"Stand for Children" Stands for Profit by Charter Industry

As Gene Bryant noted on Facebook, corporate education profiteers and their political supporters are trying to buy the Nashville Metro School Board.  Nashville Rise has partnered with Stand for Children in an attempt to blow up the public schools in Nashville.

Below is a tutorial on how Stand for Children really stands for profit by the charter school industry.

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.

 

The Truth About the T3/Teach Plus IPS Contract

by Doug Martin

Thankfully, the IPS school board recently voted against a contract with T3/Teach Plus.  Supported by Stand for Children and funded in part by $1 million of Eli Lilly Foundation money, the Teach Plus Turnaround Teacher Teams or T3 program contract would not have done much for teachers.  Note this from the IPS school board press release:

During the course of our special meeting attention was drawn to the fact that one of our board members, Caitlin Hannon, is the Executive Director for Teach Plus, the education company which is spearheading the effort to implement this initiative into three of our schools. Ms. Hannon recused herself from the vote, however,  ethical questions have been raised regarding a $2 million dollar contract for T3 and its parent company Teach Plus over a period of four years.  Of the $2.2 million, 24 teachers in 3 schools would receive a total of $432,000.  Each teacher would receive $6000 per year for their leadership service.

The T3 program had already been implemented without board approval.  So board president Annie Roof recently called a special session, where board members voted against approving the contract.

Ironically, corporate school reformers now are calling this vote political, but the real politics rest with Caitlin Hannon.  Teach Plus’ tax records don’t tell how much local executive directors like Hannon make, but Hannon’s relationship with Teach Plus as a member of the IPS school board is a major conflict of interest, as I even noted in my book Hoosier School Heist.  Hannon has been funded by the hedge-fund front group Democrats for Education Reform, Al Hubbard, the Bush family friend and chief operative of corporate school reform in Indiana, and even Greg Penner, who is married to Walmart’s Carrie Walton. 

The vote was a win for the students, teachers, and citizens of Indianapolis and Indiana. Here is the entire press release from a few members of the IPS school board on the T3/Teach Plus contract vote:

Indianapolis – Last night’s IPS School Board vote regarding the T3 Initiative program merits explanation.

At the IPS board action session on October 21, 2014, the T3 Initiative was presented for action.  After some discussion, the board was advised (incorrectly) that this item had been approved previously.  Upon discovering the fact that it was never approved, but nonetheless implemented without board approval approximately six months ago, a special meeting was called to address the misinformation and lack of initial board ratification.
At the special meeting on October 29, 2014 the majority of the board members present took action to rescind the original vote which was made based on incorrect information.  This action drew sharp reactions from the community.

Some media outlets used the word “dumping” to describe our actions.  The board felt it necessary to rescind the original vote, but also noted in our public meeting that the issue would be brought back before the board with complete transparency. We are open to revisiting the terms of the agreement to find a solution that works best for our schools, and for the teacher leaders who have already begun assuming a leadership role (although it was unbeknownst to them, without board approval).

During the course of our special meeting attention was drawn to the fact that one of our board members, Caitlin Hannon, is the Executive Director for Teach Plus, the education company which is spearheading the effort to implement this initiative into three of our schools. Ms. Hannon recused herself from the vote, however,  ethical questions have been raised regarding a $2 million dollar contract for T3 and its parent company Teach Plus over a period of four years.  Of the $2.2 million, 24 teachers in 3 schools would receive a total of $432,000.  Each teacher would receive $6000 per year for their leadership service.

Media sources report Mr. Ohlemiller of Stand for Children suggests that this vote sends a message to philanthropic organizations that their funding support is not welcome in IPS. What this vote actually represents is that IPS will not see the charitable contributions intended to help our struggling schools, being made to expensive consultant organizations, their employees and overhead costs. One has to wonder if these philanthropic organizations know that only a fraction of their charitable dollars are being directed to the Teacher Leaders charged with executing this program.

We will never build our own capacity within Indianapolis Public Schools if the bulk of our dollars are spent to engage outside organizations.

The empowerment of teachers is something this entire board agrees on. This contract, as it is currently constituted, is not fair, nor is it equitable for IPS. All we ask is for the time to review a deal that will cost IPS $750,000 to implement so that we can make sure our dollars are being directed to the classrooms, students and teachers, rather than the pockets of Teach Plus and T3 executives. If we are being asked to vote in a program that will cost the district a significant amount of money, the least that could be done is to provide us with enough time and information to make an informed decision. The constituents of Indianapolis elected this body to be a representative vote for the people of our districts, our city, our schools, our teachers and our children. We were not elected to be a rubber stamp for companies to reap wild profit margins from our Indianapolis’ taxpayer-funded public schools.

We are thankful that Stand For Children, Teach Plus and other organizations want to help ensure a high quality education for the children of Indianapolis. However, each time anybody disagrees with one of these entities, they use their significant funds and resources to silence our concerns. In turn, we are then accused of playing politics. Don’t be fooled by who is politicizing the IPS School Board.

Sincerely,

Gayle Cosby, Samantha Adair-White, Michael Brown and Board President Annie Roof

 

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.

 

The Dirt on Bob Behning’s Reelection Money

by Doug Martin

In my book Hoosier School Heist, I detail the corporate/theocratic billionaires who are out to destroy Indiana public education, and the same people in my book are behind Bob Behning’s reelection campaign. 

In fact, the Hoosiers for Economic Growth PAC, founded by an Amway/Besty Devos/Walmart/Overstock.com/hedge fund front group,  just gave Behning $45,000, two days ago.  Hoosiers for Economic Growth slid him $25,000 at the beginning of this month, too (page 4).  Back in 2013, the super PAC handed Behning $2,000 (page 5). This PAC is where Walmart and DeVos' American Federation for Children unloads its money.

Bush family friend Al Hubbard, emails show, was working with DeVos and Jeb Bush operatives even before Bennett knew the game, and Hubbard also has thrown $5,000 (page to 2) to Behning’s reelection campaign. Hubbard also gave the Hoosiers for Economic Growth PAC $75,000 recently.

The resort mega-millionaire Christel DeHaan, notorious for being the Tony Bennett campaign funder Tony Bennett rigged the charter school grade for, gave $10,000 on April 19, 2014.

Theresa  Rooney, whose father was the father of the Indiana voucher movement, has also tossed Behning $5,000 (page 2).  

David Shane, whose wife Anne was a Lilly and Mind Trust water-carrier, gifted Behning $500 (page 3).  Eli Lilly (known for funding the Mind Trust’s temporary teacher workforce) gave money to Republican Behning in 2013, as well (page 7).

Hedge fund and Bill Gates’ supported Stand for Children (highlighted in Hoosier School Heist) dished out $1,000 to Behning recently (page 4).

In November of last year, the Students First PAC, run by fake liberal darling Michelle Rhee, handed Behning $1,000 (page 9).

Red Apple Development, which is Jeb Bush buddy Jon Hage’s real estate branch of Charter Schools USA, has slid Behning at least $2,000.

I am sure I could trace even more corporate school money to Behning, but I am busy, busy, busy, folks, and don’t have much time to dig. Read my book, please, for the rest of the story.

Michelle Rhee Loves Bob Behning and Other Indiana Right-Wingers

by Doug Martin

Michelle Rhee’s political funding machine has entered Indiana, and the fake Democrat who once spoke at the statehouse with former governor Mitch Daniels and has been involved in one scandal after another is now handing cash to the rightest of the right-wing in Indiana, the latest none other than ALEC member Bob Behning.

In 2013, Rhee’s Students First PAC, registered in California, slid Behning $1,000 (page 9). The PAC is also funding the campaigns of Cisco System’s Todd Huston, Religious Right’s Carl Yoder, and ALEC’s Jim Banks. 

But Rhee's is not the only fake liberal outfit which has tossed money to Indiana Republicans to keep Daniels’ corporate-theocratic school locomotive rolling. 

Stand for Children, which used millions in hedge fund money to throw Illinois teachers and students under the bus in 2011, gave the Republican Behning $1,000 (page 7) last year and $500 in 2012 (page 4).

In fact, Stand for Children has financially supported many Republican lawmakers in Indiana, including Tony Bennett, Carl Yoder, ALEC’s David Frizzell, and Todd Huston. 

Yet to keep his base happy,  let it be known that Behning is still a favorite of the rightwing billionaires from Amway and Walmart.  Beginning its funding to Behning in 2009 (page 8 in pdf), the Amway/Walmart/hedge fund/charter school group Hoosiers for Economic Growth handed Behning $3,000 (page 5 and page 10 in the PDF) to help plant a for-profit charter school on every street corner to  duel it out with voucher schools. 

The other guilty parties giving to Behning in 2013?  Eli Lilly—which owns the Mind Trust with Bill Gates and insures that David Harris can make $200,000 per year —gave him $500 (page 7).

K12 online learning’s lobbying branch K 12 Southpoint II, out of Virginia, tossed Behning $1,000 (page 3) in 2012, with the money it had left from buying our neighboring lawmakers in Illinois in 2010.

But let’s be fair.  Alice Walton got a little bit back, since Behning paid around $1000 to Sam’s Club for parade candy and other campaign things recently (page 14).  

Behning gave back to the religious community, too, donating $500 from his campaign chest to the voucher-sponsored Lutheran High School in Indy (page 14).