Is Eli Broad's hostile takeover of LAUSD coming from the outside or in?
LAUSD was making a clean break from a past that included the iPad scandal (still under federal investigation) and the “don’t let the door hit you on the way out” resignation of John Deasy. Board President Steve Zimmer launched LAUSD’s community engagement campaign for the superintendent search last week.
“The public will be involved in helping to shape the conversation...Your voice as a stakeholder is very important to the Board of Education,” Zimmer wrote. This is a welcome change, considering Deasy was Eli Broad’s handpicked superintendent for the public schools, and is now his private superintendent at the unaccredited Broad Academy.
Input will be gathered at community outreach sessions. The LAUSD community is accustomed to such meetings, facilitated by a team of experts who have built trusting relationships with parents, faculty and neighbors, in sometimes difficult circumstances. We know them by name: Lorena, Fortunato, Holly, Judy and others.
However, rather than a Human or Community Relations facilitator, the person at the center of the outreach for the supe search is a lobbyist who has spent her career advancing an agenda closely aligned with Eli Broad’s.
Before joining LAUSD’s lobbying department, Beth Doctor Gibbons sharpened her chops for nearly three years at Michelle Rhee’s lobbying group, StudentsFirst, one of the leading organizations that champions Broad-style reforms.
Biography of a Zealot
Gibbons’ entire resume reads like the biography of a Broad zealot. To familiarize yourself with the organizations in Broad’s favor (or who you should not let bring free cookies into the teachers lounge), read on.
Gibbons’ entire resume reads like the biography of a Broad zealot. To familiarize yourself with the organizations in Broad’s favor (or who you should not let bring free cookies into the teachers lounge), read on.
Let's start at the beginning.
Gibbons is an alumni of Teach For America (TFA), or Temps for America, as critics call it. TFA places elite college graduates in two-year teaching internships after five weeks of training. The departure of most of them after two years, when they move onto careers in other fields--sometimes to positions shaping public policy--destabilizes schools and undermines the teaching profession. Education policy scholar Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig of Cal State Sacramento has researched TFA extensively. He recently called for a policy debate about TFA when public outcries led two Southern California school districts to reject contracts with the organization. TFA is a foundational element of Broad’s plan.
After her two years was up, Gibbons spent a few months teaching at Harlem Success Academy, one of the schools in Eva Moskowitz’s New York charter chain. The chain is so closely aligned with Eli Broad's goals that he donated $5 million to help it expand from 20 to 100 schools. Sound familiar? Diane Ravitch's blog has the most complete log of the numerous published reports of the shenanigans of Success Academy charters Is Eli Broad's hostile takeover of LAUSD coming from the outside or in? — PS connect:
