Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/10/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

The Philanthropy Hustle | Jacobin

The Philanthropy Hustle | Jacobin: The Philanthropy HustleGlobal North or South, private foundations are part of the problem, not the solution.Meet Ajay Banga. The son of an Indian army officer, Banga was born in Khadki, a cantonment a few hours outside Mumbai. After studying economics at Delhi University, he took an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management and began an illustrious career worki

by mike simpson / 2h 

Now the fun begins. . . | Crazy Crawfish

Now the fun begins. . . | Crazy Crawfish: Now the fun begins. . . The last year and a half has not been all that fun for me personally.  You see, I started my BESE campaign about that long ago.  I was told I would enjoy the experience, make new friends, and  have an opportunity to guide the conversation.  Maybe that’s true in other states, but not Louisiana.  I actually lost a number of friends wh

by mike simpson / 4h 

Another Charter School Front Group in Connecticut? Naw…Same people just different name - Wait What?

Another Charter School Front Group in Connecticut? Naw…Same people just different name - Wait What?: Another Charter School Front Group in Connecticut? Naw…Same people just different nameBeware of AstroTurf Ed Reformers Just Like Michelle Rhee's Students first only BETTERAstroturf lobbying refers to political organizations or campaigns that appear to be made up of grassroots activists but are actu

by mike simpson / 5h 

Charter group says LAUSD anti-Broad measure appears 'unlawful' - LA School Report

Charter group says LAUSD anti-Broad measure appears 'unlawful' - LA School Report:Charter group says LAUSD anti-Broad measure appears ‘unlawful’Petition REPEAL Charter School Act of 1992 in CA Ballot Initiative http://bit.ly/1Gt6Nu3LA Unified school board member Scott Schmerelson is bringing a resolutionbefore the board today, asking it to go on record opposing a plan by theBroad Foundation to add

by mike simpson / 5h 

L.A. Board of Education learns what to look for in their next schools chief - LA Times

L.A. Board of Education learns what to look for in their next schools chief - LA Times: Seeking a superhero? L.A. school board gets advice on next superintendent people have spoken about what they want in a new superintendent for theLos Angeles Unified School District, and the hunt for Superman or Superwoman is on.The official verdict is that Los Angeles' students, parents, district staff, clergy

by mike simpson / 6h 

Schools Matter: Hillary Wants More Kids in Charter Schools

Schools Matter: Hillary Wants More Kids in Charter Schools: Schools Matter: Hillary Wants More Kids in Charter SchoolsHillary supporters who, at least, are not explicitly hostile to public schools have coughed and groaned for a long time when confronted with evidence the Clintons' unyielding support for Common Core, TFA, standardized tests, continued school resegregation, and corporate reform &quo

by mike simpson / 6h 

Singling Out Students Who “Got to Go”—An American Institution | The Progressive

Singling Out Students Who “Got to Go”—An American Institution | The Progressive: Singling Out Students Who “Got to Go”—An American InstitutionJosé Luis VilsonA couple of weeks ago, I watched in horror as a school resource officer flung a teenager halfway across a room in the name of school discipline. The horrific event sparked a plethora of conversations that were already at peak levels since Sec

by mike simpson / 6h 

With A Brooklyn Accent: Why It's Not Irrational to Fear Gentrification- Especially in the Bronx

With A Brooklyn Accent: Why It's Not Irrational to Fear Gentrification- Especially in the Bronx: Why It's Not Irrational to Fear Gentrification- Especially in the BronxGentrification is nothing new. There have always been urban development initiatives which have displaced poor and working class people, sometimes associated with urban renewal, sometimes shaped by market forcesBut what makes gentrif

by mike simpson / 6h 

Why aren’t schools in poor communities built to meet local students’ needs? - The Hechinger Report

Why aren’t schools in poor communities built to meet local students’ needs? - The Hechinger Report: Why aren’t schools in poor communities built to meet local students’ needs?Dilapidated schools are about neglected communities, not poor constructionFederal official visits dilapidated Gary school buildingsBuilding a school just for academic security is like building a home just to keep dry from rai

by mike simpson / 7h 

LAUSD, Los Angeles Times, Howard Blum, Teresa Watanabe - Perdaily.com

LAUSD, Los Angeles Times, Howard Blum, Teresa Watanabe - Perdaily.com: "SPOTLIGHT" ON LAUSD AND THE LOS ANGELES TIMES(Mensaje se repite en Español)While the recently released movieSpotlight is supposed to be a film about the long ignored Boston child molestation scandal that was allowed to run rampant for far too long because of the power of the Catholic Church, it actually has a much mo

by mike simpson / 7h 

Hillary’s Charter School Problem

Hillary Clinton Charter Schools: Hillary’s Charter School ProblemGood news! Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton just admitted there are significant problems with the nation’s charter schools!Bad news! She has no interest in solving them! In fact, she thinks charters are just great.Here’s Clinton criticizing charter schools:Most charter schools — I don’t want to say every one — but mo

by mike simpson / 7h 

Racial Tension and Protests on Campuses Across the Country - The New York Times

Racial Tension and Protests on Campuses Across the Country - The New York Times: Racial Tension and Protests on Campuses Across the CountryInstances of racism and bigotry have ignited protests at colleges across the United States, and social media has amplified students’ messages far beyond campus. Here are some examples.University of Missouri NEWS CLIPS: U.S.  2:19Tackling Racial Tensions on Camp

by mike simpson / 7h 

NPR State Impact: National Education Association Prez Calls for Equity Among Schools - Lily's Blackboard

NPR State Impact: National Education Association Prez Calls for Equity Among Schools - Lily's Blackboard: NPR State Impact: National Education Association Prez Calls for Equity Among SchoolsLily spoke with NPR State Impact to discuss the importance of ensuring opportunity for every student, regardless of ZIP code.An editorial on NPR State Impact:NPR State Impact: National Education Association Pre

by mike simpson / 7h 

DHS/Police Are Paying School Kids To Spy On Classmates | PopularResistance.Org

DHS/Police Are Paying School Kids To Spy On Classmates | PopularResistance.Org: DHS/Police Are Paying School Kids To Spy On ClassmatesApparently DHS’s “If You See Something Say Something” spying program isn’t enough. Now DHS/Police want to turn school kids into spies.The “Project Safe Campus” (PSC) program is an anonymous CASH rewards program that pays students $100.00 to spy on fellow classmates!

by mike simpson / 7h 

The Economic Imperative of Bilingual Education in Schools - The Atlantic

The Economic Imperative of Bilingual Education in Schools - The Atlantic: The Economic Imperative of Bilingual EducationStates including Utah and Montana are aggressively pushing for programs that give native English speakers a competitive edge.Garland Independent School District, a fast-growing suburb northeast of Dallas, has undergone a dramatic demographic shift. Like districts across Texas, Ga

by mike simpson / 8h 

Pondering Charters: False Markets & Liberty as Substitute for Equity? | School Finance 101

Pondering Charters: False Markets & Liberty as Substitute for Equity? | School Finance 101: Pondering Charters: False Markets & Liberty as Substitute for Equity?Today’s musing:It is important to acknowledge that charter school market shares are not, in recent years, expanding exclusively or even primarily because of market demand and personal/family preferences for charter schools. Traditi

by mike simpson / 8h 

Achievement First Inc. pledged to do better with special education students but didn’t - Wait What?

Achievement First Inc. pledged to do better with special education students but didn’t - Wait What?: Achievement First Inc. pledged to do better with special education students but didn’tLast week, Achievement First Inc. the large charter school chain with schools in Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island was hit with a lawsuit about its failure to fulfill its legal obligation to special education

by mike simpson / 8h 

Los Angeles Unified School District Suspension Ban: Teachers Complain of Constant Disruptions

Los Angeles Unified School District Suspension Ban: Teachers Complain of Constant Disruptions: Repeatedly Suspending Defiant Students Is Horrible. But So Is Dumping Them on Untrained Teachers.Superintendant Ramon Cortines agrees that many LAUSD schools haven't gotten the supports they need to implement "restorative justice."David McNew/Getty ImagesIt’s one of the biggest debates in educa

by mike simpson / 8h 

Phoenix police release 1996 recording of Kevin Johnson phone call to teenage accuser | The Sacramento Bee

Phoenix police release 1996 recording of Kevin Johnson phone call to teenage accuser | The Sacramento Bee: Phoenix police release 1996 recording of Kevin Johnson phone call to teenage accuserPhoenix police recorded this telephone call between Amanda Koba, then 16, and Kevin Johnson, at the time a 30-year-old basketball player for the Phoenix Suns. The Sacramento Bee in November 2015 obtained the a

by mike simpson / 8h 

Labor union dissenters influence political speech more than shareholders: law profs to SCOTUS

Labor union dissenters influence political speech more than shareholders: law profs to SCOTUS: Labor union dissenters influence political speech more than shareholdersReuters) – Scathing commentary about the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has tended to focus on the court’s refusal to restrict corporate political spending. As you know, the justi

by mike simpson / 8h 

Pedagogy and Poverty Taken Up by Teachers’ Union in One WV County | Nonprofit Quarterly

Pedagogy and Poverty Taken Up by Teachers’ Union in One WV County | Nonprofit Quarterly: Pedagogy and Poverty Taken Up by Teachers’ Union in One WV CountyThe editor of the Washington Monthly’s “Political Animal” blog, Ed Kilgore, writes about a partnership of nonprofit and public sector entities to attack poverty in McDowell County, a very poor part of Appalachian West Virginia, through the use of

by mike simpson / 9h 

Hillary Clinton rebukes charter schools - POLITICO

Hillary Clinton rebukes charter schools - POLITICO: Hillary Clinton rebukes charter schoolsThe decades-long proponent of charters criticizes the schools for cherry-picking kids.Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded less like a decades-long supporter of charter schools over the weekend and more like a teachers union president when she argued that most of these schools “don’t take the ha

by mike simpson / 9h 

Ohio school boards want to ban ads for bad charter schools | cleveland.com

Ohio school boards want to ban ads for bad charter schools | cleveland.com: Ohio school boards want to ban ads for bad charter schoolsSchool board members from across Ohio want to ban charter schools like Imagine Cleveland, which was forced to close this summer by the state, from advertising.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The state may have just passed a major overhaul in its charter school laws, but school bo

by mike simpson / 9h 

Mayor’s office calls ‘Esquire’ article on his charter school stance ‘untrue and unsourced’ - Education - Boston.com

Mayor’s office calls ‘Esquire’ article on his charter school stance ‘untrue and unsourced’ - Education - Boston.com: Mayor’s office calls ‘Esquire’ article on his charter-school stance ‘untrue and unsourced’On Monday, Esquire’s political blogger Charles P. Pierce accused Boston Mayor Marty Walsh of pulling a “full Scott Walker”—in other words, changing his position on an issue once he got elected.

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Teach Strong: More of the Same, But with a Game Board | deutsch29

Teach Strong: More of the Same, But with a Game Board | deutsch29: Teach Strong: More of the Same, But with a Game BoardA group of 40 organizations, including many that are chiefly test-score-driven, corporate-reform- bent, is launching an effort to prompt the 2016 presidential contenders who are saying little about educational issues (as though they all met together and agreed, “Let’s just not ta

by mike simpson / 19h hide  //  save

Hillary Clinton’s Charter School Problem | gadflyonthewallblog

Hillary Clinton’s Charter School Problem | gadflyonthewallblog: Hillary Clinton’s Charter School ProblemGood news! Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton just admitted there are significant problems with the nation’s charter schools!Bad news! She has no interest in solving them! In fact, she thinks charters are just great.Here’s Clinton criticizing charter schools:Most charter schools —

by mike simpson / 20h 

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: How Will Your Students Remember You?

DIARY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER!: How Will Your Students Remember You?: How Will Your Students Remember You?I have taught for 30+ years, and over the years, I have connected with former students.On the street, their jobs, emails, and visits. Last year, 3 siblings surprised me with a visit. I had each of them in my classroom. One had graduated from college and was working in D.C, one was in colleg

by mike simpson / 20h 

Houston Board Candidates Respond to their Teacher Evaluation System | VAMboozled!

Houston Board Candidates Respond to their Teacher Evaluation System | VAMboozled!: Houston Board Candidates Respond to their Teacher Evaluation SystemFor a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, the newspaper sent 12 current candidates for the Houston Independent School District (HISD) School Board a series of questions about HISD, to which seven candidates responded. The seven candidates’ respo

by mike simpson / 21h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/9/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMState lets Cash revamp five schools without union OK - City & Region - The Buffalo NewsState lets Cash revamp five schools without union OK - City & Region - The Buffalo News: State lets Cash revamp five schools without union OKIn one of her most significant actions as state education commissioner, MaryEllen Elia has granted Buffalo Superintendent Kriner Cash unprecedent

by mike simpson / 22h 

The Philanthropy Hustle | Jacobin

The Philanthropy Hustle | Jacobin:

The Philanthropy Hustle

Global North or South, private foundations are part of the problem, not the solution.

Meet Ajay Banga. The son of an Indian army officer, Banga was born in Khadki, a cantonment a few hours outside Mumbai. After studying economics at Delhi University, he took an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management and began an illustrious career working for corporate giants like Nestlé and PepsiCo. In 2010, Banga was appointed CEO of Mastercard, headquartered in Purchase, New York.

He is one of only a handful of Fortune 500 heads to complete his primary, secondary, and post-secondary education entirely in India.

Banga took on a healthy company and made it even more profitable. In 2009, Mastercard earned a profit of $1.5 billion on revenues of $5.1 billion. In 2013, profit reached $3.1 billion on revenues of $8.4 billion. The company’s stock has jumped 330 percent over the past five years.

He’s been rewarded well for his efforts: last year Banga took home over $13 million and cemented his status as a darling of the business press, saluted in magazines like Fortune, and named the world’s “Top Wealth Creator” by Chief Executive magazine.

He specializes in innovation. At least, that’s what business papers proclaim: Banga has “doubled down on technology,” “launched an in-house innovation arm,” and introduced Mastercard Contactless, a new wireless payment system.

Most innovatively of all, he has narrowed his gaze on the world’s 2.5 billion “unbanked” inhabitants. As a feature in Fortune describes, Banga realizes that “much of the opportunity for the company is in parts of the world where a digital wallet is still decades away.” He’s at the forefront of a growing group of business leaders who appreciate that there are profits to be made in global poverty.

What Fortune doesn’t add is where the money for Banga’s investments in the “unbanked” masses is coming from. A good deal of it is, in fact, not coming from the company he leads. It’s not coming from Mastercard shareholders, and it’s certainly not coming out of his ever-expanding pay packet. It’s coming from the coffers of the world’s most powerful philanthropic organization: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In 2014, the Gates Foundation announced an $11 million grant to Mastercard to establish a financial inclusion “lab” in Nairobi, Kenya. The grant will last three years, after which Mastercard has indicated that, should the venture prove sufficiently lucrative, the company may be willing to foot the bill for further financial expansion in the region.

Mastercard’s management rationalized the grant in economic terms: investing in developing nations such as Kenya is risky, and there’s no guarantee that investments will pay off. As Mastercard explains in a press release, the money from the Gates Foundation enables the company to reach “new markets that may otherwise be commercially unviable.”

The gift to Mastercard — and it is a gift, rather than a loan or an equity investment — is the latest in a long list of donations that the Gates Foundation has offered to the world’s wealthiest corporations. From Vodafone, a British company notorious for paying zero corporate tax in the United Kingdom, to leading education companies such as Scholastic Inc., the Gates Foundation doesn’t simply partner with for-profit companies: it subsidizes their bottom-line.

The Business of Altruism

Increased charitable giving to the world’s wealthiest corporations is simply one novel aspect of a much bigger phenomenon: the growing power and clout of private philanthropic actors over global institutions such as the World Health Organization.

With an endowment of $42 billion, the Gates Foundation spends about $3 billion each year towards causes that, at first glance, seem irreproachable. But the giving has hidden costs.

Take donations towards the World Health Organization. In 2013, the Gates Foundation gave over $300 million to the UN health agency — the largest contribution from any donor that year, including the US government. What the Gates Foundation spends on global The Philanthropy Hustle | Jacobin:

Now the fun begins. . . | Crazy Crawfish

Now the fun begins. . . | Crazy Crawfish:

Now the fun begins. . . 

The last year and a half has not been all that fun for me personally.  You see, I started my BESE campaign about that long ago.  I was told I would enjoy the experience, make new friends, and  have an opportunity to guide the conversation.  Maybe that’s true in other states, but not Louisiana.  I actually lost a number of friends who felt I had sold out to corporate interests.  My health declined, and I had to disappoint my children and family during the ordeal.

I was happy being an erstwhile blogger.  I actually became a candidate at the request of some allies (who later turned on me, sadly enough.)  I suppose there are worse things that could have happened, and I did make some great new friends along the way, but “friends” who become enemies without warning and continue to participate in my campaign and spy on me?  Not cool.

I rose to moderate prominence because of my blog, the one you are reading now.  In the campaigning process I had to give up more of my controversial and saucy subject material in favor of more bland and positive fare.  This of course sapped much of my interest in continuing my blog.  I found it difficult to strike a balance between going after wrongdoing, and not alienating potential voters.

I also found I had very little time to maintain my blog as campaign activities overtook all of my free time, forcing me out of Karate with my kids, boy scouts with my son, and family vacations (I stayed home and campaigned while the family went away without me.)  I did all of this for the opportunity to serve on an unpaid board, BESE, which would not only take all of my free-time but also my vacation time as well.  Unlike candidates and re-elected BESE members like Holly Boffy or Kira Orange Jones (who work for organizations where serving on BESE is considered part of their jobs) I work as a normal nine-to-five stiff, outside of education circles.  I don’t pay my house mortgage with my contract job (like Holly Boffy has said she does with her CCSSO position) with an organization that directly profits from my service.

Had I been elected to BESE, for the next 4 years a minimum of 12 of my 18 Now the fun begins. . . | Crazy Crawfish:

Another Charter School Front Group in Connecticut? Naw…Same people just different name - Wait What?

Another Charter School Front Group in Connecticut? Naw…Same people just different name - Wait What?:

Another Charter School Front Group in Connecticut? Naw…Same people just different name

Beware of AstroTurf Ed Reformers 

Just Like Michelle Rhee's Students first only BETTER

Astroturf lobbying refers to political organizations or campaigns that appear to be made up of grassroots activists but are actually organized and run by corporate interests seeking to further their own agendas. Such groups are often typified by innocent-sounding names that have been chosen specifically to disguise the group's true backers

Just Like Michelle Rhee's

 Students first Astroturf lobbying (only Better) 

Other Astroturf lobbying groups

Just Like Michelle Rhee's

 Students first Astroturf lobbying (only Better) 

As Connecticut faces yet another massive state budget crisis, even more Pro-Charter School and Corporate Education Reform Industry money is flowing into Connecticut to help grease the charter school operators’ efforts to grab additional public funds courtesy of charter school aficionado and “education reform” groupie Governor Dannel Malloy.

This time the corporate funded charter school lobbyists are calling themselves “Fight for Fairness CT” and are rallying in Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford.

Charter school organizers are using www.fightforfairnessct.org, a website that was created by a New York City advertising company on October 23 2015.

Although they are calling themselves by a different name, the group is actually the same controversial New York based charter school lobby group known as “Families for Excellent Schools” http://www.familiesforexcellentschools.org/ except when they call themselves “Families for Excellent Schools Advocacy.”

While their primary purpose has been to support Eva Moskowitz and the other New York Charter School operators, Families for Excellent Schools arrived in Connecticut from New York last year and registered both Families for Excellent Schools AND Families for Excellent Schools Advocacy as lobbying entities with Connecticut’s Office of State Ethics.

However, Families for Excellent Schools immediately created a new front group called Coalition for Every Child, setting up a website named http://www.foreverychildct.org/

When slapped for failing to register Coalition for Every Child with the Connecticut’s ethics office, the New Yorkers quickly changed their name to Families for Excellent Another Charter School Front Group in Connecticut? Naw…Same people just different name - Wait What?:

Charter group says LAUSD anti-Broad measure appears 'unlawful' - LA School Report

Charter group says LAUSD anti-Broad measure appears 'unlawful' - LA School Report:

Charter group says LAUSD anti-Broad measure appears ‘unlawful’

Petition REPEAL Charter School Act of 1992 in CA Ballot Initiative http://bit.ly/1Gt6Nu3

LA Unified school board member Scott Schmerelson is bringing a resolutionbefore the board today, asking it to go on record opposing a plan by theBroad Foundation to add 260 new charter schools to the district over the next eight years.

The plan has drawn rebuke from other board members and the LA teachers union, UTLA, which organized protests on the issue across this city this morning.

But the resolution, which appears largely symbolic, raises one key question: Other than objecting to the charter plan, what can the board really do to stop it?

According to the California Charters School Association (CCSA), a close reading of the state’s 1992 Charter School Act reveals the answer: Not much.

“The act is very clear in the statutes that charter schools should be encouraged and it narrows the grounds on which a school board can deny a charter petition. So it does not give school boards wide discretion,” said Ricardo Soto, general counsel for CCSA.

Board President Steve Zimmer has strongly denounced the Broad plan, previouslytelling LA School Report it is “not an all-kids plan or an all-kids strategy. It’s very explicitly a some-kids strategy, a strategy that some kids will have a better education at a publicly-funded school that assumes that other kids will be injured by that opportunity.”

But missing from Zimmer’s denunciation — then or since — is a plan to oppose the Broad effort in any practical way, demonstrating how limited even the most motivated school board is when it comes to stopping the proliferation of charter schools. And according to a new report out today by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, Los Angeles continues to serve the largest number of charter school students in the country, with a current waiting list of nearly 70,000.

The Charter Schools Act of 1992 lays out clear guidelines upon which a school board can deny a charter school application: Philosophical opposition to charter Charter group says LAUSD anti-Broad measure appears 'unlawful' - LA School Report: