Michael Moore, We Need YOU to Investigate Education! Here's Why:

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Fri Feb-26-10 04:22 PM
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Michael Moore, We Need YOU to Investigate Education! Here's Why:

Way under most people's radar, there's a take-over going on.

If I'm reading the news correctly, it's not just that charter schools are being offered as an alternative to public schools. It's not even just that vouchers are being issued that deprive public schools of funding.

It's that the public school systems are being stripped of assets which are then given, gratis, to charter schools. Public school students are literally being kicked out of their own libraries.

I have long contended that the 3 most important areas for our attention are election reform (esp. elecronic voting/tabulation and campaign finance), media reform (reversing ownership consolidation and protecting the free flow of info on the internet -- already considerably eroded), and education.

Because anyone who controls those three things, controls virtually everything else.

Little did I realize how imminent the evisceration of our public school system was. It's happening now, and FAST.

Below is some info assembled by others, including reports from people on the front lines. I don't personally know if this is all true, but it has me deeply worried. If you can state contrary facts and SOURCE them, please share; but please don't just trash this information because you don't like the message.

In no particular order:

Charter school exec led hearing to let his school invade a Bronx trade school.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7769229

The charter school takeover of Alfred E. Smith High School has been cancelled.

Talk about a very big conflict of interest?

From the New York Daily News:

City cancels charter school's move to Bronx space after board members questioned
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/02/22/2010-02-22_charter_schools_move_scrapped.html

The city has pulled the plug on a deal to house a controversial charter school in a Bronx school building. The surprise move came after questions from the Daily News about the charter's current and former board members - two of whom hold powerful jobs at the Education Department.

"It's clear the Education Department checked its facts and the numbers just didn't add up," said Dick Dadey, executive director of the Citizens Union. "This was a bad decision that raised all kinds of ethical issues."

Last month, the New York City Charter High School for Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industries won the prized space inside Alfred E. Smith High School, which is being phased down.

Irma Zardoya, a high-ranking Education Department consultant who works at its Tweed headquarters, is the chairwoman of the charter school's board. Santiago Taveras - an interim acting deputy chancellor with the Education Department - was a board member for the charter until June.

How the charter school leaders got the deed done.

Zardoya, while still on the charter school's board and working for the Education Department, told city officials last year that the charter was outgrowing its space.

The hearing to decide whether to close Smith High School was held Jan. 11 - and run by Taveras, who had been the chairman of the charter school's education committee. The decision to move the charter in was announced about two weeks later.

This high school has been a major school of the trades for many years. It is amazing how easily those in the charter movement can recommend that schools be phased out, or that the space be turned over to a charter that will only talk about the trades, not teach them.

Established trade school to be replaced by untested charter whose founder faces ethical charges.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5704

Ruby Washington/The New York Times: Smith's senior carpentry shop. A total of 22 technical shops at the school are scheduled to close.

Citing academic failures, the city has proposed closing the construction trade program at Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School, a 78-year-old vocational school in the South Bronx.

But the school the Department of Education plans to put in place of the program, the 18-month-old New York City Charter High School for Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industries, has had its own issues. Its founder is facing federal charges that he embezzled from a nonprofit company. Thirty percent of the students left after the first year, as did most of the teachers. And despite its name, it has no experience running hands-on vocational programs.

Supporters of Smith, the Bronx�s only high school with state-approved construction trade programs, fear its technical shops will suffer under the charter school�s management and wonder why the city would eliminate an established school only to put an untested school in its place.

.."At A.E.C.I., teachers say they use the building trades as an academic theme, discussing architecture in global history class and asking students to write essays about opportunities in construction.

Someone noticed that a charter school leader also led the meeting to phase out the Bronx school and turn it into a charter.

Here's an older story, about schools in Chicago:

Protesting school closings in Chicago. �They are closing schools without following procedure.�
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7716788

From the Columbia Chronicle. There are protests in Chicago now over the closing of schools.

Potential school closings, privatizing, lead to downtown demonstrations
http://columbiachronicle.com/protestors-unite-to-stop-school-closings/

Hundreds of displeased people dressed in red gathered in front of Chicago Public Schools� headquarters at 4 p.m. on Feb. 10 to protest a recent announcement of plans to close, consolidate and phase out several public schools. The crowd was composed mostly of teachers, union workers, upset parents and a few students.
Protestors said they wore red to demonstrate their anger about the proposed plans.

....�They are closing schools without following procedure,� said Caryn Block, who has taught at Haugan Elementary School for the past 21 years. �They are doing this without any thought. They are hurting children, teachers and communities.�

Along with the four schools they are planning to close, CPS officials are planning to consolidate four other schools, turn around five and phase out one school. The purpose of a turnaround school is to bring in new administrators to a school where there are low testing scores and low enrollment.

They could help the schools by giving back some of the funding and resources taken away, but they are closing them instead.....and not following due process when doing so.

Demonstrators also discussed their uncertainties with the way �Renaissance 2010� is turning out. Renaissance 2010 was first proposed in 2004 and the goal was to create 100 new public schools by the
year 2010.

�The problem is the board has been privatizing public schools and giving public funding to private organizations with no proof that there has been any improvement in education,� Moran said.

There are three different types of renaissance schools and one of them is a charter school, which is free from state laws and board policies.

�This is all part of Mayor Daley�s big plan to privatize (public) schools,� Block said. �(Privatization) is not working, but no one is checking.�

More on this topic from the blog of educator Susan Ohanian at Huffington Post.

The Obama Version of Meritocracy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-ohanian/the-obama-version-of-meri_b_458723.html

One comment on Krugman's blog makes a point especially pertinent to teachers: Washington works for the bankers, Obama's appeasing those in charge. America is ruled by predators and its citizens are the prey. Shockingly repugnant, but really hard to miss these days.

Likewise, Washington school policy works for the privatizers, and Obama/Duncan appease and promote those in charge. School policy is informed and ruled by predators: children and teachers are the prey. Up to now, it has worked in Chicago, with hardly a whimper of protest, and now Duncan is charged with spreading the Chicago Plan across the nation. The only light in a very dark tunnel is that in the last few weeks, Chicagoans have come out in massive protest at each of the Chicago Public Schools Potemkin hearings on scheduled 2010 school closings under the Daley business consortium plan.

Most people don't know about these protests because Substance News, the Chicago-based education newspaper of the resistance, is the only medium reporting on it. (http://substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1165�ion=Article )

Only a few bloggers even discuss the topic.

Here is a little from Substance News.

A video of the picket line by Substance reporters John Kugler is available at You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia2jtbsWYI4&feature=related

Guggenheim teacher Kimberly Walls told him their school had the fifth highest reading score in their Area and their attendance is above the 90th percentile. They demanded that the Mayor meet with them within a week. Education hearing chambers � yet another high-powered political player rose up in defiance to the Board's plans to make Bradwell Elementary School a turnaround school that would fire its entire staff from teachers and administrators to cafeteria workers and janitors.

"I am here to respectfully request that you do not make Bradwell a turnaround school," Alderman Sandi Jackson told the hearing officer before a packed attendience filled with yellow-shirted Bradwell children and adults who broke into a loud applause.

..."Bradwell Principal Justin Moore who has only served one year at a school in which test scores have increased, attendance has increased and fighting had decreased to zero would seem to perfectly fit that criteria. However, he is an interim principal, not on contract as the Board stipulates.

Moore pleaded that the Board give him one more year.

"Please give me one more year," Moore said before he wiped a tear away. "Our students have bonded with us. We have a lot of challenges in our community. A lot of our students spend more time with their teachers than their families. Over 200 parents came to our Family Math and Literacy nights. We had a 16% increase in report card pick up. We build it and they come. We will outperform AUSL's Sherman School of Excellence. We will outperform the Harvard School of Excellence. And of course we will outperform the Dulles, Bethune and Johnson (AUSL Turnarounds voted on last year). I cannot be held accoutable for what happened in 2007."

From http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5703 :

Zachary Pardes/MEDILL Parents and educators protest Wednesday outside school headquarters. A proposal to close or turnaround 14 schools threatens to displace thousands of students and teachers.

Another good story about school closings in NYC, at http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5680 :

Taking the "public" out of public schools.....happening quickly.

From the Indypendent:

Taking the Public Out of Schools
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7704793

IGNORED: More than 300 people spoke against school closings at a Jan. 26 meeting of the Panel for Education Policy (PEP). After hearing nine hours of public comments, the PEP voted 9-4 to close 19 schools. PHOTO: ANDREW HINDERAKER

As soon as New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein leaned into his microphone and started to speak, the jeering began. When he proclaimed the DOE had to shut down 19 schools because �my first obligation is to our children,� the crowd of two thousand public school supporters roared in disbelief.

Over the next nine hours, more than 300 speakers challenged Klein�s reasoning, his motives and his right to decide the fate of their local schools at the Jan. 26 meeting of the Panel for Education Policy (PEP) held at Brooklyn Technical High School. The PEP, whose majority was selected by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, would ultimately approve all 19 school closings by a 9-4 vote in the middle of the night. Yet, there was little doubt that the panel�s action would end the growing controversy over the way Klein and Bloomberg are managing the City�s schools. �Education is a right,� said one parent as she waited to speak. �If we don�t fight, we�re going to lose it.�

The drama that unfolded at the PEP meeting was the product of years of simmering frustration in communities across the city. When Bloomberg plucked Klein, a lawyer, out the corporate world in 2002 to oversee over a school system that educates 1.1 million children in more than 1,500 schools, he promised a new era of mayoral accountability.

So Joel Klein, a lawyer, not an educator...is given the task by Bloomberg to close down public schools.

In Red Hook, parents and educators from P.S. 15 mobilized against the DOE plan to expand PAVE Academy�s presence inside their school for another five years. The DOE claims the P.S. 15 school building is underutilized, a rationale it frequently invokes to justify moving an additional school into an already existing school.

P.S. 15 serves a large population of special education and English language learners, and has received A�s on the DOE�s annual progress report for the past three years. But all of that is at risk as PAVE, whose founder is the son of prominent hedge fund billionaire, continues to grow

That prominent hedge fund billionaire is Spencer Robertson.

The son of a hedge-fund billionaire who has donated $10 million to Mayor Bloomberg�s school projects since 2003, Spencer Robertson opened the PAVE Charter Academy in 2008 inside P.S. 15, a successful elementary school in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Tensions further escalated when the DOE recently announced that PAVE would be allowed to expand inside P.S. 15 over the next five years, even though Robertson has received $26 million from the DOE to build his own school. Robertson�s wife Sarah, the head of the board at Girls Prep Charter School, was at the center of a similar controversy when the school recently sought to expand inside public school facilities in the Lower East Side.

Pave Charter moved right into PS 15 school's building, and it plans to stay for 5 years. It is setting up huge tensions.

PAVE charter may "share" NYC's PS 15 public school building for 5 years.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5379

Those who excuse this intrusion forget that these are public buildings being invaded by schools that run by private corporations. There is no excusing the turning over of public property to privately run schools...no matter how often they use the propaganda term "public charter".

The Department of Education released details of a controversial space-sharing proposal for a Brooklyn charter and district school today, and it would allow the charter to remain in the building until 2015 and add five more grades of students.

The plan follows months of controversy about whether PAVE Academy Charter School should be allowed to continue to share space with Red Hook�s P.S. 15, and if so, whether the charter should be allowed more classrooms in the building.

PAVE originally agreed to leave the P.S. 15 building at the end of this school year. Its request earlier this year to extend its stay sparked worries among P.S. 15 parents and teachers that the charter school would stay indefinitely, squeezing the district school.

Privately operated schools getting taxpayer money and using public buildings...not a good idea.

Kind of hard for public schools with limited funds to fight all the billionaires wanting to cash in a good thing.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5655

Leonie Haimson at Huffington Post tells more about the battle that is heating up with the corporately formed charter school parent groups pushing very hard.

Parents, Students and Civil Rights Advocates Protest the Mass Closings of Public Schools
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonie-haimson/parents-students-and-civi_b_456982.html

From a link in her article:

Students from Christopher Columbus High School and Global Enterprise Academy marched to protest the scheduled closing of their schools.

In communities all over the country, resistance is building to the mass closings of neighborhood schools.

Instead of strengthening our neighborhood schools, that have for generations accepted and served a variety of students, and providing resources and reforms like smaller classes that have been proven to work, officials are pursuing a scorched earth policy -- as during the Vietnam war, when the military claimed they were forced to destroy villages in order to save them.

Here in New York City, rallies and protests have attracted thousands, culminating in a tumultuous eight hour meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy, at which parents, students and teachers pointed out how the Department of Education and Chancellor Joel Klein had unfairly targeted their schools, putting forward misleading statistics and incomplete or false data.

They also revealed how the DOE was itself responsible for overcrowding these schools with our neediest children -- many of them poor, immigrant, and needing special education services -- after having closed other large schools nearby. The small "boutique" schools and charter schools that took their place failed to enroll them. The schools now slated for closure also saw huge rises in the number of homeless students over the last few years. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/nyregion/26closings.html?pagewanted=all

Here is the info from the link about how the DOE is overcrowding schools and causing more to fail.

In Chicago, school officials closed 44 schools between 2001 and 2006 more abruptly than New York did: instead of phasing out schools by grade, the entire student body was dispersed at once. When the schools reopened the next year, there were new administrators, teachers and students.

But the displaced students often went into other weak schools, adding little benefit for those students and sending those schools into tailspins. As chief executive officer of the Chicago public schools during that era, Arne Duncan, now the federal secretary of education, modified the policy to follow what he calls a �turnaround model.� In most cases, students now remain in the same building, while most or all of the staff is replaced.

Replacing the staff provides an easy way to bust union contracts and get rid of teachers who earn too much. Cheaper to hire beginning teachers.

It's happening quickly, it was planned that way. There is no time to think or oppose in an organized way. The billionaires involved in the reform process have a huge money advantage, and they have the media on their side.
____________

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5520 :

"Ignoring Accountability, but Closing Schools" anyway. From a NYC blog.

If a school is accountable but closed anyway, one must assume there are other agendas involved.

From EdWize:

Ignoring Accountability, but Closing Schools http://www.edwize.org/ignoring-accountability-but-closing-schools

NYC�s accountability system � Progress Reports and Quality Reviews � has cost the city millions and millions of dollars and wrought infinite havoc on the schools. Terrified of being closed if they don�t satisfy the formulas and rubrics, schools recast the work they do for children into work they do for the system. To satisfy the demands of the Progress Reports, schools teach to deeply flawed tests. To satisfy the demands of Quality Reviews, they place their limited resources (time, money, people) on grooming the dogs and ponies for the reviewer. That is an unavoidable consequence of high stakes cultures, and one that (in the case of QR) probably dismays some DoE�ers as much as us.

But dismay aside, the DoE is utterly invested in its accountability system. It has been the favorite child, and actually the only child, of Chancellor Klein. It is also the one he takes on the road with him when he visits other states. And the message is clear: We are going by the data in New York, and using the data in sophisticated ways in our accountability system. If a school can�t meet the standards of the Progress Reports and Quality Reviews, well then, we just might shut it down. Which is why it comes as some surprise to me to discover that the DoE pretty much tossed out its own accountability system when it named the schools it wants to close this year. We know this because for the first time, the DoE has been forced to provide the school communities with Educational Impact Statements (EIS). In them, the DoE must explain why it wants to close the school.

Read a little about one school that will be closed.

But let�s take a look at the EIS for just one of the schools that the DoE hopes to close. Let�s compare it to the standard. In the EIS for The School for Community Research and Learning (SCRL), the DoE writes:

�Under the DOE�s accountability framework, schools that receive an overall grade of D or F on the Progress Report.�

(SCRL received a C this year and has never had a D or F.)

�(or) schools receiving a C for three years in a row�

(SCRL has not had three C�s. Last year it received a B.)

�and a score below Proficient on the Quality Review are subject to school improvement measures. If no significant progress is made over time, � closure is possible.

(SCRL has a �Proficient� on its Quality Review. Here are a few of the many fine things the Reviewer had to say:

* The high expectations of teachers, students and parents are in evidence in all aspects of the work of the school.
* Students in greatest need of improvement receive valuable support from the teachers and other staff and make good progress in their achievement levels.
* There are good communication systems, which engage parents as partners in their children�s education.

Some more schools being shut down by the NYC DoE. They met the criteria, but it did not matter.

Of the 20 schools chosen for closing:

* Thirteen were found to be Proficient on the Quality Review
* None had an F and eight did not have a D either.
* Three did not have three C�s in a row.

There is a most interesting comment right after the post. It bluntly tells the truth.

If you close schools, you get to throw tenure and union rules under the bus. So the DOE has every incentive to close schools on a whim. And some of us act surprised?

I am glad I am retired, but it angers me so much to see this agenda of privatization being ramrodded through with the public and many teachers still unaware.

And it has the blessings of the Democratic party leaders.

The agenda is turning public schools over to private management companies. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/3753

Now test after test is showing us the charters overall fare no better. And we have known this for years now.

From 2005: Published on Wednesday, March 30, 2005 by the Boston Globe
Charter Schools' Troubled Waters
by Derrick Z. Jackson

Despite promising us a compass, charter schools have hit another shoal. More evidence says they are no better than public schools.

"Proponents of charter schools have a deregulationist view of education that says the marketplace leads to better schools," Lawrence Mishel, president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute, said over the telephone. "The facts of the matter suggest that this view is without merit."

continue reading...

Mishel and three other university researchers from Columbia and Stanford universities are authors of the forthcoming book "The Charter School Dust-Up." The researchers reviewed federal data and the results from 19 studies in 11 states and the District of Columbia. They found that charter school students, on the whole, "have the same or lower scores than other public school students in nearly every demographic category."

Another NY school being shoved aside by a charter...losing their library.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7710435&mesg_id=7710694

PS 123 in NYC....fights having building taken over by charter school. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5303

Moved to the basement:

Parents and advocates for P.S. 123, the Mahalia Jackson Academy, have complained that the charter is taking away space without concern for the public school students. William Hargraves, whose niece attends P.S. 123, charged that the Department of Education favors charters over regular public schools.

Harlem Success Academy, whose current enrollment is 361, serves kindergarten through second grade; it eventually plans to expand to eighth grade. P.S. 123 has an enrollment of 630 students this year in pre-kindergarten through seventh grade.

The tensions began when the charter school first moved into the building, but increased this year when P.S. 123 lost its computer room to the charter school, as well as part of its teachers� lounge and half its library, now devoted to Harlem Success Academy office space, said Hargraves.

P.S. 123 was offered basement rooms to replace some of the space Harlem Success Academy has commandeered, but �there�s no way a kid can learn in that environment,� Hargraves said, describing the basement as �no more than a storage area.� The school squeezed in classes elsewhere in the building.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7710435 :

KIPP charter school invades NY public school with "A" grade....read the views of both sides.

It's amazing how much difference there is in the view from the charter school advocates who are moving into the high school almost forcibly....and the view from the public school students who are being displaced.

* * * * *

First the view from those sympathetic with the public school PS 195.

Grassroots Education Movement: How the charter end game will hurt public schools http://grassrootseducationmovement.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-charter-end-game-will-hurt-public.html

There are several important reasons why charter schools not only harm public school children, but are a direct threat to public education as we know it. The harm is not ideological in nature, it is direct. I just attended the expansion hearing of KIPP into PS 195 in Harlen this Monday - and it is heartbreaking to hear that PS 195 students have class in the cafeteria. The teacher must ask the other students who are having lunch to quiet down, so instruction can happen. And if this isn't unbelievable enough, KIPP is expanding from its current grades of 5-8, to K-8.

More than a few PS 195 teachers got up to demand that KIPP teachers stop threatening charter school students with the admonishment,"Do you want to be like them?" The lesson hammered into these children every single day in that partitioned environment is one of segregation. The public school students are made to feel less, and the charter school children learn that personal advantage gained by harm to others is not only an entitlement of their talent, but a necessity.

But let's assume the above injustices to public school students were not happening, and charter schools obtained their own space - there is still a troubling aspect to the charter school movement - and that is its endgame. If the ultimate goal is to help the vast majority of minority students; and we can believe the sincerity of the billionaires and politicians who are steering this movement, than I'll support charter schools full heartedly.

The actions of these NYC charters however tell a much different tale than the benevolent words they speak. They are invading spaces of A rated schools (examples, ps. 15 in Redhook Brooklyn, ps 123, and ps. 195 in Harlem, etc.) If the claim is to want to help the neediest children, then why are they choosing building with A rated public schools that are successfully helping their communities. And when you see the comparisons between the two co-located schools in the same building, why is it, that the charter school has significant lower special ed and ELL students than it's counterpart - when they both seemingly draw from the same community?

"Do you want to be like them?" What a terrible question. . . .
KIPP prides itself on its discipline methods. These methods would not have been acceptable in a public school environment. They are tactics of humiliation.

And the blogger points out that there is more to this charter invasion than appears on the surface.

So the fight to defend public education against charter schools, is more than about space, teacher unions, or a lottery system; it is to stop the manipulation of Black and Latino communities as chess pieces in a game to benefit the elite classes in our society. While the struggling parents in impoverished areas are positioned to fight each other for the scraps of space and funding that has been allotted by our society, the privileged lay waiting in the sidelines until all the energy is sapped out - and the doorway to unregulated access to taxpayer money opens.

NOW read the blog of a charter school advocate who apparently attended the same meeting.

Amazing KIPP event http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/02/amazing-kipp-event.html

As I noted in my last email (http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/02/iraq-soldier-comments-on-daughters-red.html ), at these hearings the union and the regular public school (which always thinks it owns the building) usually organize protests to create media coverage and headaches for the charter school, the DOE, Bloomberg and Klein. As expected, the union and IS 195 are opposing the DOE giving KIPP Infinity Elementary the space being vacated by the high school, so we were expecting a big protest last night and, in response, organized KIPP students, parents and staff to turn out. And did they ever turn out!

KIPP ROCKED THE HOUSE! Our students and parents packed the room to the rafters and, one after another, took the microphone and told story after story about how KIPP had changed their life (or their child's life). Many speakers choked up. It was INCREDIBLY POWERFUL! And it was a brilliant example of advocacy in action. We need to be doing a lot more of this if we're going to win this war�

My comment to blogger...actually the public owns the building. KIPP does not. They are profiting from taxpayer money.

Note to blogger: The public high school is not "vacating". They are being forced out.

They are moving into a public school building, paid for with taxpayer money. KIPP charters get money from taxpayers like us.

Yet their advocates are actually celebrating a big "win" over a public school that apparently was carrying an A grade.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7755398:

Politically connected NY charter schools to receive 72 million in city money.

That seems like a whole lot to me. That money could go to help struggling public schools. Instead it is going to charter schools whose owners have good connections. No proof that is the reason, just mentioning it in case.

From the Gotham Gazette's Wonkster:

Charter Schools with Clout
http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2010/02/15/charter-schools-with-clout/

The site refers to an article at the New York Daily News.

With schools of all stripes scrambling for money in a tight economy, the Daily News reports today that the key to getting city funds may not be what you teach but who�s doing the teaching. The paper�s Rachel Monahan found that, according to the city�s capital plan, three politically connected charter schools are slated for millions of dollars in money for new buildings.

The schools are: Harlem Promise Academy and PAVE Academy in Brooklyn, which reportedly will share $72 million, and Peninsula Preparatory Academy in Queens, which will receive an undetermined level of funding. Each of the schools has its own politics ties.

More on Harlem Promise Academy:

Harlem Promise Academy is part of Geoffrey Canada�s Harlem Children�s Zone. As the Wonkster has noted previously, Canada and the Bloomberg administration have a long history of back scratching. Canada chaired and created Learn NY, which lobbied hard for extension of mayoral control of school last year. At Mayor Michael Bloomberg�s first one-to-one debate with Democratic mayoral candidate William Thompson last year, Canada was on hand to �spin� for Bloomberg, and he was among the city leaders who pushed for extension of term limits. Even before the latest example, of city largess, Canada had reported received $388 million in contracts from the administration and hundreds of thousands from Bloomberg himself.

More about PAVE and Peninsula:

As for PAVE, the school�s founder, Spencer Robertson, is connected to the mayor through his father, Julian who, according to an earlier Daily News account has given millions to Bloomberg�s educational groups: $6.75 million to Bloomberg�s New York City Center for Charter School Excellence and $3.25 million to the Fund for Public Schools, a nonprofit that raises money for schools. PAVE has been located in PS 15 in Red Hook. Despite vociferous protests from PS 15 teachers and parents, the city last month approved PAVE�s bid to remain in PS 15 for three more years and to expand for three years, until the school could get its own building. The money in the capital fund will help them do that.

Peninsula Prep gets some of its political heft from its founder: State Senate President Malcolm Smith and one of its board members, U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks. According to a News report last month, Smith earmarked $100,000 in state education funds for the school. The school is managed by Victory Schools. In 2006 and 2007, the News found, Smith received a total of $12,000 in campaign donations from Steven Klinsky, who founded Victory Schools.

Sounds a little like some good old-fashioned back scratching going on. Neighborhood public schools will pay a price for that.

Bloggers are about the only ones pointing out these shenanigans going on to dismantle public education.

One blogger said it perfectly. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5558

Blogger gets it: Make big bucks by closing public schools, firing teachers, opening charters.

Shows it is going on in other states as well.

Close Public Schools, Fire Teachers, Open Charters and Make Big Bucks!

Well, when they told Jed Clampett Cali-for-nee-ah's the place you oughta be, they weren't kidding. Movie star/ politician Arnold Schwarzenegger's got a deal for parents in La-La Land, giving them all sorts of options to "improve" their schools:

Some of the options parents would have to choose from include: replacing the existing administration with a charter school, closing schools and replacing some or all of the existing staff.

Those NYC charters schools that are friends of Bloomberg seem poised to get the big bucks.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=184x17611 :

Charters are currently illegal in Seattle (if I understand correctly) but the district is being targeted for busting by the usual foundation capitalists.

The Superintendent of Schools is a Broad Foundation-trained plant & is bringing in other Broad Foundation people (the Broad Foundation being one of the biggest charter school funders & pushers in the country):

http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/search/label/Broad%20Foundation

"This year's budget references (twice) that the Superintendent's office is getting $127,000 for some workers (I phrase it this way for a reason to become evident). Here are the references:

Additions to administrative and support staff of 9.0 FTE include: a 1.0 Broad
Resident, a Senior Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent�s Office,

Addition to the Superintendent�s office of Broad Resident, and a Senior
Administrative staff position. Cost increase of $127 thousand.

I wrote and asked for clarification on these positions. So I did finally receive the job descriptions and explanations none of which really answer the question - are there new hires and where is the $127,000 going?

So I wrote to the legal staff again and said, "So again I will ask you (and will hold you and the district to your reply); are there any new hires in the Superintendent's office?"

I was told that both positions already exist but (1) Carol Treat who is the Executive Director of Strategic Planning and Alliances and was getting paid via the Alliance is now going to be paid, entirely, by the Broad Foundation. Why would they do that? Is she a Broad resident? Don't think so because they would only be funding half her salary as a Resident... Her salary? Carol Treat earns $144,994.01 annually; with benefits the total is $169,034. And, according to the job description, that's for 260 days of work.

The other position is Venetia Harmon, Sr. Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent. Venetia Harmon makes $54,910.94 annually; with benefits the total is $64,015.17.

Both allegedly report directly to the Superintendent even though Ms. Harmon's position has two other supervisors (neither the Superintendent) listed.

So again:

where is the $127,000 being used for? It can't be just Ms. Harmon's salary so what is it being used for?

why is the Broad Foundation paying for Ms. Treat's salary?
who is the Broad Resident referenced in both places in the budget?

And lastly, why the hell won't the district give a straight answer to a direct question?

***

"The state of Washington has not once, not twice but three times turned back charters. Clearly, we see something that other states (and apparently the Broad Foundation) don't. Additionally, in Seattle, as Dr. Goodloe-Johnson could tell you, we have many "alternative" schools. These are schools started by parents with a great idea and focus. Most are very popular and have waitlists. They are fully-funded by Seattle Public Schools. For Seattle, we don't need charters. So I am wary of the relationship between the Broad Foundation and SPS because of the charter issue...

So I would like to ask you, frankly, what are Broad's intentions in SPS? Why would the Broad Foundation pay the entire salary (about $145,000) for one SPS employee who isn't even associated with the Foundation? I was not happy to hear about the two Broad residents hired last year. We have closed schools over the last 4 years (including this year) and RIFed many teachers this year. Our State Auditor in an audit of SPS said we have too many staff for headquarters. It seems almost disrespectful then to bring on more adminstrators at a time when the district cries poor to teachers, parents and students..."

*****

"Do you hear that train coming? It's building up steam as we speak. And so, when I see the list of alternative schools listed, both on the most recent SPS home calendar AND the SPS website, grow smaller, I have to wonder what is coming. Yes, we still have our alternatives but they seem to be somewhat swept under the carpet otherwise, why are they not noted on the calendar and the website as alternatives? I think alternative school parents have very, very good reasons to worry. But don't worry; at this rate, you can always reopen as a charter later on.

*****

Thursday, August 27, 2009
Put Them on Notice
There's been a lot of wondering outloud here; what can we do about the influence of foundations, in particular the Broad Foundation, in our district? We read about the disaster that was Broad's influence in Oakland and we know the deafening silence from the Superintendent about what her relationship is with the Foundation. She has expanded her relationship with Broad and now serves as a member of an Advisory Board. We have two current Broad residents (whom the Foundation expects the district to hire at the end of the year). We already have one former Broad resident who works for the district. The district is also paying the full salary for one SPS employee who has no ties to Broad (at least that I know of), apparently out of the goodness of their heart. Not.

So I have told the Board that we need more transparency. I will e-mail all of them soon and see what replies I get. Additionally, I sent an e-mail to David Esselman who is an associate director at Broad's education arm who oversees Broad Academy superintendents (Dr. Goodloe-Johnson being one of them).

So, what the point? The point is PUT THEM ON NOTICE. "Hello there, I'm parent X in SPS and I know of your relationship with our district. I am watching and I have let my district's leadership know I am watching. I am letting reporters in our area know about this relationship so they know about your actions every step of the way. I am still waiting to get an explanation of what the relationship is and what the expectations are on both ends. In short, we will not be rolled. You will get pushback and a fight if you think you can come into our district and make your agenda our agenda. If you think we won't find out...we will. It may take awhile but you are on our radar. "

Are they going to worry about me? Of course not because who the hell am I to them. The point, however, is there is a blog and we exist as thinking parents and as people who will speak up (to our Mayor, to our legislators, etc.). I am a firm believer in letting people know that good people of faith will not just stand by.

http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/search/label/Broad%20Foundation

When I was a kid, I got a good start in the terrific public school system in a blue-collar community with socialist-leaning tendencies. I had the opportunity to take advanced calculus, English, and other coursees and any of at least four languages including Latin, plus they had fine vocational classes and a full complement of Phys. Ed., arts, and music. (The community also had terrific parks, transportation, and museums).