My twitter spat with Core DeAngelis and Talk out of School podcast on the well-funded assault on our public schools

This morning I got into a twitter spat with Corey DeAngelis, the top voucher evangelist who, according to his bios, is currently a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a  senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, executive director at Educational Freedom Institute, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a senior fellow at Reason Foundation, and a board member at Liberty Justice Center.  Phew!  No wonder his tweets sound like they were written by bots. 

Yet he consistently refused to answer my simple question:

If you'd like to know the real motivations of Charles Koch and the many other billionaires  who want to dismantle public schools and are paying the duplicative salaries of guys like DeAngelis, please listen to the revealing podcast I did with Carol Burris and Charles Siler above. 

Carol is the Executive Director of Network for Public Education and Charles used to work for the privateers at the Goldwater Institute.   Some resources are below.  And please follow Carol at @carolburris & Charles  at @charles_siler 

Episode Notes

Videos of NYC rally on Feb. 3, 2023: elected officials and parent leaders explaining why they oppose raising the cap on charter schools​. https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2023/02/legislators-and-parents-speak-out.html  

Send a message​ to NY Governor and state legislators urging them not to raise the charter cap but require more accountability and transparency for the charter sector.  https://actionnetwork.org/letters/dont-raise-the-cap-on-charters-instead-dont-make-nyc-pay-their-rent-require-more-accountability?clear_id=true&source=direct_link

Class Size Matters NY state budget testimony, showing how Mayor Adams is planning to cut school budgets again next year despite an increase of $568 million in state Foundation Aid.  https://classsizematters.org/state-budget-testimony-doe-is-planning-on-making-even-more-cuts-to-school-budgets-despite-568-million-more-in-state-foundationaid/

The Federalist, Two States Now Have Universal School Choice and Yours Could be Next https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/27/two-states-now-have-universal-school-choice-and-yours-could-be-next/

The Nation, Robbing From the Poor to Educate the Rich https://www.thenation.com/article/society/vouchers-attack-public-education/ 

Peter Greene, Vouchers Are Not About School Choice. Here's How We Know. https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2023/01/vouchers-are-not-about-school-choice.html·    

Diane Ravitch, Charles Siler: a Former Privatizer Changes Sides https://dianeravitch.net/2021/05/04/charles-siler-a-former-privatizer-changes-sides/  

Ed Week, Voucher Programs Gains Strength with Help from the Courts https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/voucher-programs-gain-strength-with-help-from-the-courts-an-expert-says/2022/12

 American Prospect, Will the Education Culture War Backfire on Republicans? https://prospect.org/education/2023-02-08-republican-public-school-culture-war/

Subscribe to Network for Public Education newsletter at https://networkforpubliceducation.org/ 

NPE Toolkit: School Privatization Explained https://networkforpubliceducation.org/privatization-toolkit/ 

NPE list of 76 state voucher bills  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Wo04PewW20Y7SlPI3sgYNd7S_nM-OY9srzrEX0N1gqA/edit#gid=0

A busy day: Protesting billionaires pushing charter schools & then winning our lawsuit vs the DOE on School Leadership Team meetings

Yesterday was quite a day.  In the morning, I protested with AQE and the Hedge Clippers folks, outside an event at the Harvard Club, where Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker was speaking about the referendum to raise the cap on charter schools in his state called Question 2.

This effort has been funded with millions of dollars in "dark money," and we were there to make them feel uncomfortable.  Jeremiah Kittredge of Families for Excellent Schools walked into the building while we were chanting, "Governor Baker epic fail! Our public schools are not for sale!"  FES has poured at least $13.5 million into this election -- without disclosing its donors, although one can assume the money comes mostly from the usual suspects -- Walton family members and NYC hedge fund operators.

After the meeting, Baker was scheduled to meet with Bloomberg, trolling for even more bucks -- after Bloomberg had already given $240,000 to the effort.  Meanwhile, all over the country, from California to New York, Washington to Georgia, billionaires are trying to buy  school board races, judgeship elections, referendums, and control of the NY State Senate - all with the same nationwide goal of privatizing public schools, and wresting them from democratic control. 

Then I returned back to my office and learned that the Appellate Court had finally ruled on our lawsuit to keep School Leadership Team meetings open, which the DOE had closed to the public starting in 2013. To make a long story short, we won!  Here is our press release, and here are articles about the decision in the Daily News, the Village Voice and Chalkbeat.  

The backstory is this: In order to test DOE's determination to close these meetings, and to challenge a particularly weak decision by another judge who ruled for DOE in the Portelos case, retired teacher Michael P. Thomas asked to attend an SLT meeting at Portelos' former school, IS 49 on Staten Island, in March 2014.  After initially getting permission, the SLT Chair turned him down, and he was blocked when he tried to enter the building.  

He then sued the DOE on May 17, 2014, and Class Size Matters and Public Advocate Tish James intervened shortly thereafter to represent parents and the public's right to know.    Judge Peter Moulton ruled in our favor in a slam-dunk decision on April 2015, but the Chancellor Fariña told principals to ignore the decision and appealed it.  

The Appellate court heard arguments from both sides on January 21, 2016 -- and took nearly a year to rule.  But finally, in another slam-dunk, unanimous decision, they reaffirmed the lower Court ruling that SLT's are public bodies in state governance law, and thus their meetings must be open to the public. Much thanks goes to Michael Thomas, Tish James and the attorneys from NY Lawyers for Public Interest and Advocates for Justice who represented the Public Advocate and Class Size Matters in court.

Yet what has been particularly galling to me throughout has been the DOE's lame argument that they could close these meetings because SLT's, made up of half parents and half school staff, were purely "advisory" bodies.  This sort of dismissive -- and frankly illegal -- attitude towards parent participation in decision-making has continued over from the Bloomberg administration.

In 2007, when Chancellor Klein tried to strip the authority of School Leadership meetings by rewriting the Chancellor's regs, I helped Marie Pollicino, a parent SLT member from Queens, submit an appeal to State Commissioner Mills.  Mills also found in our favor, forcing Klein to rewrite the regs and recognize the authority of SLTs to write Comprehensive Education Plans for their schools and be consulted on a range of issues, including a school-based budget aligned with the CEP, as the law clearly requires. (A timeline of these events  is on Class Size Matters' website.) And yet now, despite Mayor de Blasio's promise that parents would finally be respected and their input taken seriously, it was happening all over again.  De Blasio also promised increased transparency as to education spending, but that pledge has been ignored as well.

Sadly, even now Chancellor Fariña and the DOE attorneys seem uncertain as to whether to concede after two, overwhelmingly decisive court opinions against their position. In the Daily News, a DOE spokesperson is quoted as saying, "The state Legislature never intended to mandate that SLT meetings be open to the general public.  We are considering our options.” Really?  If so, why does NY State Education law 2590-h say  that each school must "provide notice of monthly [SLT] meetings that is consistent with the open meetings law"?  

And why did the previous Chancellor, Dennis Walcott agree that these meetings were open to the public?  After a principal kicked a Riverdale Review reporter out of an SLT meeting in January 2013, the DOE spokesperson repudiated this action after consulting their legal department, saying that "Generally, these meetings are open to the public except if an executive session is being held."  A power point is still posted on the DOE website from the Walcott era, which states "SLT meetings are open to the public.  Teams may find that observers from within the school community or beyond wish to attend SLT meetings." 

Let's hope that DOE doesn't appeal the Court's ruling once again.  Meanwhile, please share this decision with other parents, community members and reporters -- and let them know that as of yesterday, they have a right to attend any School Leadership Team meeting they choose.

 

"Won't Back Down" a "loss leader" for the privateers?

See Diane Ravitch’s blog today about the fact that the anti-teacher, anti-public school film “Won’t Back Down” continues to tank.  The movie premiered Sept. 28, and had the worst opening of any film in thirty years opening “wide” (2500 screens), despite shameless promotion by CBS (remember their “Teachers Rock” concert show which featured the film?) and NBC’s Education Nation.

"Won't Back Down" revenues after 21 days

Yet on Thursday the film averaged $39 per day per screen.

The movie’s producer Philip Anschutz and distributor Rupert Murdoch have likely lost millions keeping this critical and financial flop in the theaters this long, helped by the fact that Anschutz also owns the Regal Cinemas theater chain, which was  offering two tickets for one to see the movie.  Last weekend, Murdoch was still buying half page ads in national papers, including the NY Times, featuring rave “reviews” of the film, that were actually drawn from Wall Street Journal and NY Post editorials (papers he owns), proclaiming that the film deserved as Oscar on the basis of its attack on the teacher unions.

For both of these privateers, their apparent desire to dismantle the public schools apparently won over their greed.

Will they manage to keep the film going nationally for another week?  In NYC, starting Monday the only theater that will still be showing the movie is in Glendale Queens; offering discounted tickets at 5:40 PM.

As Diane Ravitch points out, however, the US Chamber of Commerce along with other corporate reform and astroturf groups are holding free screenings of the film nationwide, to aid in their privatization campaign as part of a nationwide tour called “breaking the monopoly of mediocrity."

Speaking of monopolies, Murdoch is set to expand his control of the mainstream media and is in negotiations to buy up the LA Times and Chicago Tribune to further grow his mega-empire.   As we know too well, he has expanded into “education technology” products in a division run by Joel Klein, now renamed “Amplify.” 

Klein has expressed outrage that he and the division he runs for Murdoch are solely motivated by profit.  To some extent the marketing and continued promotion of this film might support his claim, which has been a money loser at least in the short run. 

Murdoch, Anschutz and the cadre of privateers they represent are focused on the long-term goal of putting public schools and educational services into corporate hands; arguing that this will somehow improve outcomes for kids.

 Of course, to the extent they achieve the privatization of the public schools, the more potential profits they are likely to reap in the long run.  In this regard, the film “Won’t Back Down” represents a “loss leader,” defined by Wikipedia as follows: “an item is offered for sale at a reduced price and is intended to "lead" to the subsequent sale of other items, the sales of which will be made in greater numbers, or greater profits, or both.”

Dan Wasserman on Readin,' Writin' and the Rich guys

Click on the cartoon to see what he has to say about Bill Gates and the Wall St. privateers.

For more cartoons from Wasserman on the charter schools and Race to the Top, check out his website here.