John Thompson: 'Toxic' Steve Perry should embarrass charter supporters - NonDoc

'Toxic' Steve Perry should embarrass charter supporters - NonDoc:

‘Toxic’ Steve Perry should embarrass charter supporters

Upon arriving at the OK School Choice Summit last Thursday, I was surprised to see a handful of friends who were denied entry and a larger number of Oklahoma City police guarding Oklahoma City Community College’s performing arts auditorium.

Apparently, about 20 protesters were noisy upon arrival at the summit and had been denied entry, according to a post published during the weekend by Brett Dickerson of Oklahoma City Free Press. Dickerson’s account included the following video of a subsequent encounter:

Although I had registered for the event, the ticket-takers seemed very confused about whether I should be allowed inside. While waiting, I witnessed the protesters chatting politely with the volunteers who had denied them entry.

I asked a couple of well-known choice advocates if I could walk into the auditorium with them. The police said that would be fine as long as the summit people didn’t stop me. I sat down in the auditorium next to an old friend who supports charter and voucher expansion, and we shook hands.

Although I’d mostly come to hear perspectives from charter supporters in the crowd, I found myself instead listening, horrified, as keynote speaker Steve Perry, a former charter school principal-turned-showman from Connecticut, shouted non-stop insults during his entire keynote address.

I’ve seen worse on television, but I don’t believe that I have ever heard such vicious hate speech in person.

Perry’s reputation should have preceded him

Perry has a reputation for failing to respect the regulatory rules of the road and is 'Toxic' Steve Perry should embarrass charter supporters - NonDoc:

DeVos Family Has Made At Least $82 Million In Political Contributions Since 1999, According To Campaign Finance Disclosures

DeVos Family Has Made At Least $82 Million In Political Contributions Since 1999, According To Campaign Finance Disclosures:

DeVos Family Has Made At Least $82 Million In Political Contributions Since 1999, According To Campaign Finance Disclosures
As The U.S. Senate Considers Whether To Confirm Betsy DeVos As U.S. Education Secretary, MCFN Analyzed The Family’s Political Giving In Michigan, At The Federal Level And In Other States

LANSING — While it’s impossible for the public to find out exactly how much money West Michigan’s DeVos family has spent on politics over the years, the number must fall somewhere above $82 million.

As the U.S. Senate considers whether to confirm Betsy DeVos, former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, as U.S. education secretary, the Michigan Campaign Finance Network (MCFN) tracked more than $82 million in political contributions from DeVos family members since the start of 1999.

The tracking includes contributions from Betsy DeVos, her husband, Dick DeVos, Dick DeVos’s father, Richard DeVos Sr., who was co-founder of Amway, his wife, Helen DeVos, and other family members.

The tracking spans paper reports covering 1999 all the way to a $200,0000 contribution dated Dec 13, 2016 — 20 days after Betsy DeVos had been nominated as education secretary. According to a filing in Texas (see below), “Dick DeVos” gave $200,000 to the Republican State Leadership Committee on that date.

Searching though hundreds of pages of paper records and thousands of individual contributions, MCFN tallied $82 million in contributions. It includes political giving at the state level in Michigan (at least $58.0 million), at the federal level (at least $17.7 million) and giving reported to a dozen other states (at least $6.4 million).

A spreadsheet — featuring more than 5,500 individual contributions — is available here.

The $82-million figure is likely far from a complete picture. It doesn’t include political giving that falls outside of campaign finance reporting requirements, like giving to groups that only spend money on issue ads, or giving at the local level that’s reported to county clerks.

For example, in the 2014 election, the Michigan Republican Party spent $5.7 million on issue ads in the gubernatorial campaign and $4.2 million in the Supreme Court campaign. The donors behind that money never had to be disclosed.

The $82-million figure also doesn’t include all of the family’s contributions that had to be reported because many were reported on paper records that don’t show up in digital database searches. MCFN looked through paper records from the Michigan Republican Party dating back to 1999 and from the 2000 ballot campaign Kids First Yes!, which aimed to institute a voucher program in Michigan, to find some of these contributions. The Michigan Republican Party started filing its reports digitally with the Michigan Secretary of State in 2004.

But for other groups, donations disclosed in paper filings wouldn't be included. For instance, the Great Lakes Education Project, a pro-school choice group that was started by Betsy DeVos, began filing its campaign reports digitally in 2004. The PAC launched in 2001.

In 2014, Mother Jones reported that DeVos family members had invested at least $200 million in “a host of right-wing cause — think tanks, media outlets, political committees, evangelical outfits, and a string of advocacy groups” since 1970.

MCFN’s $82-million figure doesn’t include giving to think tanks, media outlets or evangelical groups.

During Betsy DeVos’s confirmation hearing for U.S. education secretary on Jan. 17, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) mentioned the $200-million figure. Sanders said he had heard that the DeVos family had given $200 million to the Republican Party over the years.

“Does that sound in the ballpark?” Sanders asked during the hearing.

Betsy DeVos responded, “Collectively, between my entire family? That’s possible.”

Other findings from the data on DeVos political giving:

— The largest recipient of DeVos giving was Dick DeVos’s 2006 campaign for governor. Family members gave about $35.5 million to Dick DeVos’s campaign. He ended up losing to Democrat Jennifer Granholm, who got 56.3 percent of the vote. Dick DeVos got 42.3 percent.

— The Michigan Republican Party has been one of the top beneficiaries of DeVos giving. MCFN tracked $9.8 million in DeVos Family Has Made At Least $82 Million In Political Contributions Since 1999, According To Campaign Finance Disclosures:

Trump’s education secretary pick plagiarized her Senate questionnaire responses- The Washington Post

DeVos questionnaire appears to include passages from uncited sources - The Washington Post:

DeVos questionnaire appears to include passages from uncited sources

President Trump’s nominee for education secretary, in written responses to questions from senators, appears to have used several sentences and phrases from other sources without attribution — including from a top Obama administration civil rights official.

The responses from nominee Betsy DeVos were submitted Monday to the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which is voting Tuesday morning on her confirmation.

In answering a set of questions from Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on how she would address bullying of LGBT students, DeVos wrote: “Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment where they can learn, thrive, and grow.”

[Here are Betsy’s DeVos’s answers to 139+ questions from Democratic Sen. Murray]

That sentence is almost identical to language used by Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division under President Barack Obama, in a news release announcing the administration’s controversial guidance to schools on how to accommodate transgender students.

“Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment that allows them to thrive and grow,” Gupta said in the May 2016 release.

Rob Goad, a White House education adviser, said in an email: “This is character assassination. The secretary designate has long been referencing the need for safe and supportive learning environments, free of discrimination, for all students, so that they can learn, achieve, thrive, grow and lead successful productive lives. To level an accusation against her about these words included in responses to nearly 1,400 questions — 139 alone from the ranking member — is simply a desperate attempt to discredit Betsy DeVos, who will serve the Department of Education and our nation’s children with distinction if confirmed.”

The revelation comes as Democrats are making an all-out push against key Trump nominees — including DeVos, attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), treasury secretary nominee Steve Mnuchin, and others. But Democrats cannot block those confirmations unless DeVos questionnaire appears to include passages from uncited sources - The Washington Post:

Under DeVos, Here's How School Choice Might Work : NPR Ed : NPR

Under DeVos, Here's How School Choice Might Work : NPR Ed : NPR:

Under DeVos, Here's How School Choice Might Work

A key Senate committee voted Tuesday to approve the nomination of Betsy DeVos, a school choice activist and billionaire Republican donor, to be secretary of education, despite the fierce objections of Senate Democrats, teachers unions and others. There's much speculation as to exactly how she might carry out President Trump's stated priority of increasing school choice.

NPR ED

School Vouchers, Oligarchy And Grizzlies: Highlights From The DeVos Hearing

A significant clue comes from the American Federation for Children, the advocacy organization DeVos chaired until she was nominated. AFC supports both publicly funded charter schools and even more so, "private school choice" — publicly sponsored programs that give families money to spend on tuition at private schools.

Last fall, AFC issued a report ranking the existing private school choice programs. There are 50 of them, located in 25 states and Washington, D.C., by AFC's count. AFC included only those programs that explicitly allow students to attend religious schools. DeVos, whose family has long supported causes associated with the Christian religious right, has publicly called education reform a way to "advance God's kingdom."

NPR ED

5 Things To Look For In Betsy DeVos' Confirmation Hearing

The program that AFC ranked No. 1 in that report was Florida's tax credit scholarships. So it's a good one to take a closer look at if you want a model of how choice programs might work in a DeVos-run Education Department. It unites three broad concepts that DeVos is friendly toward: 1) Privatization 2) religious education and 3) a hands-off approach to accountability for private schools.

Most people are familiar with voucher programs, where state dollars go to pay for tuition at private schools. These programs have faced constitutional challenges in Florida and elsewhere, among other reasons, because they direct public money to religiously based organizations.

In a scholarship tax credit program, however, the money bypasses state coffers altogether. Corporations or individuals can offset state tax liability by donating to a private, nonprofit scholarship organization. The money from this fund is in turn Under DeVos, Here's How School Choice Might Work : NPR Ed : NPR:

Few school supplies but a lavish party: At charter school, teachers saw a clash between scarcity and extravagance - LA Times

Few school supplies but a lavish party: At charter school, teachers saw a clash between scarcity and extravagance - LA Times:

Few school supplies but a lavish party: At charter school, teachers saw a clash between scarcity and extravagance

The longer she worked for Celerity Dyad Charter School in South Los Angeles, the more Tien Le wondered where the public money the school received was going.

She taught in a portable classroom on an asphalt lot — not unheard of in this city of tight squeezes and little green space, but her students also had no library, cafeteria or gymnasium. The school didn’t provide most supplies, Le said, so when her sixth-graders needed books, or an extra pencil and paper, she spent her own money to buy them.

Months into her first year at Dyad, Le and her colleagues were invited by the organization that managed the school to a holiday party at a large house on a winding street in Hollywood. She parked in a lot rented for the occasion and took a shuttle to the house with other teachers and staff. Inside, there were two open bars, casino tables for poker and blackjack, and a karaoke room. At evening’s end, a limousine ferried guests back to their cars.

“I remember being really confused that night,” Le said. “When I asked for basic supplies, I couldn’t get those things, yet you have money for this expensive party? I know at big corporations and for-profit places these parties are normal, but for a public school it was not normal.”

Le, 29, is now a PhD candidate at USC. She quit Celerity after two years, in 2012. But she was not alone in her concerns about Celerity Educational Group’s finances. Last week, federal agents with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security raided Celerity’s headquarters, confiscating computer equipment and records.

The focus of their investigation remains unclear. The search warrants are under seal. But the inspector general for the Los Angeles Unified School District has been looking into allegations of fraud and financial mismanagement by the charter school organization, a probe that L.A. Unified officials say is ongoing.

As part of its review, the district has scrutinized the schools’ founder, Vielka McFarlane, whose salary at one point exceeded that of the superintendent of L.A. Unified. It has also raised questions about Celerity Global Development, a newer entity run by McFarlane that has significant financial and operational power over Celerity Educational Group.

L.A. Unified’s general counsel has said that the federal investigation is focused not on the performance of Celerity’s schools, but on the Celerity organization that manages them, as Few school supplies but a lavish party: At charter school, teachers saw a clash between scarcity and extravagance - LA Times:

School choice shouldn’t take away our neighborhood schools - The Hechinger Report

School choice shouldn’t take away our neighborhood schools - The Hechinger Report:

School choice shouldn’t take away our neighborhood schools
New Orleans to turn remaining five public schools into charters

 Integrity Schools of New Orleans, you have options. Our five school networks support teaching terminals at over 80 locations and automated teaching machines (ATMs) throughout the Crescent City. Choose between 16 different kinds of study accounts to serve your personal and professional goals. And we have alternative schooling services. So if you can’t get in one of one of our high performing networks, another may accommodate you to fit your family’s budget.

This isn’t a real advertisement. But if the mantra of school choice — Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos’ signature rallying cry — drowns out all critics, ads for great schools won’t be much different than ads for banks.

In New Orleans, the school board is poised to make this the first all-charter district in the country with its plans to convert the remaining five schools that it manages into charter schools. The five schools will form a network that will be managed by an organization created last week.

Though 95 percent of students already attend charter schools (families can apply to enroll their children in any public school in the city regardless of zip code), the move signifies how much choice has overridden innovation, a once-popular motto of charter schools.

Choice is actually an affront to what many education reformers were trying to innovate — compelling diverse families who live in the same neighborhood to send their children to a quality school.

DeVos has said that all families should have the opportunity to send their children to a great school, and not be stuck with a public school that might be failing. But if school choice is about creating quality options, then why is New Orleans taking away entirely the option of a neighborhood school?

Join the conversation later on Andre Perry’s radio show, “Free College,” hosted Tuesdays on WBOK1230 in New Orleans at 3pm Central/4pm Eastern 504.260.9265.

The reality is that people are tied to their neighborhoods and ethnic communities. But when you don’t value the culture and community that makes us human beings, it’s easy to create systems that separate School choice shouldn’t take away our neighborhood schools - The Hechinger Report:

Two Republican senators says they aren’t committed to voting for Betsy DeVos on Senate floor - The Washington Post

Two Republican senators says they aren’t committed to voting for Betsy DeVos on Senate floor - The Washington Post:

Two Republican senators says they aren’t committed to voting for Betsy DeVos on Senate floor

Two Republican senators —  Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — said Tuesday they are not yet committed to voting for Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos for U.S. education secretary on the Senate floor. They became the first Republicans to say so.

It was the first time that any Republican senators said they might not vote for President Trump’s nominee, who is the most polarizing education secretary nominee in the department’s history.

Collins and Murkowski made the comments during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The committee’s members are scheduled to vote shortly on Trump’s nomination of DeVos, whose supporters praise her for being a longtime advocate of school choice who has helped low-income students find alternatives to failing public schools. Her critics say her education advocacy is aimed at privatizing the country’s public education system. They point out that she has called public schools a “dead end,” a remark she made in 2015.

[Six astonishing things Betsy DeVos said — and refused to say — at her confirmation hearing]

Collins, often seen as more moderate than other Republicans on Capitol Hill, said she would vote for DeVos in the committee so that the nomination would be sent to floor of the Senate so all senators can vote.

Actually, the nomination would have been sent to the floor for a full vote by the chairman of the committee, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) even if the committee voted against DeVos. But Collins said she felt that any president has a right to have all senators consider  nominations.

Democrats say they have 48 votes against DeVos on the floor but need 51 — and they have been looking for Republican votes against DeVos since her Jan. 17 hearing, where she displayed little understand of some key education issues.

Collins said she was keeping her options open in regard to DeVos for the full Senate vote.

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Now let me make clear that I know that Mrs. DeVos cares deeply about children. I recognize that she has devoted much time and resources to try and improve the education of at-risk children in cities whose public schools have failed them. And I commend her for that service.

Like all of us, Mrs. DeVos is the product of her experience. She appears to view education through the lens of her experience in promoting alternatives to public education in Detroit and other cities where she has no doubt done valuable work.

Nevertheless her concentration on charter schools an vouchers raises the question of whether or not she fully appreciates that the secretary of education’s primary focus must be on helping states and communities, parents, teachers, school board members and administrators strengthen our public schools

That is why I wrote to Mrs. Devos seeking her assurances in writing that she would not support any federal legislation mandating that states adopt vouchers nor will she condition federal funding on the presence of voucher programs inTwo Republican senators says they aren’t committed to voting for Betsy DeVos on Senate floor - The Washington Post: 

Leaders of Senate education committee go to war with each other before DeVos vote

9by Valerie Strauss / 1h

They used to work together well. Not anymore.

Senate panel votes in favor of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary pick

1Kby Emma Brown / 6h

Committee members tussle over the vote. DeVos’s nomination now goes to the full Senate for approval.

Time to explore a new property tax system for Connecticut - Wait What?

Time to explore a new property tax system for Connecticut - Wait What?:

Time to explore a new property tax system for Connecticut

In an important step forward, CT Voices for Children, a Connecticut based non-profit research institute, recently proposed a plan to reform Connecticut’s outdated property tax system and replace it with one that will reduce the tax burden on middle-income and working families while ensuring all cities and towns have the resources they need to adequately fund Connecticut’s public schools.

Wait, What? readers will recall that Connecticut’s middle-income families pay about 10 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the poor about 12 percent and because the Connecticut tax structure coddles the rich, the state’s wealthiest residents only pay about 5.5 percent of their income in state and local taxes.

The new Connecticut Voices proposal would correct those inequities and provide real property tax relief for 2.7 million residents living in 117 of Connecticut’s 169 communities.  At the same time the program would require wealthier residents to start paying their fair share in state and local taxes.

The underlying problem is that Connecticut underfunds its schools by close to $2 billion a year leaving the state’s public schools without the resources they need to provide every child with their constitutionally guaranteed access to a quality education.

The existing system also unfairly burdens the vast majority of local Time to explore a new property tax system for Connecticut - Wait What?:

Betsy DeVos appointment means less cash for GOP

Betsy DeVos appointment means less cash for GOP:

Betsy DeVos appointment means less cash for GOP

For nearly three decades, Betsy and Dick DeVos have been reliable and generous benefactors to Republican candidates and conservative causes, donating tens of millions to hundreds of politicians and dozens of causes.

But that political patronage is about to come to an end if Betsy DeVos’ nomination as U.S. Secretary of Education is approved, as expected, by the U.S. Senate later this week.

“If I’m confirmed I will not be involved or engaged in political contributions and my husband will not be either,” DeVos told the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions during her confirmation hearing last week.

That one sentence caused Republicans, especially in Michigan, to check their campaign war chests’ bottom line and begin thumbing through their electronic Rolodexes to search for wealthy replacements for the two DeVos’ campaign cash.

►Editorial: U.S. Senate must reject DeVos appointment
►Related: Sen. Peters won't support Betsy DeVos for education secretary

[You can watch the vote live by following this link.]

Consider some of the DeVos giving over the years:

• In 2016, Betsy DeVos gave the maximum amount of $1,000 each to 23 state House candidates and 19 of those people won their races.
• Nine of the top 13 contributors to the state House Republican campaign committee in 2016 were DeVos family members, including Betsy and Dick, all giving $40,000 each.
• Before her Senate confirmation hearing, Betsy DeVos had to provide a list of all of her campaign contributions to candidates and causes over the last five years. The list was 10 pages long, included $5.3 million in contributions to dozens of organizations and super PACs, 260 local, state and federal candidates and seven Republican contenders for President in 2016. President Donald Trump, who nominated DeVos for the Education slot, was not among the recipients.
• In 2012, 8 members of the DeVos family donated $2 million to a group – Protecting Michigan Taxpayers – that had two objectives, making Michigan a Right to Work state, in which an employee cannot be compelled to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment, and to put a proposal on the ballot to repeal Michigan’s prevailing wage laws, which mandates union-scale wages on public construction projects. The right to work battle was won, while the prevailing wage law is still on the books. Betsy and Dick DeVos’ contributions to that effort was $750,000.
• It’s been estimated by the Center for Responsive Politics that the DeVos family has given more than $20 million to federal candidates and causes since 1989 and the state-level giving boosts that total dramatically. In 2006, Dick DeVos dumped more than $35 million into his campaign for Governor before losing to Gov. Jennifer Granholm by a 56-42% margin.
• The Lansing-based Michigan Campaign Finance Network, which tracks campaign spending, has tallied $82 million in political spending by the extended DeVos family since 1999 on the state and federal level as well as spending across many other states in the nation. And that total doesn't include money given to groups that don't have to disclose their donors.

“We like our partnerships with people who have like-minded values and we’ve had them for a long time,” said former Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, of Betsy and Dick DeVos. “It’s not going to have a monstrous impact, but at the same time, you’re going to have to go out and find other people now.”

BETSY DEVOS HEARING

Senators press DeVos on accountability, conflicts and Detroit

What you need to know about Betsy DeVos

Betsy DeVos: Unprepared, and undeterred to serve as education secretary

Grizzly bears? The most awkward moments of Betsy DeVos' hearing

Betsy DeVos says she supports 'any great school,' public included

What Michiganders thought about Betsy DeVos' confirmation hearing

Most Republicans believe the loss of Betsy and Dick DeVos’ political wallets won’t have a devastating effect on GOP causes. There are seven other DeVos family members who are frequent political contributors and they often contribute en masse to the same people and causes.

The DeVos family is headed up by Richard and Helen DeVos and the family fortune is derived from Richard DeVos’ and Jay Van Andel’s creation of direct-sales giant Amway. Richard DeVos’ worth is listed at $5.3 billion and he’s 88th on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans. He also owns the National Basketball Association’s Orlando Magic. The extended family – four children Dick, Doug, Dan and Cheri – are still heavily involved in the family business.

When U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, asked DeVos during the hearing how much the DeVos family has contributed politically over the years, she replied, “I wish I could give you that number, I don’t know.”

“I have heard that number is $200 million,” Sanders asked.

“Collectively over the entire family, that’s possible,” she replied.

“They divvy it up pretty evenly,” said Craig Mauger, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, which tracks campaign spending. “The biggest givers are Richard and Helen and Dick and Betsy, but the whole family gives politically.”

Saul Anuzis, former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, which has been a big recipient of the DeVos family largesse, said while Betsy, who also served as Betsy DeVos appointment means less cash for GOP: