Send In the Clowns:3 Stooges, Gingrich, Sharpton & Duncan Hit the Road For Corporate “School Reform"

Send In the Clowns: 3 Stooges, Gingrich, Sharpton & Duncan Hit the Road For Corporate “School Reform”

Source URL: http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/send-clowns-3-stooges-gingrich-sharpton-duncan-hit-road-corporate-%E2%80%9Cschool-reform%E2%80%9D

Quite separately from each other, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Rev. Al Sharpton and Newt Gingrich have long ago forfeited whatever credibility they may once have had. Taken together, they are simply a bad joke: three grown men publicly eye-poking and slap fighting each other while they all come together to sell us high-stakes testing, charter schools, educational privatization and the whole package of corporate “school reform.”



Despite a decade of hard sell by right wing think tanks, foundations, and big media, the American people have not bought the corporate version of school reform. Most people just don't believe public schools should be privatized or militarized, or operated by business people like businesses instead of by educators, parents and communities in the interests of children, parents and communities, like the best schools always have been run. And most educators doubt that high stakes testing improves educational outcomes in any meaningful way.

Since the public debates on charter schools and privatizing education are ones that our elite cannot win, they have decreed there will be no debate. Instead of an honest public examination of the disastrous impact of No Child Left Behind, and its attendant decade of creeping educational privatization, corporate media, the Obama administration and its bipartisan allies are sending in the clowns with a 21st century three stooges remake starring the Rev. Al Sharpton, along with Republican former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Obama Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, elbowing and slapping at each other, yukking it up about their supposed political differences while they all come together around the corporate elite's version of “school reform.”

<snip>

Mass media ought to be where the studies, the facts, the experience and the voices of parents, educators, students and communities across the country wrestling with the problems of education are held up for all to examine and understand. But that would be too much like public service for our America's privatized media. What we'll get instead is entertainment. They're sending in the clowns. And here they come!

:puke:

"Since the public debates on charter schools and privatizing education are ones that our elite cannot win, they have decreed there will be no debate."

THAT's why we're supposed to shut up and accept their phony euphemistic propaganda and go with the program... Nothing to see here folks, move along, nothing to worry about...

is that I have watched this evolve over the length of my 3 decade career. It's been like watching a train coming down the tracks and not being able to move out of the way. But the train is only going a few miles an hour. That just prolongs the agony.

current thread here: Gates/Dell/Walton Purchase Share of Charter Authorizer Association and it seems that it's going to be a far gone conclusion on that this is the future of education. I can not say enough about how it saddens me to see Democrats jump on board with this.

K&R

who recall what people went through in the past to create and protect and preserve the public school system from being abandonded.... now it's Attack From Within................

Thank you for the link. :toast:

Attack from Within is right - and largely by Democrats too.

Invasion of the PTA Snatchers!!!! :yoiks: :hide:

:crazy: - only if that were the truth!

promoting this free-market giveaway as "progressive reform" - to "help the kids".

and one informed OP on the topic tonight alluded to fighting this as a lost cause........ So this steam train is comin' and we're on the tracks?

When did corporate elites decide they could take over not only national government but local communities and every level or facet of daily life.

Is this America?

Not as bloody but just as tragic.

And just as evil.

profitable :evilfrown:

and just as damaging to future generations... in the name of education. :thumbsdown:

for privatization of schools --- within the DEM party--- seem to be coming primarily from the same DEMs ( DINOs , neocons, bluedogs, etc.) that collaborated with Bush and enabled the Iraq catastrophe?

Not in every case; but in MANY, MANY cases?

daily life possible? Gee, Skippy, and Golly! I think you're onta sumthin!!! :toast:

"The fact that the Race to the Top Fund is just $4.35 billion of the $100 billion in education aid in the $787 billion recovery act passed by Congress in February belies the fund’s importance. Mr. Duncan is using these competitive grants to cajole states into making specific policy moves, such as lifting caps on the expansion of charter schools and tapping rainy-day funds rather than cutting state funding to K-12 schools."

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/07/23/37race.h28.html



Gates Gives 15 States an Edge in Race to the Top
In the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund competition, 15 states are getting an important, early boost courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The foundation has hand-picked these states to receive up to $250,000 each to hire consultants to help them fill out their applications. (McKinsey & Co. and The Bridgespan Group are two examples of consulting firms states are considering.)

The 15 states are: Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas.

These states represent either those in which Gates is already invested—or that the foundation thinks are on the right path to reform.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2009/08/gates_gives_15_states_an_edge.html


Gates urges use of stimulus to improve schools

By Michael Matza
Inquirer Staff Writer

Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates yesterday challenged state lawmakers to use federal stimulus funds to revolutionize public education.

"Difficult times can spark great reforms. . . . A crisis can act as a pivot" for innovation, Gates told the 5,500-member National Conference of State Legislatures meeting in Philadelphia.

Gates said the $100 billion in economic-recovery funds earmarked for improving education should be used to improve schools for the nation's good and to compete globally.

He urged that states create more schools modeled on the best charter schools; hold teachers accountable for student performance; enforce nationwide standards; spread knowledge through online learning made available for free; and develop better assessment tools to evaluate individual pupils, teachers, and schools.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/education/20090722_Gates_urges_use_of_stimulus_to_improve_schools.html

"If you look at the evidence and ignore the politics, it leads you to conclude the best schools are charter schools, which is, not surprisingly, what Bill Gates has himself concluded," said James Merriman, CEO of the New York Center for Charter School Excellence.
:puke:



Did we elect gates for something and I missed it???


For all the gates worshipers-

Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,2533850.story?page=1

The man does nothing unless it leads to an increase in his power and wealth.

Obama should be ashamed appointing duncan education secretary. Boy were we sold a phony man of the people for two years. The American Enterprise Institute is upset by folks criticizing poor Arne for crying out loud.

We are doomed.

of Chicago Schools.


http://www.nypost.com/t/Kevin_Johnson

Arnold Schwarzenegger -- with Arnie Duncan and Sacramento basketball star mayor Kevin Johnson, pretends not to hear the question: "How did all three of you reach such success with no education or experience?"

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1940228.html

A former Bank of America executive, Maya was highly acclaimed by St. HOPE when he was hired in December 2007 to replace Kevin Johnson, who stepped down as director last year to focus on his winning mayoral bid.

Maya will receive four months of severance pay totaling $56,916. He also will receive $42,000 to work as a consultant to the charter over the next six months. St. HOPE officials said the four-month settlement constitutes one-third of Maya's annual salary.

St. HOPE board members called the split mutual and amicable. However, the eight-page letter Maya wrote in April when he resigned from the board of directors suggests otherwise.

Maya outlined a list of legal and ethical concerns about the operation of the charter schools. Among the claims was that a board member had deleted Johnson's e-mails during a federal investigation into the misuse of public funds at St. HOPE Academy.

Maya wrote that board members loyal to Johnson had ignored the "highly inappropriate and potentially unlawful incursion into our e-mail system."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Gerald-Walpin-speaks-the-inside-story-of-the-AmeriCorps-firing-48030697.html

In the course of his investigation, Walpin found Johnson and St. HOPE had failed to use the federal money they received for the purposes specified in the grant and had also used federally-funded AmeriCorps staff for, among other things, "driving to personal appointments, washing his car, and running personal errands." Walpin came to the conclusion that Johnson and St. HOPE should be subject to suspension and debarment.  But it was not Walpin's decision to make; there is another official at the Corporation whose job it is to make that call.  In September 2008, after reviewing Walpin's evidence, the official decided to order a suspension, with the distinct possibility that it would lead to a permanent debarment.



That was during the Sacramento mayoral campaign, and the suspension quickly became a matter of controversy. Johnson's critics raised the possibility that, as mayor, the suspension would mean the city could not receive federal funds.  Johnson dismissed the matter.  "That's absurd," he told the Sacramento Bee.  "As mayor, I'm going to go out there and shake down as many resources as I can for Sacramento."



But the issue did not go away after Johnson defeated the incumbent mayor and took office.  It became far more pressing in late January, when Congress passed the $787 billion stimulus bill and Sacramento officials hoped that millions of federal dollars would soon arrive. Johnson's suspension seemed like an insurmountable obstacle to getting all that money. On March 21, the Sacramento Bee reported that, "The city of Sacramento likely is barred from getting federal money -- including tens of millions the city is expecting from the new stimulus package -- because Mayor Kevin Johnson is on a list of individuals forbidden from receiving federal funds, according to a leading attorney the city commissioned to look into the issue." The issue was explosive. What if there were all that federal money raining down and Sacramento couldn't get any because its mayor had been found to have misused federal money in the past?  



As this was happening, the matter was also under consideration by the local U.S. attorney's office after Walpin referred the matter to the office for a criminal inquiry. Since January of this year, the office has been headed by an acting U.S. attorney, Lawrence Brown, a career prosecutor who took over after the departure of the previous, Bush-appointed U.S. attorney.  The office decided not to pursue criminal charges against Johnson, but also entered into settlement talks with Johnson and St. HOPE.  What resulted was, according to Walpin, highly unusual.



Settlement talks would normally cover the issue of whether Johnson would be required to give the misused federal funds back to the government.  But amid the frenzy surrounding the possible denial of federal stimulus funds, Brown wanted to negotiate not only some sort of repayment scheme but also an end to Johnson's suspension.  Walpin learned about that during a March telephone conversation with Brown.  "He said he wanted to settle," Walpin recalls, "and he said that lifting the suspension had to be part of it because that was the 800-pound gorilla in the way of a settlement."



Walpin was adamantly opposed to a lifting of the suspension; after all, he had recommended that Johnson not only be suspended but be barred for receiving future federal funds.  Walpin says that after that, he was cut out of the settlement talks; Brown worked directly with top officials of the Corporation, who seemed eager to work out a deal in a case involving a high-profile Obama supporter and lots of stimulus money.  (The Corporation is now headed by Alan Solomont, a philanthropist and Democratic fundraiser appointed by President Obama.)



Together, Brown and the top Corporation brass negotiated a deal.  Johnson and St. HOPE would pay back about half of the $850,000 in AmeriCorps grant money it had received, and the suspension against Johnson would be lifted.  



Walpin was very unhappy.  First of all, he said it was a terrible deal for the U.S. government, because St. HOPE was essentially insolvent and would never pay the money back.  Second, he felt lifting Johnson's suspension would dilute the effectiveness of future investigations; why should grant recipients worry about their misconduct if any sanctions can be so easily lifted?  In the end, Johnson was not suspended, not debarred, and was probably not going to pay the vast majority of the money back.



Walpin told the Corporation's board of directors of his opinion.  He told other officials.  And he sent a report to Congress.  "I was bringing Congress in to try to get its assistance in putting a spotlight on this," he says.



Walpin's actions undoubtedly angered top officials at the Corporation, and most likely at the White House as well.  It would not be long before he was summarily dismissed.  But he has no regrets.  Whatever happens, he wrote recently, he is proud that he "refused to go along with the U.S. attorney's office and the Corporation in bowing to the media and political pressure that resulted in this hasty settlement, contrary to the interests of the United States government."


http://www.kcra.com/news/15996786/detail.html

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Kevin Johnson's mayoral campaign on Friday denied allegations that his attorney in any way interfered with an investigation into a claim that Johnson inappropriately touched a 17-year-old Sacramento High School student last year.

The campaign said the case was studied by an impartial three-person panel and that the allegation was unfounded.

Johnson is one of six candidates challenging Mayor Heather Fargo, who is seeking her third term in office.

The campaign spoke out following a story in Friday's Sacramento Bee that stated Johnson's attorney, Kevin Hiestand, questioned the girl during the school's investigation and before police were notified.

The story said that the girl recanted her allegation and that police found "no merit" to the claim. Sacramento High is a charter school run by Johnson's St. HOPE Public Schools.

"Today's story dredges up the categorically false allegations," Johnson's campaign said in a prepared statement.

Johnson's campaign also described Eric Jones, a teacher who reported the incident, of being a "disgruntled" former Sacramento High employee and a supporter of Leonard Padilla, a Sacramento bounty hunter who is also running for mayor.

The Bee reported that Jones resigned over the way the investigation was carried out by the school. In a resignation letter cited by the The Bee, Jones accused St. HOPE of trying to "intimidate" the student through an "illegal interrogation."

"The fact that these allegations by (Eric) Jones, which were proven to be unfounded by Sacramento law enforcement, are being brought up is simply a matter of dirty politics by a candidate whose only access to the public stage is through mudslinging," Johnson spokeswoman Christy Setzer said in a statement. "The 'Leonard Padilla for Mayor' sign that sits in Mr. Jones's front lawn is a testament to that. These accusations are completely untrue. We steadfastly refuse to stoop to this level of attack. Kevin, who is spending his time going door-to-door, speaking to the residents of Sacramento, will continue to run a positive campaign focused on the issues."

Johnson's campaign said that at no point did Hiestand either delay or dissuade Jones from reporting the harassment allegation.

The Johnson campaign said Hiestand did indeed speak to the girl and her mother, but said it was done to gain "an understanding of the allegation so that the proper steps could be taken."

"In a comprehensive discussion with the student and her mother, in which Mr. Hiestand made clear that he represented both St. HOPE and Kevin Johnson as an attorney, the student in question and her mother repeatedly said that no inappropriate behavior had taken place," Johnson's campaign said in a statement. "The student repeated her statement that nothing had occurred to a three-person panel. The student's mother made it clear that she did not want any further action taken as it would negatively effect her daughter who was already upset about Mr. Jones' actions."


http://www.nypost.com/t/Kevin_Johnson


So we are talking about fraud and child abuse? There is so much in your links it's hard to take it all in.

Firing of the Inspector General in charge of the Fed funds case, removal of emails during the investigation, insolvency of charter school (see below) resignation of key staff, special treatment to avoid criminal charges and get off list ineligible for federal stimulus funds, etc. etc. etc.


Oh and ALL WHILE RUNNING FOR MAYOR OF SACRAMENTO.


The office decided not to pursue criminal charges against Johnson, but also entered into settlement talks with Johnson and St. HOPE. What resulted was, according to Walpin, HIGHLY UNUSUALl.



Settlement talks would normally cover the issue of whether Johnson would be required to give the misused federal funds back to the government. But amid the frenzy surrounding the possible denial of federal stimulus funds, Brown wanted to negotiate not only some sort of repayment scheme but also an end to Johnson's suspension. Walpin learned about that during a March telephone conversation with Brown. "He said he wanted to settle," Walpin recalls, "and he said that lifting the suspension had to be part of it because that was the 800-pound gorilla in the way of a settlement."

Walpin was adamantly opposed to a lifting of the suspension; after all, he had recommended that Johnson not only be suspended but be barred from receiving future federal funds. Walpin says that after that, he was cut out of the settlement talks; Brown worked directly with top officials of the Corporation, who seemed eager to work out a deal in a case involving a high-profile Obama supporter and lots of stimulus money. (The Corporation is now headed by Alan Solomont, a philanthropist and Democratic fundraiser appointed by President Obama.)



Together, Brown and the top Corporation brass negotiated a deal. Johnson and St. HOPE would pay back about half of the $850,000 in AmeriCorps grant money it had received, and the suspension against Johnson would be lifted. 



Walpin was very unhappy. First of all, he said it was a terrible deal for the U.S. government, because St. HOPE was essentially insolvent and would never pay the money back.

Soylent but deadly :think: