Private money and public schools: Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. team up part one
Last December 3, the California Fair Political Practices Commission recommended fining Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a Democrat, $37,500 for improperly reporting donations to his multiple nonprofit groups. The political watchdog agency agreed to this penalty at a Dec. 13 meeting. The donations included a total of $500,000 between Jan. 19, 2012, and June 5, 2012, from the Walton Family Foundation to Stand Up for Sacramento Schools, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit school reform group that Johnson founded in 2009 with a commitment of $500,000 from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.
The money trail, however, goes beyond Mayor Johnson’s untimely reporting of donations to his nonprofits. His local education reform efforts illustrate a broader national trend: corporate funding of education reform via nonprofits to alter public schools. In an era of a growing income gap between corporate America and the general public—the one percent and 99 percent, in the words of the Occupy Wall Street movement—the power of corporate-funded philanthropy to shape public policy has become part of the social landscape. In the case of school reform, breaking public-sector unions is high on this elite agenda. Consider the Walton Family
Private money and public schools: Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. team up part two
The DFER and USCM vision of education reform prioritizes high-stakes standardized tests that set teachers on a path of drilling pupils in preparation throughout the school day and year. Schools with low test scores are at risk of takeover when student scores on standardized tests do not measure up. Here is a little-discussed fact: High-stakes testing is a thriving business. It involves so-called “learning companies” like Pearson, which owns the Financial Times and Penguin Books. Pearson profits from test materials for American education reform.
Mayor Johnson co-wrote an editorial with members of the black church: “If we truly believe that education is the civil rights issue of our time, we must step up to the plate and demand justice. And by encouraging legislatures to put measures in place that will empower parents and guarantee great teachers in the classroom, we have the ability to educate every child in our communities, regardless of ZIP code. In addition, we should utilize the Stand Up for Sacramento Schools and StudentsFirst websites as resources for learning more about how to advocate for education reforms in our communities”: http://www.theroot.com/views/black-church-and-schools-reform.
Hold on. The American civil rights movement of the 1960s did not receive or request donations from the corporate
