Eli Broad's L.A. school board puppet Rodriguez resigns. Pleas guilty to felony charge. Avoids prison.

Ref Rodriguez has finally resigned from the L.A. school board, but only after pleading guilty to a felony count of conspiracy and several misdemeanor charges involving election fraud. In doing so, he admitted that he was part of a scheme to conceal that he was the true source of early donations to his campaign.

He had already stepped down from his position as board president, but had refused to give up his seat on the board for the past year.

Rodriguez was seen by many school and community school activists as a puppet of billionaire school power player Eli Broad, whose goal has been nothing less than turning LAUSD into a total charter school district, like post-Katrina New Orleans. Broad along with a PAC of billionaire charter patrons spent millions and virtually bought the school board election. They bankrolled Rodriguez' election campaign as well as the rest of the pro-charter majority that took over the board 3 years ago after the nation’s most expensive school board elections ever.

Contributors to PACs that took part in the campaigns on behalf of charter operators included Netflix founder Reed Hastings, $1.5million (to the charter group only); former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, $550,000; Walmart heir Jim Walton, $375,000; and philanthropist Eli Broad, $205,000.

Even after Rodriguez had been indicted on three felony counts and 25 misdemeanors, charter advocates like Peter Cunningham still tried to cover for him, calling his long list of crimes, "a rookie mistake".  In a sense, they succeeded.

Under the deal with prosecutors, Rodriguez will get a slap on the wrist and avoid jail time. This work, he said, will continue: “I will just pursue that work from a different position.”

Unfortunately, with Broad's money propping him up, he's probably right.

The wheels of justice turn slowly.

In L.A. another blow to public education

In the most expensive school board election in history, billionaire Eli Broad just bought himself a school system.

Insuring, for the first time, a pro-charter board majority, Nick Melvoin, the candidate of the charter industry, beat Steve Zimmer, 57-43% and Charter teacher Kelly Fitzpatrick-Gonez beat Imelda Padilla, 51-48%.

 At least $14 million was spent, most of it by the Broad-led charter forces to defeat Zimmer. In the two districts, only 75,000 people voted. 

In the 2013 elections, candidates supporting keeping public schools public, were able to overcome the big-money assault on board elections. But this time the flood of campaign spending was overwhelming.

With millions in his war chest, Melvoin was able to run an effective, but dirty campaign against Zimmer, who was backed by the teachers union. He falsely accused Zimmer of responsibility for the iPad debacle, which was in fact the pet project of corrupt former LAUSD superintendent John Deasy, a supporter of Melvoin. Deasy currently works for billionaire Eli Broad, who has proposed to put half the students in Los Angeles in privately-run charter schools.

As we work to pass elected school board legislation here in Chicago and put an end to the mayor's one-man control of the schools, the L.A. election should serve as a warning. There needs to be caps on board election spending. Otherwise it's too easy for corporate "reformers" and privatizers to buy CPS. 

Why did Antwan Wilson leave Oakland for D.C.?

Oakland former Supt. Antwan Wilson seems nonplussed by parent/community protest. 

A friend in D.C. asked me why I thought Oakland Supt. Antwan Wilson would leave his $400K/year job to take the job in his town. Here's what I told him:

I'll tell you why he's leaving. Oakland (like the A's) is the farm team to the major leagues. They sent us Tony Smith to IL to do Gov. Rauner's bidding. DC is a plum job for pay and visibility (Wilson did ok in Oakland, pulling down a tidy $400K/yr. Look for him to make about the same in D.C.). Heartbeat away from the DOE and Ed Sec job (if Dems make a comeback). Oakland’s schools have been led by 8 people in the past 16 years — some named by the school board and others appointed amid state takeover. It's the Broad Academy MO. Make a quick hit, chop heads, and get out before the shit hits the fan. Collect golden parachutes along the way. D.C. will be Wilson's third. 

Good luck.

If you want to understand how this game of musical chairs is played, consider this. Wilson is being hired because of his alleged "success in raising achievement [test] scores" in Oakland. But remember, Wilson only lasted two years and left in mid-year. So they must be crediting him with raising scores on tests that were given before he got there.

Here's the real deal on Wilson according to Post News:

Wilson’s tenure in Oakland has been marked by conflict with parents, community groups and students over school privatization, the superintendent’s support for the expansion of charter schools and his close alliance with pro charter school organizations.

They left out Wilson's attempt to dismantle special education, which caused the loudest parent protests. Look for him to do the same in D.C.

Ed activists enter the lion's den, win some important concessions

In an unexpected move, Democrats have revised the K-12 education section of their party’s 2016 platform in important ways, backing the right of parents to opt their children out of high-stakes standardized tests, qualifying support for charter schools, and opposing using test scores for high-stakes purposes to evaluate teachers and students. -- Washington Post

Party platforms mean little and are usually forgotten the day after the election. This year's platform fight within the Democratic Party is more significant than usual because it reflects the struggles of real movements on the ground -- the Fight For 15 Movement, for example -- and because of the realignment of forces within both major political parties.

Dem platform now supports Opt-Out

Throughout the primary campaign, Sanders continually tried to drag Clinton leftward on policy. Leading up to the national convention, Sanders insisted that the party adopt “the most progressive platform ever passed.” That may be a low bar, but it did.

For the first time, after intense internal debate between the Clinton and Sanders factions, the DNC's platform committee backed the unqualified inclusion of the $15 minimum wage as the official policy of the party. They also dropped their statement of support for TPP.

With education activists like Chicago's Troy LaRaviere leading the way, the Sanders forces wrung concessions from Clinton loyalists and came away with an education plank that broke from the current administration's outright support for privately-run charters and high-stakes testing. The party is now on record in its support for the opt-out movement of parents and students.

Also among the unity amendments was a Sanders-Clinton compromise on education that included free public higher education for families with income of up to $125,000 a year.

If you don't think that matters, check out the whiny responses from Arne Duncan's former deputy, Peter Cunningham, and from the hedge-fund school "reformers" from DFER.

Here's my brother Fred's response.

Democrats are now against “high-stakes standardized tests that falsely and unfairly label students of color, students with disabilities, and English Language learners as failing.” Peter hates that.

Cunningham even has reservations about the rather tame criticism of charter schools: He calls it “extreme” that the Democratic Party supports “high-quality public charter schools,” as long as they don’t, “replace or destabilize traditional public schools.”

DFER's Shavar Jeffries claims that the original draft on education was “progressive and balanced.” but that the new language “threatens to roll back” President Obama’s education legacy. I hope so, considering that what Jeffries calls "Obama's education legacy" is actually George Bush's.

The platform shift marks a setback for these corporate reformers and their patrons--Gates, Walton, Broad, etc... I have suggested that Eli Broad should even demand his $12M back from Cunningham and Edu_post. They obviously have no juice.

Here's an example of the disrespect these guys have for the millions of Sanders supporters.

Looks like Sanders delegates plan to make a stink at the convention.https://t.co/epb52WyEmm

— Peter Cunningham (@PCunningham57) July 12, 2016

I'm still waiting to see what Cunningham's former boss, Duncan, has to say on this.

There's  much in the platform that progressives will dislike. Some things I personally find offensive. As the Nation notes:

After the amendment to secure the rights of Palestinians was voted down, the room unanimously supported a move to eradicate wildlife trafficking that would have helped save creatures like Cecil the lion.

But at least on education and a few other issues, Sanders' people were able to leverage some concessions. In exchange, if he can deliver the party at least 70% of his voters (and I believe he can) he will all but ensure a Trump defeat. More important, Sanders has promised to keep the movement behind his campaign going after the election.

Looking back, this is the kind of negotiation that should have taken place on the part of AFT and NEA leaders before their now discredited early and divisive Clinton endorsement.

I have no doubt that after the election, Clinton and the party leadership will try to backtrack on the education plank. But now at least, there's a document that activists, parents and teachers can use to hold her feet to the fire. Something that wasn't done during the Obama years.

Activists learned they could enter the lion's den and win some victories. Now the struggle moves back out in the streets, the communities and the schools.

Crisis and/of Leadership

"Don’t follow leaders
 Watch the parkin’ meters"
-- Robert Zimmerman

In '65, a prophetic Dylan must have had vision of Chicago which included Mayor Daley's notorious parking meter deal. But it's the first line that should generate the most reflection on our part.

Joshua Rothman might well be describing today's corporate-style school reformers when he writes in the New Yorker:

People who fetishize leadership sometimes find themselves longing for crisis. They yearn for emergency, dreaming of a doomsday to be narrowly averted...

...Elizabeth Samet writes, in the introduction to “Leadership: Essential Writings by Our Greatest Thinkers” (Norton). “If we live in a world of crisis, we also live in a world that romanticizes crisis—that finds in it fodder for an addiction to the twenty-four-hour news cycle, multiple information streams, and constant stimulation.” 

Many of today’s challenges are too complex to yield to the exercise of leadership alone. Even so, we are inclined to see the problems of the present in terms of crises and leaders.

She quotes John Adams, who suggested, in a letter to a friend, that there was something both undemocratic and unwise in the lionization of leadership. The country won't improve, Adams wrote, until the people begin to "consider themselves as the fountain of power."

Plenty to think about here, especially when the two leading candidates for president are campaigning on the promise that they and only they, have the power to "make deals" (Trump) or "get things done" (Clinton). Here in Chicago, we have institutionalized the lionization of leadership by giving the mayor autocratic power over our public schools.

It also brings to mind power philanthropists, like Gates, Broad, and Walton, who hide their wealth in huge tax-exempt foundations and leverage it to erode and override public space and public decision making.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Louis C.K. 

“Do you think they saw that s--- coming? Hitler was just some hilarious and refreshing dude with a weird combover who would say anything at all.” -- Daily News

Michael “Quess” Moore, a founder of Take ’em Down NOLA

“He came to the heart and the bottom of the South, and he’s not welcome here.”  -- New Orleans Advocate

Trump Supporter, Lola Butler

 “There’s nothing short of Trump shooting my daughter in the street and my grandchildren — there is nothing and nobody that’s going to dissuade me from voting for Trump.” -- New York Times

"I'm no puppet..." 

Oakland Supt. Antwan Wilson, a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy, said he sympathized with some of the anger directed at him. But he scoffed at allegations that he is a puppet of the Broad Foundation. 

“People can connect all kinds of dots,” he said, adding that “no Broad agenda has ever been shared with me.” -- New York Times

Charter Poll

 A new nationwide poll shows the American people overwhelmingly agree that public education should not exist to enrich and profit the charter school privatization movement and they are demanding strong regulatory laws to “rein in documented fiscal malfeasance by private charter schools.” -- Politicus USA

"Trump is a good businessman" He has a failed steak biz, a failed vodka biz & failed casinos. HOW DO YOU SCREW UP STEAK, VODKA & GAMBLING

— Lyle Clip Art (@Kyle_Lippert) March 6, 2016

Thanks Kenyon... Hey where's J.C. Brizard? ... Day 25 for hunger strike

Thanks to Kenyon super Prof. Peter Rutkoff for inviting us to come engage with students at Kenyon College yesterday. Undergrads we met, including some from Chicago, were reading Jonathan Kozol's "Savage Inequalities", analyzing it against conditions in urban schools today, and brainstorming ways to support struggling schools, parents and students in Knox County and other communities in Ohio.

Peter helped to create the college’s interdisciplinary American Studies program in 1990. His books cover subjects such as the origins of Bebop, styles of baseball, and social theory in Europe and America. Some of his titles include: his novel, Irish Eyes, New York Modern: The Arts and the City, Shadow Ball: A Novel of Baseball and Chicago, and Cooperstown Chronicles: Camp and Other Love Stories.

Rahm bounced Brizard

CONNECTIONS...Former Chicago schools CEO J.C. Brizard was a disaster for CPS. He was bounced unceremoniously by Rahm Emanuel to make room for triple disaster, Barbara Byrd-Bennett. But don't worry. His golden parachute landed him on his feet and Brizard will be using his insider connections to try and hustle big consulting contracts for Cross & Joftus.

Cross refers to Christopher Cross, a former Education Department assistant secretary who now is connected with the Broad Foundation.

DYETT PARENTS and Chicago community activists are now in the 25th day of their hunger strike. Essence Magazine reports:

Though Mayor Emanuel, who has shuttered nearly 50 schools since 2013, says that the school closures are beneficial to students and allow them to attend better high schools, many parents feel that the reforms target Black residents.

You think...?

The group announced that three activists, Brandon Johnson with the Chicago Teachers Union, Susan Hurley with Chicago Jobs With Justice and Asif Wilson with Teachers for Social Justice have now joined the hunger strike.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

CTU Pres. Karen Lewis

"We have longer school days but less time to actually educate children." -- Friday's Press conference

 Mark Brown

It was CPS under the direction of new CEO Forrest Claypool that triggered the blow-up with a decision Thursday to withdraw its one-year contract offer and start anew on a multi-year deal. -- One more thing to worry about — another teachers strike (Sun-Times)

UTLA Pres. Alex Caputo-Pearl

"We're concerned about anything Eli Broad is involved with." -- L.A. Times

Sen. Jayapal

WA State Senator Pramila Jayapal

But in the end, if we want to win for ALL of us on racial, economic, and social justice issues, we need multiple sets of tactics, working together. Some are disruptive tactics. Some are loving tactics. Some are truth-telling tactics. -- Why Saturday's Bernie Sanders Rally Left Me Feeling Heartbroken

Marina Fang, Associate Politics Editor

Since the incident at Netroots Nation, both Sanders and O’Malley have become more outspoken about the need for criminal justice reform. -- Huffington Post

Gonzo urbanist Billy L. Garrett

The geographer David Harvey once wrote that “the freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is … one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights”. -- The privatisation of cities' public spaces is escalating. It is time to take a stand (Guardian)

Eli Broad is bored with giving prizes. Moving on to new top-down strategies.

"No more prizes", says billionaire Eli Broad. 

If your school district is hoping for a Broad Prize to carry it over the hump, you're S.O.L. Billionaire Eli Broad and his foundation have become bored with that strategy. The prize strategy is giving way to the new flavor of the month -- the "portfolio model"  in which different types of so-called "independent schools" compete for students and must demonstrate results.

Not enough bang for the bunk buck in prizes, says Eli. He says he gives, gives and gives some more. And your test score increases just aren't meeting his expectations. And besides, he dislikes traditional public schools with union teachers anyway and refuses to give them a nickel more. So there.

According to the L.A. Times:

Broad "has bypassed districts by promoting and funding charter schools, which have siphoned students from traditional schools. (Charters are publicly funded, and independently managed; most are non-union.) Broad recently established a $500,000 prize for charter organizations, an award that will continue.

The Times quotes Jeffrey Henig, professor of political science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University who says, the suspension of the prize could signal a "highly public step" toward the view that traditional districts "are incapable of reform."

I would say, it's more a indication that top-down reform strategies coming from power philanthropists like Broad and Gates are proving to be a dismal failure. It's predictable.

More from the Times:

On the political front, Broad, a Democrat, has donated large sums, frequently to oppose candidates allied with the teachers union. Broad also attracted notice for being among donors whose money was channeled anonymously through several organizations before landing in a committee that unsuccessfully tried to defeat Proposition 30, a temporary tax increase that prevented deep budget cuts to education.

Run out of L.A. under a cloud, Deasy lands a job with Eli Broad.

I knew John Deasy would land on his feet after being run out of  L.A.U.S.D. under a cloud of suspicion.

He usually stays one step ahead of the law by running to the Gates Foundation for cover. But The Man From Gates is now the Man From Broad. Deasy has landed a job at billionaire Eli Broad's Center for the Management of School Systems, where he will serve as a consultant and superintendent-in-residence for the Broad Academy, the center's training and coaching program for urban public education leaders.

Lord help the school district that hires any of his mentees.

His attempt to put iPads in the hands of all 650,000 students under what was once a $1-billion plan is currently being investigated by the FBI. Agents last month subpoenaed records pertaining to the process that picked Apple to supply devices and Pearson to create educational software. The documents are to be reviewed by a federal grand jury. And L.A. Unified's inspector general is completing an assessment of the bidding process at the request of the Board of Education.

Deasy leaves behind a computer system, MiSiS, which continues to cause problems for the fiscally strapped school system. Fixing the program, which bumbled records and put students in the wrong classes when it launched in August, threatens to cost four times more than its original price tag of $25 million.

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

From left are Gap Chairman Bob Fisher, investor Charles Schwab and philanthropist Eli Broad. A state investigation found that the three were among secret  donors to right-wing, anti-public school, anti-union group,  Americans for Job Security.   (Times Wire Services)

Anthony York

San Francisco investor Schwab gave more than $6.2 million to the same group [Americans for Job Security]. Broad gave $1 million despite his stated support for higher taxes on the wealthy. -- L.A. Times

L.A. Teacher, Geronimo

 “Although there probably has never been a more self-aggrandizing, yet endlessly self-pitying superintendent than John Deasy, we will now have the spectacle of observing who is going to beg this prima donna to stay." -- Diane Ravitch Blog

GLN Co-founder Andy Thayer

“Because Speaker Madigan is so powerful, controlling access to jobs and contracts, most organizations are afraid to take him on and bluntly place blame where it’s due... Madigan controls the House as surely as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel controls the City Council." -- Capital Fax 

Kevin Welner

“Let’s challenge all students instead of tracking by ability” -- Seattle Times

 Kashmir Hill 

“He was talking very loudly and using words like ‘rendition’ and ‘black sites,’” entrepreneur and former MoveOn director Tom Mattzie told New York Magazine. “My ears perked up.” -- Forbes

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Lake Mary, FL resident Santiago Rodriguez

"Zimmerman is a Sandy Hook, Aurora waiting to happen." -- Email to chief of police

UNO's departing Board Chair Martin Cabrera

Cabrera told the Sun-Times that he quit “because of a difference of philosophy and mission.” He declined to elaborate. -- Sun-Times

 John Wilson

 Secretary Duncan could learn from those who live in the real world of educating America's children. -- EdWeek/ California is Right; Duncan is Wrong

Broad (WSJ pic)

Eli Broad

"Artists see the world differently than us business people. If I spent all my time with bankers, lawyers and business people, it would be kind of boring." -- Wall St. Journal

 Chicago police torture victim, Darrell Cannon

“If a cattle prod can make a cow jump, imagine what it can do to a human being...I was ready to say my mother committed a crime.” -- Victims of Burge torture and other injustices ask for help

Anthony Cody

 Diane Ravitch has emerged as an iconic figure on America's political landscape. What Daniel Ellsberg was to the Vietnam War, Ravitch has become to the battle raging over public education.  -- Living in Dialogue

It's $20 million no-bid for Supes-to-Nuts with Gary Solomon in Chicago

Supes Academy principal training in Chicago

The men who run Supes have, shall we say, a somewhat questionable track record. And all this in a city where major, well-respected universities already train principals, where 49 schools have shut down and others are losing teachers, classroom aides, clerks, lunch ladies and other workers and programs right and left, to the tune of $68 million in cuts -- or $82 million, depending on whose math you believe. -- Lorraine Forte at Huffington

A few principals attending the Chicago Supes training now in progress are texting me, telling me what a joke it is. It's not that the sessions are all that bad. It's that the principals themselves have taken it over. They are running it -- "sharing stories," they text me.

"Inmates have taken over the asylum," says one south-side principal. The joke is that BBB has given huckster Gary Solomon and his team a $20 million no-bid contract to run this thing. Supes, she says, brings nothing to the table. Any one of a number of local groups or university people could have easily facilitated.

Another text: We (the intellectually and skill bereft cohort) are now creating the sessions.

So why does this Wilmette-based, Broad funded, pro-charter Supes Academy land the largest no-bid contract awarded in years for professional development?

Well, that's an easy one.  Byrd-Bennett worked for the company as a coach up until the time she came on board at CPS as a consultant. According to Catalyst, "There’s also conflicting information about Byrd-Bennett’s involvement with another company owned by the same individuals who run the Supes Academy."

Writes Catalyst's Sarah Karp:

Up until April 2012, Byrd-Bennett worked as a consultant to the Supes Academy. At that time, she was brought on at CPS as the chief education advisor to then-CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, a contract position for which she was paid $21,500 a month.

In addition, Byrd-Bennett is listed as a senior associate for a superintendent search firm called PROACT Search, in documents dated August 2012—four months after taking the position with CPS. PROACT is run by the same individuals who lead Supes: Gary Solomon, the executive director, and Thomas Vranas, the president. (Another Supes founder listed on its website, Tim Quinn, is managing director of the Broad Foundation; Byrd-Bennett worked as an executive coach for Broad through this past April.)

Byrd-Bennett is one of four contacts listed in the proposal for services submitted by PROACT in its bid to do a superintendent search for the Norwalk, Connecticut, school district. She has an e-mail address listed in the proposal. When PROACT won the contract, an official for the company was quoted in the local newspaper touting that Byrd-Bennett, who by that time had been named as Chicago’s CEO, was a contractor with the firm.

You can read the rest yourself. I'll defer to the new federal prosecutor to determine the legality of all this. But if the $96 million UNO charter deal was legal, and the Zimmerman shooting was legal, then this is probably legal also. Most of our cynical and corruption-hardened citizenry might just shrug off Karp's excellent Catalyst expose as just more-of-the-same, to go along with UNO charter chicanery, pension demagogy, TIF-type slush funds, and Rahm's DePaul basketball swindles of the taxpayers. And of course they'd be right.

But there are a few things I found unusual in this latest boondoggle. One, is the response by UIC's Steve Tozer, quoted in the article. You would think that UIC's ed school (of which I am a proud grad and former employee) would be upset that they didn't get the contract and that BBB went out of town to bring in her old cronies. Instead we have principal trainer Tozer saying things like $20 million “is an okay price to pay if Chicago can produce good leaders.”

Tozer says the University of Illinois, which has a well-regarded training program for urban principals, would have looked into bidding on the contract had the process been open. Tozer had not heard of Supes until the organization had already been hired. 

But Solomon has been hustling business here for years. He's a Broad guy who also worked with Paul Vallas and ran his Synesi consulting company which has been trying to get back into the city ever since Mayor Daley sent Vallas packing off to Philly.

Solomon ran Vallas' consulting company

The $20 million contract is the fourth awarded to Supes since October of 2012. The three other contracts include two for $2 million each and a third for $225,000 for consulting services. In 2011-12, the Chicago Public Education Fund paid for training of Chiefs of Schools and Network Chiefs.

Karp writes:

Solomon went on to be a sales associate and then a vice president for the Princeton Review, a test preparation company, and counted CPS as one of his clients.
In 2005, he ventured out on his own and created two companies, one focusing on consulting and the other on web development. In Philadelphia, he marketed the consulting company as using the “Paul Vallas method of school reform.”

Maybe Tozer is just being a team player, hoping UIC gets a subcontract down the road. After all, it doesn't look like Supes has the talent to handle this by themselves.

They could end up like the dog that caught the bus.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

"No justice, no peace!" Protesters gather on Hwy.10 in L.A.

Zimmerman Prosecutor Angela Corey following the verdict

"This case has never been about race..." -- MSNBC post-verdict interview

Anthropologist Sarah Kendzior

Americans should not fear riots. They should fear apathy. They should fear acquiescence.  -- Aljazeera 

Madigan spokesman, Steve Brown

“Somebody asked for help. That’s what public officials do, day in and day out. People ask for help.” -- Sun-Times

 Attorney Heidi Lambros

 “Daley was the boss. His prosecutors took the lead from him. Maybe he truly didn’t know, but he should have.” -- Sun-Times, Former Mayor Richard M. Daley subpoenaed to testify in police-torture case 

Norman Isaacs, principal of L.A.'s  Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts

"We have a $65-million theater and no money to run it." -- L.A. Times

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Byrd-Bennett

Barbara Byrd-Bennett (for future reference)

“I’m here for the long haul. I don’t know what to do other than sign in blood. . . . I’m here. I’m not gonna say ‘I’m outta here.’ That’s not who I am.” -- Chicago's 4th CEO in last 2 years.

Michelle Gunderson ‏

It takes a Chia Pet longer to grow than the 6 weekends a person spends at the Broad Academy training to be a superintendent. -- Tweeting @MSGunderson

Dan Quinn, Texas Freedom Network

 "That's where all these culture war battles will come to a head over what students learn about evolution, about civil rights, about church and state separation. All those battles will come in 2013 and 2014, and the textbooks will be in the classrooms for a generation." -- Monitoring Texas school board elections

Brooklyn parent, Lori Chajet

“I want my school to use tests to help instruction, to help find out if kids don’t know fractions. I don’t want my child to feel like her score will decide if her teacher has a job or not.” -- NYT: "Dear Teacher, Johnny Is Skipping the Test"

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Jesse Sharkey

CTU's Jesse Sharkey

As the threat of a teachers strike looms larger in Chicago, the result of Rahm's unwillingness to bargain seriously over job security and longer school day, Sharkey says:

“There’s still some more runway left where we can land this plane.”

Sharkey says a key to unlocking the stalemate is the hiring back of "effective veteran teachers" who currently are being replaced with lower-paid teachers who are just starting out, many of them TFAers. 

“We know that teachers just starting out have a 50 percent [dropout] rate. It’s actually a job that lot of people can’t do. This is something that would not only be the right thing to do, it would help settle the contract” with a smaller pay increase.

Bloomberg's perverse view of teachers

“The union keeps protecting people that shouldn’t be in the classroom that touch, have sex, whatever it may be.” -- School Book, "Question of the Week (Decade?): Are Charter Schools Better?"

Remember when Michelle Rhee took the same course in attacking D.C. teachers and then had to backtrack? She lied to the media, bragging:   

"I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school."

I suspect this is all in the Eli Broad union-busting playbook.

Bloomberg's new schools are a complete bust, according to a Daily News review.

 “This is additional evidence that these (new) schools are not performing better than their peer schools,” said NYU Prof. Robert Tobias, who led the city’s testing program before Bloomberg took office.

He can't blame the unions, since nearly all of his new schools are privately-managed charters which ban unions and would rather close or move their operations than have union teachers.

Chicago's school reform ruling class

In case you were wondering who holds the real power in setting policy for Chicago Public Schools, follow this money stream. Here's an excerpt from Whet Moser's excellent piece on the 312 Blog.

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A lot has been made, especially in the wake of Citizens United, about the corporate financing of politics towards clearly ideological ends. But reading up on Jean-Claude Brizard's appointment to run the Chicago Public Schools, I was reminded of something that seems to be increasing, though I'm willing to acknowledge the possibility it's just something I only started really noticing: the influence of well-funded non-profits, supported by the wealthy and well-connected, with non-ideological goals (or opaquely ideological, if you're the suspicious type). Particularly in the area of public schooling.

For instance, the aforementioned Chicago Public Education Fund: "The Fund's board of directors reads like a who's who of Chicagoans. Chairman Timothy Schwertfeger is head of Nuveen Investments, a 108-year-old firm managing $119 billion in assets. The Fund's other vice-chair is Bruce Rauner of GTCR Rauner, a $6 billion private equity and venture capital firm. Other directors among the 27 on the board include Scott C. Smith, the founding chairman of The Fund and president of Tribune Publishing." (Philanthropy Roundtable, 2007)

Rahm Emanuel represented Rauner's company in one of his biggest deals during his short stint in investment banking. Rauner's wife is on Emanuel's education transition team; a former investment banker herself, she now runs the Ounce of Prevention Fund, which does advocacy for early childhood education. Bruce Rauner is also on the board of the Renaissance Schools Fund, whose president praised the selection of Brizard, as is Schwertfeger.

The secretary of the Renaissance Schools Fund is Harrison Steans, president and CEO of the Steans Family Foundation... and you may recognize Steans Family Foundation trustee Robin Steans as the director of Advance Illinois, one of the school-reform groups responsible for the amendment to Senate Bill 7 that would change the length of the school day and modify provisions about strikes and collective bargaining. Advance Illinois receives backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (major backers of Renaissance 2010), which has teamed with the Broad Foundations in public school philanthropy; the latter founded the superintendents academy that Brizard graduated from.

That Philanthropy Roundtable piece mentions that the Joyce Foundation was one of the early large backers of the CPEF, and director Ellen Alberding is also on Emanuel's transition team; the Joyce also supports Advance Illinois, and was one of the organizations Emanuel's team went to for the inauguration.

The occupation of the wealthy with education in America goes way back. I went to not one but two colleges that were built around the beginning of the 20th century with the money of wealthy industrialists, Lucien L. Nunn and John Rockefeller.

But that's private education. The intense involvement of wealthy philanthropists in public education, particularly in big city schools, seems to be a fairly recent development; at least it seems to have increased in breadth and depth during my lifetime. And Chicago is hardly alone; a 2005 New York Times piece noted the rise of philanthropic attention to that city's public schools during the Bloomberg era.

And there's tension about it; educational historian Diane Ravitch calls the three big public-education-focused philanthropic organizations (Gates, Broad, and Walton) the Billionaire Boys' Club, and urges caution: "Removing public oversight will leave the education of our children to the whim of entrepreneurs and financiers." Joanne Barkan, in a critical piece, calls them the Big Three.

Gates clears the bench

He sends in super-sub John Deasy to get things under control in L.A. But who's left on the bench? He's LAUSD's 4th superintendent in 5 years. This is what passes for school reform--corporate style. It gives new meaning to the term "City of the Angels." Angels, Gates and Broad, now run the city's schools.

A look at my 2008 post on Deasy's jumping ship in Prince Georges County, Md., will show you what to expect from him in the way of leadership. He was touted as a “superstar” and the great white hope of the power philanthropists, when he came into this predominantly poor, African-American district from Santa Monica. He bailed out when the district went broke and criticism in the black community began to mount.

"I think John is smart enough to get out of here, frankly, before the (expletive) hits the fan," said Doris A. Reed, the executive director of the Association of Supervisory and Administrative Personnel, the union that represents principals and other administrators.

Some of the expletive deleted Deasy has been running from concerns a scandal around his doctorate from the Univ. of Louisville and contracts he awarded back to a  university center run by his former dean and advisor.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

He's dreaming of a white Christmas

"You heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders." (Miss. Gov. and 2012 presidential candidate, Haley Barbour)

The spirit of giving

"From Gates, to Broad, to Bloomberg, edu-philanthropists have been pouring their time, talent and treasure into education. They tout themselves as education reformers, but, largely, their dollars are not simply good deeds. Instead, their gifts are thinly veiled attacks on our public education system. Edu-philanthropy is education's Trojan horse." (Julie Cavanagh: Education's Trojan Horse)

Heiress vs. the parents

If this charter is to remain open, if [Ross] is able to bully the education department, this will destroy the premise of charters - that students deserve the best educational choices. (Mona Davids, president of the New York Charter Parents Association)

 Who's watching the watchers?

"The video is sent to researchers off-site who will never speak with the teachers they are watching. Those analysts will scientifically code the steps that teachers like Davis use to reach their students." (NPR)

 War is theft

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." (Pres. Dwight Eisenhower, quoted by Kristof in NYT)

Ike might well have added, those who are uneducated.