Throw Back Thursday - The Broad Road Show finally comes to Sacramento December 2009
Back in 2009 I was attempting to understand what the Corporate Education Reform movement was all about. I was still trying to write about it. A piece I wrote for a local community blog was about KJ and Mr Broad and Stand UP "non-profit" (just another AstroTurf front for the privatizers as it turned out). :
Mayor Kevin Johnson announced STAND UP; a new initiative launched on Monday. A $500,000 grant will kick-start the first phase of the new nonprofit's development. It will focus on raising academic achievement and college completion rates by advocating, supporting, and developing excellent public schools. The seed money comes from a national philanthropy group, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.
Mayor Johnson said he's
looking for a new education liaison; someone who will work with STAND UP. Rumors
and speculation has Michelle Rhee, lightening rod Chancellor of Washington DC
Public Schools as a leading candidate. Rhee a nimble leader, has played a major
role in the Education Reform movement which is currently being promoted by the Obama administration and Governor
Schwarzenegger. This reform movement includes privately operated Charter
schools which are opposed by teachers unions and some parent and community groups.
Ms Rhee and the Mayor announced their engagement last month.
Really,
what could be better than some rich guy (billionaire) coming to town dropping a
cool half million on our public schools in these times of shocking budget
cuts. In Sacramento I think there are three schools of thought on that subject:
1) Stand Up
2) Sit Down
3) Shut Up]
2) Sit Down
3) Shut Up]
If there are some who don’t get Stand Up, it could be that it is not certain
which public schools the plan refers to, community-managed excellent
public schools or corporate-managed excellent public schools.
The Sit Down community sees Stand Up as irrelevant due to the
questions unanswered at St. Hope: the controversial AmeriCorps investigation,
enrollment numbers and finances. Or some just don’t like KJ Local parent groups and community advocates blogs Sac Chartergate and Scusd Observer often focus on Sit Down issues.
The Shut Up people firmly believe that STAND UP is part
of a vast education conspiracy as
presented in “The
Rise of Venture Philanthropy and the Ongoing Neoliberal Assault on Public
Education: the Eli and Edyth Broad Foundation,” by Dr.
Kenneth Saltman. of DePaul University
Most of the conspiracy
allegations centers on Mr. Broad: Either you think he is the coolest guy who ever lived or a diabolical
capitalist sent to kill public education. Schools Matter, Perimeter Primate , Seattle Education 2010 and The Broad Report make a case for the Shut Up group with opinion, data and a lot of passion.
My best move, most surely, is to Shut Up. One thing I am sure of is that things that
are happening at city hall have a lot to do with what is happening at
the state capitol.
Peter Schrag of theCalifornia Progress Report stated: “This is not a tempest in a teapot. It
reflects fundamental disagreements, some philosophical, some political, some
mere turf fights, over the future of the state’s K-12 schools. Either the
Senate bill, by Sen. Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, or the Assembly substitute by Julia Brownley of Santa Monica,
also a Democrat, which the governor threatened to veto, would have been likely
to produce significant changes in the state’s school standards, in its testing
program, in school transfer rules and parental rights, and in the
reconstitution of failing schools.”
The point is we need to have this conversation.
