Big money funding Parent Trigger laws. Parent Revolution started by charter school operators.

[madfloridian]

Today CBS is having their Teachers Rock "celebration" which is giving proceeds to Teach for America and not public schools. Lots of big stars are taking part, and they continue to do so even after having been contacted and petitioned over and over by public school advocates.

Many of us fear that parents watching this "celebration" on CBS this week will not know the background, and it will cause more tension between parents and teachers and schools that are struggling to get by as funds are cut.

"Parent Revolution"? Not really. Not grassroots. Started by charter school companies.

..Parent Revolution? Not really. The organization was founded by a group of charter school operators led by Green Dot Public Schools, which already operates several schools in Los Angeles. Green Dot’s founder, Steve Barr, also served as chairman of Parent Revolution’s board of directors.

..."I next met up with the well-financed organization in Sacramento, where it shuttled a busload of wishful parents, wearing Parent Revolution T-shirts, to testify before the State Board of Education.

With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wasserman Foundation, the Eli and Edyth Broad Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, Parent Revolution has more than enough dinero to keep up the rhetoric and the supporting antics. But that obscures real educational issues and keeps their followers from asking about the group’s real agenda, which unfortunately is all about charter schools, and not about Julio and Jamal or their sisters and brothers ever becoming educated.

Here is the mission of Parent Revolution

Our team works directly with parents at underperforming schools in Los Angeles and throughout California to help parents organize to transform their children’s under-performing schools using California’s historic Parent Trigger law. We use sophisticated and cutting edge community organizing techniques to help parents organize, create Parents Union chapters, build power, analyze their school’s performance, and fight for kids-first reforms that will dramatically improve academic outcomes for their children.

Florida parents and teachers stopped the trigger laws here, but they are taking root all over the country.

Here are the funders of this group which helped start the parent trigger laws.

From the Parent Revolution website:

Broad Foundation, Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Emerson Collective Education Fund, Wasserman Foundation, Biller Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Gates Foundation, East Bay Community Foundation, Rogers Family Foundation, The California Education Policy Fund A Sponsored Project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors

The Broad Foundation made the purpose of their donation very clear. It was to get more charter schools into the picture more quickly.

Eli Broad pays Parent Revolution to champion charters not to empower parents!

However, the most important discovery made during this investigation was a sizable $50,000 contribution from the Eli and Edyth Broad Foundation to Parent Revolution on their 2009 990 Form. Corporate charter charlatan Ben Austin constantly states that his organization supports "parent empowerment" and is leading a "dynamic social movement" "committed to a kids-first agenda where parents have a real voice in their kids’ futures." Sounds very noble no? Well, in a rare lapse of candor, the Broad donation defines both the purpose of their contributions and Parent Revolution's raison d'être:

"To support efforts to help Charter Management Organizations apply for new LAUSD schools under LAUSD's School Choice Resolution"

This puts to lie all of Austin's bluster about a "kids-first agenda" and reminds us that school privatization and growing charter school market share is Parent Revolution's only agenda.

[Jakes Progress]

1. Thank you for your posts.

I read posts like this here and even some on DU3 about this crap, and I can't help hearing the refrain from the song in the musical 1776: "Is anybody there? Does anybody care?"

Thank you for your informative and persuasive posts. I'm afraid I've just given in to cynicism. I despair of this country actually giving enough of a damn about its children to actually bother to learn this stuff. My disgust for the wall street crooks and their political enablers is moving over to the uncaring Democratic voters who are willing to sacrifice children for a "win" in November.

[madfloridian]

2. Actually you are right. Reagan type propaganda worked so well....

that people actually don't give a damn about public schools. I doubt they ever will.