The Monica Garcia - Betsy DeVos connection

“Monica Garcia believes in… choice… She expanded charter schools” — Michael R. Bloomberg and A. Jerrold Perenchio’s Coalition for School Reform

Extremist Betsy DeVos was a long time favorite of neoliberal corporate education reform oriented Liberals and reactionary organizations like Democrats for Education Reform, so it's surprising that there's a little bit of consternation coming from some Democrats over Trump's ED pick. On the other hand, right-wing extremists like Campbell Brown seemingly can't contain their joy over the arch-reactionary appointment. Ultimately DeVos's school privatization policies won't differ substantively from those of the doltish Arne Duncan or John King. She'll just get to our rulers' end goal of eliminating public education quicker than the Bush and Obama Administrations were able to.

Los Angeles has had its own Betsy DeVos for many years in the form of anti-public school politician Monica Garcia. Garcia is running for a third term, and her long record of expanding revenue streams and market share for the lucrative charter school industry is legendary. Here are some of DeVos and Garcia's connections and shared values:

• Betsy DeVos financially supports, and was on the board of publisher (The 74) of the dubious "LA School Report", a high-profile blog that has provided non-stop favorable publicity and propaganda for Moníca García since its inception.

• DeVos has made sizable contributions to organizations that in turn made campaign contributions to SuperPAC Independent Expenditures supporting García's elections. Follow the money to organization like the now defunct Coalition for School Reform, and Great Public Schools Los Angeles, and also the current CCSA run Parent Teacher Alliance dark money SuperPAC.

• DeVos funds the organizations espousing racist "school choice" policies from which García derives many of her policy positions and talking points.

• DeVos and García openly support religious, and religious affiliated organizations running charter chains. DeVos with the various Christian Identity and white supremacist organizations she's associated with, and García, whose long time relationship with The Pacifica Institute and the shadowy Gülen network are well documented.

DFER Is Thrilled with DNC Platform, and So Is NEA Prez

Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency)

And why wouldn't DFER be thrilled?  Democrats for Education Reform is the poisonous tip of the corporate education reform spear inside the DNC.  It is run directed by the hedge fund water carriers at the corporate think tank, Education Sector, in DC, even though the advisory board is studded with modern-day Booker Ts.  

Shaver Jeffries is one of those DFER black faces chosen to transmit the white philanthropists' message for black consumption:

We are thrilled that our Party has reaffirmed its unwavering commitment to progressive education policies that help ensure every student, regardless of their zip code or their background, receives the world-class public education they deserve.

Why is Mr. Jeffries thrilled?  Hillary and the Dems have approved a platform that doubles down on more testing accountability and a massive new commitment to segregated corporate charter schools:

• On Raising Standards & Strengthening Accountability: “Democrats believe that all students should be taught to high academic standards. Schools should receive adequate resources and support. We will hold schools, districts, communities, and states accountable for raising achievement levels for all students—particularly low-income students, students of color, English Language Learners, and students with disabilities.”
  

• On Ensuring Public School Choice & Supporting High-Quality Public Charters: “Democrats are also committed to providing parents with high-quality public school options and expanding these options for low-income youth. We support great neighborhood public schools and high-quality public charter schools, and we will help them disseminate best practices to other school leaders and educators.”

Yesterday DFER got a booster shot for their enthused contagion when Hillary spoke at the NEA convention.  From Mr. Jeffries, quoted in the Washington Post: 

“We were happy to see her specifically affirm her support for high-quality public charter schools,” said Shavar Jeffries, president of the pro-charter group Democrats for Education Reform. “Her statements today reiterate her commitment to reform.”

Also enthusing on Hillary's remarks was DFER's mouthpiece inside NEA, President Lily Eskelsen:

“There are some successful charter schools,” she said. “Let’s look at what makes them work.”

To find out, President Eskelsen, what "makes them work, may I suggest you may start with my modest contribution to the subject.

Curmudgucation Reads Verdict on Hillary, But Co-Defendants Ignored

In coming to the evidentiary edge of connecting the dots among the DNC, DFER, Gates/Broad, and NEA/AFT, Curmuducation is pressing the envelope on preserving his elevated status in Diane Ravitch's Blogger Hall of Fame.  But he is not there yet, having stopped just short of a guilty verdict for Weingarten and Garcia for co-conspiring to allow the destruction of public schools and the teaching profession. 

Rather, it is Hillary whose verdict Peter Greene is here to deliver:

I would say that the jury is still out on Hillary, but honestly, I'd be lying. Hillary is pretty clearly tied to the same charter-loving, reform-pushing, corporate-driven, test-and-punishing reformsters as our last two Presidents. CAP, one of the fiercest reformster-driven advocacy groups in DC, was simply a holding pen for Clinton campaign leaders like John Podesta; they are close to Hillary and they have never, ever, been a friend to public education or public school teachers. DFER, a group that absolutely loathes teachers and the teachers union, is delighted that Hillary is running.

Meanwhile, Anthony Cody has been put in charge of pretending that there is some conversion process underway that will bring the wayward Weingarten and Garcia into the Ravitch fold.  The idiocy of such a notion is too ridiculous for comment.

Cody, in fact, needs time and resources to get his next big NPE talkathon in Orlando arranged, and he can't do it without the laundered Gates money that NEA and AFT have for him.

How teachers can continue to support this political pyramid scheme is truly baffling.

CCSA's Ref Rodriguez campaign now linked to ALEC, Kochs, SFER and DFER

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April 21, 2015 Contact: Bennett Kayser HQ Cell: 323-535-9930 HEY NEW YORKERS, WELCOME TO OUR L.A. SCHOOL BOARD RACE, NOW FOLLOW OUR LOCAL ETHICS AND TRANSPARENCY RULES!! Los Angeles – New York money continues to attempt to buy influence in the Los Angeles Unified School Board race in District 5. Out-of-state “Reform, Inc.” money still pours in against local teacher and current Board member Bennett Kayser. One NYC billionaire was good for $450,000 as of December. Now, a front group from NYC linked to the hard-core Republican super PAC known as ALEC and the Koch brothers has inserted money in our school board race. “Students for Education Reform” (SFER) has landed with boots on the ground, paid boots. (Whether they were flown in is another question.) SFER has spent $20,120.80 so far. Just two weeks in town and SFER has already violated our local ethics and transparency requirements. SFER has failed to follow both California and the City of Los Angeles’ election ethics rules for mail communications. They are required to include a disclaimer specifying the name, address, a registered ID number and to inform the public who paid for the material and that additional information is available at ethics.lacity.org. Once again Rodriguez supporters are circumventing the law, violating local ethics rules and hiding out-of-state billionaire backers. The following is SFER’s non-disclosure, “dis-closure” found on their mail: “Paid for by Students for Education Reform Action Network and not authorized by candidate(s) or any committee controlled by the candidate(s).” Astroturf Activism: Who is Behind Students for Education Reform? (by George Joseph in the Nation) SFER has received $1.6 million from Education Reform Now, whose PAC, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), shelled out $1 million to attack the Chicago Teachers Union. DFER worked with the Koch brothers and ALEC to push Proposition 32, which if passed, would have blocked labor unions from using automatic payroll deductions for political purposes. Though SFER claims neutral territory, its motives are laid bare by its rallying around the funding of charter schools, the issue of limiting tenure, and its strict focus on testing. The testing corporations and charter school CEOs might agree with hedge funder and DFER founder Whitney Tilson’s explanation for his interest in education: “Hedge funds are always looking for ways to turn a small amount of capital into a large amount of capital.” http://www.thenation.com/blog/172174/astroturf-activism-who-behind-students-education-reform Nothing says democracy, education Reform, Inc.-style more than a trip to Walmart and valet service! http://ethics.lacity.org/disclosure/campaign/search/public_ie_search_results.cfm ### Paid for by Re-Elect Bennett Kayser for School Board 2015 - General – 419 North Larchmont Blvd., #37, Los Angeles, CA 90004 – ID #1375891 – More information available at Ethics.lacity.org – Bennett2015.com – (323) 535-9930

Copyright © 2015 Re-Elect Bennett Kayser For School Board 2015 - General, All rights reserved.

IPS and the National School Board Buyout

By Doug Martin

Although the local powers-that-be who funded the members who won the Indianapolis Public School board 2014 election are well known and mentioned in my book Hoosier School Heist (Al Hubbard, David Harris, Bart Peterson, the Chamber, Eli Lilly’s John Lechleiter, Anne Shane, and Christel DeHaan of Tony Bennett scandal fame, to name a few), some of the wealthy outsiders who bought the IPS board in 2014 are relatively new to Indiana.  These new funders last year loaded the campaign chests of IPS candidates LaNier Echols (Carpe Diem charter school’s dean), Mary Ann Sullivan (former lawmaker and present Democrats for Education Reform national board member), and Kelly Bentley (Democrat for Education Reform member), who were all elected. 

But the IPS board race was just one buyout for these newest IPS wealthy funders.  In fact, these same well-to-do out-of-staters have been buying mayors, governors, and school boards all across the US to further the school privatizing agenda. 

Some of these campaign donors, it appears, mean to cement in place Rocketship and KIPP Indy, which are both scheduled to open a dozen charter schools in Indy in the next few years. 

Another wealthy campaign contributor is surely hoping to plant his affiliated charter school francize, Achievement First, in Indianapolis in the near future. 

Many of these wealthy funders, too, are tied to Stand for America, a group which was not required to tell taxpayers the exact cash it dished out to buy the IPS board seats for Sullivan, Echols, and Bentley (see Amos Brown's excellent write-up on this here), although Alternet’s Anna Simonton claims that Stand for Children’s “nonprofit and political arm… together spent over $21 million last year in order to elect 78 state-level and 15 district-level “’education champions.’”

All in all, Simonton traces some of the out-of-state funders behind IPS’ 2014 election as part of a vast movement by the extremely wealthy to recently buy school boards in New Orleans, Denver, and Los Angeles.  Let’s look at a few other cities besides these that the IPS board donors have infiltrated.

BAIN CAPITAL AND THE BLOOMBERGS

Although I mention Bain Capital (started by Mitt Romney) and Stand for Children’s cozy relationship in Hoosier School Heist, it was the recently retired managing director of Bain, Mark Nunnelly, who helped elect school privatizers to the IPS school board and many other public school boards across the country. 

Mark Nunnelly gave $1,000 to Kelly Bentley, $1,000 to LaNier Echols, and $1,500 to Mary Ann Sullivan’s campaigns.  Nunnelly also has supported Stand for Children and funded the Black Alliance for Educational Options/DFER Newark mayor Cory Booker, all mentioned in my book.

Nunnelly is on the board of directors of KIPP charter schools with Emma Bloomberg, the daughter of former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg.  Emma is chairman of the board of Stand for Children’s national outfit.  With Mind Trust help, KIPP Indy is scheduled to open several new schools in Indianapolis. 

Emma Bloomberg played a role in the DC state board of education election, and she chairs the Teach for America-founded Leadership for Educational Equity, the group which gave $5,000 to LaNier Echols, the IPS candidate who also received $650 (see page 3) from TV show princess and major anti-teacher tenure operative Campbell Brown.  And if all of this were not enough, former mayor Michael Bloomberg, upset over lost money to Tony Bennett’s 2012 campaign, pulled through a few days before the IPS board election and gifted Mary Ann Sullivan $2,500.

BIG OIL GIRL TO THE RESCUE

The daughter of a rich Oklahoma oilman, billionaire Stacey Schusterman is the CEO of Samson Energy, a real estate leader, and a supporter of Stand for Children. She gave $500 (page 10) to Mary Ann Sullivan’s IPS campaign last year and $1,500 (page 6) to Bentley’s. 

Along with Walmart’s Carrie Walton Penner (whose husband Greg, as I point out in Hoosier School  Heist, helped buy the IPS board election of 2012), Schusterman sits on the board of the Charter School Growth Fund.  Besides dismantling public education in her own state, along with Achievement First trustee Jonathan Sackler, Schusterman funded Marshall Tuck for the superintendent’s office in California, the young and handsome corporate darling who, despite tons of money, lost the election.

Hedge fund manager Alan Fournier didn’t have to worry about funding the IPS board race last year, as he did in 2012.  Schusterman took his place, and they both worked together to influence the New Jersey school board race last November, too.

Schusterman also gave $25,000 to Stand for Children’s election campaign in Washington state in 2012.

LINKEDIN WITH FACEBOOK

Billionaire LinkedIn’s CEO Reid Hoffman and his wife Michelle Yee each gave $1,000 to Kelly Bentley (page 6), $1,000 (page 4) a piece to LaNier Echols, and $1,000 each to Mary Ann Sullivan’s IPS board campaign (page 2).

Hoffman and Yee funded Tobias Read’s campaign, an Oregon state representative who was one of the sponsors of a charter school bill which passed in 2011.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg helped Tobias Read, too, for he used to work with her and Larry Summers in Bill Clinton’s Administration.  Summers, if we remember, helped set the rules to deregulate Wall Street which led to the big crash of 2008. 

Sheryl Sandberg is a member of Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.  Along with Intel’s Arthur Rock, Sandberg funded a school board member for the Duval County Florida school board race last year.  And Sandberg, Rock, Greg Penner (Carrie Walton’s husband who helped buy the IPS school board in 2012), were behind the school board privatization movement in Atlanta recently, too, supporting four candidates who were elected.  As Alternet’s Anna Simonton writes:

[Arthur] Rock is not the only name on the reports with financial power and a less than obvious connection to Atlanta Public Schools. Greg Penner of the Walmart empire, Dave Goldberg of the Sheryl Sandberg empire (they’re married), and Kent Thiry of the DaVita kidney dialysis empire (it sounds inglorious, but he pulls in $17 million annually), are among the names that had some Atlantans scratching their heads this election season.

Billionaire Arthur Rock (a board member of TFA’s Leadership for Educational Equity), Greg Penner, and Alan Fournier (who gave money to IPS school board candidates in 2012), among others, poured money into a small town school board race in New Jersey recently.  

And Rock and Bain Capital’s Mark Nunnelly also helped buy school privatization during a school board race in California. 

Arthur Rock gave $5,000 to LaNier Echols’ campaign (page 3)

PUTTING SACKLER’S ACHIEVEMENT FIRST FIRST, REGARDLESS OF ZIPCODE

In 2014, investment manager and real estate mogul Jonathan Sackler handed Mary Ann Sullivan $2,500.

Sackler, a board member of the New Schools Venture Fund privatizing outfit, is the trustee at Achievement First, a nationwide charter school managing organization.  He is also a director at 50CAN, a corporate school group funded, in various states, by Bill Gates, the Bush Foundation, Arthur Rock, the Walton Family Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and many others involved in privatizing Indiana schools. 

Along with Arthur Rock and other IPS board donors, Sackler threw money into the Minnesota school board race last year, as well.  Beth Hawkins, at MinnPost, writes that “The Minneapolis Progressive Education Fund has received $100,000 from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, $90,000 from Teach for America board member Arthur Rock and $25,000 from Jon Sackler, who sits on the boards of the education advocacy groups 50CAN and Students for Education Reform”.

Sarah Lahm, from In These Times, gives us a hint at what is going on here.  Keep in mind that Rocketship is set to operate in Indianapolis, and Arthur Rock, Facebook’s Sandberg, and others partner with that charter school company:

What do investors like Bloomberg, Rock and Sackler stand to gain by pouring money into the Minneapolis school board race? While national charter school chains such as Rocketship do not operate here, the city’s school district recently entered into the state’s first-ever “district-charter compact” with local charter school chain Hiawatha Leadership Academies. This compact was borne out of a 2010 District-Charter Collaboration Compact signed by Minneapolis Public School administrators, local politicians and charter school operators. In the future, Minneapolis Public Schools spokesperson Myrle Croasdale tells In These Times, the district is “open to developing partnerships with outside stakeholders.” Perhaps this willingness helps to explain how the Minneapolis Progressive Education Fund has attracted such big-dollar outside support for school board candidates.

Sackler, in fact, even bought the Providence, Rhode Island, Obama-supported mayor, giving over $25,000 to Democratic Jorge Elorza in 2014, who won the election.  Elorza “sat on the board of the Achievement First Mayoral Academy until he entered the race for mayor.” 

Sackler and others actually own Connecticut governor Dan Mallory, as Jonathan Pelto has noted time and time again, and 50CAN influenced the Bridgeport, Conn. Board of education election, too.

For the Austin, Texas, school board race, Sackler helped IPS board funders Schusterman, Nunnelly, Campbell Brown, and the Leadership for Educational Equity. 

As a side-note, Tindley charter school’s Marcus Robinson sits on the board of directors of the Achievement First Charter Network Accelerator.

MORE HEDGE FUND DEMOCRATS

The hedge fund manager front group DFER also played a role in the IPS race.  National board member Mary Ann Sullivan was helped by Democrats for Education Reform, which handed over $1,100 (page 10), and DFER’s Joe Williams (detailed in Hoosier School Heist), gave $250 (page 14).  Education Reform Now, which is closely tied to DFER, gave Bentley $600, and DFER gave her $1,100 (page 6).

For more insight and campaign funding details on the IPS board race of 2014, see Gary Welsh’s excellent blog post here.

 

Indy Corporate School Complex Gearing Up for IPS School Board Buyout

by Doug Martin

Even though the filing deadline is not until the end of the month, the Indy Chamber has already handpicked candidates to elect to the IPS school board to completely turn the city’s schools over to the greedy.

Readers who have read Hoosier School Heist know exactly what this means and are well aware of the group of billionaires and lapdogs who desire to turn Indianapolis into New Orleans, where no true public schools exist now. Indianapolis didn’t have a hurricane to take advantage of, but it did have Bush Family friend Al Hubbard, NJ hedge funder Alan Fournier, and others who bought the candidates last election to help privatize IPS.

The Indy Corporate School Complex includes the Indy Chamber, the Mind Trust, the DFER hedge funders, Amway/DeVos, and others, and in Indianapolis, the Chamber has officially announced it is gearing up for the heist starting with its September 4th "Politics Never Looked So Good" Hobnob event, where it will roll out its red carpet for its IPS corporate board candidates at a VIP reception.

The first Chamber candidate is Kelly Bentley, who sat on the IPS board for years before she went to work for the hedge fund group DFER in Indianapolis.  

LaNier Echols, a veteran corporate school member in the city, is the second candidate the wealthy are supporting.  A transplant from Jeb Bush’s Florida and a Marian University/Teach for America alumnus, Echols is famous for appearing in Mitch Daniel’s Aiming Higher PAC’s anti-teacher seniority ad.  She went on to work for the Indiana Public Charter Schools Association and has even testified at the statehouse for merit-pay based on student testing. She now is the dean at Indy's Carpe Diem school, ran by a national outfit supported by Jeb Bush, Tony Bennett, Mike Pence, Pence's CECI, and the Friedman Foundation.

Even though Mary Ann Sullivan hasn’t even filed the paperwork to run for the IPS school board or the officials at the clerk’s office haven’t posted the filing yet, she is a shoo-in, the corporate school leaders believe.  Sullivan’s husband Brian is on the board at the Indy Chamber, as is Hoosier School Heist legend Charles Garcia.  Sullivan has been a longtime operative for the DFER hedge fund managers in NYC and was loaded with money from mayor Michael Bloomberg for one of her campaigns (see page 143 in Hoosier School Heist), as was Stand for Children, DFER, and Tim Delaney.

Sullivan is a serious threat to public schools now.  In May she joined the national board of DFER, along with Indiana-born Kevin Chavous, the founding father of the Black Alliance for Educational Options front group and DFER whose appearance in my book is one of its most despicable sections.

In 2013, Sullivan climbed aboard DFER's Speakers Bureau, a fancy term meaning former legislators willing to spread hedge fund propaganda to the media and anyone else duped into listening. 

Unfortunately, no campaign finance records have been recorded yet on these candidates, but look for them here when they do.  I can almost tell you now who will be mentioned. 

Word on the street is the Chamber didn’t endorse any IPS board candidates last election until October and even interviewed some.  But there’s no need to interview candidates you have handpicked to carry on the school privatizing agenda.  The Chamber knows they will be good little lapdogs and do what the billionaires say.

 

Ed Delaney’s Son's 2012 Senate Race Funded by Corporate Ed

by Doug Martin

Although state representative Ed Delaney has been a friend to public education so far, we better keep a close eye on his son, Democrat Edward Timothy Delaney—or simply Tim, if he decides to run for the Indiana state Senate in the future.  
 

Although he lost the election, Edward Timothy Delaney's 2012 campaign was highly funded by many of the hedge fund managers and billionaires across the country deeply involved in turning our schools over the those with the most greed.

In 2012, hedge fund manager David Tepper gave $1,000 to both to Tim Delaney and Mary Ann Sullivan’s campaigns.

With 5 billion dollars in the bank in 2011, Tepper , the highest-earning hedge fund manager in 2013, was a main player behind the corporate school movement in New Jersey.  His name is associated with many described in my book, including Alan Fournier, Tepper’s partner, who bought Caitlin Hannon's election during the last IPS school board race.

Then there’s Democrats for Education Reform's Boykin Curry, who has led the hedge fund assault against public schools nationwide for years now. 

Curry gave the young Delaney $5,000 in 2012 (page 2). 

When I wrote Hoosier School Heist, Curry--hated by public school activists from Texas to Tipton--was sitting pretty on the board of Walmart/Devos’ American Federation for Children (and still is), so the billionaire was part of the Indiana school buyout from the get-go.  

Patrick Hamill, a Denver real estate mogul, gave $1,000 to Tim Delaney’s 2012 campaign, too (page 3). 

Hamill, the DFER-affiliated Education Reform Now group (a Mind Trust subsidizer so that people like  David Harris can "live big"), and former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg funded corporate school board candidates in Denver last year. 

In 2012, as a matter of fact, Michael Bloomberg gave big to Tim Delaney, as he did to Tony Bennett, corporate school front group Stand for Children, DFER, and hedge fund princess and IPS school board candidate Mary Ann Sullivan, who is looking for some handouts from rich people like Delaney's funders. 

Husband and wife Silicon Valley venture capitalist team Michelle Yee and Reid Hoffman each handed Delaney Jr. $1,500 (page 3).  Reid, a billionaire, was a fellow at the Aspen Institute, which is detailed in my book.  Reid is best known for helping facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who is also deep in the corporate school movement in NJ.  An investor in the education site Edmodo, Hoffman was praised by Obama’s Penny Pritzker in reference to the anti-worker/anti-American/anti-Democratic Pacific Trade Agreement heist recently.

DC’s CityBridge Foundation’s Katherine Bradley--who is a board member of KIPP and Stand for Children, a big Michelle Rhee lover, and married to media mogul David Bradley--slid Ed Timothy Delaney $1,200 in 2012 (page 3).

CityBridge is a part of DC School Reform Now and is helping the foundation of Eli Broad (a Tony Bennett donor whose Broadies run the US Dept. of Ed. with Bill Gates' operatives) to spread Bill Gates’ “blended learning” in the city so that wealthy CEOs of charter schools can pocket the money they don’t have to pay to teachers.

Finally, Gulen school supporter and corporate school politician Andre Carson used his campaign to give young Delaney $500 (page 13).

Whenever I mention that John Gregg took DFER money for his campaign, people tell me time and time again that he didn’t know where the money was coming from.  Maybe that is the case.  It is also more reason why Gregg and the elected Democrats need to read my book, which they don’t. 

I hear Tim is a good guy.  But Tim Delaney--whose mom used to be the chairwoman of the Indiana Democratic Party--had funding from too many hedge funders and school privatizers to not understand what they were paying for, you would think.  If he truly doesn’t understand why billionaires from out of state were giving him money, someone needs to explain this to him now. I seriously hope he was merely duped.  I hope that is the answer to all of this. I hear he is now supporting Glenda Ritz and the teachers unions, so maybe he has seen the light.

We all know most Republicans in this state are going to take corporate school funding, so maybe we  should be tracking and educating more closely our Democrats.