"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972
Showing posts with label Jeanne Allen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeanne Allen. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue

“In the long run, charter schools are being strategically used to pave the way for vouchers. The voucher advocates, who are very powerful and funded by right-wing foundations and families, recognize that the word voucher has been successfully discredited by enlightened Americans who believe in the public sector. So they’ve resorted to two strategies. First, they no longer use the word “vouchers.” They’ve adopted the seemingly benign phrase “school choice,” but they are still voucher advocates.” — Jonathan Kozol

The end goal of school privatization projects like charter schools has always been vouchers. While both charters and vouchers prevent the public from being able to control the curriculum taught with public dollars, vouchers are far worse in that regard. Vouchers represent an attack on democratic institutions and they represent an attack on rationality in general. Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, a case about to be heard in front of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), could open the flood gates to scare community tax dollars being squandered on dominionist curricula and schools that can openly discriminate.


Vouchers mean Jeanne Allen's dream of teaching children that Jesus rode dinosaurs will finally come true
image by Monty Propps https://b3ta.com/board/7293522

With a SCOTUS populated by arch-reactionaries like Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, it's highly likely that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment will either be ignored or explained away in order to justify funding extremist religious organizations. You know Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue represents a major threat to public education when charter-voucher promoting organizations like the Center for Education Reform file an amicus brief in favor of the right-wing plaintiff. Reactionaries Jeanne Allen and Paul Clement also got a piece published in Time in favor of using public funds to teach religious extremism.

Friday, October 06, 2017

Jeanne Allen: Reactionary Right-Wing Extremist

Allen: On board with ALEC

It’s general knowledge that Center for Education Reform (CER), and its CEO Jeanne Allen, are extremely right-wing. Sourcewatch documents their connection with American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Allen: Funded by the fringe

Jeanne Allen’s CER is funded by reactionary extremist billionaires, here’s a a sampling of their fringe-right supporters:

  • The Anschutz Foundation
  • The Laura and John Arnold Foundation
  • The Honorable and Mrs. Frank Baxter
  • The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
  • The Broad Foundation
  • The Doris and Donald Fisher Fund
  • The L & S Milken Family Foundation
  • Mr. Whitney Tilson
  • The Walton Family Foundation

Allen: Writing for the Fringe-Right

Jeanne Allen is a frequent contributor for reactionary publications like National Review. Additionally, she expressed enthusiastic support, in writing, for the policies of Donald J. Trump and his arch-reactionary Secretary of Education, religious extremist Betsy DeVos. Moreover, Allen was called out on Crooks and Liars for her full-throated support of DeVos’ segregationist policies.

Allen: Reactionary Republican

Jeanne Allen ran as the GOP candidate in 2010 for Maryland’s District 16 race for House of Delegates. She received funding from right-wing republicans like Jeb Bush, dark-money investors, and charter school profiteers. Jeanne Allen was Executive Director of the extreme-right Heritage Foundation’s “Town Hall.”


Brief history on how this meme came about. I recently tweeted about Allen in connection to an article I saw another activist post about her.

My tone not comporting, to steal from Professor Dylan Rodriguez, with the norms of "white civil society" caused some consternation with the reactionaries inhabiting #EdReform Twitter. Here are a few of the more notable responses:

Monday, February 22, 2010

Young Conservative Loves Obama Education Agenda, RttT, Merit Pay


Jonathan Krohn, the 14 year old wunderkid of the conservative/Tea Party movement, spoke to progressive radio host, Thom Hartmann, after absorbing the scene at the recent CPAC gathering. You can skip to the 3:25 mark of the video to hear Jonathan "give credit where credit is due" - in this case, Krohn thinks our "socialist" President deserves support for his pro-competition, pro-charter, pay for test score, pro-merit-pay agenda. "Public education is already there and we're not going to be able to abolish it," chimes in the kid - but you sure get the impression that he'd like to.

Krohn's not the only conservative wingnut hoping the Tea Party can influence education: Jeanne Allen, President of the Center for Education Reform (and a former member of the Imagine School's board of directors), penned this piece, which concludes, "Bring on the Tea Party. Next stop - Education Department."

Friday, June 19, 2009

U. S. News Blog Scrubs Negative Comments About CER

Even though U. S. News has been the only weekly news outfit to print anything about the CREDO study that undermines the entire rationale for Duncan's Race Over the Cliff charterizing strategy, this morning I could not help but posting a comment below the U.S. News blog piece reminding them that getting an unbiased and fact-based reaction on charter schools from the Jeanne Allen's Center for Education Reform is like getting a straight answer from the Washington Times about the shortcomings of the Moonies.

Anyway, the post was posted, but this afternoon is long gone. For the record, I kept a copy:
Thanks for carrying the news of this important peer-reviewed national study of over 2,400 charter schools. The criticism of the study that comes from Jeanne Allen's Center for Education Reform is typical of the fact-bashing that this charter/choice advocacy group produces regularly. With the following admission from their website, how could anyone consider them an unbiased source of information:

"The Center for Education Reform drives the creation of better educational opportunities for all children by leading parents, policymakers and the media in boldly advocating for school choice, advancing the charter school movement, and challenging the education establishment."

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Jeanne Allen Charter Propaganda Goes Unchecked by Washington Post

A couple of weeks ago it was George Will parading his ignorance and arrogance in an op-ed global warming denial piece that Washington Post sloppily fact-checked. Now we have another example from last Sunday's op-ed by Jeanne Allen, the Queen of charter school disinformation.

In a piece that shamelessly uses the South Carolina girl, Ty'Sheoma Bethea, who wrote the President about her crumbling school, to blame the girl's community for not fixing the problem themselves, Allen simply lies in order to paint the school community as lazy spendthrifts, a stereotype that lives on at least in the mind of Jeanne Allen:
Dillon's per-pupil expenditure -- $8,700 -- is higher than the national average. That funds more than 50 staff positions at her J.V. Martin Junior High School (including four custodians). That's a student-to-staff ratio of 9 to 1, meaning there are more than twice as many adults serving students as at most schools in the country. What if Ty'Sheoma had an opportunity scholarship, which would send $7,500 to the private school of her family's choosing?
It is bad enough that Allen would use this child to push her own corporate welfare solutions of vouchers and charters, but to make up stuff to perpetuate a cultural stereotype is really sad. It is doubly sad that the Washington Post would allow it. The actual per pupil expenditure at J. V. Martin Jr. High School is $7,322, while the SC state average expenditure is $9,466. The national average per pupil expenditure, WaPo factcheckers, is $8,701, which makes Ty'Sheoma's school $1,379 below the national average and $2,144 below the state average. By the way, the capital expenditures at this school are $149 per child per year, compared the $1,603 state average. I haven't been able to to check out the four custodians claim yet, but there would probably be plenty of work even if it were true, since the school was built in 1912.
Click to enlarge. You may see at left that the community of Dillon, SC is very poor, with 46% of households making under $30K per year. Chart from School Matters