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:

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 and others, want a “politically savvy and experienced educational leader,” according to the search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates. A look at the details, however, suggests that even Kryptonite could not stop the particular paragon being sought.

The executive search firm was scheduled to present its findings at a school board meeting Tuesday, based on input gathered from surveys filled out by more than 8,000 respondents and notes compiled from more than 100 public meetings held during the last two weeks of October. About 1,200 people participated in those meetings. The nation’s second-largest school system enrolls about 650,000 students.

Superpowers would come in handy in a district facing a troubled financial outlook, threats to dismantle it and pressure to improve lagging academic performance.

“Many participants believe the position is one of the most important jobs in American educational leadership and comes at a critical point in the history of the district,” the consultants wrote in one of their reports, which are available on the district website.

Can L.A. Unified get people to care about its next leader?

The Board of Education is looking to replace Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, 83, who has said he would like to retire by the end of the year. Cortines agreed to return after John Deasy resigned under pressure a year ago.

Looming deficits could push L.A. Unified into bankruptcy, panel says

Although board members have promised to seriously consider the community input, they and the consultants already had been thinking about who they want. And the consultants have been speaking with potential candidates for several weeks.

Nonetheless, to the extent that the feedback matters, there are some defining characteristics that could be used to frame the board’s choice. The consultants, for example, reported that an educator is favored, someone with “experience as a teacher and a principal working in an urban environment,” preferably with a doctorate from a fully accredited institution of higher learning.

This preference alone would disqualify two of the last four superintendents.

And recent holders of the office also might have trouble with L.A. Board of Education learns what to look for in their next schools chief - LA Times:

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 Schools

Hillary 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 "no excuses" schools for the poor.  Hillary's full embrace of her husband's new paternalism and "broken windows" social theory applied to schools, along with her lucrative support for the education industry and charter proliferation, have been the impetus for Hillary lovers to harrumph and change the political subject on many occasion.

So it is, then, that many of these supporters have taken Hillary's latest remarks on charter schools as a chance to spin a story that Hillary is hostile to charters and entirely supportive of the publicly controlled schools that are dying out at the same rate that the charter blight spreads across America.   Sorry, spinners.

If we look at what Hillary said, however, during her Roland Martin interview in South Carolina last week, it is easy to see a politician with a mastery of having-it-both-ways obfuscating rhetoric that underscores her unwillingness to stand up for any principle that is likely to alienate any potential donor to her campaign.  Here is part of what she said when asked if she supports the expansion of charter schools and vouchers:

CLINTON: I have for many years now, about 30 years, supported the idea of charter schools, but not as a substitute for the public schools, but as a supplement for the public schools. And what I have worked on through my work with the Children’s Defense Fund and my work on education in Arkansas and through my time as first Schools Matter: Hillary Wants More Kids in Charter Schools:

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 Institution

• José Luis Vilson

A 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 Secretary of Education Arne Duncan held a press conference on reducing what we have dubbed the effects of the school to prison pipeline. Yet, I was keenly aware of the special privileges charter schools have gotten across the country to instill zero tolerance policies in the name of a good education. From the students arrested in Mississippi for having the wrong uniform to the student arrested for a clock that the authorities knew wasn’t a bomb, our schools have increasingly used harsh discipline measures to silence children of color into obedience. After reading the report on a Success Academy school that creates lists of students who they need to not so secretly expel in the form of “Got To Go” lists, I saw what so many before me had seen.

American society generally applauds independence and creativity, and tolerates disruption in the name of speaking truth to power. But, apparently, it depends on who is doing the disrupting.

The report poked another hole in the rhetoric of Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz, who, as I’ve reported here and here, already has questionable practices in the name of educating children of color. Her repudiation of the principal in question and the ensuing press releases and conferences emphasize the point that she’s less interested in educating children than creating a wedge between the framework she’s created for her network and the reality that is education within New York City schools. The circus distracts from the militaristic pedagogy placed on students in tandem with the threatening of charter school parents. With Moskowitz winning so many public relations battles until recently, she’s had an unparalleled legislative red carpet rolled out for her.

In that sense, the “Got to Go” list comes across to the general public as a special privilege that Moskowitz gets away with that traditional public schools can’t.

I’m curious about the acrimony surrounding the Got To Go lists, though. Are we angry about them because Moskowitz hypocritically positions herself as a savior for black kids? Or is it because she can get away with it?

While the former speaks to the need to assure that all students, regardless of background, should have a chance to succeed academically and socio-emotionally, the latter speaks to an American problem of schooling children of color. Moskowitz’ vision for schooling children, specifically of color, is akin to one dominant narrative about educating children of color: obedience is at a premium.

For many, public education is one of the last safety nets America has left. The idea that we

- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/11/188405/singling-out-students-who-%E2%80%9Cgot-go%E2%80%9D%E2%80%94-american-institution#sthash.CObJEyUU.dpuf

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 Bronx

Gentrification 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 forces

But what makes gentrification so toxic and dangerous today, not only locally but globally, is that the immense concentration of wealth in a small number of hands, coupled with declining incomes for working class and middle class people. This gives large developers unprecedented economic and political power. The wealth of a single developer can exceed the combined wealth of an entire neighborhood! This gives them the power, not only to buy off politicians, but to get local business leaders and non profit organizations to support their plans, even if such plans may in the long run, damage their standing.because they will displace so many of their long time clients and customers.

This is why I worry when big developers With A Brooklyn Accent: Why It's Not Irrational to Fear Gentrification- Especially in the Bronx:

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 construction

Federal official visits dilapidated Gary school buildings

Building a school just for academic security is like building a home just to keep dry from rainstorms. Such thinking on school construction minimizes the opportunities to ameliorate the conditions that make life hard.

In places like New Orleans, schooling isn’t the only inequality leaving students and their families out in the rain. The lack of quality jobs, transportation, recreational facilities and safe neighborhoods keeps families and their children in poverty.

The construction of a school presents opportunities that extend beyond what eventually is taught in a classroom. How and where a school is built matters.

Related: Opinion Why are we sending children to pre-K programs in converted salons, bars and turkey coops?

Last month I spoke at two separate architecture conferences. TheNational Organization of Minority Architects Annual Conference and The Education Market Association’s EdSpaces Conference, which focuses on sustainable design on environmental impact on learning. To be sustainable, schools must look at the here and now; we throw the phrase “21^st century schools” around like a football, and we look beyond the people calling for the ball. Students and families need school construction projects to respond to their neighborhoods in the immediate and distant futures.

Yes, schools should prepare students for the unforeseen world that’s ahead of them. But if learners aren’t prepared for what’s in front of their faces, then we’re missing the point. What does a Common Core curriculum mean to students at risk of being shot? In cities like New Orleans, in which one in seven black men are in prison or on parole, Why aren’t schools in poor communities built to meet local students’ needs? - The Hechinger Report:

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 more insightful message. This message is about how power functions in the absence of any accountability. And this seems to be a lesson that has not been learned yet when one sees how the Los Angeles Times and other commercial and public media nationwide still continue to systematically ignore, twist, or downright censor the relevant facts necessary for the citizens of this country to meaningfully understand the stories in the news. In order words, 1st Amendment be damned, if telling a complete and controversial true piece of news would lead to real public accountability for those running mega-corrupt organizations, it will not be told. So, the only problem I have with an incredibly well done movie like Spotlight is that it still maintains the illusion that truth will out, which is clearly no longer the case in this country.

The most recent example of distorted news comes from Los Angeles Times reporters Teresa Watanabe and Howard Blum's Sunday, November 8th front page article entitled"Disorder In The Classroom," where they write a whole article about an increasingly serious epidemic of willful student increased violence and defiance of school authority in light of a counterintuitive LAUSD decision to eliminate student suspensions or pretty much anything else as a consequence.

While something referred to in the article as "restorative justice" is mentioned as the panacea replacing suspension and any other forms of consequences for what is becoming more and more outrageous student defiant behavior, other than saying restorative justice "seeks to resolve conflicts through talking circles and other methods to build trust," the article in no way goes into any depth as to how this is actually going to work and succeed.

In fact, the article even attempts to unjustifiably tout LAUSD, Los Angeles Times, Howard Blum, Teresa Watanabe - Perdaily.com:

Hillary’s Charter School Problem

Hillary Clinton Charter Schools:

Hillary’s Charter School Problem

Good 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 most charter schools, they don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them. And so the public schools are often in a no-win situation, because they do, thankfully, take everybody, and then they don’t get the resources or the help and support that they need to be able to take care of every child’s education.

Clinton’s solution to the charter school crisis is what exactly? She seems to be saying that charter schools have major problems, but the best way to fix them is to redouble our belief in this flawed and failing system.

And all over the country, teachers, parents and students rejoice. Someone actually notices our problem!

Charter school scandals seem to hit the paper with the regularity of a grandfather clock. Charters cut student services and boost overhead to produce profit. Charters rack up debt and then sell it for a profit. Charters fudge the paperwork so they get paid for students who don’t actually attend. And just as Clinton said, they push out the children who are most in need and hardest to teach.

In short, most charter schools stink. Clinton admits we have a problem. But how do we solve it?

Clinton:

I have for many years now, about 30 years, supported the idea of charter schools, but not as a substitute for the public schools, but as a supplement for the public schools. And what I have worked on through my work with the Children’s Defense Fund and my work on education in Arkansas and through my time as first lady and senator is to continue to say charter schools can have a purpose, but you know there are good charter schools and there are bad charter schools, just like there are good public schools and bad public schools.

So I want parents to be able to exercise choice within the public school system — not outside of it — but within it because I am still a firm believer that the public school system is one of the real pillars of our democracy and it is a path for opportunity. …the original idea… behind charter schools was to learn what worked and then apply them in the public schools…

So Clinton’s solution to the charter school crisis is what exactly? She seems to be saying that Hillary Clinton Charter Schools:

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 Country

Instances 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.  2:19

Tackling Racial Tensions on Campus

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Tackling Racial Tensions on Campus

After the resignation of President Timothy M. Wolfe, students and faculty agreed that a new approach is needed to combat the rising number of racist incidents at the University of Missouri.

 Publish DateNovember 9, 2015. Watch in Times Video »

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The president of the University of Missouri system resigned Nov. 9 after weeks of protests over racial tensions that had nearly paralyzed the campus — including a threat by dozens of black football players to boycott games. The president, Timothy M. Wolfe, urged everyone involved to “use my resignation to heal and start talking again.” Later that day, the chancellor of the Columbia campus, R. Bowen Loftin, also resigned.

Yale

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Yale University Students Protest Halloween Costume Email (VIDEO 1) Video by TheFIREorg

Continue reading the main story

RELATED COVERAGE

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  University of Missouri Protests Spur a Day of ChangeNOV. 9, 2015

• 

  Yale’s Halloween Advice Stokes a Racially Charged DebateNOV. 8, 2015

• 

  As Two Oklahoma Students Are Expelled for Racist Chant, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Vows Wider InquiryMARCH 10, 2015

Weeks of simmering racial tension boiled over this month in a debate over whether the administration was sensitive enough to concerns aboutHalloween costumes seen as culturally offensive. Many of the students who met with Yale’s president, Peter Salovey, said they did not believe the university was attuned to the needs of minority students. The campus has been engaged in a long-running debate over a residential college named in honor of John C. Calhoun, a 19th-century South Carolina politician, outspoken white supremacist and member of the Yale class of 1804.

U.C.L.A.Racial Tension and Protests on Campuses Across the Country - The New York Times: