"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 Students First. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Students First. Show all posts

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Courage Campaign takes on TFA-cum-StudentsFirst's Michelle Rhee's predator husband, Kevin Johnson

“Had Michelle Rhee only taped the mouths of predator Kevin Johnson’s victims shut…” — Robert D. Skeels

We all owe Deadspin a huge debt of gratitude for bringing all of these long-standing issues of Kevin "hands-on" Johnson's past misdeeds back into the light of day. The persistent rumors that StudentsFirst-cum-Teach for America darling Michelle Rhee used her White House connections to cover up all the ugly truths about this man for whom she abandoned her own children still loom. Let's always bear in mind that Kevin Johnson, like many neoliberal corporate education reformers, runs privately managed charter schools where he has unfettered "access" to young students. Since charter schools are subject to essentially negligible oversight or public accountability, it's no surprise that they are havens for child abusers.

Amendment to original post

Courage Campaign's Executive Director Eddie Kurtz reached out expressing concern that this post contained "false information," and asked me to contact him. I did, and provide the gist of our conversation here. I was asked to explain my perspective and I informed him that it came when I received an email in the spring that seemed to imply that Courage Campaign had endorsed neoliberal corporate education reform profiteer Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez. I remember being shocked since Courage Campaign was good on other issues; so I reached out to some contacts who explained that Jamie Alter-Lynton, one of Los Angeles' most vehement enemies of public education, sat on Courage Campaign's Board of Directors. I checked her biography, and the board membership is a point of pride for the neoliberal operative. For those who don't remember Alter-Lynton and her husband cashed in big on the fact that they had Pearson PLC inside trade information via the disgraced John Deasy. They use their resources as members of the 1% to attack public education on every front.

Kurtz pointed out that Alter-Lynton hadn't been on their board for two years, and that the organization disagrees with her views on education policy. Moreover, he stated that Courage Campaign actively opposes neoliberal corporate education reform. To wit, he sent me an email that went to their entire list opposing Eli Broad's operative Marshall Tuck. The email was on point, here's a passage:

Here at Courage Campaign, we DON'T endorse candidates, but we DO make sure to alert our members if there is someone on the ballot who OPPOSES progressive values. And Marshall Tuck is that candidate.

The quote also makes clear that they do not endorse individual candidates, meaning the email I received didn't come from them. In retrospect it's likely that the Rodriguez campaign implied the endorsement, like the multiple mailers he sent that implied Governor Brown had in endorsed him. Truth seems to be some that Rodriguez is pathologically averse to. My fact checking of Courage Campaign, which stopped at the connection with Alter-Lynton, was insufficient in that it led me to the wrong conclusion. In my defense, I was very busy studying for, and somehow passed, this awful thing. That doesn't excuse the fact that I had Courage Campaign's education stances all wrong. I apologize, and am glad that this issue is cleared up. I'm leaving my original prose in the following paragraph intact so that there's evidence of my error in regards to Courage Campaign. The other entities I attack in that paragraph are more than deserving of what I said about them.

Courage Campaign has typically been quite bad on issues surrounding education. Frequently supporting neoliberal corporate education reforms, and endorsing greedy charter school industry candidates for office, they have betrayed the progressive veneer they claim. Perhaps this rare, principled stand against an education reformer by Courage Campaign is a sign that they are going to adopt a progressive education policy and stop supporting the corporate takeover of our schools. Even if that's not the case, at least they recognize that unscrupulous individuals like Johnson have no place in public office. We still need to get the word out about Antonio R. Villaraigosa's crimes against the poor.

SIGN THE PETITION: Demand mayor of Sacramento resign for allegedly sexually abusing a 15 year old



The video is chilling.

A teenage girl sits on her hands and speaks to a Phoenix police officer in a gloomy room, describing sexual abuse.(1)

The man she describes lying naked with her, fondling her, and asking her to promise not to tell anyone is Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

This isn’t a new case. Many people in Sacramento had been aware of her words and allegations, but had never seen her face before or heard her voice telling a first hand account of her story. We can’t keep ignoring these serious allegations of child sex abuse.

Demand that Mayor Kevin Johnson immediately resign in the face of this horrific video and numerous allegations of other crimes of sexual abuse by him.

I worked as a social worker advocating for survivors of rape and domestic violence for years, and I know first hand how hard it is for survivors to speak out about the sexual violence committed against them -- especially when the perpetrator is a powerful man. But, as has been publicly recorded, the girl in this newly surfaced video, Mandi Koba -- who was 16 years old at the time of the interview and 15 during the time of the abuse -- had the courage to come forward and tell her story publicly after 20 years.She says she is a "grown-up now" and tired of "protecting [Mayor Johnson]," despite his attempt to buy her silence with $230,000, as reported by The Sacramento Bee.(2)
Mandi -- who is now an advocate for survivors of rape and sexual assault -- first reported the abuse as a teen and has publicly said it was because she feared Johnson was abusing or would abuse other young girls. And she wasn't wrong.
Allegations of sexual abuse and harassment have followed Mayor Johnson from Phoenix to Sacramento, where Johnson was accused of assaulting five young female students at his charter school, St. HOPE, as well as groping and making unwanted sexual advances at a colleague.(3) But many believe these cases of abuse and misconduct never impacted his rise to mayor of Sacramento because, like with Mandi, and as has been publicly recorded, he made legal settlements that forced the survivors of his alleged crimes to hush up.(4)

Kevin Johnson has never had to confront these allegations. And the survivors of his alleged assaults have been forced to watch him rise to fame and success without publicly responding to the numerous allegations of sexual abuse. Well, enough is enough.
In the face of these newly surfaced reports of sexual crimes and the media frenzy surrounding them, ESPN recently canceled the debut of a documentary that deified Mayor Johnson for his role is securing Sacramento's NBA franchise, but totally ignored his well-documented history of sexual assault.(5)
And just this week, Mayor Johnson announced that he would not be seeking re-election next year.
It has never been more clear, in the face of these allegations, Kevin Johnson does not deserve to represent the people of Sacramento. And Sacramento cannot wait until next year for Johnson to step down. He should not be allowed to remain in office one more day!
JOIN US and demand Kevin Johnson immediately resign as mayor of Sacramento.

Laura, along with Annie, Eddie, Emma, Kelsey, Lindsay, Moonyoung, Paul, Scottie, and Tim (the Courage team)
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Saturday, July 11, 2015

2015 Week 28 Education Odds and Ends

“Our rulers don’t just want exclusive control over the governance and finances of our schools, they want to control both what is taught and by whom.” — Robert D. Skeels

Deasy not given his due

An EdSource piece by the respected Carl Cohn makes the tired old case for "breaking up" Los Angeles Unified School District. Cohn lists multiple recent missteps in his case — MiSiS cRiSiS and Pearson/iPad scandal among them — but never once mentions the common denominator of all the missteps, perhaps because of EdSource's sources of funding. I addressed Cohn's lack of attribution thusly:

Mr. Cohn, how coy of you not to provide full credit to John Deasy for nearly all of the woes you enumerate above? The Broad Superintendents Academy "graduate" oversaw (read masterminded) MiSiS, iPads, and many more projects that left the district in disarray, nearly bankrupt, with little more than the ability to manage damage control rather than implement any of the forward looking projects you allude to. While some say that Deasy, and all of the Nonprofit Industrial Complex (NPIC) organizations that supported his abject tenure, were following the Andy Smarick roadmap for scuttling school districts (outlined in his "Wave of the Future" essay in the fringe-right EdNext journal), I would posit it sounds more like Broad's meddling.

Dr. Mitchell Robinson's response to Peter Cunningham

http://socialjusticequotations.tumblr.com/post/118398294623/school-choice-is-a-false-choice-no-parent

Duncan given his due, for the most part

Arguably the doltish Arne Duncan is either the worst Secretary of Education in all of U.S. History, or the best corporate bagman to ever occupy the post. Honestly, he's both. The distinguished Professor Diane Ravitch excoriates the inept education chief in her response to Lyndsey Layton's ham-handed paean to Duncan.

Confronting a corporate reform neckbeard's mansplainin'

Eric Lerum showing off his neckbeard I was on Twitter the other day and noticed someone mansplainin' a teacher acquaintance of mine. The offender was none other than former Michelle Rhee minion Eric Lerum. When the teacher made the correct assertion that privately managed charter schools engage in selective enrollment, Lerum made the following bizarre statement:

Incredulous at the neoliberal corporate reformer's statement I provided hard evidence from the Office of Independent Monitor (OIM):

Lerum did not respond to that tweet, presumably because his entire argument rests on ignoring facts. Neither he, nor any other corporate reformer, are able to address the issue. Instead, he kept berating my teacher friend by citing policy papers (as opposed to legitimate research) by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), a fringe-right think-tank funded by reactionary ideologues including: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Fund for Educational Excellence, The Joyce Foundation, Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, National Alliance for Public [sic] Charter Schools, Walton Family Foundation, and The Broad Foundation.

At one point Lerum stated in regards to the significant under enrollment of Students with Disabilities (SWD), particularly low incident ones, "not enough to look at #s - must also examine cause of #s." Lerum holds a Juris Doctor, and I'm working on mine, so let me make this as simple as possible for him to understand in legal terms. The ostensible reasons why the lucrative charter school industry refuses to educate SWD are not important as this is a strict liability offense. Lack of specific intent, mistake of fact, or mistake of law are no defense here. Charters do not educate every child, and as such, must be held strictly liable for their crimes. Sorry to threaten the charter sector's profits, but that's the reality, and no amount of un-juried policy papers masquerading as "research" will change that.

The teacher then cited the illustrious Professor Antonia Darder's Racism and the Charter School Movement: Unveiling the Myths.

Lerum's maladroit response speaks volumes to his limited understanding of education, and research in general. It is no exaggeration to say that Darder is an intellectual giant in the field of education. Years ago I remember one of my mentors, Dr. John Fernandez, saying "sure you've read McClaren, Macedo, and Giroux, but you need to read Darder, she's the closest thing to Freire." Professor Darder can write a piece like she did in Truthout precisely because she's written dozens of books, and peer reviewed articles. What does Lerum have to his credit? A few poorly composed and fact-free Huffington Post pieces? Yet leave it to the corporately sponsored Lerum to question the veracity of one of the preeminent scholars of our age.

It shouldn't surprise me that a neoliberal corporate education reformer like Lerum doesn't know the difference between peer reviewed works and policy papers. Nor should I be surprised that he didn't have the good sense to avoid insulting a luminary in the field of critical pedagogy. Moreover, while he had tons of mansplainin' on hand for my female teacher friend, as soon as I confronted him with the OIM report, he went silent. His only response to me was to assert that my questioning of CRPE's funders wasn't "substantive". I would posit that his staunch defense of his corporate funders and allies speaks for itself.

Ref Rodriguez watch

Corporate charter sector mogul Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez is under investigation by a number of authorities including the LAUSD Office of Inspector General and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Keeping up with all of Rodriguez's financial scandals and possible felonies is difficult, but the following articles and resources should help:

The NPIC further undermining LAUSD

The usual Nonprofit Industrial Complex (NPIC) suspects are hard at work in their never ending quest to bankrupt public education in Los Angeles. News that they were dissatisfied with the district's implementation of Local Control Funding Formula/Local Control Accountability Plan (LCFF) would be surprising given how they drove the entire process, except when viewed from the perspective that they never intended for LCFF to do anything but break the district. I had the following to say:

This is somewhat surprising given that UWGLA and their anti-public education CLASS "coalition" (read Eli Broad proxy groups) held so much sway over the entire LCFF process in LAUSD. For a while it looked like all the decisions for LCFF were being coined by John Deasy under the direct supervision of Elise Buik and Maria Brenes.

With more current news that a leading Broad Foundation funded group is suing the district, there's a need to create a community based opposition to the NPIC driving the entire process. Fortunately the folks at Schools Los Angeles Students Deserve are doing just that with their Instituto de Padres / Parent Institute next weekend.

The Non-Profit Industrial Complex’s role in imposing neoliberalism on public education

The Non-Profit Industrial Complex’s role in imposing neoliberalism on public educationOriginally written at the request of, juried by, and published in Regeneración, The Association of Raza Educators Journal, this essay on The Non-Profit Industrial Complex’s role in imposing neoliberalism on public education has been republished in Professor Henry Giroux's Truthout. Please read, discuss, and share widely.

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Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Former Waltonite, Jim Blew, Named to Replace Rhee

At least they are no longer pretending to be run by educators:
Jim has nearly 20 years of experience in education reform. For the past decade, he has served as advisor to the Walton family, which has invested more than a billion dollars in initiatives to expand high-quality school options for all children and build an advocacy infrastructure for education reform. From 2000 to 2005, Jim directed various campaigns for the Alliance for School Choice and its predecessor, the American Education Reform Council. Prior to committing himself full-time to education reform, Jim worked at political and marketing communications firms in New York and California. Jim holds a BA from Occidental College and an MBA from Yale University.

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Friday, April 18, 2014

Citizen Jack's analysis of Michelle Rhee's recent mendaciousness

"In an even more disturbing revelation heard on the tape Rhee laughs about when the tape was removed hurting the children and some even started to bleed." — John Kugler

Michelle Rhee has been caught in another series of lies."Jack," a frequent commenter on Professor Ravitch's site, sent me the following analysis in which he compares various sources on Michelle Rhee recent deceitfulness. Jack's commentary takes the original guest post on NYC Educator, combines it with other information from The Frustrated Teacher, and makes several salient points. What struck me the hardest was the reminder of how Rhee's fellow neoliberal corporate reformers found her glib account of her child abuse amusing. I suppose when your entire life has been dedicated to harming young children through high-stakes testing, constant stress, inhumane expectations, and all other forms of cruelty that corporate edreform imposes, bloody lips are really no big no deal in comparison. Aside from her pathological inability to tell the truth in any venue, the fact that Rhee revels in her acts of barbarism really speaks to the theories that she might be a sociopath. Given that the plutocrats paying (read investing) for the neoliberal corporate education reform project are all sociopaths themselves, it makes good sense that they'd hire someone just like them.

"NYC Educator" today made a nice grab of an October 2013 interview—in the on-line Financial Times—where Michelle Rhee lies (shocking, I know!) and totally changes the details of the now infamous story where she taped the mouths of her students.

He points out the inconsistencies of her October 2013 version VS. her August 2010 version:


Background:

We all know the true details from Ms. Rhee's original (August 2010) telling of the story.

As heard in an audiotape of Ms. Rhee which is still available on-line, Ms. Rhee told all her 35 third-graders (ages 8-9) to remove the tape from their mouths—the tape that she had earlier chosen to put on their mouths as a way to shut them up.

This mass removal led to:

— all 35 kids' lips bleeding;

— all 35 students' lip skin being ripped off, 

and 

— all 35 kids' crying.

This was, of course, back during Ms. Rhee's heroic teaching days. (you know... when her brilliance enabled her students to move from the 13th to the 90th percentile... oh, yeah... I forgot... that was a lie, too.)

However, on the October 2013 interview, she was singing an entirely different tune. (SEE BELOW)

Unfortunately for Ms. Rhee, there remains a problem with her changing her story:

the audio of her original telling of the story remains on-line for all to hear how bogus her later rendition is.

Listen to it HERE: (among other on-line locations)


"NYC Educator" then compares the two versions:

(my summary of the "NYC Educator" article follows)

Lie Number 1:  Whose idea was it?

October 2013: Rhee claims that one of her students asked her for the tape to be placed on his mouth, and with that child—and also with the rest of the students who also asked for the tape—she complied... which she now regrets.

"One of the boys asked for a strip of Scotch tape instead and suddenly everyone wanted the same thing.”

August 2010:  Rhee claims that she came up with the idea herself, without any child asking her to do so.

Looking back, Ms. Rhee claims no regrets, but instead, she enthusiastically, proudly, and humorously (?!) reflects on having done so:

"So, I decided, OK, kids, we are going to do something special today.  I lined everybody up and I was like, 

" 'Sshh, gotta be really quiet on our way down to the cafeteria.'

"And then, I took little pieces of masking tape and put them on everybody's lips,

[laughter begins]. 

"And I was like, 'You can't break the seal. Don't move your lips.' "


Lie Number 2:  How many kids in Ms. Rhee's class had bleeding lips, and had lip skin getting ripped off? Just one, or all 35?  A little bleeding, or a lot?  Did any lip skin come off when the tape was removed, or no lip skin at all come off?

October 2013: Rhee claims that only one of children's lips bled—"That's all that happened"—with no kids' lip skin coming off.

(underlining is mine)

“And when I removed the strips, one of the boy’s dry lips bled a little. That’s all that happened. Now it’s turned into, ‘Michelle Rhee duct tapes children!’ But the only reason anyone knows the story in the first place is because I told it.”

August 2010:  Rhee claims that every child in her class (all 35 !!!) had lips that were "bleeding," and "skin coming off": (provoking uproarious laughter from the audience)

"And I realized that I had not told the kids to lick their lips beforehand. So, and like the skin is coming off their lips

[big laughs] 

"and they're bleeding.  And so I had a class of 35 kids who are crying... 

[more big laughs] 

"... and other teachers are walking by and are like, 'What are you doing/' "

Lie Number 3:  In what context did Rhee tell the mouth-tapingstory? In an interview, or in a speech? Underpressure from journalists, or under no such pressure?

October 2013:  Rhee claims that journalists pressured Ms. Rhee into telling the story, back when she was too eager and willing to answer any all questions posed to her.

Ms. Rhee now claims "I was stupid" for having been so open. Back then, she was not yet "particularly media savvy."

"I think when I took the job in DC, I was not particularly savvy about the media.  People asked me for interviews, I answered the questions and because I was so honest about my thoughts, it gave them the material.  I can’t blame anyone other than myself for that. I was stupid.”

October 2010:  No one pressured Ms. Rhee to tell anything. This story was told in a speech to new Washington D.C.P.S. teachers, a speech over which Ms. Rhee had total editorial control over what she was saying.

Washington Post: "This audio recording is an excerpt of D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee talking to first-year teachers about her early misadventures as an educator. She spoke at the Columbia Heights Education Campus on 16th St. N.W."

One more thing to note:

At some point after including the audio of Ms. Rhee's speech on its website, the pro-Rhee Washington Post  later removed the audio of this from its coverage.

Go to the link here:


The audio is now gone, baby, gone.

Thankfully, dozens of others saved it, including "Frustrated Teacher" from the above link.
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Thursday, October 13, 2011

Aaron Krager begins Petitioning Progressive Sites to Stop Promoting Michelle Rhee

After I signed the petition, other petitions popped up for me to consider as a member of Change.Org.  One of them was from nation's leading teacher foe, the venomous Michelle Rhee, under the name of her corporate reform schooler astroturf group called Students First. — Dr. James Horn

Michelle Rhee is a favorite among teabaggers and other disciples of Ayn Rand. Rhee collaborates with, and has even worked on the transition teams of the most reactionary right-wing Governors from Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio.
Schools Matter was the first place I read about the vile and venomous Michelle Rhee and her plutocratic backers scamboozling unsuspecting activists into unwittingly signing petitions supporting reactionary causes dear to the furthest right-wing think-thanks in existence.

Rhee is a favorite among teabaggers and other disciples of Ayn Rand. Rhee collaborates with, and has even worked on the transition teams of the most reactionary right-wing Governors from Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio. All of the ideas Rhee champions have come straight out of the most vile right wing think tanks including Hoover Institution, Hudson Institute, The Cato Institute, The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, The Heartland Institute, Manhattan Institute, and other John Birch Society derivatives.

I'd be curious as to why anyone outside of the deplorable reactionaries mentioned above would support Rhee in any fashion. After all, supporting her is tantamount to supporting the fringe right, whose end goal is not only the destruction of the public commons, but the privatization of our entire education system. So I found the idea that tricking people leaning left of center a little more than nefarious.

Yesterday I received an email from a person who decided to set up petitions on those very same sites, petitioning them to stop supporting Rhee and her astroturf union busting organization. I reproduce it here with the author's permission. Please follow the last two links in his email to sign the petitions against Rhee's deceptive tactics.

Hi,

As an avid user of petition sites such as Change.org and Care2.com I was shocked to see Michelle Rhee's Students First organization utilizing this platform. These sites promote progressive values and push for progressive change. Rhee's organization is anything but progressive. Students First advocates against collective bargaining, teacher unions and contrary to its name, does not put students first. 

I unknowingly signed a petition on Change.org's site from Students First... as a result of this deception I am asking both Change.org and Care2.com to stop promoting Rhee's pro-corporate agenda. Below are the links to my post announcing the actions as well as the links to the petitions themselves.


Feel free to contact me at this email if you have any questions.

--
Peace
Aaron Krager
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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Rhee's Outfit, Students First, Scamming Unsuspecting Activists at Change.Org

This morning I got an email alert concerning a petition drive to stop McDonald's from using their torturous "gestation crates" for breeding the juicy pork product used in their not-so-happy Egg McMuffins.  After I signed the petition, other petitions popped up for me to consider as a member of Change.Org.  One of them was from nation's leading teacher foe, the venomous Michelle Rhee, under the name of her corporate reform schooler astroturf group called Students First. 

Anyone not reading closely may be swayed to sign the innocuous-sounding petition, which reads as follows:
Pay Effective Teachers What They Deserve
America's most qualified teachers are grossly underpaid. Join StudentsFirst and fight for teachers who get results in the classroom to be paid accordingly. Read more
And when you click on Read more you get this:
Targeting: You
Sponsored by: StudentsFirst
During a speech in February, President Obama said, "Education is an investment that we need to win the future."

He's right. In order to invest in our kids' futures, we need to invest in great teachers now.

The most important school-based factor in a childs education is teacher quality, and America's most qualified teachers are grossly underpaid.

StudentsFirst is working to elevate the teaching profession by advocating that teachers be rewarded for excellence. Those who show they can move kids along academically should be compensated accordingly.

Our great teachers are the ones who help to shape the lives of our children, the role models who give them the tools to succeed. Teachers help pave the way for children to become scientists, engineers, world leaders. Their impact on a child's life cannot be underestimated.

As President Obama says, an investment in education is an investment in our future.

Sign the pledge in support of paying America's effective teachers what they deserve.
And so unsuspecting activists are no doubt signing on to the corporate plan for teacher job security and raises to be based on student test scores without ever knowing it.  And at some point you no doubt will see the sneering schniz of Michelle Rhee holding up her impressive total of signatures gathered to do the opposite of what most signers thought they were supporting.  
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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Rhee's Backers

Which foundations will back Rhee's new org?  Some clues from the Washington Examiner:
Rhee said grants from foundations -- including several that sponsored the teacher merit pay plan Rhee introduced in the District -- will fund Students First, alongside membership dues and individual donations. Her goal is 1 million members and $1 billion.
The Laura and John Arnold Foundation, Robertson Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, and Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation are the four foundations that sponsored Rhee's teacher merit pay plan.

One billion dollars is an insane amount of money - and that's how much Rhee wants to raise in year one.  And what does Michelle plan to do with her dough?  We'll know pretty soon:
The first step will be an educational platform outlining "the gold standard of what the environment should look like and the laws that should be in existence," which Rhee plans to publish this month. "Some governors want to mention it in their state-of-state addresses or introduce it in their first legislative session," she told The Washington Examiner.
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