Monday, November 16, 2009
Hedge fund school-reformer nearly fesses up
"There's a very fine line between what all of us do, and fraud..."
Whitney Tilson is the sugar-daddy and co-founder of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER)-- Democrats in name only. Tilson and the hedge-fund reformers have lots of pull inside the DOE at present. Their goal is to move Duncan more towards school vouchers and privately-managed charters. Basically a current version of the Ownership Society in ed policy.
In this video, Tilson responds to the acquittal of former Bear Stearns hedge-fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin and breathes a sigh of relief at the failure of the U.S. govt.'s first case against Wall Street bankers for wrongdoing in the run-up to the current global financial collapse.
The thought that Tilson and his group are a bigger influence on education policy than progressives like Linda Darling-Hammond and Debbie Meier, is preposterous.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that Tilson is a TFA alum.
ReplyDeleteTFA is the fifth column for bringing in an untrained and constantly churning workforce. Some of these paternalist missionaries, a la Michelle Rhee, are then flagged, groomed and trained to be the administrators who will actually implement the privatization of the schools, hiring still more TFAers for secondary administrative positions.
Tilson is also one of the top guys at KIPP and a leader in their union-busting efforts in New York.
ReplyDeleteNot just a "TFA alum." That makes he sound like a teacher. He's a founding member. But all that amounts to little compared with his investment practices. He was one of the main short-sellers who's practices helped push the market collapse and who got rich off the misery of others. He now admits that he intentionally misled his clients.
ReplyDeleteAs corrupt as he is, it's amazing that Tilson isn't from Chicago.
ReplyDeleteLots of tidbits about Tilson are here
ReplyDeletehttp://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-oh-my-hes-cunning-fox.html
It is outrageous that someone like Tilson has been able to wrap his tentacles so tightly around the control of the future of public education in the way that he has.
Oopsie. I meant to give the superior link about Whitney Tilson which is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/2009/04/disadvantages-of-elite-education.html
He was never in TFA. What is a "founding member"? He just knew Wendy Kopp and supported her early on.
ReplyDeleteHe does not run DFER.
DFER supports BETTER schools by the hiring of BETTER teachers who are held ACCOUNTABLE. To say DFER is in the business of school privatization is an ignorant joke.