Will House GOP Investigate Christian Right Role in Antisemitism?

How richly ironic that Trump's House that MAGA built is lining up leaders this week from blue school districts to grill them on their districts' efforts to combat antisemitism.  In the process, any and all school policies that support diversity, inclusion, and rights of all people to exist and live free will come under the Republican's myopi-scope.  In the process, the GOP desperately hopes to peel off as a few Jewish voters who are incapable of discerning hypocrisy, even when it rolls right over them.

I suggest that the political party of Charlottesville torch bearers, the "Hitler did some good things" party, the sympathizers of the Great Replacement theory party, and the Holocaust rationalization party, might consider investigating what children are being taught in the fundamentalist Christian schools about Jews and Israel.

The House MAGA members might start with asking a few questions of how antisemitism is advanced by the 10 million member fundamentalist Christian organization, Christians United for Israel (CUFI).  Maybe ask CUFI's chief, Rev. John Hagee, why he believes that all Jews who don't convert are going to hell, or if he still believes the Holocaust was ordained by God so that the state of Israel could be created and, thus, fulfill biblical prophecy. Which will be entirely fulfilled when Israel says "ENOUGH" and starts lobbing nukes into the Arab neighborhood. But just before the nuclear conflagration begins, Jesus will return to Earth, and Jesus will transport all believers and converts to Heaven for a splendid retirement without end.

 From a Hagee sermon in 2006, quoted on a segment of "Fresh Air" on April 3, 2023:

And when Israel finally says enough, you're going to see the beginning of the implementation of Ezekiel's war in 38-39. The critical point is the church is raptured before this war begins. I am telling you, that makes this message one of the most thrilling prophetic messages you've ever heard in your life. You could get raptured out of this building before I get through finished preaching. We are that close to the coming of the son of man.

Terri Gross and her guest, Bart Ehrman, responded thusly:

GROSS: Among the things I want to point out in that is that he's talking about this, like, horrible war in Israel and nuclear weapons. And he's saying, this is the most thrilling prophetic message you've ever heard in your life. Sure, it's thrilling for the people he imagines, including himself, 'cause I'm sure he expects to get raptured. But, you know, how can you call thrilling anything that involves nuclear weapons and war?

EHRMAN: Well, right. I mean - and, you know, that's right. And, you know, he also, at one point, indicated that the reason for the Holocaust is that it was God's plan. God planned the Holocaust because that would facilitate the establishment of Israel as a state. And so that's why 6 million Jews got slaughtered is so that Israel could be founded again in 1948, because that would fulfill prophecy. And if that fulfills prophecy, then, you know, it's coming soon, and we can just rejoice because we're going to be taken out of here. It's really - it's pretty disgusting. Late - after that, somebody pointed out that maybe that wasn't a good move to talk about God's plan for the Holocaust. But, you know, it didn't even occur to him at the time, apparently.

Now tell me, is it anti-Semitic to support policies that will likely bring the annihilation of Israel--and most of the other countries of the Middle East?? Would that be a worse outcome than schools offering ethnic studies courses or

Students Remember KIPP: The "Abusive Caregiver"

Are you a former student or teachers eager to share your KIPP story (anonymously if you so choose) about Charlie Randall or his protege and now-convicted child sexual abuser, Jesus Concepcion? If you would like to share your story, please contact me via email: ontogenyx@gmail.com

A former KIPP student that I will refer to as Kayla contacted me in late February of this year.  The interview excerpt below represents the first 6 minutes of a lengthy interview that was recorded in March.  I am posting it now in hopes that other former KIPP students will come forward and share their own KIPP experiences, whether they were recent KIPPsters or attended during the early days of KIPP--as did Kayla.  Kayla was a student in first class of KIPP Academy, the Bronx, and she graduated from KIPP in 2000 and attended high school at a private boarding school in the Northeast.

I will be posting the entirety of Kayla's interview over the coming days.  In order to understand and appreciate the gravity of the sexual abuse and emotional abuse allegations set forth in her interview, let me introduce the adults who are central to this part of Kayla's story.

From Schools Matter, March 11, 2024:

Straight out of undergraduate school and fresh from two year stints with Teach for America (TFA), Mike Feinberg and David Levin found themselves in 1994 running their own school program in an elementary school in Houston, TX. They called their new program KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program), and with the help of the rich white elites who were bankrolling TFA, Levin and Feinberg quickly became media darlings and corporate America's next great white hopes for solving the urban "Negro problem" that white philanthropists had fretted about since Emancipation.

The next year KIPP Houston became a separate school under the direction of Mike Feinberg, while David Levin was handed his own school program in New York City, where the white, privileged, and fresh-faced Yale graduate found himself face-to-face with Bronx indigenous cultures entirely foreign to Levin and the other white teachers who were hired to build the first KIPP franchise beyond Houston.

Hoping to garner public attention to KIPP's program, Levin and the NYC Board of Education brought in the renowned school orchestra director, Charlie Randall, who gained fame from his work at a neighboring school in the Bronx, I.S.166.  Randall, who had been a music teacher since the early 70s and the founding director of the I.S.166 orchestra since 1980, brought Levin a skill set that he would desperately need in order to make it in the Bronx. Randall brought PR skills, charisma, street savvy, and local knowledge that Levin did not have and that he came to depend upon in his new position of leadership.  

Charlie Randall also brought with him an attraction to middle school girls, as well as a bad drinking problem.  According to allegations from an anonymous source interviewed by Gary Rubenstein, Randall openly engaged in lascivious behavior among KIPP students, behavior that would have gotten him fired and reported to authorities under normal circumstances. Instead, KIPP eventually promoted Randall and put him in charge of starting orchestra programs at other KIPP schools around the country.  According to Rubenstein, 

[t]he source, claiming to have firsthand knowledge, alleges that multiple witnesses, including numerous KIPP teachers and leaders, observed Charles Randall’s misconduct but did not report the egregious behavior exhibited by both Randall and Jesus Concepcion.

One account from the source states, “Randall would frequently arrive at school intoxicated. He kept a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black in the orchestra room and even offered us shots.” Additionally, the source mentioned, “He would often make sexually suggestive remarks about our bodies, accompanied by licking his lips, and the teachers witnessed this behavior but never intervened. It seemed as though no one cared until he began harassing the teachers. It was only then that he was eventually removed from KIPP Academy and reassigned to a national position.”

After covering some preliminaries, my interview with Kayla began thusly:

Q: Okay, we are recording.

A: I want to start by expressing my genuine appreciation for KIPP. If it weren't for KIPP, I wouldn't be where I am today. Your article about students having to earn their desk rather than being given one really struck a chord with me. It highlighted the importance of earning things in life, a perspective I've always carried, especially growing up in the South Bronx where nothing was handed to me. KIPP instilled in me a sense of grit that I'm grateful for to this day.

I would compare my relationship with KIPP to that of an abusive caregiver—sometimes supportive, sometimes harmful. As an adult, I can appreciate the positive impact KIPP had on me, but I also bear scars and unresolved emotional and mental health issues from my time there. Despite approaching my big age, I'm still grappling with these challenges. Having children of my own has provided me with a new perspective.

I recall a conversation a few years ago with a former teacher where I downplayed the significance of certain experiences with what I experienced at KIPP, brushing them off as not a big deal. However, their question about how I would feel if someone did those things to my own children made me confront the gravity of what I went through. It shook me to my core and forced me to reevaluate my feelings.

In essence, I struggled to reconcile the trust I placed in teachers at KIPP with the possibility of them harming my own children. It made me realize that what I experienced wasn't okay or normal, despite my previous attempts to rationalize it. Does that make sense?

 

Q: Yes, it does make sense.

 

A: And I feel like a waterfall of emotions just unleashed a couple of years ago, because I said, damn, what happened to me really was fucked up, like really messed up, and it wasn’t just that it was really messed up, but it was Levin’s part in it. I think that's the part that never gets talked about enough. I think that Feinberg was held accountable for his actions, and I think that Levin has gotten to sort of skate under the radar with no accountability. And I always wonder if this kind of stuff keeps him up at night or if he feels any kind of accountability to not just me, but all the people who suffer with her mental and emotional health because they were sexually abused at KIPP.  

 

And I’ll make it clear that Levin has never touched anyone, and I know that for a fact. No one has ever said that he has, but what we all will say is that he knew what was going on. He may not have known the extent of what was going on, but a teacher licking his lips and saying how curvy we were and how pretty we were and if we were older these are things he would do—and he would say that stuff in front of Levin, and Levin would always look the other way. 

 

And it was like Levin was the one even before Randall came to our school, Levin was the one who came to our homes, Levin was the one who came for our parents, Levin was the one who sat down with us and our parents and made us sign Commitment to Excellence forms, and like we made a promise to KIPP and KIPP made a promise to us. And that’s what makes KIPP so different from every other school that I have ever been to.  Levin made a commitment to being there and protecting us. I don’t know if you have ever seen a KIPP Commitment to Excellence form, but it was a commitment, just like when you get married, right, you sign that piece of paper, that commits you to someone other.

 

Q: A contract?

 

A: Yeah, a contract. Levin made us sign that same thing, so for us to sign this form and to see KIPP be as big as it is, and it feels like there was no reciprocation in terms of, in terms of a lot of things, in terms of the kids who grew up to be adults and teachers—we only have one who has become an actual principal, for the lack of opportunity. And then really allowing abuse to happen, both sexual abuse, and mental and emotional abuse. When I say mental and emotional abuse, colorism was a huge thing at KIPP, a huge thing.  When I say a huge thing, I always felt so bad for the kids who were dark and they were treated a different way, and that's not just Levin or Randall, it was specifically by the white teachers—they were the worst culprits. Randall wasn’t nice to the dark girls either.

 

KIPP was just a very, a hot bed of all things wrong with education, but they get lauded for all things right. And the only way that I can compare it is like when someone abusive passes away, right? But that person was a pillar in the community. When they die, everyone tells talks about how great they are and the victim? The victim gets minimized.

 

I feel the same way when I think about KIPP. Like they did all of these weird really twisted things to a whole lot of black and brown children, but then it’s traumatizing to always see them [KIPP] in the news or on social media as being this maven of charter schools, this beacon of education. It's just a hard place to be because it's so hard to reconcile who you are, how you feel, with the tragedy that was your childhood, and just try to figure it all out as an adult.

Students Remember KIPP: Preface

Lots of policy people, educators, parents, and even union leaders were initially attracted to the concept of charter schools by happy talk of parent and educator autonomy and freedom to experiment, innovate, and to, otherwise, find relief from the bureaucratic oversight and regulatory constraints that public schools must abide. Even the brilliant Albert Shanker, who served as AFT President for 23 years, was an avid promoter of charter schools in the early 1990s. 

By the mid 1990s, however, Shanker realized the charter concept had been quickly hijacked by corporate education reformers "whose real aim is to smash the public schools" and to leave in their wake a rigid, segregated type of chain-gang charter school in urban America that practiced a brutal form of white paternalism aimed to behaviorally subdue and culturally sterilize the children of black and brown communities. (See more on paternalism and cultural sterilization.)

And the much-lauded autonomy and freedom from constraints in charter schools quickly triggered the emergence of closely-guarded charter fiefdoms with unparalleled latitude to do curriculum, instruction, budgeting, hiring, and firing most any way desired by poorly prepared white school leaders fresh from 2 year stints with Teach for America.  That is, just as long as the charter schools could grind out student test scores that were at least in the same ballpark as the public schools that were being replaced by charters. (See recent statistics on regular public school enrollment and charter school enrollment.)

The substitution of accountability for student test scores in charter schools (and other schools, too) has had some damn awful effects on teachers, taxpayers, and parents. Cascading waves of corruption in the form of fraud, waste, or old-fashioned thievery have flourished over the past 30 years of charter history. Cheating scandals have become commonplace.  The goals of racial and socioeconomic school integration are forgotten dreams.

But without doubt, the most devastating and unforgivable outcome that has accompanied the near total capitulation of public accountability and oversight for the publicly-funded and privately-managed charter schools has come in the form of heart-rending accounts of student abuse: physical abuse, psychological abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. And these crimes against our most vulnerable children have been going since the beginning of even the most vaunted of charter school chains, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP). 

Part 2 of this series will feature an interview with the first former KIPP student to share her story of emotional and sexual abuse during the early days of KIPP New York.

Professor Steve Tamari Brutally Beaten by St. Louis Police

 From HuffPo:

In a video posted on X (formerly Twitter), the professor, Steve Tamari, can be seen moving closer to the chaos, trying to capture the scene on camera, when a police officer grabs his arm and pushes him back. A few other officers joined in restraining Tamari, grabbing the man, slamming him to the ground and later dragging his limp body to a police van.

You can also see history professor, Dr. Steve Tamari, being beaten, dragged, and dumped behind a police van like a sack of potatoes. 

60 Minutes "Last Minute" Out of Touch

Last updated May 2, 2024

In a final mention of the growing number of campus protests against the murderous war on Palestinians, CBS featured Bill Whitaker in the "Final Minute" segment.  CBS seemingly thinks that the student and faculty protests can be resolved by more Dartmouth U programs that bring together both Jewish and Arab students to share their disagreements in the collegial space of a classroom.  

If the growing protests were about disagreements among Arab and Jewish students, I would agree. But it's not, and methinks CBS knows that.  

In case CBS doesn't know, the civil disobedience spreading across American universities is aimed to put pressure on politicians here and abroad to end Netanyahu's genocidal war machine and the occupation of Gaza. The source of the protests is not Jewish and Arab disagreements on campus.

So when a smarmy Bill Whitaker closes with "American education could benefit from a few more Dartmouths," the effort to place blame for campus disruptions on the colleges, themselves, is clear. Were CBS not such an intricate cog of the military-industrial complex, perhaps we would have more CBS investigations into how and why our own government continues to enable the strategic slaughter of innocents. Instead, we have CBS's misleading and bad-tasting pablum offered as a closing bit of wisdom.

Postscript:

It seems that talk works pretty well in the classroom, but police rot remains police rot--even at Dartmouth.  From WaPo:

At Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, police said they arrested 90 protesters. A Dartmouth professor said in an interview it had been “a peaceful, inclusive protest” and that the police response was disproportionate.

Campus Order Depends Upon Rights to Protest

If politicians and campus bureaucrats were to learn anything from the 1960s campus uprisings that could help them today deal with the rising tide of student and faculty indignation at Netanyahu's continuing murderous war against Palestinians, it should be that expulsions, riot gear, and jail will not restore the culturally-isolated academic order and the myopic careerist environment of the modern corporate university. Alas, "something's happening here."

Just as the Free Speech Movement born at Berkeley embodied a desire by students to involve themselves in off-campus issues, i.e., the emerging Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s, the student rumblings on today's campuses from New York to Gainesville to Austin to Los Angeles echo the same commitment to humane values, the same righteous anger, and the same determination to have their universities embrace policies that are are consistent with universities' traditional humanistic values grounded in celebrating life on Earth and the rights of all people to live free.

Today's students are no longer satisfied with lip service to free speech and the right to protest from pompous administrators like Vanderbilt's chancellor, Daniel Diermeier, who refers to Vanderbilt as "my campus." And especially when the right to protest is conditioned by rules against the disruption of any university operation. As Amna Nawaz pointed out in her interview with Diermeier, "many would say the purpose of protests is to disrupt." 

The students who are participating in this new protest movement agree.  From Columbia student, Sofia Ongele:

She said the university’s response feels contradictory.

“The university wants us to learn about protests and social movements — people like MLK did participate in civil disobedience — but not to take that knowledge and apply it to something that really, really matters,” she said.

But the growing wave of demonstrations sparked by the Columbia protests has made her hopeful for college students around the country, who she said now share a common sense of purpose.

“It’s been beautiful to see,” she said.

So exactly 60 years after the first mass acts of civil disobedience on American campuses in support of free speech, don't be surprised to see civil disobedience on campus once again lighting the torch of freedom for human rights, both here and abroad.

 

Bill Lee Loses School Voucher Battle, Again

Two days after a stunning repudiation of the Governor by production workers who voted 3-1 for unionization at the VW plant in Chattanooga, Bill Lee has surrendered once again to the reality that parents, school boards, teachers, and students do not want taxpayer money going to fund private schools, de-fund public schools, breach the separation of church and state, and rebuild the apartheid system of education in Tennessee.

It seems that Lee's failure this year could be due to his plan to keep the voucher scheme details secret, even from the Republican legislature, until the last minute, thus avoiding scrutiny from the public.  With the Senate and the House in the dark about Lee's Christian Nationalist scheme, each chamber moved forward with its own version of school coupons, thus making it impossible for all parties to come together at the last minute to shove through the Koch Bro scheme:

While Lee announced his vision for the program in November, he delayed releasing specific details on the plan until well into 2024. By that time, House and Senate Republicans had devised vastly different versions of the plan, and each chamber appeared entrenched in their positions.

So its back to the heifer barn for Bill Lee, where he will stand by for new voucher plans to be devised by his brain trust at Backwards U.

VW Workers in TN to Governor Bill Lee: Suck It

Updated April 21, 2024

In 2014 when Volkswagen plant workers in Chattanooga held their first vote on joining the UAW, Senator Bob Corker (R) and Gov. Bill Haslam stuck their sharp dirty noses into workers' business ahead of the vote.  That vote failed.

Then in 2019 during the lead-up to a second vote, Gov. Bill Lee actively campaigned for international corporate interests and against the interests of workers in his own state.  Workers lost that vote by 57 ballots.  

So it was nothing new this month when Lee once against chose the side of the corporate elite against the workers of Tennessee.  On April 8, he publicly warned that a vote to join the UAW would be "a big mistake." This time, however, workers ignored the Republican fearmongering and voted in the best economic interests of their families. 

 A preliminary tally released by the company showed workers favored union representation by a count of 2,628 to 985, a nearly 3-1 margin. The landslide win gives the union a crucial toehold in the anti-union South.

And so VW Chattanooga becomes the first auto plant in the South to unionize by election since the 1940s. 

Congratulations, workers!

TN Taliban Votes to Arm Teachers

As parents, students, and teachers lined the gallery with signs calling for gun regulations in a state where are none, a bill sailed through the State Senate to arm teachers.  

The best reaction so far belongs to Senate Democrat, Jeff Yarbro, who posted this on X:

The legislature doesn’t trust teachers to pick out books for their classroom or teach basic history—things they’re actually trained to do, but is authorizing them to carry & use firearms in active shooter situations?!? 

This place has lost its damn mind.

Bill Lee Breaks Law To Appoint Perjurer, Lizzette Reynolds

Even though Tennessee's unqualified Education Commissioner collects over $21,000 per month to wreck the State's public schools with Bill Lee's proposed school voucher scheme, she, nonethless, chose to lie on an official state document about her length of service in order to receive a tuition waiver from UT Martin, where she is now enrolled in order to gain certification as a teacher.  Reynolds became a state employee on July 1, 2023, and on August 14 she swore that she had been a state employee for six months.

Reynolds perjured herself a second time when she submitted another of the same form in November, 2023.

You see, Bill Lee made history by being the first Tennessee governor ignore and, thus, break state law by appointing someone as education commission who has no teaching experience, school admin experience, and who lacks certification in either:

According to the century-old law, the education commissioner “shall be a person of literary and scientific attainments and of skill and experience in school administration,” and “qualified to teach in the school of the highest standing over which the commissioner has authority.”

The Osteopath Who Now Vouches for Trump's Health

WaPo has a great piece today contrasting the two most recent medical reports issued on the two presidential candidates running this year.  Essentially, Joe's report, written by a real doctor, is 6 pages and includes lots of data, both quantitative and qualitative. 

Don's report is written by an osteopath, Bruce Aronwald, who hangs out at the Bedminster, NJ swimming pool looking to ingratiate himself to rich clients who don't know quackery when they see it.  

Dr. Bruce's report is a three-paragraph gloss on Trump's "excellent" condition, with no test results and no numbers. 

You can check out some numbers on Dr. Bruce, himself, here. Spoiler alert: his reputation is much like all the other "best people" that Trump hires to help him maintain the delusion he calls reality. 

There are many qualities measured in this little assessment, but Dr. Bruce scores highest of all among patient loyalty.  Hmm.

TN Republicans Plan to Have Teachers Pay for School Voucher Scheme

As reality begins to set in about the public expense of using taxpayer money to fund private schools (see here and here), the brain trust for Republican House members have come up with a plan to cheat teachers out their promised raises so that there will be enough money to fund their school privatization plan.  

Instead of providing the teacher raises that Gov. Bill Lee has promised, Republicans plan to forego the raises for a cheap scheme to increase the State's portion of health insurance premiums for teachers from 45 percent to 60 percent.  

And what if you are one of the thousands of teachers who are on your spouse's insurance plan, rather than the State-sponsored plan?  Well, sorry.

From The Tennessean:

As lawmakers continue to hash out parameters for a proposed statewide school choice program, House leadership is proposing to pay for some of their proposal with a pot of money that funds teacher raises.

House leadership said Thursday their plan will fund teacher insurance at a higher level, leaving more "take-home" pay for teachers. . . 

. . . . House leadership confirmed they intend to pay for the difference with the $261.3 million in the governor's budget that right now is allocated toward TISA increases for public schools ― and also includes teacher salary raises ― "through a reallocation of the funding proposed by the Governor," Sexton spokesperson Connor Grady told The Tennessean in a text message.

 

KIPP St. Louis Teachers Still Seeking Fair Contract

 From the St. Louis/Southern Illiois Labor Tribune:

By TIM ROWDEN
Editor-in-Chief

St. Louis – Still fighting for a first contract, educators from KIPP St. Louis High School, represented by American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 420, attempted to deliver a petition Feb. 22 to district leaders outlining their key concerns as contract negotiations drag on.

Officials at the district headquarters at 1310 Papin St. in downtown St. Louis refused to accept the petition but did agree, earlier in the day, to return to the bargaining table with union members.

Teachers and staff at KIPP High School organized in December of 2022. It took KIPP administrators seven months to come to the bargaining table, but after five months of on-and-off negotiations, bargaining had all but ground to a halt.

Now teachers and staff are calling on administrators to work collaboratively to improve the educational experience for students.

“We are dedicated to providing our students with the high-quality education they deserve,” said Nate Gibson, a KIPP history teacher and member of the bargaining team. “However, we face significant challenges in achieving this goal without a stable and empowered staff. We believe that by working together with district leaders, we can find solutions that address our concerns and create a thriving learning environment for all.”

THE PETITION
The petition, signed by a majority of the school’s teachers, emphasizes three main areas of concern:

• A Safe and Stable Learning Environment. The petition highlights the importance of a consistent and structured learning environment for students. It emphasizes the challenges created by high staff turnover at the charter high school and calls for solutions that ensure stability and continuity for students.
• Educator Voice and Decision-Making. Educators seek greater involvement in shaping the school environment, including curriculum, programming, safety protocols and professional development opportunities. They believe that their expertise and insights are essential for creating and effective and thriving school community.
• Compensation and Working Conditions. The petition calls out the disparities in compensation and working-hours between KIPP and other schools in the area. Educators believe that addressing these disparities is crucial for attracting and recruiting qualified staff, ultimately benefitting students.

HIGH TURNOVER
“The school is suffering a 50 percent turnover rate that prevents the teachers from meeting the students’ needs,” said AFT Organizer Ben Harmon.

“A lot of times people look at this as just the teachers issues, but teachers didn’t become teachers to become wealthy. They care about what they do, and students needs are teachers’ needs. If the teachers needs can’t be met how do we meet the students’ needs?”

A REASON FOR TEACHERS TO STAY
“We need a contract,” said Kurt Johnson, an English teacher at KIPP. “Too many teachers and staff members are leaving. It’s creating a situation that’s unsafe, because it’s creating too much teacher turnover. That’s unsafe for teachers and students. It’s not allowing us to do what we want to do, which is to create an environment where all of our students learn. We need to see movement on this contract.”

Johnson said teachers and prospective employees need a reason to stay, Johnson said and that starts with being competitive with the school districts surrounding the high school.

“At the beginning of the year we had multiple people leave for St. Louis Public Schools because they could make more money. We just don’t have anything to counter that and it’s creating a situation where the students don’t have enough certified teachers.

“For the first semester, I think there were two 10th grade certified teachers that made it through the whole semester. That’s only two subjects where students are getting certified teachers. They have seven periods a day. They’re taking these online classes for essential courses like math and science because there’s no teacher. To me, the problem is really about our students. It’s about being able to provide an education and make sure that we have a competitive offer for teachers to stay.”

AN UNSAFE ENVIRONMENT
Adelina Blood, who teaches English as a second language, started at KIPP in August of last year.

“Since then, in a semester and a half, there’s already been 10 teachers leave,” she said “That’s really unstable for not only the school but the education of the students. It creates an unsafe environment to have that many new teachers come in who don’t know the students and how the school works. What we’re trying to do is stabilize everything. We’re trying to make sure that we also have a voice and we can be listened to. We’re trying to make sure that we get heard and that the students get the best education that they can.”

NOT BARGAINING IN GOOD FAITH
Leonette White-Hilliard, a member of the teachers’ bargaining committee, said KIPP administrators are not bargaining in good faith.

“We’ve tried to meet in good faith,” she said “But they’re not really, honestly trying to come to a conclusion with the bargaining. Some things I thought would be fairly common sense, like a third party arbitrator deciding  any disputes. We’re still at loggerheads after a year over even something that simple. That would be a protection for both the school as well as the teachers. That would be something that protects everybody.

“It makes me as an individual question is this really good faith or are they hoping this problem with go away?”

Tennessee Taliban Set to Pass Law to Keep the Sky from Falling

If anyone in the nation or the world were looking for a place as backward as Afghanistan under the Taliban--a place as hostile to science, as committed to a single religio-political dogma based on hate, oppression, corruption, and revenge--one would need to look no further than the knoll whereupon sits the State Capitol of the State of Tennessee.  For this, my home state, is where the Tennessee Taliban convenes each year to decide the laws for a politically and culturally diverse state that is now misrepresented by a political minority that holds a super majority.  

And despite values and beliefs of the majority of Tennesseans, a corrupt mob of ignorant hicks, swindlers, and bible thumpers are committed to the legislative agenda of a handful of fascist billionaires who achieve their self-serving agendas by successfully fanning the flames of fear and bigotry and by buying the services of state and federal politicians to conduct their dirty business. 

See the big success of the week as the Tennessee Taliban advances a bill to make Tennessee the first state in the nation to pass a law to ban "chemtrails," something that only exists in the heated imaginations of paid conspiracy theorists, intellectual midgets, and political wackos. 

From USA Today, via the Tennessean:

The Tennessee Senate has passed a bill targeting "chemtrails."

SB 2691/HB 2063, sponsored by Rep. Monty Fritts, R-Kingston, and Sen. Steve Southerland, R-Morristown, passed in the Senate on Monday. The bill has yet to advance in the House.

The bill claims it is "documented the federal government or other entities acting on the federal government's behalf or at the federal government's request may conduct geoengineering experiments by intentionally dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere, and those activities may occur within the State of Tennessee," according to the bill.

The legislation would ban the practice in Tennessee.

If your bullshit detector just went off, then you're still awake.  See this link to get the facts.

No Excuses for IDEA Charter Schools Theft of Public Funds?

Based on the No Excuses KIPP Model for chain gang schooling of brown and black children, IDEA Public [sic] Schools was founded in 2000 by two former Teach for America recruits, Tom Torkelson and JoAnn Gama.  The new corporate charter chain saw explosive growth, becoming the largest charter chain in Texas, with 36 schools and 19,000 students by 2015. By the end of 2024, IDEA plans to have 143 schools and 80,000 students in Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Ohio.

Early in 2019 the U. S. Department of Education handed IDEA Charter Schools, Inc. a five-year grant for $116 million, ostensibly to open new charter schools. 

By December of the same year, IDEA's corporate board under the direction of IDEA's CEO, Tom Torkelson, had voted unanimously to lease an eight-passenger private jet for $15 million to, well, jet around. When the story came to light, thanks to the Houston Chronicle, the plan was canceled. 

Ah, well, that didn't stop the high rollers at IDEA from spending $400,000 a year for sky boxes to watch the San Antonio Spurs or for other luxuries that were brought to light by a forensic review in 2021.

Co-founder TomTorkelson took his money ($900,000 in severance) and ran in 2020, followed a year later by the firing of the other co-founder, JoAnn Gama, and a number of other corporate welfare queens and kings.  

Even so, the corruption persisted.  Which led to further investigation by the Texas Education Agency (TEA).  That investigation wrapped up in late January, and the San Antonio Report reported on March 6 that TEA has appointed two conservators to oversee operations.  No indictments, no slaps on the wrist, no criminal referrals.  

As a condition, I suppose, of no one at IDEA getting an orange jumpsuit, IDEA has agreed to pay back $28.7 million in federal funds. Why, you ask. No explanation by TEA, which remains a cheerleader for IDEA, so much so that IDEA, specializing as it does in cultural sterilization of brown and black children, has announced a building boom moving forward.

What Did KIPP Leaders Know, and When Did They Know It?

• Are there former students and/or teachers who are willing to share their stories (anonymously if you so choose) about Charlie Randall or his protege and now-convicted child sexual abuser, Jesus Concepcion? If you would like to share your story, please contact me via email: ontogenyx@gmail.com

Straight out of undergraduate school and fresh from two year stints with Teach for America (TFA), Mike Feinberg and David Levin found themselves in 1994 running their own school program in an elementary school in Houston, TX. They called their new program KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program), and with the help of the rich white elites who were bankrolling TFA, Levin and Feinberg quickly became media darlings and the next great white hopes for solving the urban "Negro problem" that white America had fretted about since Emancipation.

The next year KIPP Houston became a separate school under the direction of Mike Feinberg, while David Levin was handed his own school program in New York City, where the white, privileged, and fresh-faced Yale graduate found himself face-to-face with Bronx indigenous cultures entirely foreign to Levin and the other white teachers who were hired to build the first KIPP franchise beyond Houston.

Hoping to garner public attention to KIPP's program, Levin and the NYC Board of Education brought in the renowned school orchestra director, Charlie Randall, who gained fame from his work at a neighboring school in the Bronx, I.S.166.  Randall, who had been a music teacher since the early 70s and the founding director of the I.S.166 orchestra since 1980, brought Levin a skill set that he would desperately need in order to make it in the Bronx. Randall brought PR skills, charisma, street savvy, and local knowledge that Levin did not have and that he came to depend upon in his new position of leadership.  

Charlie Randall also brought with him an attraction to middle school girls, as well as a bad drinking problem.  According to allegations from an anonymous source interviewed by Gary Rubenstein, Randall openly engaged in lascivious behavior among KIPP students, behavior that would have gotten him fired and reported to authorities under normal circumstances. Instead, KIPP eventually promoted Randall and put him in charge of starting orchestra programs at other KIPP schools around the country.  According to Rubenstein, 

[t]he source, claiming to have firsthand knowledge, alleges that multiple witnesses, including numerous KIPP teachers and leaders, observed Charles Randall’s misconduct but did not report the egregious behavior exhibited by both Randall and Jesus Concepcion.

One account from the source states, “Randall would frequently arrive at school intoxicated. He kept a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black in the orchestra room and even offered us shots.” Additionally, the source mentioned, “He would often make sexually suggestive remarks about our bodies, accompanied by licking his lips, and the teachers witnessed this behavior but never intervened. It seemed as though no one cared until he began harassing the teachers. It was only then that he was eventually removed from KIPP Academy and reassigned to a national position.”

So I have questions:

• In 2018, the KIPP Foundation was eager to fire Mike Feinberg for alleged sexual misconduct and other inappropriate behaviors.  Will KIPP fire the other founder this time around in 2024 for his alleged complicity?
• Who was aware of Randall's misconduct while at KIPP, either in New York or at the other KIPP schools?
• Are there former students and/or teachers who are willing to share their stories (anonymously if you so choose) about Charlie Randall or his protege and now-convicted child sexual abuser, Jesus Concepcion? If you would like to share your story, please contact me via email: 

ontogenyx@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

Beaufort, SC Offers the Nation a Lesson on Dealing with Moms for Liberty

The Headline of the Day

 Florida Man Facing 91 Criminal Counts Dominates Super Tuesday Primaries

Rachel Maddow offered a great primer on Monday night for all of us who are intent upon doing whatever is necessary to preserve our constitutional republic.  Take a few minutes, and take a few notes: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV51sWQ9s3A

TN School Voucher Bill Will Cost Taxpayers Billions, Part 2

As with most school privatization plans, Tennessee legislators can count on a stable of bare-knuckled billionaires and millionaires to provide the cash to drive the current school voucher scheme that appears destined to become law--unless citizens who support public education raise enough hell to stop it.

The legislation (HB1183/SB0503) will provide, during the 2024-25 school year, just over $7,000 in state funding for 20,000 of Tennessee's just over one million K-12 students (including private school students). In Year 2 (2025-26), any or all of the parents of Tennessee's one million+ students may sign up.

Of the 20,000, half will be made available to students whose families’ income are below 300% of the federal poverty level, students with disabilities, and those who meet eligibility requirements for the existing ESA pilot program. The remaining 10,000 will be made available to any student currently entitled to attend a public school. 

Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, eligibility for the program would be opened to all Tennessee students, regardless of income or previous school enrollment. If demand exceeds available funding, previously enrolled program participants, low-income students, and students enrolled in public schools would be prioritized.

Based on conservative estimates of the Tennessee General Assembly Fiscal Review Committee, the costs will be staggering:

The total amount of scholarships awarded will result in an increase in state expenditures
estimated to be:

o $141,500,000 (20,000 x $7,075) in FY24-25;
o $343,147,000 (47,000 x $7,301) in FY25-26; and
o Exceeding $343,147,000 in FY26-27 and subsequent years.

If the voucher scheme led to 10 percent of Tennessee students in private schools by 2027 and moving forward, that would mean an additional $700,000,000+ every year for a state that is ranked 44th among states for K-12 funding.

How Will Local Education Agencies (LEAs) Be Affected?

Because the Republican voucher scheme does not include a hold-harmless provision, local school systems will be required to absorb the loss of state funding for their students who move to private schools. The information below is from the Tennessee General Assembly Fiscal Review Committee's Fiscal Memorandum, dated February 26, 2024:

The proposed legislation does not contain a hold-harmless provision for LEAs that
experience a decrease in local revenue due to students leaving the LEA to attend private
schools . . . .

Based on school voucher data from other states, the scholarships available to students
who are not subject to household income restrictions will be awarded to 60 percent of
students from private schools and to 40 percent of students from public schools . . . .

The total local decrease in revenue and decrease in state expenditures is estimated as
follows:

$101,525,200 ($89,905,200 + $11,620,000) in FY25-26; and

Exceeding $140,710,480 ($124,598,880+ $16,111,600) in FY26-27 and
subsequent years.

A loss in TISA funding would not necessarily be offset by avoiding the cost of educating
the student. Any offset or decrease in local expenditures would depend upon whether
certain cost-savings could be realized through staff reductions or service and resource
reductions.

However, it is assumed that LEAs will maintain spending levels despite a decrease in
student enrollment (pp. 3-5). 

In short, school systems who lose 10-15 percent of their students still must maintain physical plants, transportation systems, maintenance programs, and instructional programs for 85-90 percent of remaining students.  For a largely rural state, these costs could be devastating to budgets that are already bare bones.

 Do Vouchers Offer Improved Test Scores?

This new voucher scheme will be layered on top of the previous one that was implemented during the 2022-23 school year.  The data from Spring 2023 state tests demonstrate that the current push for school privatization is not driven by a desire for academic improvement:

In 2023, only 11.3% of program participants scored proficient on the math section of TCAP, compared to 33.7% of public school students. Similarly in English language arts, 22.8% of ESA recipients scored proficient, while 38% of public school students hit the benchmark.

 

TN School Voucher Bill Will Cost Taxpayers Billions

When it comes to state funding for public schools, Tennessee consistently ranks among states around 44th. In 2023, Tennessee earned an F in funding level, an F in funding effort, and a C in funding distribution.  

When it comes to state support for school vouchers, however, Tennessee is pushing to be among national leaders.  And if the current school voucher legislation passes that is now being crammed through the legislative process, Tennessee funding for public schools will take another huge hit.  

How big a hit?  Conservatively, the Republican voucher program, which they call Education Freedom Scholarships (EFS), will result in annual state expenditure increases of over $340,000,000.  So every three years Tennessee taxpayers will pay over a billion dollars for 2-5% of Tennessee's K-12 students to attend private schools, either secular or sectarian.

The information below is from a memo dated February 26, 2024 by the Tennessee General Assembly Fiscal Review Committee.

• Due to the universal nature of the program, it is assumed that students already attending
private school will seek the additional funding through the EFS Program.
• Based on school voucher program data from other states and the large pool of private
school students that would be eligible for the EFS, it is estimated that 47,000
scholarships will be awarded in the 2025-26 school year.
• The EFS Program is projected to grow in subsequent years following the 2025-26 school
year. However, due to the lack of multi-year data from other school voucher programs
across the country and different factors amongst those programs, a precise growth
estimate cannot reasonably be determined.
• The total amount of scholarships awarded will result in an increase in state expenditures
estimated to be:

o $141,500,000 (20,000 x $7,075) in FY24-25;
o $343,147,000 (47,000 x $7,301) in FY25-26; and
o Exceeding $343,147,000 in FY26-27 and subsequent years.

• The estimated annual growth in the program is conservative due to a limited amount of
data from other states with similar programs and the inability to establish participation
trends in those programs.
• Without a limitation on the number of participants beyond year one of the program, the
fiscal liability to the state created by the proposed legislation is significant.
• Should all 105,503 private school students receive a scholarship in FY25-26 (year two
of the program), the fiscal impact for FY25-26 would be an additional increase in state
expenditures of $572,506,018 [(105,503 x $7,406) - (47,000 x .60 x $7,406)] (p. 3).

Charter School Funding and that Giant Sucking Sound

 Nice piece of commentary here:

. . . . Charter schools have two primary funding sources: one from the taxpayers and the other from investments often executed with little public knowledge of intent or interest. Specifically, investments from billionaires, private foundations, and hedge fund managers reap tax advantages when they donate large sums of money to charter schools. After tax codes were changed in the early 2000s, “banks and equity funds that invest(ed) in charter schools in underserved areas took advantage of a very generous tax credit,” HuffPost reported. “According to one analyst, the credit allows them to double the money they invested in seven years.”

The real estate industry also stands to benefit by promoting charter schools and helping them buy up property, or rent, in inner city communities.

As one example indicates, the Rocky Mountain Prep charter school chain in Denver  received $4.5 million from billionaire MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in October 2022. Two months later, the KIPP charter school chain received $6 million from the same billionaire. These investments were in addition to the per pupil allocation these schools received from taxpayers in Denver.

When a child enrolls in a charter school, funds move from the public school to the charter school. Taxpayers may not be aware that their dollars are funding a structure that helps a private company or group of investors reap rewards or gain tax incentives. Moreover, the taxpayer may start to see their local neighborhood school struggling because the funds are flowing into the charter school.

Researchers have demonstrated that charter schools operate differently than their public-school counterparts. In their exhaustive study of charter schools, Kevin Welner and Wagma Mommandi describe 13 practices that many charter schools use to control their enrolment. These practices are not always regulated by state laws, and “when charter school enrollment is ‘biased’, it severely undermines our ability to compare funding, growth, or achievement.” . . . .

Trump's GOP Turns "Christian" to Re-ignite Base

The life of Jesus and the message he preached became codified as the moral bedrock of the Christian Church: love, humility, patience, forgiveness, self-control, compassion, charity, modesty, egalitarianism, inclusion.

Now when you compare these qualities to those of the old Adderall-snorting sagging bull that showed up at the Opryland Hotel two nights ago to whine his sermon before the Christian Broadcasters Convention, it's quite easy to see Trump quite literally as the anti-Christ: hateful, narcissistic, impulsive, vengeful, irrational, uncaring, greedy, boastful, exclusionary.  But Demonic Donald's qualities were lost on the red-hatted hoodwinkers of the "Christian" airwaves, who see Trump as their free ticket to greater affluence and influence, wealth and power.

So, of course, when the blasphemous former President, now indicted on over 90 federal charges, declared with outstretched arms, as if on the cross, “I take all these arrows for you and I’m so proud to take them. . . I’m being indicted for you,” the fundamentally-fascist audience went wild.

High School Diversity Program in VA Safe For Now

 From the National Coalition on School Diversity:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCSD and REEL Policy Clinic Issue Statement on SCOTUS Order in TJ Case

Washington, D.C. – February 20, 2024 – Today, the U.S. Supreme Court released an order denying a petition to take up the Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board specialized school admissions case. The decision comes after multiple deliberations following a petition for writ of certiorari filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of the parent group challenging Virginia’s top-ranked public high school’s recently-adopted process for student placement. 

The National Coalition on School Diversity (NCSD) and Georgetown Law’s Racial Equity in Education Law and Policy Clinic (REEL Policy Clinic) commend the Supreme Court’s order given its implications for educational access, diversity, and equity. This decision to deny certiorari comes the same year Brown v. Board of Education turns 70, which at its core recognized that K-12 public education is about ensuring equitable access to high-quality education for all students. 

“Diversity in our nation’s schools is vital if we are to function as a multiracial democracy,” said Janel George, associate professor of law and director of the REEL Policy Clinic. “TJ has taken action to provide more children with access to its high-quality program, which is aligned with the goal of public education and with magnet schools historically.” 

Last May, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled to uphold the admissions policy for the selective-enrollment high school, finding that it had not discriminated against Asian American students as the plaintiffs alleged. One month later, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action at Harvard University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ruling that such admissions policies violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. 

In crafting its colorblind rationale for the college admissions decision, the Supreme Court majority ignored the well-documented continuing impacts of systemic inequality and racial segregation in our nation’s public schools. Not only do schools remain deeply segregated by race and class, but students of color are more likely to attend underfunded and high-poverty schools with less effective instruction and reduced access to advanced coursework, extracurricular activities, and standardized testing preparation.

Within two months of the Supreme Court’s decision, the writ of certiorari was filed, asking the Court to declare that TJ’s pro-diversity admissions policy – which is explicitly race-neutral – violates the Equal Protection Clause. The changes to TJ’s process for student placement included 1) elimination of a standardized test, 2) establishment of new eligibility criteria (the top 1.5% of students at each public middle school who meet minimum standards); and 3) incorporation of a “holistic review of…students whose applications demonstrate enhanced merit.”

These changes aimed to acknowledge and help address the diminished educational opportunities, often correlated with a student’s race and socioeconomic background, due to long-standing and persistent systemic inequality. Following the murder of George Floyd and racial reckoning of 2020, the changes to TJ’s admissions policy can be seen as an attempt to provide a fairer chance for all students to access what is consistently ranked among the top ten best public high schools in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report. 

While the plaintiffs alleged that the 2020 changes to TJ’s process for student placement were designed to reduce the proportion of Asian American students at the school, Asian American students still made up the majority of students admitted under the new policy. Of the students who received offers to attend TJ, 54.36% were Asian, 22.36% white, 11.27% Latino, and 7.9% Black. The first freshmen class included more low-income students, Black and Latino students, English-language learners, and girls than prior classes. Moreover, for the first time in over a decade, all 28 middle schools in Fairfax County sent students to TJ.

Although no formal explanation for the denial is given, Justice Alito wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Thomas, which focuses mostly on challenging the Fourth Circuit’s reasoning that there was insufficient “disparate impact” to violate the Equal Protection Clause.

“The fact that only two justices dissented from the denial of Cert is a good sign,” said Philip Tegeler, a legal advisor with NCSD. “It means that, at least for now, a significant majority of the court is unwilling to overturn the 2007 precedent that local school districts have the power, and the tools, to promote school diversity without selecting students on the basis of their race.” 

Given this reality, NCSD and the REEL Policy Clinic express appreciation for the Supreme Court’s denial of the appeal. We will continue to fight and strengthen our collective efforts to promote equal educational opportunity in our nation’s public schools and help ensure every young person has a fair shot at achieving their full potential.  

For media inquiries, please contact: Jenna Tomasello (jtomasello@prrac.org)

Founded in 2009, the National Coalition on School Diversity (NCSD) is a cross-sector network of 50+ national civil rights organizations, university-based research centers, and state and local coalitions working to expand support for school integration. NCSD supports its members in designing, enacting, implementing, and uplifting PK-12 public school integration policies and practices so we may build cross-race/class relationships, share power and resources, and co-create new realities.

The Racial Equity in Education Law and Policy Clinic (REEL Policy Clinic) centers its work on the intersections of education law, racial equity, and legislative advocacy. Student attorneys explore the origins of racial inequities in education and the role of law in entrenching or eliminating them. This work includes addressing issues that disproportionately impact the educational experiences and outcomes of students of color, including discriminatory school discipline practices, school segregation, resource inequities, and more.