Unbelievable! Billionaires Making Dramatic Moves Aimed at Taking Over All Control of Public Education in Louisiana!
Please read this article, just published in The New Orleans Tribune. This is probably the most dramatic public school takeover effort ever in the history of our state!
Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York and owner of a billion dollar media empire had contributed $800,000 this month alone to Louisiana elections. California Billionaire Eli Broad has contributed $250,00 and the Walton family heirs have contributed over $850,000!
The amounts of money committed to the takeover of public education in Louisiana are breathtaking! Notice that the big focus is on BESE, but there are major contributions to legislators, both Republican and Democrat. This is an all out effort by certain billionaires to simply take over every aspect of public education in Louisiana. Is this some sort of a perverted hobby; a creepy pet project of the super rich?
Why Louisiana? What do they expect to accomplish here? Is Louisiana going to become some kind of demonstration project for the most extreme education reforms in the history of our nation?
Someday historians will write books about this unbelievable experiment in education and social engineering!Louisiana Educator: Unbelievable! Billionaires Making Dramatic Moves Aimed at Taking Over All Control of Public Education in Louisiana!:
Eli and Edythe Broad are billionaires and venture philanthropists from Silicon Valley. The Broad Foundations, which include The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation, have assets of $2.4 billion.
Former BESE President, Paul Pastorek, one of the architects of the RSD and the expansion of charter schools in New Orleans, is the chair at the Broad Center for Management of Schools Systems whose mission is to “transform urban school systems.” The Broad Center recently paid for Pastorek’s expenses as a consultant to Michigan’s governor for the Education Achievement Authority. Other board members include Richard Barth and Wendy Kopp, the founders of Teach for America, and Michelle Rhee, the founder of Students First. RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard sits on the Broad Center’s Alumni Advisory Board.
Louisiana State Superintendent John White and Dobard are both alumni of the Broad Center’s Broad Academy—the five-session program that lasts 18 months, and is a fast-track pipeline to becoming a superintendent or district leader. Guest faculty members have included Leslie Jacobs, Patrick Dobard, Sarah Usdin, Neerav Kingsland and Michael Stone (former and current executives at New Schools for New Orleans).
The Broad Foundation’s School Closure Guide directs districts on how to close schools. It explains that during any school closing, “certain stakeholders will naturally be aligned with the recommendations and others will be opposed to them. It is important to understand this context, identify key stakeholders quickly, and attempt to secure allies.” Echoing John White’s reference to the Orleans Public Education Network, the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, MICAH Group and Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, the guide shamelessly suggests: “Trusted community organizations can play a critical role in effective community engagement.”
