Saturday, April 10, 2010

Schools Matter: Oligarchs and Hedge Fund Managers Trying to Save Radioactive Rhee

Schools Matter: Oligarchs and Hedge Fund Managers Trying to Save Radioactive Rhee

Oligarchs and Hedge Fund Managers Trying to Save Radioactive Rhee

The top 25 hedge fund managers took home an average of $1 billion each last year, according to Les Leopold. What would that buy in terms of education?

In 2009, the worst economic year for working people since the Great Depression, the top 25 hedge fund managers walked off with an average of $1 billion each. With the money those 25 people "earned," we could have hired 658,000 entry level teachers. (They make about $38,000 a year, including benefits.) Those educators could have brought along over 13 million young people, assuming a class size of 20. That's some value.

And so it is heartwarming to see the deep generosity of these grand thievers going to fund the pay-per-score plan that the Billionaire Boys Club has sold to DC teachers, who have not had a pay raise in 3 years. Of course, the IRS is paying them for their generosity. From Bill Turque:

A Houston foundation created by a billionaire hedge fund manager who began his career as a trader for Enron would finance part of the proposed contract between DCPS and the Washington Teachers' Union. The Laura and John Arnold Foundation would provide $10 million of the $64.5 million Rhee has assembled to pay for teacher raises and performance bonuses under the tentative agreement announced this week.
While a couple of the names in the private funding mix, Eli and Edythe Broad and the Walton Family Foundation, are highly recognizable brands in the world of educational philanthropy, the Arnolds are relatively new players. Their IRS Form 990 for 2008 lists a $5 million donation to Baylor 

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