Education and the Wall Street connection
by Angela Engel
This election year, Denver voters will have an opportunity to demonstrate the power of citizen engagementand the importance of direct control of our neighborhood schools. National interests are investing heavily in Denver’s school board race. The players are many, the politics ugly, and the possibilities are, well, promising.
The Players
Stand for Children established a Colorado chapter in 2010 in order to push legislation that tied teacher evaluations to test scores. Their investors include The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and New Profit Inc., a “national venture philanthropy fund.” Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) is a newer organization that promotes charter schools, alternative certification training, and performance pay, and in addition, promotes mayoral control. Another player, the Alliance for Choice in Education (ACE), originated in Colorado in 2000. ACE members made significant campaign contributions to the Douglas County School Board responsible for directing private dollars away from some of the most high-