A union leader and a corporate school reformer abandon Trump's ship

"It's never met, we've never had a meeting," Trumka said.

The stunning events in Charlottesville have stirred so much public anger towards the Trump regime that they've driven many of his closest collaborators, including corporate CEOs worried about tarnishing their brand, to abandon ship. Trump's open support and praise for murderous white supremacists, anti-semites, KKK and nazis has become a source of concern and embarrassment, even for many Trump allies, staffers, and collaborators who have hung with him up until now, despite a long string of similar racist and chauvinist outbursts.

Two particular breaks, one in the last few days, have especially caught my eye because they involved, not right-wing conservatives, but a union leader and a Democrat corporate school reformer.

The union leader is Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, the largest group of labor unions in the country, who quit Trump’s manufacturing council Tuesday evening, saying he refused to accept any tolerance of “bigotry and domestic terrorism.”

All well and good. But the question remains, what was Trumka doing as the only union leader, on that sham council in the first place? And why did he quit, obviously under pressure from below, only after the departure of the CEOs from Walmart [30 hours earlier -- h/t C.B.], Merck, Under Armour and Intel?

One answer is that Trumka has long been a fan of Trump's failed America First protectionist and racist jobs strategy. Remember, Trumka sided with Trump at Standing Rock in support of the Dakota Access Pipeline, in that way diminishing the moral standing and political credibility of the labor movement. While most unions were taking the line of resistance to Trumpism, all Trumka wanted was a seat at the table, even one that didn't really exist. The council NEVER MET.

Now, only after Trump's promise to "bring back American jobs" has been discredited, and on the eve of Trump's disbanding the council altogether, did Trumka finally criticize it for not taking meaningful steps to help the workers he represents.

“It’s clear that President Trump’s Manufacturing Council was never an effective means for delivering real policy that lifts working families and his remarks today [on Charlottesville] were the last straw.” 

"We would say to DeVos that public school choice is a great thing." -- Shavar Jeffries

The corporate school reformer is Shavar Jeffries, president of  the misnamed, Democrats for Education Reform. DFER, founded by a group of hedge-fund operators, was never really Democratic nor about school reform.

The group was the most influential force pushing so-called "choice" and school privatization policies within the Obama White House  and inside Ed. Sec. Arne Duncan's DOE. They were also a force behind Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy charters in New York, helping her rise to fame as a highly paid, anti-public school, anti-union superstar.

Moskowitz has become one of Trump's biggest cheerleaders and contended with Betsy DeVos for Trump's favor in a run at the Sec. of Education cabinet post. In return for DFER's financial support, Jeffries was given a seat on Success Academy's Board of Directors.

But earlier this summer, Jeffries resigned from the board.

According to POLITICO:

Moskowitz and Jeffries now represent the charter sector’s two ideological poles in the Trump era. While Trump and DeVos’ call for a national school choice system would appear to align them with Democrats who support an expansive charter sector, but the president’s controversial comments about minorities, and his education secretary’s plan to slash $9 billion from the federal education budget, have complicated that support.

 On one side, reform-minded Democrats have warned that Trump's embrace of school choice could eventually destroy education reform. New York magazine columnist Jonathan Chait, who supports charters, has called some charter leaders’ embrace of Trump a potential “the kiss of death” for the movement reformers have been trying to build for decades. Jeffries said much the same shortly after Trump’s election: “the policies and rhetoric of President-elect Trump run contrary to the most fundamental values of what it means to be a progressive committed to educating our kids and strengthening our families and communities.”

So Jefferies' departure had little do do with Moskowitz's anti-union or school "choice" policies which have found a home inside DeVos' DOE. In fact Jeffries is in lock-step with most of these policies. Unlike most Democrats, he even says he's open to school vouchers as well as privately-run charters.

If they’re going pursue some sort of voucher program, we’ll examine it whenever they put it together...

Like Duncan, he's also a backslider on school desegregation, opposing "coercive" school integration and claiming, "There's not a political will to bring about integration..."

Like labor leader Trumka, DFER and other charter/voucher supporters have been hurt and embarrassed by their direct and indirect ties to Trump. It's all about the brand.

Cesar Chavez Charter School in D.C. finally has a union

A SmallTalk Salute goes out to the teachers and staff at Cesar Chavez Public Charter School at Chavez Prep Middle School in D.C. who voted 31-2 Thursday to unionize, the first time a charter in the District has taken such a step. The educators organized through the District of Columbia Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, which is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers.

Staff at the school say they want to unionize to give teachers a voice in decision-making. Jenny Tomlinson, the school librarian, told WAMU in May that staff hoped unionizing would reduce teacher turnover, increase teacher input in the curriculum and attract more experienced teachers.

If you were listening to Hitting Left on Friday, you heard news of this victory from ChiACTS Pres. Chris Baehrend who was our in-studio guest along with CTU's Political and Legislative Dir. Stacy Davis Gates. If you missed it, you can still listen to the podcast where our guests discuss the planned merger of ChiACTS and the CTU Local #1. The Chicago Tribune recently referred to Chicago as the "epicenter" of charter school unionization.

When you think about it, it's kind of amazing that for all these years, there's been schools named after the renowned union leader, Cesar Chavez, that resisted unionization and collective bargaining rights for teachers. Detroit's Cesar Chavez Charter School was unionized back in 2013.

I'm remembering back 10 years ago, debating with anti-union charter school backers and "choice" advocates. I pointed out back then, the hypocrisy of naming a charter school after a great union organizer like Chavez, where teachers were working without a contract, without a real voice in educational decisions, or without union representation.

Stacy Davis Gates (CTU) and Chris Baehrend (ChiACTS).

They called our arguments "preposterous". DFER's snarky response was, "No one's holding a gun to their heads." In other words, if teachers really wanted a union they would have one, or if they didn't like the conditions at school like Chavez, they were free to leave and go elsewhere.

Turns out they really wanted one.

Their arguments ring even more hollow today and discount the years of charter operators' active resistance to teacher unions, including the use of high-paid union-busting consultants and claims that charters were actually "private schools"and that teachers weren't really considered by law to be public employees.

Yes, it's taken a while. But all that's changed now as charter unions are starting to take hold nationally. The American Federation of Teachers says it now represents 234 charter schools in 15 states, including Chavez in D.C.

Lots more are on the way.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES ... No chances for Trump

DFER Pres. Shavar Jeffries

“DFER congratulates Betsy DeVos on her appointment as Secretary of Education, and we applaud Mrs. DeVos’s commitment to growing the number of high-quality public charter schools. -- Press Release

Lee Saunders, chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s political committee

"We underestimated the amount of anger and frustration among working people and especially white workers, both male and female, about their economic status." -- New York Times

Donald Trump

 “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” -- Washington Post

Frayda Levin, chair of Americans for Prosperity

“In creating the Koch network, I don’t think that we ever envisioned that we would be supplying staffers to this semi-free market, semi-populist president." -- Politico

Stephen Bannon's former co-writer, Julia Jones

 Ms. Jones, the film colleague, said that in their years working together, Mr. Bannon occasionally talked about the genetic superiority of some people and once mused about the desirability of limiting the vote to property owners.

“I said, ‘That would exclude a lot of African-Americans,’” Ms. Jones recalled. “He said, ‘Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.’" -- New York Times

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

“I like to compare this to conscientious objector status.We are not going to use our resources to enforce what we believe are unjust immigration laws.” -- New York Times

#NewsOneNow w/ @rolandsmartin NOW #FidelCastro:There were competing legacies.He fought against discrimination&stayed at the #HotelTheresa. pic.twitter.com/HmFMjxsARQ

— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) November 28, 2016

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Rich Miller

A quick note to Bruce Rauner: The next time you try to claim that Gov. Pat Quinn is "personally" under federal investigation (an allegation that, as far as anyone can tell, is not true), it's probably best not to say it while standing next to a different governor who actually is "personally" under federal investigation. -- Crain's

Marian Wright Edelman

Racially discriminatory school discipline policies contribute to the Cradle to Prison Pipeline crisis with a Black boy born in 2001 having a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison in his lifetime and a Latino boy a 1 in 6 chance of the same fate. -- Huffington

Chicago Trubune Columnist Eric Zorn 

I see that Emanuel's supporters are nervous enough about the prospect of a challenge from Lewis that they're already dialing up the histrionics, clutching their pearls and fanning themselves with premature and utterly phony concern over a "conflict of interest." -- Tribune

Doing "their jobs"

Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson

 "I'm truly sorry for the loss of your son. I'm also sorry that it took so long to remove Michael from the street. Investigators were doing "important work" trying to uncover the truth and collect evidence during those four hours...They were simply trying to do their jobs." -- CNN

NYT Columnist Frank Bruni

Around that same time, there were movements on scattered college campuses to attach so-called trigger warnings to texts whose evocations of, say, anti-Semitism or rape might prompt emotional turmoil in students. This echoed moves years earlier by officials at some elementary, middle and secondary schools to prune standardized tests of words that might distress students, either by summoning life’s harshness, reminding them of their deprivation or making them feel excluded. “Poverty,” “slavery,” “divorce,” “hurricanes” and “birthdays” were on a list drawn up by New York City educators, who later abandoned the plan. -- The Wilds of Education

A ray of hope

Donna Brazile

“The very premise of ‘market-driven education reform’ rests on the fallacy that the public school system is in crisis, and that the only solution is to let the market pick winners and losers.” -- Donna Brazile

Wow! What an amazing couple of weeks.

It started with the NEA, the nation's largest union, condemning current testing lunacy and calling for Arne Duncan to resign. The AFT delegates (when allowed to speak) essentially followed suit, except for leaders Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew's desperate efforts to hang onto a failed Common Core and to pull Duncan's chestnuts out of the fire (with delegates' wimpy call for his remediation rather than firing). UFT President Mulgrew even threatened to punch in the face anyone who tried to "take away my Common Core.”

Alex Caputo-Pearl

But the very fact that a real debate broke out at an AFT convention and that rank-and-file voices were heard (especially from Chicago) offers a ray of hope that union democracy will somehow triumph. I was especially impressed with the speech by new L.A. teachers union head Alex Caputo-Pearl, who aligned himself and his union with CTU President Karen Lewis in calling for “social movement unionism,” which he said is “explicit about fighting for racial and social justice." L.A. could well become the scene of the next great teachers' strike.

All this culminated in the formation of  new opposition group within the Democratic Party, led by Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Donna Brazile, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland called Democrats for Public Education. This new formation is aimed at countering the influence of corporate reform, anti-union and pro-privatization groups like DFER, within the Democratic Party. It's about time. The announcement prompted DFER leader Joe Williams' ugly response to Donna Brazile: "Welcome to the jungle, baby.”  

Who's laughing now? Not Rahm. 

MORE GOOD NEWS... And of course, then there's this.

Karen Lewis’ potential bid for Chicago Mayor has moved beyond just a thought — it’s  an “organic,” growing movement, the fiery Chicago Teachers Union president said. Lewis revealed on Monday she already has an unofficial exploratory committee in the works, a chairperson has been named and her camp is working to have a representative in each of the city’s 77 neighborhoods. 

SAVING GRESHAM

Tuesday's protest to save Gresham        (Sun-Times)

DIEDRUS BROWN...the principal of embattled Gresham Elementary on Chicago's south side, continued her very vocal fight Tuesday to save her school from undergoing a so-called “turnaround” — but this time with about 40 teachers, parents and students marching with her.

SUSPENSIONS...Dozens of students marched from Chicago Public Schools headquarters to the Thompson Center Wednesday in support of state legislation that would set new limits on suspensions and expulsions. The march, organized by Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, protested alleged bias in school disciplinary practices and backed state Senate Bill 3004 setting stricter standards for offenses that can result in suspension or expulsion.

"We're not asking for no discipline," said Mariama Bangura, a junior at Roosevelt High School and a youth leader for VOYCE and the Albany Park Neighborhood Council. "We're asking for common-sense discipline." -- DNAinfo

KAREN LEWIS is on the case. The CTU prez has an op-ed in yesterday's S-T, making no bones about where the union stands on school closings and on Rahm's wild expansion of this city's privately-run charter schools.

CTU believes instead that there should be a moratorium on charter school expansion because the 20-year experiment has proven to be too costly, too disruptive, and it did not deliver on its promises. 

Lewis' piece comes in response to an April 11th op-ed by DFER's Rebeca Nieves-Huffman, which cynically called on the CTU to join them in closing even more "under-performing" Chicago schools.

DON'T FORGET to Bop For Democracy Monday, April 21 from 6-9 p.m. at the Velvet Lounge.

Early (but not too early) and Often

Jay Travis and friends.

When progressive 26th Dist. Rep. candidate Jay Travis went to her polling place to vote at 6 a.m. this morning, she and dozens of others, including lots of seniors, were turned away due to alleged "voting machine" problems and told to "come back later". Travis has mounted a fiercely competitive challenge against machine-backed Christian Mitchell.

Mitchell was supposed to win this one easy with a war chest full of money from corporate "reform" groups like Stand For Children and DFER. But Travis, a long-time community organizer, has organized a strong field operation and is showing much stronger than expected.

Arne & Eli

BROAD MONEY...The machine boys are now running scared, which might account for the polling place irregularities. It also might account for a last-minute $10,000 contribution to Mitchell's war chest from none other than California b-b-billionaire Eli Broad. Why would Broad be so interested in a local Chicago election? The former real estate tycoon and Wall Street (AIG) kingpin is in the market for pols willing to support his public school takeover and privatization strategy. And Mitchell is an eager taker.

This isn't the first sighting of Broad money working to influence Chicago school policy. Broad bankrolled the invasion of the Supes Academy here last year and CPS CEO Byrd-Bennett along with her predecessor J.C. Brizard are alums of Broad's Superintendents Academy. Broad is the subject of a  state investigation in California for his secret million-dollar donation to the right-wing, anti-public school, anti-union group, Americans for Job Security.

But as I pointed out back in 2010, Broad money comes "not just with strings, but ropes."

Yesterday's influx of cash to a nervous Mitchell campaign also came from the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co.PAC, Illinois Energy Association, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce PAC, and Ald. Joe Moreno, who just wants to be on the side that's winning it seems.

Here's hoping they just pissed away good money after Broad bad.

AMES VICTORY PARTY...This from Bridget Murphy of the Logan Square Neighbors Assoc. (LSNA)

After the polls close Ames referendum volunteers will gather at Weegees Lounge, 3659 W Armitage Ave, for a victory party. Come join in 7:30pm and after, as precinct captains bring in their tape showing a landslide victory for the SAVE AMES from becoming a military school referendum campaign! We are grateful for local businesses Weegees, Revolution Brewing, and Pixel Graphics for donating to Save Ames.  Contact: Maria Trejo 312-927-2207 or Leticia Barrera 773-727-9941

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Susan Ohanian.org

John Merrow

The erasures stayed buried for years. The official who had spotted the problem and urged Rhee to investigate has kept her mouth shut. Five months after she had informed Rhee of the widespread erasures, Deborah Gist resigned to become State Superintendent in Rhode Island. -- Michelle Rhee's Reign of Error

Jay Mathews

In the 42 years I have worked for this newspaper, I have adopted many of this town’s mental habits. One is a deep respect for inspectors general, those stewards of truth whose work we often herald in The Post. That is why I am disappointed by the failure of not one, but two, inspectors general to expose test tampering in the D.C. schools. -- Washington Post

Valerie Leonard, Lawndale Alliance

“I am concerned that when you close these [school] buildings, the effect it’s going to have is that people won’t want to stay in an area without a school they can walk to. Just like when International Harvester closed — people left in droves." -- "Are School Closings Racist?" Truthout 

Tom Torlakson, Calif. Supt. of Public Instruction

"People can call themselves Democrats for Education Reform — it's a free country — but if your agenda is to shut teachers and school employees out of the political process and not lift a finger to prevent cuts in education, in my book you're not a reformer, you're not helping education, and you're sure not much of a Democrat." -- L.A. Times 

Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel

I’ve been on a hunger strike since Feb. 10 and have lost well over 30 pounds. I will not eat until they restore my dignity. -- New York Times

'Rowdy' Rauner and the 'Rahminator' are steamin' mad

The nerve! Doesn't the CTU know that you never mock the rich and  powerful? Billionaire fat cats like Bruce "Rowdy" Rauner, Robin "Robbing" Stains and Penny "Pincher" Pritzker, just don't like it. And even  "Rahminator" Rahm, who is already the target of so much public abuse by his own patrons, is so mad, he's spitting milk all over his whiskers.

Yes, the union's gone and done it. They've posted a 5-minute video of a scary bedtime story, “Stand Up to the Fat Cats,” accusing the mayor and cronies like Rauner and Pritzker of privatizing public education. Shocking!

The Sun-Times reports:

The union video mocks Mayor Rahm Emanuel as “The Rahminator,” plus venture capitalist and charter school advocate Bruce Rauner, school board member Penny Pritzker, director of Advance Illinois Robin Steans, and the school reform organizations Stand for Children, Democrats for Education Reform and the Broad Foundation.

Rauner says he doesn't like being "lectured by a leader of a failed union."  Union leaders "are a joke, just not a funny one," says "Rowdy". Sounds like he's still fuming over the victorious CTU strike which put a serious crimp in his corporate-style school reform.

Rahm's liar-in-chief Becky Carroll leaps to defend her boss as only she can:

“These kind of mean-spirited tactics have no place in our school system as they do absolutely nothing to help kids or support their learning,” 

Carroll on the other hand, thinks that closing hundreds of neighborhood schools and turning them over to private charter operators, destabilizing the lives of thousands of black and Latino children, taking away teachers collective-bargaining rights -- all that is right in tune with the holiday spirit.

The much smarter spokeswomen for Steans and Stand for Children declined to comment.

Rahm and Mitt try damage control

I turned on the TV this morning to see the new ad with Rahm doing damage control. He's claiming he won the contract battle that led to the 7-day teachers strike by getting his longer school day in place along with evaluating teachers based on student standardized test scores. The ads are being paid for by DFER hedge-funders and school voucher advocates, Whitney Tilson and Ravenel Boykin Curry IV.

Rahm's attempt to clean up his mess parallels and sounds remarkably similar to Mitt Romney's pathetic attempt at damage control over his "off the cuff" remarks to funders claiming that half of us are parasites who pay no taxes. The problem for both Rahm and Mitt is that the more they talk the worse it gets.

Newstips Curtis Black has a great column, "Strike Notes", in which he quotes veteran Chicago political analyst Don Rose:

“The bottom line,” he argues at the Chicago Daily Observer, “is that Emanuel is out of the running as a presidential or vice-presidential candidate in 2016.” Maybe you can run without labor support, but running against active labor opposition is something else.

Black writes:

Mayor Emanuel has his own public relations conundrum at this point, and it’s not just a matter of rhetoric: he (and the business leaders and newspapers) are claiming that in order to pay for the new contract, they’re going to have to close down schools. In the meantime they’re planning to open up 60 new charter schools. In fact, this year’s budget has an additional $76 million for charters, which cost the district well over $500 million a year.

“We’re kind of confused about that,” said Wendy Katten of the Raise Your Hand Coalition. “If they’re claiming they have 130,000 unfilled seats in the district, why are they opening 60 new schools? That’s crazy. That’s just absurd.”

How to make the case? Always ready to help, the Tribune offers this line of argument:: charter schools are the best tool for busting the teachers union. Bruce Rauner, private equity mogul and major charter sponsor, chimes in that the goal is “separating teachers from the union.”

Black nails it.

Day 4

so join the picket line like mr pickett in his prime,
put on ya red shirt like the bulls in 95.
hit the streets with a sign that says im fightin for mine
IT’S A FORK IN THE ROAD AND U GOTTA CHOOSE A SIDE
-- Rebel Diaz

The Tribune reports that an agreement is near and that Vitale has moved some on the teacher evaluation issue.

“We feel like we’re in a pretty good place, we’ve made a lot of progress today,” said Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. “We spent a lot of time on evaluation. We still have a lot of work to do but it seems like we’re definitely coming much closer together than we were certainly this morning.” Lewis said CPS parents should plan for no school Thursday but said, “Let’s hope for Friday.”

Public opinion is still running strongly on the side of the teachers and there's mounting pressure on Rahm from within the Obama campaign to end it in order to avoid the brewing "civil war" within the Democratic Party. But the key to victory isn't about public opinion surveys or Democratic Party scuffles. It remains the ability of the union to hang tough, stay unified and keep that sea of red shirted-teachers out on the streets. So far that's exactly what they've done and victory could be near.

Another massive rally is planned for Saturday at noon in Union Park at Lake & Ashland. Hopefully, this will turn into a victory rally.

Rahm's disgusting ad campaign

A desperate Rahm was running disgusting anti-union ads last night on T.V. paid for with DFER money. DFER, a pro-voucher, pro-charter group, bankrolled by New York hedge-funder Whitney Tilson, was also the group that ran those racist "hey girl" ads on black radio station a few weeks ago. The ads claimed to show two African-American moms talking about how bad the union was not caving in to Rahm's demands.

On Monday night in the Chicago Tonight green room, Jay Rehak from the union, asked DFER spokeswomen Angela Randolph about the ads. She admitted that DFER was behind them and that even she didn't like them. Rudolf, a former program officer at the Joyce Foundation, now on the DFER payroll, was sent in to debate me about SB7. Once on the show with me and host Phil Ponce, she immediately tried to distance herself and DFER from the anti-union legislation, claiming that DFER wasn't yet officially on the scene in Illinois when the bill was passed. But she then went on to offer her scripted defense of SB7.

I told her she was being much too modest. DFER, which tosses lots of money around to influence local political campaigns and has Arne Duncan's ear, has been leading the fight for corporate "reform", school vouchers and privatization within the Democratic Party. Along with Stand For Children and Michelle Rhee's group Children First (DFER should change it's name to We Love Kids) they are among the most aggressive union busters this side of Gov. Walker.

The Sun-Times reports:

At Wells High School on Wednesday morning, about 50 students and parents rallying in support of teachers complained about the standardized tests and their role in rating teachers. Protesters carried signs reading “Don’t test me Bro!” and “Testing does not equal learning,” and chanted “1,2,3,4, more than just a test score.” They argued that their teachers should not be evaluated by student test scores. 

From CNN:

Gage Park High School teacher and union activist Xian Barrett gives CNN this report from the picket lines.

I spent the day with my Gage Park High School community. Our entire CTU staff came out to the picket line, wearing red. At 7:45 a.m., when students were supposed to report to school and be assigned to one of the Chicago Board of Education’s student strike holding sites, they began to join the picket line instead. Dozens of students marched and reached out to the community. I didn’t see any students enter the building or leave for the holding sites. Other students messaged or texted from home, saying that they were following the news. Some wrote their own pieces reflecting on the strike in their own voice that I’ll post on my blog as the week progresses.

Trib writers shine another light on Rahm's anti-union attack ads

AKPD's John Kupper

Thanks to  reporters Jeff Coen and Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah for their excellent piece in Today's Trib, "Emanuel allies press attack in teachers union battle." It confirms everything I wrote Monday about David Axelrod's old firm AKPD being the architect of the lying anti-union ad campaign now being played on local radio in Chicago.

According to the Trib report, the big money behind the attacks on Chicago teachers and their union is the group Democrats For Education Reform (DFER), run by NewYork hedge-funders Whitney Tilson and Ravenel Boykin Curry IV. The group continues to be a big player in the Obama election campaign and is the main force for school privatization, vouchers and privately-run charter schools, within the Democratic Party. They are also major supporters of Rahm's longer-school-day-with-no-pay-for-teachers initiative

More importantly, the Trib report shows that despite denials and evasions, the mayor has knowingly and unabashedly supported the anti-union campaign which is being run by his own political operatives like AKPD's John Kupper. Kupper admits his firm is on retainer with Emanuel's political organization, and state records show The Chicago Committee, one of Emanuel's campaign fundraising organizations, paid Axelrod's old firm more than $21,000 in the first quarter of 2012 for "professional services/consulting."

As for DFER:  

Officials at Democrats for Education Reform said the group's Illinois state director, Rebeca Nieves Huffman, also has not talked to Emanuel about the ads and "doesn't coordinate with him." In May the mayor was photographed with Huffman at a school reform summit in California, but Huffman spokeswoman Megan Jacobs characterized that as a chance encounter.

The two Trib reporters also shine a light on Emanuel political operative Greg Goldner (behind Rahm's use of paid protesters) and billionaire backers Penny Pritzker and Bruce Rauner.

Emanuel's emphasis on schools fits with the long-held agenda of a number of his wealthiest political supporters. They include Penny Pritzker, now a member of the Board of Education, and venture capitalist Bruce Rauner, whose wife, Diana, an early education expert, served on Emanuel's transition team.

Rauner was instrumental in bringing the reform group Stand for Children to Illinois. That organization helped pass the law setting a higher bar for a teachers' strike and also has criticized the teachers union for taking the strike authorization vote.

Good going Jeff and Noreen.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Where's Cathie Black? Village Academy wants to know.

A fig leaf

"This compromise is not a compromise at all, but a very transparent and flimsy fig leaf that will allow Ms. Black to be in charge despite a complete lack of qualifications for the job." (Mona Davids, President of the New York Charter Parents Association)

FBI raids hedge-fund operators

It's another shadow cast over an industry that despite frequent scandals, bailouts and complicity in the collapse of the credit markets, still has enough credibility on Capitol Hill to avoid a real crackdown. Campaign contributions buy respect where it counts. (Sun-Times business columnist David Roeder)

How DFER got started

Hedge-fund Republicrats like Whitney Tilson hooked up with billionaire right-wing yahoos like Wal-Mart's John Walton. Then they used big bucks to lobby, influence, and win over Democrats and Arne Duncan.

The main obstacle to education reform was moving the Democratic party, and it had to be Democrats who did it, it had to be an inside job. (DFER Watch)

Frank Rich

Now corporations of all kinds can buy more of Washington than before, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and to the rise of outside “nonprofit groups” that can legally front for those who prefer to donate anonymously. (Still The Best Congress Money Can Buy--NYT)

Bob Herbert 

A stark example of the potential for real conflict is being played out in New York City, where the multibillionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has selected a glittering example of the American aristocracy to be the city’s schools chancellor. Cathleen Black, chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, has a reputation as a crackerjack corporate executive but absolutely no background in education. (Winning the Class War--NYT)

Ariana Huffington

"When we have two-thirds of Americans right now who expect their children to be worse off than they are, when we have America ranked number ten in upward mobility - behind France and Scandinavia countries and Spain - when we have 25 percent of young people out of work and 27 million people unemployed or underemployed, we know there is something fundamentally wrong.  (Public Anger Is Beyond Left or Right--CBS)

The arrogance of power

Klein--"I'm above the law. I know Ravenel Boykin Curry IV"

Mayor Bloomberg's hand-picked schools Chancellor Joel Klein, is bigger than the law. He laughs at law. Giggles at union contracts. Guffaws at the very idea of community input. On Wednesday, Klein announced he would use his little-known "emergency powers," to do an end run around state law and take space away from a program for autistic children in order to expand his patron's favorite Girls Preparatory Charter School. 


State law forbids such a move without consultation with parents. According to the N.Y. Times:

Parents of students affected by the move brought the case to the state commissioner, complaining that the city had given them no information about where the autistic children would go. In his ruling on Monday, Mr. Steiner agreed, saying that the city had to hold new public hearings before moving students, a process that would effectively put off any change for at least a year. 

When State Commissioner Steiner ruled that Klein's charter expansion was illegal, Klein responded by invoking the little know emergency clause which permits the DOE to act unilaterally when it is, “immediately necessary for the preservation of student health, safety or general welfare.”   

Silver's response:

“The school governance law is crystal clear that the Department of Education must consult with parents in a meaningful way when they are considering co-locating a school in an existing school building.  This is really a breathtaking end run around both the law’s requirements and the right of parents to have a voice in a decision that will impact the lives of their children. Unfortunately it’s the kind of arrogance that too many parents have come to expect from Chancellor Klein when it comes to having a voice in their children’s education. This is blatant abuse of the Chancellor’s emergency powers.” (The Lo-Down)

It's worth mentioning that Girls Prep is the darling of billionaire hedge-fund operator and DFER patron, Ravenel Boykin Curry IV of Eagle Capital Management. The school's curriculum appears to be little more than test-prep with hefty contracts going to Open Court Reading Program, and Saxon Math.


Check out this piece of satire, "Klein Declares Martial Law" on NYC Public School Parents blog.

Is Race-To-The-Top headed for the dumper?

Duncan's RTTT--read school closing, teacher firing, test-and-punish, "merit-pay"-- plan is running into tough opposition from key members of congress, especially from Democrats. Some don't like the few reform choices and formula-driven grants available to school districts, currently limited to closing low-performing schools; "turnaround" by replacing the principal and most of the staff; or turning schools over to private management companies.  

Others, especially southern blue dogs like Mary Landrieu (D-La) oppose the needed sign-on from the teacher unions. It seems the only ones who really like RTTT are Republicans and Republicrats like DFER (and, of course, the few grant winners.) Go figure.

Some lawmakers the administration is trying to court in its push to reauthorize the ESEA have questioned whether the four school improvement models put forth in Education Department regulations are sufficiently grounded in research and offer a realistic array of options for perennially struggling schools—particularly in rural areas. (Alyson Klein, Edweek)

NEW YEAR QUOTABLES

Tilson on Meier--'She should visit a charter school'

In his latest diatribe, hedge-fund billionaire and educational no-nothing, Whitney Tilson goes off on Deborah Meier, Diane Ravitch, and, Jonathan Kozol, calling their writings, "idiotic" and "moronic." Lines like the one below would be mildly amusing were it not for Tilson's influence in the Bloomberg administration and in Arne Duncan's DOE:

In short, Meier is so ignorant about charters that it boggles my mind. Has she ever visited a high-performing charter school?! I can only assume not.

What Tom VanderArk liked most about the Bush years

1. NCLB--"...marked a consensus that 1) measurement matters, 2) all students deserve good life options, 3) we should rely on average achievement to measure a schools success..." 2. Private control of public schools--"There was a massive increase in education entrepreneurship—school developers, human capital initiatives, and learning platforms—funded by massive new money foundations...Democrats for Education Reform and Education Equality Project joined the fray" 3. The Recession--"brought a new wave of talent into the sector that will make a difference for a generation."

Me: He left out the tsunami, which taught people how to run for higher ground.


What Chicago machine politician, Dan Burke, likes most about the Daley machine

"Yeah, there is a machine. A machine is created to do a job more efficiently."

His opponent, community activist, Rudy Lozano, Jr.

"It's like therapy," he said. "It's the closest true way for me to understand what my father was doing 26 years ago. I missed most of that. This experience has given me the opportunity to walk in those footsteps."

Putting down the insurrection

Rotherham and the boys at Eduwonk worry about the growing resistance movement:

In both counterinsurgency and education reform don’t assume that because the statues in the capital come down the resistance is over.

Me: I think Andrew is badly needed in Kabul.

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.

Turning charters into gold

"We’re not speculators. We’re investors.” So says the CEO of a real estate trust that recently sunk some $170 million into 22 charter schools. Which got me wondering: why charter schools? How do they end up looking like sound investments?--Daniel Wolfe, "Speculating on Education"

Some of you may recall...

A couple of years ago, a post of mine, shining the light on hedge-fund "school reformers" like Whitney Tilson who bankrolls the DFER organization, created a little tiff. Short-seller Tilson cynically made fun of my notion that there were profits to be made in the world of charter schools.

“Trying to make a killing in the charter school business”?! Yeah, that’s right, the charter school business is so profitable that I’m telling all my friends in the hedge fund business that they’re in the wrong business. My message: “If you really want to make a lot of money, start a charter school!” LOL!

LOL indeed. Fast forward to--well, how about right now?

Here's Entertainment Properties pitch to potential investors:

We are in this business because we know that charter schools are a successful educational model that achieves what educators and the public expect of schools. Entertainment Properties Trust provides stable financing so educators and school administrators can focus on curriculum and instruction, enrollment targets and the challenges of delivering an education to meet the needs of students and the desires of parents. As a result, our charter school partners obtain a competitive advantage, especially during the early growth phase.

Any questions?

Quotables

The feng shui people...

DFER's Joe Williams brings his penetrating wisdom and deep knowledge of Eastern philosophy, combined with his sensibilities about product labeling, to the issue of NCLB re-authorization.

"It's like the new Coke. This is a rebranding effort," said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform. "The feng shui people believe you need to take the roof off buildings to allow bad chi to escape. Let's hope this helps."

What does he mean by "many"?

Education Secretary Arne Duncan made a point of talking about unions in a speech Monday in Washington to a national charter school conference."Charters are not inherently anti-union," Duncan said. "Many charters today are unionized." That is true, but unions are rare in the nation's 4,600 charter schools, which make up about 3 percent of the nation's 132,000 public schools. (AP Wire)

Randi Weingarten...

"The promise of charter schools is that they are small incubators of experimentation, both in terms of instruction and labor relations," she said. "They shouldn't be separate systems." (AP Wire)

Steve Barr...

"I think it's the only way we're going to improve public education," Barr said. "I don't think you're going to change a public education system that's 100 percent unionized with nonunion labor."(AP Wire)

Huh!...

"There clearly are conflicts between some of the things teachers' unions do and some of the things we know make charter schools effective," said Andrew Rotherham, co-founder and publisher of the Washington-based Education Sector think tank. (AP Wire)

Finn wants Duncan to "defund slacker schools"

Obama's ed team, led by Arne Duncan, is being pushed and pulled by the different factions inside the Democratic Party and out.

So far, he seems to be mainly under the sway of the conservative Democrats like the DFER hedge-fund school reformers as well as the Klein, Sharpton, Gingrich EEP group. Left mainly out of the mix so far, are the right-wing thin-tankers who ruled the roost at the Bush DOE. Chester Finn of the Fordham Institute is chief among those badly disappointed that Duncan hasn't gone far enough when it comes to busting teacher unions, closing inner-city schools or starving them into submission.

His latest diatribe,"Declaring Educational Bankruptcy" is in the latest National Review (surprise!), Finn wants Congress to remove all federal funding from "slacker schools"--read, those with lots of kids who score below the mean on their standardized tests.

But for Finn, even closing the low-scoring schools isn't nearly enough.

If a school is actually closed, even temporarily, they must be accommodated in another one, which brings to bear all manner of rules, court orders, transportation challenges, crowding issues, etc.

Maybe Finn is thinking we could de-fund the slacker courts and get rid all manner of rules while we're at it.