Chancellor In Last Minute Putsch for RTTT Funds

April 18, 2010 (GBN News): Heavily armed paramilitary troops moving in on public buildings in the dead of night. Administrative offices occupied before dawn. Key leaders suddenly “disappearing”. Sounds like a banana dictatorship undergoing a coup d’etat? Well, this scenario could be coming soon to a public school near you under a new plan being formulated by the NY City Department of Education, aimed at winning the second round of Federal “Race to the Top” funding.

According to a source at the DOE, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has been working jointly with Xe Worldwide (aka Blackwater) and the Walton Foundation to instantly turn around failing schools. This would be accomplished by forcibly replacing the principals and entire administrative staff, as well as teachers and students.

The source told GBN News that as currently conceived, the plan calls for Blackwater mercenaries to physically take over the targeted school buildings, while Wal Mart executives move in to take over the schools’ administration. Blackwater is said to already effectively control the NY City school security apparatus (which may explain such incidents as the recent arrest of a student for writing on a desk). And Wal Mart has reportedly trained hundreds of its greeters to replace the entire teaching staffs of the failing schools.

While the benefits of the new turnaround policy seem clear - there would be no time for inconvenient public hearings, as the takeover would be presented as a fait accompli; and the greeters’ non-union salaries and lack of benefit package would save millions over that of the teachers they replaced – there could be some controversy given the recent indictment of the former President of Blackwater and five top company officials on weapons violations. But this could also work to the DOE’s advantage. “Chancellor Klein feels that the Blackwater folks have a certain cachet,” the DOE source told GBN News. “The intimidation factor could actually help head off any serious opposition.”

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, when asked about the Chancellor’s reputed plans, told GBN News that he cannot comment on specific “Race to the Top” applications. However, he did say that short of a hurricane or other natural disaster, a Blackwater/Wal Mart takeover could be “the next best thing” that could happen to a school system.