Rep. Justin Pearson on TN House Floor May 7, 2026

"These maps are racist tools of white supremacy at the behest of the most powerful white supremacist in the United States of America, Donald J. Trump. . . .” —Rep. Justin Pearson

 

New CREDO Numbers for Special Education and Poverty Don't Match Reality

The Memphis Corporate Appeal has an article on the announced CREDO study of charter test scores for urban areas, including Memphis and Nashville.  The data are from 2006-2012, even though the charteristas in TN and other venues that show higher scores are pretending as if this is new and up-to-date data.  For Tennesseans, the first thing to notice is that these numbers show test score comparisons from before the time that the ASD brought its special formula for failure to Memphis and Nashville.

Secondly, the report shows charter schools with a larger percentage of special education students than the public schools (6% and 5%). This is absurd on its face. The real percentage of special ed kids in Shelby County is 20 percent, and it higher than that in the remaining public schools in Memphis.  

The same situation prevails for the "student poverty" numbers, which are based on kids qualifying for free and reduced price lunch.  CREDO shows public school students who qualify at 45 percent, when the real number is over 70 percent for free lunch and nearly 80 percent for reduced-price lunch in public schools. 

See below from p. 6 of the CREDO study, available here:

We have to wonder what else CREDO got wrong in its Walmart sponsored research.

The CREDO report, of course, does not acknowledge other charter advantages for churning out test scores, which include longer school days, year-round test prep, brutal behavioral systems, 70 hour teacher work weeks, self-selecting parents, funding advantages from corporate and hedge fund donations, dumping of low performers and other "bad" students back into the public schools, little or no back-filling of lost students, and fewer males students. 

Given all these charter advantages and the state of total demoralization in public schools serving poor kids now targeted for future shut down and conversion, how could charter schools not show a test score advantage of some kind??

Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for Memphis Apartheid Corporate Charter Schools

Today's story in the Commercial Appeal makes it clear that Shelby County Schools (SCS)  are in a big hurry to close the deal to keep large numbers of County students from going to the municipal boutique districts that sprang into existence when the threat of consolidation made it clear that they, otherwise, would have been in the same school system as all the poor black kids in Memphis.  

Hanging on to large numbers of the poorer County students that, otherwise, would end up in the municipal districts serves SCS in two ways: 1) it helps to cover the $212 million loss ofthe thousands of students to apartheid corporate charter reform schools in Memphis, without acknowledging the loss, and 2) it provides future targets for corporate segregation schools beyond the urban core. With the State's bottom five percent of schools targeted for turnover each year, you only have to be in the lower half of test performers to get charterized within the next ten years. 

Corporate Feeding Frenzy Continues in Fragmented Memphis Schools

When Bill Gates came to Memphis in 2009 with $90 million in handouts for every corrupt politician in the city and county, Memphis public schools were doomed.  This outcome was further assured by successful campaign to "consolidate" county and city schools.  Laws were changed, plans written by corporate foundation drones and Stand on Children politicos, and outlandish promises were made about turning the lowest scoring schools in TN into top scoring ones in 5 years. Beyond ridiculous, particularly in light of the fact that no state money or corporate money is going to do anything about poverty and lack of opportunity in the poor areas of Memphis.  And nothing to challenge apartheid schooling.

What we have today is not a consolidated system but a fragmentation of systems, so that now we have five suburban communities planning for their own segregated charter or public systems, a Memphis charter system controlled by local corrupt politicos, another Memphis charter system made up of Achievement District Schools run by out-of-state corporations (KIPP, Uncommon Schools, Rocketship, etc.), and what remains of the public school students in East Memphis and the County.  And let's not forget the largest private school concentration in the state.  Utterly atomized, just as Gates Broad, and the Waltons wanted. The only thing missing now are vouchers, which would allow the state to fund religious education in Memphis and elsewhere in the State.

In a Take Part corporate news piece, Suzi Parker provides this on what is going on Memphis:

At the heart of the program are charter schools that allow for intense student testing, performance pay for teachers, long school days and no teacher tenure. The district also incorporates recruits from Teach for America.

The Memphis district’s website states, “Proving the Possible by moving the bottom 5% of schools in Tennessee to the top 25% within five years.” Teacher unions have criticized the district, and some parents have complained about the loss of neighborhood schools. 

Race has also become an issue with critics who point out there are not enough black teachers in the district. And other critics say the schools are simply a small hub for the rich. Last month The Walton Family Foundation gave $1 million to fund training for four school leaders interested in running charters in the Achievement School District. 

In January, Republican Governor Bill Haslam visited the Memphis district and said the program was changing the archaic methods of teaching as well as the roles of schools
“A lot of it is about giving more autonomy,” he said at the time. “It’s about letting principals in school buildings and teachers in the classroom make more decisions because they have a better sense of how to do that than we do on Capitol Hill.”

It's interesting that school freedom and autonomy only become important considerations by Haslam and Huffman when the schools are handed over to corporate school operators.  Otherwise, accountability by testing remains mandatory for everyone else in Tennessee, i. e., public schools.

Of course, the high stake testing guarantees a continuing supply of "failed schools" (there will always be a bottom five percent) that can be handed over to privatizers and profiteers who plan to open more total compliance segregated corporate testing camps for poor children.

We called it eugenics a hundred years ago.  We call it neo-eugenics today.

The latest on the new Superintendent's search:  expect a former TFAer, per Rhee and Huffman.  Personally, my money is on an Eli Broad pick.

Stacking Boards: Seating the "Reform Majority"

Guest Post by John Harris Loflin of the Education-Community Action Team, Indianapolis

 National agenda to seat "reform majority" school boards in key cities 

“Lead the effort to seat ‘reform majority’ school boards in several key cities.” 

~ Democrats for Education Reform, “A Year of Impact” 2012 DfER accomplishment

It looks like the January 7, 2013 Stand for Children (SfC) “celebration” for their 3 endorsed IPS school board commissioners (Arnold, Cosby, and Hannon) is one more of many this national lobbyist group conducts. 

SfC also “celebrated” the August 2012 election of 4 of the 7 candidates they endorsed in the Memphis, TN school board race. Two from the newly selected board are SfC members and 2 appointees were directly supported by SfC due to their alignment with SfC’s “core values.” 

According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal reporter Jane Roberts, SfC raised more than $300,000: $200,000 from a single out-of-town source and including $30,000 from local sources. SfC spent $154,000 on the seven school board races, including $60,000 in direct mail. The bigger expense ($90,000) was for training and dispatching hundreds of students that SfC paid $10/hour for a door-to-door campaign. 

Memphis reporter John Branston (The City Magazine) in his article “Stand for Something” pointed out that although the various media were confused as how to describe the SfC organization, he noted the, “One thing we [the Memphis media] agreed on is that Stand For Children is unusually well funded and spent more than $150,000 on the school board races, which is a huge amount.” 

SfC and DfER franchises are electing school boards elsewhere 

Evidently what happened in Memphis and Indianapolis is part of the national SfC/DfER organization efforts to control local school boards via national agendas to seat "reform majority" school boards in key cities--especially in places where they know they have the political support or can and will win via lots and lots of cash. 

A review of other school board races, past and present, will help show what happened with IPS is not special and just another school district SfC’s/DfER’s national offices are trying to run. 

2010-2011 

SfC helped elect 19 school board members: 

TN (Memphis and Nashville) 

CO (Denver) 

OR (Portland, Reynolds, Salem-Keizer, Lane County, Hillsboro, Central Coast) 

WA (Issaquah, Tacoma) 

TX (Houston) 

Denver During the November 8, 2011 election, candidates vied for the 3 of 7 Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education seats. National attention was paid to the race. Campaign contributions were said to be some of the most significant in DPS history. An ad hoc group of 3 candidates (Haynes, Rowe, and Carson) made up an unofficial “pro-reform” slate backing privatization. Many contributions to the group came from oil/gas industries and investment bankers--causing speculation that Denver's “high rollers” were pushing a market direction for DPS.

Haynes raised $230,037 ($31,000 from SfC). The 4 opponents of Haynes combined raised only $27,532. Rowe raised $196,845 ($15,477 from SfC). Her opponent Emily Sirota raised $87.293. Carson (who lost) raised $177,440. Winner Arturo Jimenez, raised $68,073. This is a lot of money just to win a school board seat! 

Oregon On Tuesday May 18, 2011, 21 SfC-endorsed school board members in Hillsboro, Medford, Eugene, Reynolds, Portland Public, and other districts were elected. 

2012 

Indiana SfC Oregon gave IPS Commissioner Cosby $15, 451. DfER’s Indiana “franchise” gave her $43, 867. DfER Indiana gave Commissioner Hannon $5,542. Besides the IPS candidates, SfC endorsed Dr. Bennett for state superintendent. See IPS candidate’s financial reports: Indianapolis Public School 

Colorado For the November 2012 state of Colorado Board of Education race, SfC supported Angelika Schroeder, who easily won. 

Louisiana As was the case with IPS Commissioners Hannon and Cosby, outside cash flooded the Orleans Parrish race. Though 5 other board seats were also open, the contest in District 3 stands out. More than $110,000 in campaign funds were raised by winner Ms. Usdin from education activists living out of state who favor market-based reforms. Former NYC Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and Boykin Curry, a New York City hedge-fund manager gave. Fundraising on behalf of Usdin dwarfs rivals Mr. Bonin ($24,000) and Ms. Royal ($5,500).

SfC endorsed 5 candidates for the 2012 state of Louisiana School Board race. 

Also see: "Why Do Some of America's Wealthiest Individuals Have Fingers in Louisiana's Education System?"

Arizona Last November, SfC endorsed candidates won 2 seats on Roosevelt School District School Board and 2 seats on the Murphy School District School Board. Both districts are in Phoenix. 

Nationally, DfER backed 3 board candidates: Caitlin Hannon for IPS, Bill Ponder for San Diego Schools, and Sarah Usdin Orleans LA Parrish Schools. Ponder lost. 

2013 

“Certain members of the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners were strategically placed there by the powers that be to weaken Indianapolis Public Schools and prime it for takeover.” 

~ Diane Ravitch, “The corporate takeover of Indianapolis Public Schools” 

Articles of support: Money and outside district groups such as SfC, StudentsFirst, DfER, Education Reform Now, and the Gates, Walton and Broad Foundations are controlling local school board elections and policies. 

Foundation Cash Boosts Education Advocacy Groups: Money underwrites activities that often touch on sensitive areas of policy. Go to www.vorcreatex.com. Look for “Education” under Misc. or click here:  Foundation Cash.

New Advocacy Groups Shaking Up Education Field: Their sway over policy and politics appears to be growing, especially at the state and local levels. 

Billionaire donors drive anti-teacher pro-testing education reform agenda 

Standing for Corporate America Addendum 

The corporate takeover of Indianapolis Public Schools 

How to Buy a School Board Race 3000 Miles Away: Why would California multi-millionaires be interested in a school board race in the small city of Perth Amboy, NJ? 

© 2013 Education-Community Action Team 

johnharrisloflin@yahhoo.com 

Indianapolis