Dr. Raynard Sanders of the New Orleans Imperative radio program (theneworleansimperative.org; WBOK1230am.com) invited me to speak on his hour-long show about school performance scores, the Recovery School District (RSD) and Teach for America (TFA). I spoke for about 20 minutes; then, phone lines were opened for a few callers. I spoke some more; a couple more callers.
One of the callers was Louella Givens, who lost her BESE seat to amply-reform-funded TFAer Kira Orange-Jones. A little background on that BESE seat purchase:
In just one of these [BESE seat] races, the executive director of Teach for America Greater New Orleans-Louisiana Delta, Kira Orange Jones, outspent attorney Louella Givens, who was endorsed by the state’s main teacher’s unions, by more than thirty-four to one: $472,382 to $13,815.
To support Orange Jones’s campaign against Givens, Eli Broad, billionaire head of the education reform organization the Broad Foundation and a major trainer and placer of school superintendents (including John White), chipped in $5,000.