Chicago Teachers Union Versus Astroturf Billionaires

Billionaires like the Koch Brothers, Betsy DeVos, and Bill Gates fund astroturf tools like Jonah Edelman, Rebecca Nieves Huffman, and Kyle Olson. Working with anti-working class politicians like Rahm Emanuel, these groups and individuals strive to privatize public education, union bust, and profit off the sufferings of the poor. Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is on the front lines of the battle to save public education, but they are fighting right-wing forces with limitless resources. Their bold actions in the face of overwhelming odds may well be the turning point in the battle to prevent the neoliberal project from eliminating public education nationwide. They need our support, please contribute to the CTU Solidarity Fund.

Here's CTU's introduction to the film:

The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.

On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.

Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation's wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.

Corporate Party Continues Propaganda Campaign Against Chicago Teachers

Back in the old days of the Bush Administration, the Bushies paid hacks like Kate Walsh, who were receiving federal discretionary grants from ED,  to seed the op-ed pages of America's newspapers with pro-NCLB propaganda.  After an Inspector General report called out NCTQ and Walsh for their illegal actions, corporate ed deformers shifted their strategy to take advantage of the era of unrestricted spending by PACs and Super PACs.  

Take the work of Rebeca Nieves Huffman, for instance, whose accounts include Chicago Sun-Times, where she spreads the gospel for the Corporate Party's neoliberal wing, the Democrats for Education Reform.  

Who is Rebeca Nieves Huffman?  Well, here is her ad posted at the Friedman Foundation--as in Milton Friedman-- whose philosophy best represents the conservative wing of the Corporate Party that she represents:  

Vice President at the National Association of Charter School Authorizers

Schedule a Speaking Engagement With Rebeca Nieves Huffman

Huffman, a native of Chicago, currently serves as Vice President at the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) where she manages the grant making work of the organization through its Fund for Authorizing Excellence.

Before joining NACSA, Huffman served for 5 years as President and CEO of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (Hispanic CREO), an organization that is the national voice for the right of Latino parents to access all educational options and is an agent of change and equity in education.

Prior to serving as Hispanic CREO’s President and CEO, Huffman was the Associate Director of Recruitment and Selection for the KIPP Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing historically underserved students with the knowledge, skills, and character needed to succeed in top-quality high schools, colleges, and the competitive world beyond.
Huffman serves on the boards of Education Sector and City Year Chicago. She is also a proud alum of the Aspen Institute’s Entrepreneurial Leadership for Public Education fellowship program which identifies and strengthens the next generation of leaders within the K-12 education sector. 

Huffman resides in the city of Chicago with her husband, Craig, and children Sofia (3) and Solomon (21 months). 

Rebeca's specialty: Parent and Astroturf Grassroots Organizing.

Here is a link to Rebeca's tirade today, with all the trademark fear-mongering and hyperbole that is sure to satisfy her plutocratic bosses of the corporate foundations, who are lined up, waiting to turn Chicago Schools into another corporate revenue stream like Philadelphia, while leaving children behind in testing chain gangs with no public oversight and no alternative to the kind of punishing pedagogy that the corporate non-educators have perfected for the poor.