where the profit can be squeezed out of already inadequate education funding? I’ve toured several charter schools and cannot for the life of me see why venture capitalists would view charters as “the big enchilada.”
Nor can I understand why the elite would want to destroy the middle class which drives the engine of the American economy. Wouldn’t creating such a scenario be self-defeating? Do you believe that this is a conspiracy to impoverish our nation as you seem to imply? The “fat cat” Bill Gates did not get rich off the backs of slaves. He enriched his employees, the nation and the world through his innovation. I don’t begrudge him for getting immensely wealthy doing it. His edu-philantrophy is what we want from our richest citizens. The fact that he doesn’t get it right all the time seems somewhat disingenuous coming from the education establishment that has failed to reinvent itself in over 150 years. I don’t for one second believe that Bill Gates is out to destroy public education.
I make a few other points below in some random order.
1. Despite our underfunding of education, California has a relatively high overall tax structure and would arguably rank second if not for Prop 13, which is primarily responsible for the loss of state tax revenues. We currently have one of the least hospitable business tax codes in the nation, despite the commercial real estate loophole. I would like to see Prop 13 rescinded, not only because of that loophole, but also because it taxes ordinary citizens in a wholly unfair manner, making some pay multiples for like properties while other newer owners take up the slack. This has starved education of revenue singlehandedly.
The other problem, as elucidated in Getting Down to Facts, is the lack equalization of state revenue limit funding that does not compensate for local labor costs or the number of high need low income students. Ironically, the historical efforts to right the injustice of education spending inequality through revenue equalization is now creating a new injustice through its failure to attach costs to types of students in addition to numbers of students. So everyone wants to tag on another parcel tax to make up for it, a tactic that is not only insufficient, but is burdensome on the poor.
2. You said that principals are responsible for failing to fire incompetent teachers. This is too facile an explanation. The district and the unions ought to have policies in place that strengthen the integrity of the teaching profession. They don’t. So principals are hard pressed to take an aggressive approach without support from their central office. That’s because most Boards are strongly aligned with union support and funding. Students suffer as a result. That’s why there is a lot of teacher bashing in the press. I would not sacrifice students to seniority under any circumstance. Schools are about “students first”, the name we gave to our nascent organization founded to reform education in San Francisco. You draw the line to protect working adults first. I draw it to protect children first. Charters would not be making inroads if unions self- monitored.
3. The costs of the market meltdown to society reach deep. Trillions were lost across every social station. The rationale that teachers shouldn’t take a freeze or cut because a few profited makes little sense to me. It seems that you are taking out your pound of flesh inadvertently off the backs of children so as to maintain your immutable support for unions. California’s problems go deeper than the current crisis which does not define the abyss we find ourselves in, but only exacerbated it. It is not realistic to expect every union employee to receive ever increasing salaries regardless of the economic environment, unless you summarily dismiss downward salary adjustments under any circumstances, which is of course the position of all unions.
I agree with your overall indignation over the bailouts, so why as you say should teachers take a cut to preserve smaller class sizes? Because everybody is taking cuts. Because the State is broke. Because we have to protect the young. Because it is our responsibility not to take it out on the next generation even if teachers have to bear some of the burden.
4. IF the SF Board of Ed had used the categorical flexibility it was provided we could have voided the worst of the budget cuts. But the sleeping progressives on the Board neglected to be prudent fiscal managers and ignored the warnings from the Cal State Budget Advisory. Now they want to sue the state as a show of their indignation. Where were they when the Board passed its bloated budget last year and failed to utilize the one and only tool given them to provide for essential services?
5. Charters are not released from public governance, just from day to day governance.
6. “…public schools are purposely starved to induce failure…”. Sorry, ridiculous in the extreme. At 40% of the Ca state budget it is funded in excess of its proportion to government, which it should be. It is the loss of tax revenue long and short term that is the problem. If traditional schools get less ADA so do charters.
7. “we are sick and tired fo each and every crisis being asked to give back to the rich”. All economies have cycles. Decoupling wages from revenue is a recipe for disaster. Socialist dogma aside, somewhere along the line the bill eventually comes due.
8. Your arguments are persuasive because they are cleverly worded and seemingly hearfelt – a good combination. But you fail to see one overriding issue or you dismiss it without merit – Charter schools are only successful if the families that attend continue to support them by their attendance. If they are failing the parents will not be back, unless we are to believe they’ve also been brainwashed.
Mr. Weil,
I do not view every education issue through the prism of class warfare,
This is not surprising, Donn most American don’t even know they live in a class scoeity. This is the problem, lack of class consciousness which is why you, me and others are being fleeced and locusts fill the mind
even if admittedly the Business Roundtable ( re: Cathy Emery) exerts an influence upon American education policy as it does on society in general. I’m having a hard time understanding why billionaires would be interested in wringing out pennies from public education as a profit motive
Good, allow me to explain. One, the money from you, the taxpayer gives to the privatizers for each kid. Thousands and thousands. Can you imagine, mandated education paid for by taxpayer money but run by business? My God, sounds like health care. Two, the liesure class has a vested intereest din controlling thinking, Donn and this is done through schools and dprivatized curriculums. Go see how much the textbook industry is making. Dumb kids for dollars, the Wal-Mart plan
. Where is this elusive untapped gold mine?
Oh, say in starting a charter school, getting $5,000 per child to educate and then putting together a business plan that cuts labor and reduces the cost of curriculum. Nice work if you can get it, right?
Can you provide an explanation as to where the profit can be squeezed out of already inadequate education funding?
I just did but go to dailycensored under my posts, and there are over 45 that will keep you up at night. Or go to Dewtroit and see Wal-Mart Internships in four public highschools.
I’ve toured several charter schools and cannot for the life of me see why venture capitalists would view charters as “the big enchilada.”
No, that is because as you said, you don’t understand the issue. You really need to look at the economics, Donn as I said earlier and must repeat for we tend to not use the prism you spoke of, that is whdy your society is a third world country now
Nor can I understand why the elite would want to destroy the middle class which drives the engine of the American economy. Wouldn’t creating such a scenario be self-defeating?
Agai, without an understanding of social class, the fact you live ind a class society makes it hard to understand. Do you think the casino owners in Vegas want you to understand the business? Of course not. Anyone in control, anyone in a postiion of authority really doesn’t want pesky thinkers around asking questions and critically thinking, do they? No, either Jerry Springer for them or well, yeah, how about a privately controlled curriculum in a privately controlled school called a ‘charter school’?
Do you believe that this is a conspiracy to impoverish our nation as you seem to imply?
No, a business plan, Donn not a conspiracy leave the rhetorical tricks behind. Don’t label, deal with facts. Look at Wall St? Could the Great Depression be a conspiracy or just show capitalism works? Look at health care? Why would the medical industry not want to insure sick people. It is sprofit before people and it is called capitalism and it is run be elites and no, Donn they do not want your skid to figure it out or ask too many questions, hurts the stock market.
The “fat cat” Bill Gates did not get rich off the backs of slaves. He enriched his employees, the nation and the world through his innovation.
Look at my article, moree than 33 million in robbed wages from workers. And this was just the settlement with the government. He is paying less than a dollar an hour for workers in Asia while you stand in line in the unemployment line. Then he comes back here, gives you the robotic smile and tells you he really cares about you and your kids. No, Donn.
I don’t begrudge him for getting immensely wealthy doing it.
No, the wealthy are wealthy because they ar speical, Donn. The lowly workers are workers due to the fact they are just sbums. This is the narrative we bot during the Gilded Age, 1890. Go read Mark Twain. Capitalism works like this Donn. I hire you for ten dollars an hour. In that hour you produce 20 dollars of value. I take the ten you get ten. It is called exploitation. For thirty years production in this country has grown astronomically while wages have stayed flat or actually gone down adjusted for inflation. It is those ‘special’ people like Gates tht just squeeze as much as they can out of the workers no matter where they are. Thanks to Gates’ largess, he can hire them cheaper in Asia. Thanks, Bill
His edu-philantrophy is what we want from our richest citizens
No, what we want is justice, Donn not handouts. Decent wages, investment in the public sphere, regulations so they pay their taxes which Gates does not pay (his share). We don’t want a system that exploits us and then tells us they are are benefactors.
. The fact that he doesn’t get it right all the time seems somewhat disingenuous coming from the education establishment that has failed to reinvent itself in over 150 years. I don’t for one second believe that Bill Gates is out to destroy public education.
He has no interest in education, profits and money is what prompts him, Donn,. this and narcicism. No, Donn I liked it back in the 1960′s when we didn’t rely on billionaires for their fix for education. They paid taxes, in 1958 if you made over 450,000 you paid 90%, schools were just fine and the the ruling class had their fun. Now they want it all, they take it in capital sgains so the tax is only 15%, Donn. You pay the rest
I make a few other points below in some random order.
1. Despite our underfunding of education, California has a relatively high overall tax structure and would arguably rank second if not for Prop 13, which is primarily responsible for the loss of state tax revenues
Sure, I would agree so let us put prop 13 back on retail. But don’t forget the prisons they have gone up ten times in suckking up funds in the last twnety years.
. We currently have one of the least hospitable business tax codes in the nation, despite the commercial real estate loophole. I would like to see Prop 13 rescinded, not only because of that loophole, but also because it taxes ordinary citizens in a wholly unfair manner, making some pay multiples for like properties while other newer owners take up the slack. This has starved education of revenue singlehandedly.
So you want to fund schools off the backs of working people’s homes? Sounds worse than the lottery. I am with you on retail but not on primary residences.
The other problem, as elucidated in Getting Down to Facts, is the lack equalization of state revenue limit funding that does not compensate for local labor costs or the number of high need low income students. Ironically, the historical efforts to right the injustice of education spending inequality through revenue equalization is now creating a new injustice through its failure to attach costs to types of students in addition to numbers of students.
The ‘types’ of students. One can smell the class based thinking here. So what is it, Donn some kids should go to school others are just not smart enough? There has been no spending equalization, what are you talking about. Education has been ruthlessly cut in the last thirty years go readd the facts Donn. The rich won’t pay their fair share of taxes, Donn for they don’t care abput public schools, their kids go to private schools
So everyone wants to tag on another parcel tax to make up for it, a tactic that is not only insufficient, but is burdensome on the poor.
Donn, look at Afghan and Iraq. Two trillion dollars. TWO trillion and counting Donn. And you want to break the piggy bank for nickles and dimes? Where are the priorities?
2. You said that principals are responsible for failing to fire incompetent teachers. This is too facile an explanation. The district and the unions ought to have policies in place that strengthen the integrity of the teaching profession. They don’t. So principals are hard pressed to take an aggressive approach without support from their central office.
That is their job, Donn that is why they are hired for over onee hundred thousand per year. Now it is not just Gates tht is the great guy but the overpaid administrators? See where your class interests lie? You defend the Gates’ of the world, the administrators and how nothing but contempt for the people that do the actual work in society. Balming unions is easy, Hollywood taught us this.
That’s because most Boards are strongly aligned with union support and funding.
No they are not, Donn go to any big city and look. Teachers and their unions are not running school boards, the business elite do. NY, D>C>, Houston, LA, Detroit, the list just goes on and on. You make assumptions but no facts
Students suffer as a result. That’s why there is a lot of teacher bashing in the press. I would not sacrifice students to seniority under any circumstance.
You already have, your analysis has sacrificed them to a ruthless capitlist system run by oligarchs, DONn and you applaud. Your society has already auctioned off your kids
Schools are about “students first”, the name we gave to our nascent organization founded to reform education in San Francisco. You draw the line to protect working adults first. I draw it to protect children first. Charters would not be making inroads if unions self- monitored.
No students, no teacherrs, no teachers no students. The relationship is symbioitic,. Teaching is not a charity profession. If you want faith based schools based on charity you might be lucky, they are coming your way. Take a profession and then destroy it and say it is for the kids? It is like talking about sick people without talking about doctors
3. The costs of the market meltdown to society reach deep. Trillions were lost across every social station.
Capitalism, isn’t it great? Deregulation, no ovesight, corrupt coin operated politicians, little or no taxes, free trade agreements, subsidies to grow food or make widgets. Yeah, you are right rillions were stolen but don’t look in teachers’ pockets donn
The rationale that teachers shouldn’t take a freeze or cut because a few profited makes little sense to me. It seems that you are taking out your pound of flesh inadvertently off the backs of children so as to maintain your immutable support for unions.
Yes a small percentage of the population stodle trillions and now we must all do our burden and feel the whips on our backs. This is really nutty thinking. WE MUST sacrifice for they stole?
California’s problems go deeper than the current crisis which does not define the abyss we find ourselves in, but only exacerbated it. It is not realistic to expect every union employee to receive ever increasing salaries regardless of the economic environment, unless you summarily dismiss downward salary adjustments under any circumstances, which is of course the position of all unions.
Yes, the unions are horrible and that is why when this country was mostly unions we had the gold age of capitalism. a social contract. But not now. The unions stole trillions, right Donn? Or was theat the ruling class?
I agree with your overall indignation over the bailouts, so why as you say should teachers take a cut to preserve smaller class sizes? Because everybody is taking cuts. Because the State is broke. Because we have to protect the young. Because it is our responsibility not to take it out on the next generation even if teachers have to bear some of the burden.
Yeah you are right. Let’s all take a cut in pay, you too Donn, to pay the billionaires burden.
4. IF the SF Board of Ed had used the categorical flexibility it was provided we could have voided the worst of the budget cuts. But the sleeping progressives on the Board neglected to be prudent fiscal managers and ignored the warnings from the Cal State Budget Advisory. Now they want to sue the state as a show of their indignation. Where were they when the Board passed its bloated budget last year and failed to utilize the one and only tool given them to provide for essential services?
DOnn, for thirty years your schools have been cut relative to student population. Please, ddo the math and stop blaming workers for the economic woes wrought by the ruling class.
5. Charters are not released from public governance, just from day to day governance.
No, Donn, please. The best I can say is, “You are wrong’, absolutely wrong
6. “…public schools are purposely starved to induce failure…”. Sorry, ridiculous in the extreme. At 40% of the Ca state budget it is funded in excess of its proportion to government, which it should be. It is the loss of tax revenue long and short term that is the problem. If traditional schools get less ADA so do charters.
Donn, public education is purposely starved. Everything public is starved. Public education. Medicaid, Medicare, universities, schools. workers wagers everything but the ruling class profits and war
7. “we are sick and tired fo each and every crisis being asked to give back to the rich”. All economies have cycles.
A terrible misunderstanding of your economic system. Did you know that capitalism has suffered multiple depressions just last century? 1890, 1907, 1922, 1929, during the 30′s, the fifties, and of course every since the 80′s. The system is rigged, Donn capitlism benefits those with capital. We need socialism and until we get it you will have the golden rule, those with the gold make the rules
Decoupling wages from revenue
Right that is why we need more revnue. From those who do not pay it, the rich
is a recipe for disaster. Socialist dogma aside, somewhere along the line the bill eventually comes due.
sure the proiteers bill always comes due. Look at your wars, Donn the issue is who pays
8. Your arguments are persuasive because they are cleverly worded and seemingly hearfelt
Thank you I take that as a compliment
– a good combination. But you fail to see one overriding issue or you dismiss it without merit – Charter schools are only successful if the families that attend continue to support them by their attendance. If they are failing the parents will not be back, unless we are to believe they’ve also been brainwashed.
No, Donn you miss the point. In a society where ineqaulity has reached levels beyond despair,. there can be no public education. What there can be are little enclaves of excellence of the individualistic citizen that does not see how the system works. And then you get into them by lottery and they become retail chains.
We have probably lost public education due to this type of thinking: no class consciousness and everyone looking in their own backyard for life and not even peeping over the fence to see how the rest live. It is individualistim and is essential for the continuation of capitalism. For it has people balming each other instead of the ruling class that socializes costs and privatizes profits.
I would write more clverly but I am tired from a day of protesting wityh students who see so clearly what you do not, Donn: this is a casino society and like a casino, there is always daycare for the kids while you stand in front of the slots. And Donn, the house always wins and you always go home broke, the kids a little more amused but never educated. Your society can’t do this, it has no public commitment to it and just people teaming around trying to pick up the ortz of a dead empire– unless people fight back, label the enemy for what it is, 500 years of capitalism and it is failing and has, big time. Your kids will have a far lower standard of living than I did , born in 1953
Danny
Danny
Danny
correction
“but also because it taxes ordinary citizens in a wholly unfair manner, making some pay multiples for like properties while other newer owners take up the slack”
I intended to say some pay multiples while others pay little.
Thank you for taking the time to reply.
Of course, Don and good luck!
Danny
[...] You can also see my piece: “Say You want a revolution: Parents Revolution, ‘Astro turf’ organizations and the privatization of public schools (http://dailycensored.com/2009/10/05/say-you-want-a-revolution-parents-revolution-astro-turf-organiza...) [...]
Just thought i would comment and say neat theme, did you code it yourself? Looks great. If you liketo exchange the links with us please let me know.
Hi, Nancy the title is mine but the organization, as you can read in the new article by Robert Skeels posted yesterday, is the brainchild of Green Dot Charter Chains in conjunction with billionaire pseudo-philanthropists and the support of Arne Duncan the handmaiden for the whole privatization mess in education.
I am not sure what group you are with so do not know what you mean by ‘linking’ but I am up for linking with any group interested in social justice. Please let me know how I can find your group!
Best and thanks for reading
Danny Weil
[...] also doesn’t include money form sources like residuals from the charter-voucher infomercial Austin did with Bill Cosby, or honoraria Austin gets for poverty pimping and pitching privatization at various speaking [...]
Schools chief propagandist-
You are right; the rich and individualists like phony Cosby love the charter movement. It makes ‘them’ fee good to hell with our students. And then they come out, of course, like Cosby did for Robert Bobb in Detroit, to show the personalities to shore up funds for the pirates.
Cosby is a fake African American spokesperson. Solomn Commisiong tears him and other charlatans like him up in nis article in Daily on Black intellectuals.
Danny
You are a Really Experienced Blogger, You either have got quality knowledge of what your talking about or you did some excellent research. Thank you for this wonderful post.
Download-
It is the research I am a lawyer so it is like ‘discovery’ for me but instead of a court of law it is the court of public opinion.
Thanks, my friend
Danny