AP sources: Education Secretary Arne Duncan stepping down

AP sources: Education Secretary Arne Duncan stepping down:

AP sources: Education Secretary Arne Duncan stepping down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Education Secretary Arne Duncan, one of the longest-serving members of President Barack Obama's Cabinet, will step down in December, officials said Friday.

In an email to his staff, Duncan said he's returning to Chicago to live with his family. He said he isn't sure what he will do next, but that he hopes his future will "continue to involve the work of expanding opportunity for children."

Sidestepping a nomination fight in Congress, Obama has tapped John King Jr., a senior official at the Education Department, to run the department in an acting capacity for the remainder of his administration. Obama doesn't intend to nominate King or another candidate for education secretary before his presidency ends in early 2017, said a White House official, who wasn't authorized to comment by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The unconventional approach will spare Obama a fight over a nominee in the Senate but is likely to draw resistance from Republicans in the Senate, which holds the power to confirm or reject nominees for Cabinet-level posts.

"John comes to this role with a record of exceptional accomplishment as a lifelong educator — a teacher, a school leader, and a leader of school systems," Duncan said in an email to department officials obtained by The Associated Press.

Duncan is one of just a few remaining members of Obama's original cabinet. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Office of Management and Budget director Shaun Donovan have also served in the Cabinet since the first term. Donovan, however, first served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Duncan came to Washington from Chicago, where he ran the city's public school system. As part of the Chicago cohort that followed Obama to Washington, Duncan is one of few Cabinet members who has a personal relationship with the president. A basketball player at Harvard University who played professionally in Australia, Duncan was once a regular in Obama's weekend basketball games.

As secretary, Duncan prioritized K-12 education and made his first signature initiative the Race to the Top program, in which states competed for federal grants. The program became a flashpoint in the fight over federal involvement in education. Critics argued it encouraged states to adopt the Common Core, a controversial set of curriculum guidelines that become symbolic of federal overreach.

Duncan showed little patience for criticism of the program and the standards. In 2014, he cast critics as "white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were, and that's pretty scary." Duncan later said he regretted the "clumsy phrasing."

In his senior Education Department role with the peculiar title of delegated deputy secretary, King oversees preschool through high school education and manages the department's operations. He was previously state education commissioner in New York, running the state's public schools and universities.

___

Associated Press writer Kathleen Hennessey contributed to this report.

___

Reach Josh Lederman at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAPAP sources: Education Secretary Arne Duncan stepping down:

More on the Big Changes with the SAT and why juniors should take the old SAT at least once before March 2016 - Wait What?

More on the Big Changes with the SAT and why juniors should take the old SAT at least once before March 2016 - Wait What?:

More on the Big Changes with the SAT and why juniors should take the old SAT at least once before March 2016

As reported in yesterday’s Wait, What? Post,

“Current 11th graders are strongly encouraged to take the CURRENT SAT before the NEW SAT comes out in March.  Colleges will continue to accept SAT scores earned prior to the NEW SAT rollout.  In this way, students may also take the NEW SAT and compare scores, submitting the set of scores that is more favorable.  This option (using the current SAT scores) will not be available to younger students.  In other words, students in the Class of 2017 will be the last to have the option of using scores earned on the current SAT.”  (Recommendation from the Guidance Department of E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, CT.)

Starting in March 2016 the College Board, which owns the lucrative PSAT and SAT testing systems, will be rolling out a NEW SAT which it claims is aligned to the “Common Core Standards”

The “primary author” of those Common Core Standards – a system that is causing so much controversy – took over as President of the College Board and immediately announced that he would do for the SAT what he did for the nation’s education standards.

And many of the same problems and issues that have arisen with the Common Core SBAC and Common Core PARCC tests are likely to appear with the new SAT.

Remember that the Common Core testing scheme was designed to fail the vast majority of More on the Big Changes with the SAT and why juniors should take the old SAT at least once before March 2016 - Wait What?:

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit: Day Three | VAMboozled!

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit: Day Three | VAMboozled!:

New Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit: Day Three

As per my last post about the second day in court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I was purposefully ambiguous about one of the two articles written in The Santa Fe New Mexican regarding my testimony. The first article titled, “Experts differ on test-based evaluations at NM hearing,” I felt fairly captured the events of the second day in court, but the second article titled, “Professor’s testimony: Teacher eval system ‘not ready for prime time,” did not. But that is about all that I said, being purposefully ambiguous for two reasons that I can now (more or less) share.

The first reason was that the author of this article (in my opinion) unfairly captured my four hours of testimony, by primarily positioning me as an “expert witness” who did not know really anything about the New Mexico teacher evaluation model. Just to be clear, during my testimony I explained that I had not analyzed the actual data from New Mexico. I also argued (but this was unfortunately not highlighted in this particular article), that I could not find anything about the New Mexico model’s output (e.g., indicators of reliability or consistency in terms of teachers’ rankings over time, indicators of validity as per, for example, whether the state’s value-added output correlated, or not, with the other “multiple measures” used in New Mexico’s teacher evaluation system), pretty much anywhere given my efforts.

I testified that this, in and of itself, was problematic, given much of what should have beenNew Mexico’s Teacher Evaluation Lawsuit: Day Three | VAMboozled!:

Schools Matter: Nashville Charters' Mind-Boggling Appeal for Expansion

Schools Matter: Nashville Charters' Mind-Boggling Appeal for Expansion:

Nashville Charters' Mind-Boggling Appeal for Expansion

In August the Nashville Metro School Board voted down further "no excuses" charter expansion.

School board members based their votes on 1) the dehumanizing and brutal regimen of the total compliance charters that is ostensibly aimed to improve student "character," 2) the siphoning of money by charters that will not be available to fund instructional programs and facility improvements for children in existing public schools, and 3) the fact that Nashville Metro does not have a plan that analyzes the need for charters or the long-term repercussions of sending hundreds of millions of school funds each year to corporate reform school operators.

Even without further expansion, this year, alone, Nashville Metro will spend $78 million on charter schools, even though thewait lists of parents trying to get their children into public schools are much longer than the wait lists for the charters like KIPP that are appealing the school board's decision to halt expansion. (Only one of KIPP's four Nashville schools even has a wait list).

At the appeals hearing with the State Board of Education two days ago, KIPP's lawyer, Drew Goddard, used his best pretzel logic to argue for KIPP expansion.  According to Goddard, KIPP expansion could actually save Metro money by drawing off students Schools Matter: Nashville Charters' Mind-Boggling Appeal for Expansion:

EduColor Advocates for Children of Color in Public Schools - Scenarios USAScenarios USA

EduColor Advocates for Children of Color in Public Schools - Scenarios USAScenarios USA:

EduColor Advocates for Children of Color in Public Schools

via http://www.theblackhomeschool.com/

This year marks the 10th anniversary of when I started writing online. As a teacher, there were a lot of reasons that I wanted to expand my classroom to be inclusive of a broader world: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could use the Internet,” I thought, “to connect my students to their classrooms or places we can’t physically go because it’s too far?” Except, I found that I was just as in need of community and connection as my students were.

Of the many online friends I’ve made in that time, José Luis Vilson is one of the voices that made me feel I wasn’t alone as a teacher of color in a predominantly white school district. It can be hard to find someone who believes in the same educational pedagogy intersected that with equality and justice. For instance, a part of my belief system is that “all children can learn” — but this gets push-back in the larger public sphere when we look at how marginalized kids of color are in our system. José’s book, This is Not a Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education, made me nod so much in agreement that it felt as though I was reading words that I could have written.

José and a group of other like-minded activists created EduColor – a space for public school advocates and educators who have a perspective and voice on educational equity and justice. The mission is to elevate those voices that are so often marginalized within our own working systems. How could I, an educator in Illinois, reach out to someone in New York City who understands the individual work I’m doing on a national level?

That’s what educators do: we move around in various spaces until we find one that fits the purpose of continuing to teach.

I was already connected to many of the EduColor originators, including Sabrina Stevens, Melinda Anderson, Liz Dwyer, via online platforms — somehow, we had found one another through common concerns about education. The articles and stories we posted were so familiar it felt like I had found a tribe. We were all connected on Twitter and moved those relationships to other social media platforms. That’s what educators do: we move around in various spaces until we find one that fits the purpose of continuing EduColor Advocates for Children of Color in Public Schools - Scenarios USAScenarios USA:

"Golden" Granada Hills Charter High School: Scofflaws When It Comes to California Ed Code?

"Golden" Granada Hills Charter High School: Scofflaws When It Comes to California Ed Code?:

“Golden” Granada Hills Charter High School: Scofflaws When It Comes to California Ed Code?

By Carl Petersen. “I am a former candidate for the District 3 seat on the LAUSD School Board, founder of Change The LAUSDand member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. Opinions are my own.”

“Per GHCHS Board Policy, all students must participate fully in California CAASPP and Granada Testing in their 9th, 10th and 11th grade year to be eligible to participate in optional activities such as senior activities, school extracurricular activities and school athletics (GHCHS Parent-Student Handbook).”

-Granada Hills Charter High School

If you had your car stolen and then saw it being driven on the streets, your first call would probably be to the local police department. It would not be unreasonable for you to expect that these trained professionals would take care of the situation by confronting the driver and taking appropriate action. But what would you think if they instead told you that it was your responsibility to find out why the person was driving your car? This is essentially what the LAUSD’s Charter Schools Division (CSD) does in handling complaints.

Once the LAUSD becomes the authorizing entity for a charter school, it “is responsible for ensuring the charter school operates in compliance with all applicable laws and terms of its charter.” However, in three separate cases, I have contacted the CSD to report that Granada Hills Charter High School may be operating outside the boundaries of California Ed Code and in all three cases the division failed to take meaningful action. In May, I reported that the school was charging up to $60.00 for graduation caps and gowns despite a California Department of Education policy that states that “a district may not require students to purchase a cap and gown as a condition of participating in the graduation ceremony.” The CSD’s Alex Gomez did not force them to issue refunds and then took a place on the graduation dais as the school’s honored guest. At the beginning of September, I expressed concern about the school’s plans to release student data to a lobbying organization, but have not received a response beyond “we’re looking into it.” The most current situation involves the school’s stated policy of retaliating against students whose parents have opted them out of standardized testing.

Parents can opt their children out of state mandated standardized tests “by writing a note to the school administrators citing California Ed Code 60615: ‘Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a parent’s or guardian’s written request to school officials to excuse his or her child from any or all parts of the assessments administered pursuant to this chapter shall be granted.” While schools cannot retaliate "Golden" Granada Hills Charter High School: Scofflaws When It Comes to California Ed Code?:

CURMUDGUCATION: Dammit, NEA

CURMUDGUCATION: Dammit, NEA:

Dammit, NEA

The national leadership of the NEA today is one step closer to ramming the endorsement of Hillary Clinton down its members throats.

Steven Singer zeroed in on the maximum-irony quote from NEA president Lily Eskelsen-Garcia:

“We are what Democracy looks like.”

With those words, Lily Eskelsen Garcia took the reigns of the National Education Association (NEA) as President in 2014.

Well, no. This is not what democracy looks like. Not even if you squint real hard and tilt your head.

This is not what a recruitment drive looks like, as NEA continues to wish that it could take a stronger hold among younger members. In my corner of the world, the state called some local union leaders together to talk about the secret of getting more contributions for the political action committee. This does not look like how you do that, either.

You do not build a union by going to young professionals and saying, "Hey, we'd like you to give us some dues. In return, we'll tell you what we want you to think about national issues without ever checking with you to get your opinion." You do not build a union by telling your members, "Hey, we know what's best for you. Shut up and sit down."

Democracy is under attack in this country. In Alabama, where the system is now rigged to deny CURMUDGUCATION: Dammit, NEA:

Ohio’s Failure to Oversee Charters and Youngstown Takeover Are Connected, Funded by Arne Duncan | janresseger

Ohio’s Failure to Oversee Charters and Youngstown Takeover Are Connected, Funded by Arne Duncan | janresseger:

Ohio’s Failure to Oversee Charters and Youngstown Takeover Are Connected, Funded by Arne Duncan

Two important things relating to education happened in Columbus in June, right before the Ohio legislature went on summer break.  The legislature did fast-track a bill to take over the public schools in Youngstown.  The legislature didn’t follow through on a promise to regulate Ohio’s notorious charter schools and their sponsors. Now we learn that all this was how Governor John Kasich and  his appointed state superintendent, Richard Ross, intended things to work out.  And U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will pay for it.

First, at the end of June, on the Wednesday before the legislature adjourned for the summer, without prior warning in the middle of a a committee hearing on a bill to expand full-service, wraparound Community Schools in Ohio,  Senator Peggy Lehner introduced a 66 page amendment to establish state takeover of the Youngstown schools by an emergency manager—and a takeover in the future of any school district with three years’ of “F” ratings—rendering the locally elected school board meaningless.  Within hours the bill had passed the Senate, moved to the House for concurrence, and been sent to the Governor for signature.  There was never a full public hearing on the amended bill.

Second, the legislature took a pass on approving a well-debated bill to improve state oversight of the charter school sector in Ohio.  The Senate had passed the bill, and the House had been asked to concur, but instead the bill was not brought to the floor.  Everybody speculated this was a move to ensure that the bill would eventually be sent to a conference committee where Ohio’s charter school czars who have invested millions in campaign contributions to Ohio Republicans would have more power to soften the regulations intended to make Ohio’s charter schools more accountable, both academically and fiscally.  The Ohio legislature did return this last week of September and sent the bill, as predicted, to a conference committee for further work.  We wait to see whether Ohio will get any improvement in the regulation of its charter schools.

It now turns out this is all connected to a huge, $71 million grant awarded earlier this week to Ohio by the U.S. Department of  Education to expand charter schools, specifically in Ohio’s Failure to Oversee Charters and Youngstown Takeover Are Connected, Funded by Arne Duncan | janresseger:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Duncan's grand charter give-away. Feeding the beast.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Duncan's grand charter give-away. Feeding the beast.:

Duncan's grand charter give-away. Feeding the beast.

Arne Duncan has turned the D.O.E. into little more than a feeding trough for even the most corrupt and unaccountable charter school operators. His latest gift of $157M to charter privateers comes virtually accountability-free. The most stunning part is that Duncan knows and admits it, making him complicit.

"We still see too many reports of unscrupulous behavior of charter schools and their authorizers," Duncan tells reporters.

Ohio, where unscrupulous/corrupt is the name of the game and where charter operators like K12 Inc. and White Hat Management stuff millions into their own pockets, has just received another Duncan grant of more than $32M with another $40 million on the way. It's the largest single award of any state, leaving Ohio's Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan shaking his head in disbelief.

From the Washington Post:

“The charter school system in Ohio is broken and dysfunctional,” said Ryan, who sent a letter Thursday to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, asking him to “place stringent restrictions” on the federal dollars he is sending to Ohio. 

“There are people making a lot of money off schools,” he said. “Why Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Duncan's grand charter give-away. Feeding the beast.:

Root Of The Education Crisis: Teachers Were Never The Problem | PopularResistance.Org

Root Of The Education Crisis: Teachers Were Never The Problem | PopularResistance.Org:

Root Of The Education Crisis: Teachers Were Never The Problem

Google the phrase “education crisis” and you’ll be hit with a glut of articles, blog posts and think tank reports claiming the entire American school system is facing an emergency. Much of this agitprop additionally asserts that teachers unions are the primary cause of the alleged problem. Not surprisingly, the fabulists pushing these narratives are often backed by anti-public school conservatives and anti-union plutocrats. But a little-noticed study released last week provides yet more confirmation that neither the “education crisis” meme or the “evil teachers’ union” narrative is accurate.

Before looking at that study, consider some of the ways we already know that the dominant storyline about education is, indeed, baseless propaganda.

As I’ve reported before, we know that American public school students from wealthy districts generate some of the best test scores in the world. This proves that the education system’s problems are not universal–the crisis is isolated primarily in the parts of the system that operate in high poverty areas. It also proves that while the structure of the traditional public school system is hardly perfect, it is not the big problem in America’s K-12 education system. If it was the problem, then traditional public schools in rich neighborhoods would not perform as well as they do.

Similarly, we know that many of the high-performing public schools in America’s wealthy locales are unionized. We also know that one of the best school systems in the world—Finland’s—is fully unionized. These facts prove that teachers’ unions are not the root cause of the education problem, either. After all, if unions were the problem, then unionized public schools in wealthy areas and Finland would be failing.

So what is the problem? That brings us to the new study from the Southern Education Foundation. Cross-referencing and education data, researchers found that that a majority of all public school students in one third of America’s states now come from low-income families.

How much does this have to do with educational outcomes? A lot. Social science research Root Of The Education Crisis: Teachers Were Never The Problem | PopularResistance.Org:

The most common reasons students drop out of high school are heartbreaking - Yahoo News

The most common reasons students drop out of high school are heartbreaking - Yahoo News:

The most common reasons students drop out of high school are heartbreaking

Even if it feels boring or irrelevant, just staying in school almost guarantees you'll end up in a better place than if you dropped out.

Unfortunately, according to a recent report from America's Promise Alliance, those factors rank among the top reasons why kids take themselves out of school: 

View photo

Skye Gould/Tech Insider

The failure is hardly a personal one. Survey responses of nearly 2,000 students who took at least a semester off at school revealed that systemic factors like boring classes and family obligations were the guiding reasons kids left.

Research shows dropping out is strongly tied to socioeconomic status. Kids who come from low-income areas are 2.4 times more likely to drop out than middle-income kids. Unlike kids from wealthier families, for whom school is usually the primary focus, poorer students must focus on other responsibilities. School becomes secondary, if it's a priority at all. 

Leading education theories suggest the experience of going to school could be greatly improved if teachers and principals took a more personalized approach. If kids felt like their specific problems were being heard and their interests explored, so the argument goes, school would no longer feel like the boring and irrelevant institution many see it as today.

NOW WATCH: Why we should ban non-vaccinated kids from schools

The most common reasons students drop out of high school are heartbreaking - Yahoo News:

Bernie Sanders, Not Hillary Clinton, Deserves Union Endorsements | Ben Spielberg

Bernie Sanders, Not Hillary Clinton, Deserves Union Endorsements | Ben Spielberg:

Bernie Sanders, Not Hillary Clinton, Deserves Union Endorsements

The National Education Association (the union to which I used to belong) isconsidering an early endorsement of Hillary Clinton. This decision, like the American Federation of Teachers' endorsement of Clinton on July 11, would be a huge mistake.

One reason is that it would violate members' trust. As Peter Greene, Steven Singer, and Anthony Cody have noted, teacher voice is too often ignored in education reform conversations. If the NEA follows the AFT and makes a presidential primary endorsement without ample membership involvement, its teachers will feel silenced by their own union. Not only would that likely depress voter mobilization efforts andspark a backlash within the union, it also runs counter to the very principles of what a union is supposed to be.

An early Clinton endorsement would also be a mistake because she's a suboptimal candidate. While Clinton is far more union-friendly than anyone running for the Republican nomination, her labor credentials are significantly worse than her main challenger in the Democratic primary, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Sanders has been a steadfast union supporter since the 1970s. His advocacy on behalf of workers as mayor of Burlington, Vermont in the 1980s helped foster the growth of the city's socially-responsible business culture.

"Thanks to the enduring influence of the progressive climate that Sanders and his allies helped to create in Burlington," The Nation reported in June, "the city's largest housing development is now resident-owned, its largest supermarket is a consumer-owned cooperative, one of its largest private employers is worker-owned, and most of its people-oriented waterfront is publicly owned. Its publicly owned utility, the Burlington Electric Department, recently announced that Burlington is the first American city of any decent size to run entirely on renewable electricity."

Sanders has continued to advocate for the same causes in Congress over the past 25 years. In 1994, for example, he introduced the Workplace Democracy Act, legislation designed to strengthen collective bargaining rights. He currently supports theEmployee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workplaces to hold union elections, and plans to introduce a new Workplace Democracy Act this fall. He has "convened annual meetings of labor activists to help them develop more successful organizing and bargaining strategies" and still walks picket lines with workers.

To be fair, Clinton also supports the Employee Free Choice Act. Her campaign rhetoric is pretty pro-union, and the promises she makes in her video to NEA members don't sound all that different than those made by Bernie.

But Clinton's record is significantly worse than Sanders's. She served on the board of directors of Walmart -- which to this day remains one of the nation's most notoriously anti-union businesses -- from 1986 to 1992, for instance.

According to reports that surfaced in 2008, Clinton sat through dozens of board meetings without ever speaking up on behalf of organized labor. Instead, she stated that she was "proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else." Though she has since renounced Walmart's business practices, Clintonmaintains close ties with Walmart executives and lobbyists. And during her presidential campaigns, she's surrounded herself with staffers who have troubling anti-union connections.

The following meme, describing cumulative donations the candidates have received over the past thirty years, is illustrative:

Clinton has worse policy positions on key union issues as well. Bernie Sanders has been a leader in the effort to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a "free trade" deal that could undermine environmental and consumer safety protections and have harmful impacts on workers both in the U.S. and abroad.

Clinton, despite recent attempts to distance herself from the TPP, was heavily involved in negotiating and promoting it. Sanders has been a vocal proponent of a Bernie Sanders, Not Hillary Clinton, Deserves Union Endorsements | Ben Spielberg:

Education Reform is Anti-American | Steve Nelson

Education Reform is Anti-American | Steve Nelson:

Education Reform is Anti-American

In the name of American exceptionalism, the institutions that have actually made us exceptional are under attack. The irony is heartbreaking.

Education reform is one major battleground and the terms of engagement have been largely distorted. "Reformers" would have you believe that the movement is about children and opportunity. It is not about children or opportunity. School reform is part of an ideological campaign to fracture the very nature of our democratic republic.

Opponents of reform often claim, with some real justification, that education reformers intend to privatize schools, thereby opening an estimated $4.4 trillion global market to entrepreneurs. I don't believe that is the primary aim of those behind the reform movement, even if it is a collateral effect. There are certainly profiteers who stand to make a buck. Pearson alone, for example, siphons more than $1 billionfrom the system. Charter management organizations and technology companies are lined up at the trough in droves, but they are the beneficiaries of reform, not the architects.

I needn't document the prime movers. In a recent post, Alan Singer accurately portrayed the real money behind reform. Mercedes Schneider's book, A Chronicle of Echoes: Who's Who in the Implosion of American Public Education, provides even more detailed exposition of characters behind reform. A small group of very wealthy Americans and their sycophants fund nearly all charter and school choice advocacy: Gates, Broad, Walton, Paulson, Loeb and other billionaires, many of them hedge fund managers. I don't believe that these plutocrats press for school choice to make a buck. They are already unimaginably wealthy. They press for school choice as part of a much larger ideological movement.

But, despite the documentation provided by Singer, Schneider, Diane Ravitch, Anthony Cody and others, charter and school choice propaganda has persuaded millions of Americans that reform is about helping children.

In recent weeks, ads produced by Families for Excellent Schools have been running constantly on network and cable television. The ads show a white boy attending a hypothetical "good school." He is cheerfully described as college bound. The next frames picture a boy of color who supposedly attends a "failing school" and will have no such opportunity. The ad then declares that 500,000 NYC children desperately need "new" schools and that Mayor Bill de Blasio stands in the way. If only the elected government official would stop obstructing progress, the unelected, self-appointed, masters of the universe would provide those wondrous new schools and lift a generation of youngsters out of poverty and despair! Families for Excellent Schools claims to be a "grassroots" movement. Not at all. It is a coalition of intertwined moneyed-interests that have duped a few "families" to front for them. The "families" in Families for Excellent Schools couldn't buy an ad in the school newspaper, much less produce fancy HD videos and buy $3.6 million of airtime.

And, of course, the wealthy interests behind education reform oppose nearly all of the Education Reform is Anti-American | Steve Nelson:

Broad's support of Clinton raising concerns within teacher unions - LA School Report

Broad's support of Clinton raising concerns within teacher unions - LA School Report:

Broad’s support of Clinton raising concerns within teacher unions

Hillary Clinton and Eli Broad on Jan. 20, 2009 at the inauguration ball of President Barack Obama.

With his massive plan to enroll half of all LA Unified’s students into charter schools, billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad is threatening major disruptions at LA Unified, cementing his role as Public Enemy No. 1 to many district and local union leaders.

But Broad’s enduring support for public charter schools now appears to be contributing to problems for an old friend, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whom he has long supported financially.

Clinton appears poised to receive the endorsement of the nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA), this weekend, but the potential endorsement is causing controversy among many rank-and-file members. Similar outrage emerged when Clinton received the endorsement of the second-largest national teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), in July.

The NEA’s rank-and-file outrage is dominating many national headlines, just as the AFT outrage did, stealing the focus from what should be a public relations victory for Clinton.

Part of the concern is due to her past support of charter schools and connections to Broad, as well as her connections to Bill Gates and the Walton family, who are also major financial backers of charter schools that directly threaten union teacher jobs. An alternate candidate in the field, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a declared socialist with a track record of full-throated support of unions, makes a better candidate, according to some NEA and AFT members.

“[Clinton’s] labor credentials are significantly worse than her main challenger in the Democratic primary, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders,” wrote Huffington Post blogger and NEA member Ben Spielberg, who also pointed out that Clinton once served on the board of directors of Wal-Mart.

“Even if she says things that today sound supportive, she’s not going to be a steadfast friend of organized labor,” Jamie Rinaldi, a teacher from Newton, Mass. and a union activist told Politico. “We don’t know she’s going to be the ally that’s going to stand with our legislative agenda.”

Almost 5,000 AFT members signed an online petition asking AFT to withdraw the Clinton endorsement, which came in July. One comment on the petition, which summed up much of the Clinton opposition, said, “The support that Hillary receives from Wall Street, and gives them in return, and her misguided support of charter schools clearly shows whose interests she is working for.”

Several NEA state branches have already called on the organization to withhold any endorsement.

“We are concerned that an early recommendation does not allow members to be participants in a real debate around the issues that are still unfolding,” Nebraska State Education Association president Nancy Fulton said in a statement Wednesday. “A recommendation this early in the process is premature.”

With most charter schools being non-union, the math behind Broad’s charter expansion plan in LA is simple to the LA teachers union president, Alex Caputo-Pearl: lose half of the district’s students, and his union, UTLA, will also lose half of its teachers. Caputo-Pearl sees this as a threat to UTLA’s very existence, which makes it strange when his two national affiliates may both end up supporting Clinton, who once said, “I stand behind the charter school/public school movement, because parents do deserve greater choice within the public school system to meet the unique needs of their children.”

The Clinton Foundation has even gushed over Broad’s charter school philanthropy. From the foundation’s website, which is referring to a 2007 donation Broad made to LA charters totaling $27 million: “[Broad’s donations] will have a far-reaching impact on improving the education of students in Los Angeles. By broadening the investments in charter schools in Los Angeles, a tipping point will be created that will put pressure on all other public schools in Los Angeles to improve the educational opportunities for all children.”

The Broads and Bill and Hillary Clinton have connections that go as far back as 1983 and as recently as Sept. 19, when Bill Clinton attended the second opening night of the Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Times quoted Clinton at the gala talking about their friendship, which dated back to when Hillary was Broad’s lawyer. “I looked up one day and Eli was in my living room, and my life has never been the same,” Clinton said.

Broad, through one of his corporations, gave $100,000 to Bill Clinton’s presidential reelection campaign and was one of the controversial “Lincoln bedroom donors” who gave the then-president some bad headlines due to the perception that Clinton was using the White House to raise campaign funds.

Broad endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2008, has donated over $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation and was recently a co-chair of the Super PAC “Ready for Hillary” that was formed to draft Clinton into the 2016 race. It has since dissolved.

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Broad's support of Clinton raising concerns within teacher unions - LA School Report: