Bill
Gates and Steve Barr are trying to take over UTLA, again
Billionaires
and corporations will stop at nothing to bust unions and privatize
education. For decades Steve Barr has made his living doing their
bidding. Their latest attempt is supporting a candidate for UTLA
President whose policy advocacy matches their own. Knowing how
unpopular Barr and his backers are, Bill Gaffney's narrative has been
one of revisionist history and obfuscation of facts. We aim to let
people know the truth.
FALSE: Steve
Barr had
nothing to do with the widely despised
Parent Trigger law.
FACT: Steve
Barr was
on Parent Revolution's Board of Directors before, during, and after
the trigger law was passed. In
the Los
Angeles Times
he boasted about he would use it to convert
public schools into charters.1
FALSE: Steve
Barr has a successful track record of turning schools around
FACT: Steve
Barr has never turned a school around with either Green Dot or Future
Is
Now. Their latest attempt to
turnaround New
Orleans’ John McDonogh High School was an abject failure,
leading
charter friendly officials to
shut
Barr
down.2
Their
experiment at
Locke3
in
Los Angeles has
been just as grievous.
FALSE: Steve
Barr supports
unions
and
Green
Dot has unionized
teachers.
FACT: Green
Dot's Asociación
de Maestros Unidos (AMU)
is a company union.
In
over a decade of existence AMU has never
had single case of successfully defending a teacher against
termination. Article
4.1 of AMU's contract4
with Green Dot Corporation's
unelected
Board
of
Directors
sums up AMU's
impotence
neatly.
It
is understood and agreed that the Board retains all of its powers and
authority to direct, manage and control to the full extent of the
law. While input from the staff will be considered and decisions will
be derived in a collaborative model; final decisions will rest with
the Board.
FALSE: Green
Dot founded Los Angeles Parents Union, not Parent Revolution.
FACT: Parent
Revolution and LAPU are officially
registered
DBAs of Los Angeles Parents Union5.
Los
Angeles Parents Union was
founded by Green Dot's6
Steve
Barr and Ryan Smith to
increase charter market
share.
Green
Dot's CEO, Marco Petruzzi, remains
a current board member of Parent
Revolution.
FALSE:
The Gates Foundation funds Future Is Now/Teacher Action Network to
empower teachers.
FACT:
The
Gates Foundation provides
FIN/TAN with
huge grants7
to strip teachers
of their hard won rights and replace them
with ineffectual “thin contracts,” that leave both students and
faculty vulnerable.
FALSE:
Charter schools are public schools.
FACT: Federal and State Courts, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the National Labor Relations Board have all determined1 that with the narrow exceptions of charters run by “public universities and municipalities”, that charter schools are “private entities”. On the other hand, Forbes says charters are great for corporate profits.9
FACT: Federal and State Courts, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the National Labor Relations Board have all determined1 that with the narrow exceptions of charters run by “public universities and municipalities”, that charter schools are “private entities”. On the other hand, Forbes says charters are great for corporate profits.9
No comments:
Post a Comment