@TCFKSM: Report Back from the Trigger Happy Parent Revolution's "Meet and Greet" with teachers and social justice organizers

First published on @TCFKSM on June 15, 2013

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What troubles me is what you are doing with the millions you raise. You use it to sow dissension, to set parents against parents, parents against teachers, parents against principals. I don’t see this as productive or helpful. Schools function best when there is collaboration among teachers, parents, administrators, and students. Schools have a better chance of success for the children when they have a strong community and culture of respect. — Professor Diane Ravitch

Quick background. The Walton Foundation funded Parent Revolution operatives were handing out flyers to everyone, including me, before the UTLA Chapter Chair meeting on June 2, 2013. The flyer contained their typical boilerplate bombast, and also featured an invitation to a "Meet and Greet" on June 12, 2013. The flyer is archived here.

I arrived just before 17:00 and tweeted a photo of the place while waiting for everyone. I was in a fairly somber mood, having been at the vet in the morning before work putting down one of our terminally ill cats. Perhaps my grieving kept me from getting in trouble, although I'm sure just my presence made the privatizers uncomfortable.

Waiting for close ally @EducateLAnow to see how much of a farce this @parentrev invite to @UTLAnow is. #LAUSD pic.twitter.com/bhovFdKAr7

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) June 13, 2013

I met the illustrious UTLA South Area Chair Ingrid Villeda and two Weigand ES teachers in a parking lot behind the arranged location. We walked in solidarity. When we arrived several Parent Revolution (henceforth pRev—the name the pro-public school Adelento parents like Lori Yuan call them) were waiting outside the Golden Gopher. The pRev privatizers sent TFA alumna Christina Sánchez, Patrick DeTemple, Anne Lee, Rafael Serrano, and a few other staffers I didn't know. Before we were done Gabe Rose joined the meeting.

We waited with them for the venue to open and everyone made nervous small talk and introductions. Another Weigand teacher and spouse showed up as we were waiting. After a while it became obvious that the Gopher was going to stay closed, and the owner came and told us they had a private party. Our side was wondering why an organization with tens of millions of dollars at its disposal hadn't reserved or even called the place they set for the meeting. Ingrid tweeted our situation.

@LASchoolReport for the record I came 2 talk about school reform and the Golden Gopher is closed? What happened Ben Austin?

— Ingrid Villeda (@EducateLAnow) June 13, 2013

The pRev folks suggested a place several blocks away, and with some misgiving, we went with them to a place called Los Angeles Brewing Company. When we arrived, the pRev folks were smart enough to stagger seating so that we ended up engaged in separate conversations. I ended up speaking with Patrick DeTemple. I was already pretty familiar with his party line, which hadn't changed since his long post defending pRev when Ben Austin was immortalized on the famous Crooks and Liars website. His commentary there is worth reading since it contains some of their stock language and ideology borrowed from the extreme right including gems like "intolerable levels of incompetence are permitted" by teachers unions. He told me verbally that basic protections like seniority somehow allowed for such things as well. Like all reform parrot-speak, it's not rooted in reality and wilts under scrutiny.

For those of you who have never seen the Austin segment on Crooks and Liars, it's a must-see and is the perfect example of how he cynically manipulates parents of color for his charter industry agenda. Shemika Murphy must have felt so empowered when she couldn't answer that softball question which wealthy white lawyer Austin stepped in with his evasive answer on her "behalf."

Whenever I factually cornered DeTemple, he'd essentially change the subject or say things like "we're working on that." That included things like how is 53 people voting on the disposition of a public resource in Adelento, a city of 32,000 democratic? Or how does creating the chaos of 21 of 22 teachers leaving a school benefit students or empower parents? His answer to that was interesting, he said "our intel didn't indicate that would happen." For a guy whose resume includes so much UFW and other union related organizing, you'd think he would have heard of the concept of solidarity. DeTemple isn't as much of true believer as many in the corporate education reform project, but he's the epitome of mixed consciousness politically. He's easily the smartest person they have in their organization, but he still melted when asked direct questions for the obvious reason, they can't provide honest answers since those answers would expose their agenda for what it truly is.

I caught a little bit of Ingrid's conversation with Sánchez. The best part of which was when Ingrid pointed out to Sánchez that when she abandoned teaching, she abandoned the children she now claims to be helping. Of course, that's a point of pride for TFA anyway, right? I couldn't hear the Weigand ES conversations from where I was sitting, but Ingrid said she did, so maybe she can provide us with any interesting tidbits. I'll ask her to comment here with any additional thoughts. I welcome the pRev staffers that were at the meeting to comment here as well. Ingrid and I left about a half hour after all the Weigand teachers left.

I sort of knew the entire thing would go the way it did. They get paid very well to advocate what they advocate, and weren't there to listen to community or teacher voices. The teachers and myself don't get paid at all to advocate alongside our communities, and that's part of the point isn't it? On the other hand it was important that we showed up since they would have been able to take the high ground and say they made overtures that went unanswered. It also probably did them some good to talk to real classroom teachers, something they almost never do.

Moving forward UTLA needs to start organizing alongside community organizations at every school site in order to begin building an infrastructure to combat future trigger attempts. Parents Across America has made it clear that they want to see multiple local chapters in Los Angeles, and we should be helping them build. Educated parents tend to run pRev petitioners out of town, but we need to reach people with the truth in the open before they are deceived secretly. LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer's resolution will help in this regard, but organizing to end the corporate drive by trigger law will take more than that.

The saddest thing I heard on Wednesday was that none of the new teachers headed for Weigand have any experience. While I wish all of them the best of luck (even the TFA missionaries among them), we all know how first year teachers fare. We confronted the pRev about this, saying how did that empower anyone? Ingrid's tweet from Thursday sums this up.

News Flash! This just in. 17 BRAND NEW teachers (some just interns, others TFA) at Weigand ES after Parent Revolution blasts the school...

— Ingrid Villeda (@EducateLAnow) June 13, 2013

The damage Austin and his coterie caused Weigand will take years to mitigate, and even then it will never be completely ameliorated. Ingrid posted a great comment on that bastion of right-wing thought run by reactionary Jamie Alter-Lynton also known as the LA School Report. It bears reproduction here:

More mind blowing is how Parent Revolution can claim to be about community involvement but not have open meetings, announce agendas, discuss with stakeholders, and announce campaigns. Parents being hand picked, and asked to meet an organizer at a nearby fast food place is not community engagement. And how empowering is it, to not properly address the poverty afflicting these kids and families. How empowering is it for parents NOT to read academic plans...or be acquainted with data, academic focus, etc. One of the central parents staying "I never read the plan" makes a huge statement. This isn't about making things better for kids but adult agendas instead. The principal is no good and she lacks vision but her plan (one she wrote with many teachers) gets the okay...something doesn't make sense.

@TCFKSM: Report Back from the Trigger Happy Parent Revolution's "Meet and Greet" with teachers and social justice organizers

@TCFKSM: A Revenue First Agenda: Open Commentary to Triggermen Ben Austin and Bruce William Smith

First published on @TCFKSM on June 8, 2013

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These myths falsely portrayed desegregation's failures as the product of autonomous individual choice. Meanwhile, these myths obscured inequalities in desegregation. A new, but parallel, kind of mythmaking about choice is underway in today's charter school efforts. — Ansley T. Erickson

Parent Revolution's executive director, wealthy white Beverly Hills lawyer Ben Austin, has made himself out to be a "victim" of the esteemed Professor Diane Ravitch's stern words for him and his organization's vile operations at Weigand Elementary School in Los Angeles. In a bombastic Huffington Post diatribe attacking Dr. Ravitch and accusing her of being immature and bullying, he then launches into a sob story of white privilege that borders on the bizarre even for egotistical ed-reformers.

You see, Ben Austin—in his words, can tell us about Hell. Austin's hell consisted of attending an exclusive private school in the upscale area of Venice Beach California. He constantly worried that the wealthier kids might be better off than him. His unfortunate private school hell wound up only getting him into "second rate" schools like UC Berkeley and Georgetown Law School. A hellish, but lucrative political career working for neoliberal triangulators that eliminated welfare for millions of poor then followed. Now, after all those bad breaks, misfortune, and hardscrabble living, Austin is redeeming and sacrificing himself by making a mere quarter million a year privatizing and disrupting public schools. Cry us a river!

Professor Ravitch responded with grace and dignity, and her cogent dismantling of everything Austin stands for is nothing short of breathtaking. Her piece is My Reply to Ben Austin’s Open Letter to Me.

Of course, nearly all the comments under Austin's idiotic post supported of Professor Ravitch. There were a few exceptions, and I immediately recognized those of a bwsmith (Bruce William Smith), a longtime corporate education reform cheerleader and sycophant to any billionaire looking to privatize education. He was one of the ringleaders in the handover of Alain Leroy Locke High School to the Green Dot Charter Corporation, which didn't work out too well. Smith insinuates that the corporate reformers actually debate those who see education as something other than an opportunity for profit.

I replied to Smith, but those commentes haven't been approved. My Huffington Post censor rate is around 50% despite having over 300 "fans" there. I've addressed that situation before: On Huffington Post censorship and Parent Revolution puff pieces. Here are my edited comments:

Mr. Smith, your inability to tell the truth is matched only by your unseemly groveling to powerful rich white people. I've followed Austin's trajectory in the corporate reform project ever since he first was hired by Barr and Petruzzi as a consultant for Green Dot for a staggering amount of money. I watched him arrange illegal, closed meetings with the Mayor during city working hours to push charters and PSC. Those incidents were so scandalous, even the charter friendly Daily News published my Op Ed exposing it: http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_13185224 As a corporate ed-reformer, Austin's salary has almost tripled from when he was a lawyer.

I watched when Ryan Smith ran Barr's Los Angeles Parent Union (née Small Schools Alliance) into the ground and Petruzzi brought in his crony Austin to take his place. Austin, seeing the astonishing amounts of money being dumped into school privatization, changed the name of LAPU to Parent Revolution (all this is on their 990 forms) and never looked backed. Next he illegally booted Steve Barr of their board. When he worked with ALEC, Bob Huff, Schwarzenegger's staff, Heartland Institute, and Gloria Romero to craft the disgustingly racist trigger law, we all knew he was going to inflict a lot of damage on poor communities of color. Austin illegally lobbied the SBE after he was thrown off, and was later censored for his actions. He later was dropped by the California State Bar for failing to take required ethics courses.

At every turn, Ben Austin has been dishonest, opportunistic, greedy, self-serving, and vicious. Professor Ravitch's calling him and his unconscionable actions "loathsome" doesn't begin to address how depraved, despicable, and deplorable Austin is. Who knows which circle of hell is reserved for him, it's the hell he's creating for impoverished communities and children of color that I'm concerned with.

Now how about a little disclosure Mr. Bruce William Smith, tell everyone how you are trying to open a privately managed charter school, and how you'll ingratiate yourself to anyone who might make your lucrative dream come true.

@TCFKSM: A Revenue First Agenda: Open Commentary to Triggermen Ben Austin and Bruce William Smith

Blue Hat Movement: The Parent Trigger Law

Watch this fun video exposing idiocy of Parent Revolution and Parent Trigger Laws youtu.be/DaVpO30qfZE via @youtube
— Julie Woestehoff (@pureparents) June 4, 2013

Blue Hat Movement: The Parent Trigger Law

PESJA: Since Llury Garcia is a self-appointed expert on literacy, language arts, & principals, can we expect her to apply for Cobian's job?

Since Llury Garcia is a self-appointed expert on literacy, language arts, & principals, can we expect her to apply for Cobian's job? #LAUSD

— PESJA Los Angeles (@PESJA_LA) June 3, 2013

This week, parents voted to accept Cobian's turnaround plan as the next step forward. Although a Parent Revolution statement quoted [Llury] Garcia as saying that parents "spent several months carefully reviewing" the plan, she told The Times last week that she had never read it and disagreed with key elements, such as its focus on reading and writing.—LA Times (emphasis mine)

And Walton Foundation backed Ben Austin of Parent Revolution wonders why the top education expert in the country calls him "loathsome?"

More on the Weigand tragedy

• More on Parent Revolution triggerman Ben Austin's gunning down of a well regarded LAUSD principal
• Right-wing groups stand behind Parent Revolution and Ben Austin—The FreedomWorks Teabaggers
• Weigand ES Community protest the trigger happy Parent Revolution astroturf reactionaries

PESJA: Since Llury Garcia is a self-appointed expert on literacy, language arts, & principals, can we expect her to apply for Cobian's job?

@TCFKSM: More on Parent Revolution triggerman Ben Austin's gunning down of a well regarded LAUSD principal

First published on @TCFKSM on June 2, 2013

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"The 'parent trigger' by definition is a hostile act. It creates division and conflict. It sets parents against parents. It sets parents against teachers. It sets parents against administrators. It is a "trigger" and triggers kill." — Professor Diane Ravitch

Parent Revolution, the well funded neoliberal operatives in charge of achieving reactionary Andy Smarick's dream of replacing public schools with a privatized system, has been experiencing a little blow back from their recent corporate drive by. In addition to the news of protests against the Weigand trigger pull and another Tea Party group joining forces with Parent Revolution, there has been some interesting criticisms from expected, and unexpected venues.

Even the biggest privatization cheerleaders—the Los Angeles Times—have recently expressed concerns with the anti-democratic trigger process in their The 'parent trigger' trap. Refreshingly, they've even been covering the grassroots resistance to Walton Foundation's Parent Pinkertons. An example is Teresa Watanabe's Watts teachers urge public notice for parent trigger campaigns

A surprising source of criticism of both Austin and the so-called Parent Revolution is that bastion of the Nonprofit Industrial Complex (NPIC), the Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ). In a surprisingly well reasoned piece excoriating the process, the author makes a profound and powerful statement.

Something doesn't add up. Cobian hardly seems like the ogre or incompetent that Austin describes. But Cobian is the first administrator ousted from the Los Angeles public schools under the trigger law. It feels like Parent Revolution was flexing its muscle and putting teachers and administrators on notice. The result seems certain to demoralize teachers far beyond the Weigand Avenue Elementary campus. A button on the webpage of Parent Revolution is, "we <3 our teachers." The Weigand Avenue Elementary School teachers clearly don't feel "<3'ed".

I'm sitting in an emergency UTLA meeting called in response to these hostile take-overs as I'm writting this. While listening to a dozen Weigand parents and teachers speaking effusively about their principal, NPQ's statement that "Cobian hardly seems like the ogre or incompetent that Austin describes" rings all too true. Hearing various educators from school sites current threatened by Wasserman Foundation funded Parent Revolution school terrorists is heartbreaking and reminds me why I've opposed these poverty pimps for so many years.

4LAKids' Scott Folsom sometimes takes somewhat conservative positions on education issues. However, on Parent Trigger he has always been right on the mark. Here is his take on the Weigand situation published in his weekly email digest.

In the San Fernando Valley at Arleta High School (one of the new ones) the principal is retiring in glory having done everything right and having produced the desired results. At Weigand Avenue Elementary School in Watts a principal is booted out, apparently having done nothing wrong save losing a petition-drive popularity contest – courtesy of the Parent Trigger ["Watts teachers urge public notice for parent trigger campaigns"] – with the Board of Ed and Superintendent hiding behind “Our hands are tied, The Law’s the Law!”. As Parent Revolutionary-in-Chief Ben Austin wrote the Parent Trigger Law. As an appointed member of the State Board of Education Ben Austin promoted the Parent Trigger Law – and lobbied for it in the legislature. Now back at P-Rev Ben Austin applies the law…or maybe IS the law! Austin likes to say that the Parent Trigger Law empowers parents – but in reality it empowers Ben Austin – who has been intimately involved in every application of it – welcoming himself to LAUSD as our liberator.

Professor Diane Ravitch has been covering the Weigand tragedy from the get go. Articles like "Parent Trigger" Sets Parents Against Parents in Los Angeles really gets to the heart of the matter. Sherman Dorn's "Parent trigger" as a pale shadow of community involvement is also recommended reading.

I want to close with an expanded version Caroline Grannan's tweet over the weekend. "Parent Revolution - a history of attacking teachers. Ben Austin's awkward made-up story about teachers torturing kids - appalling." The lie laden story she's referring too is the interview Austin did with the arch-reactionaries at ChoiceMedia.TV Austin's mendacious fabrication is disgusting in that he would stoop to such a level, but it's also racist in that he's referring to teachers of color at Compton's McKinley ES. Austin's outrageous lie was carried over to a scene in Philip Anschutz, Bill Gates, and Rupert Murdoch's "Won't Back Down" film. H/T to Jack for reminding everyone of this horrible false narrative.

@TCFKSM: More on Parent Revolution triggerman Ben Austin's gunning down of a well regarded LAUSD principal

Right-wing groups stand behind Parent Revolution and Ben Austin—The FreedomWorks Teabaggers

Right-wing groups stand behind Parent Revolution and Ben Austin—The FreedomWorks Teabaggers. #LAUSD #parenttrigger twitter.com/FreedomWorks/s…

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) June 1, 2013

While the community and social justice activists protest Ben Austin and his neoliberal wrecking crew, the birchers, birthers, and teabaggers have lined up behind them and their deceptive, divisive, and duplicitous charter trigger law.

Arch-reactionaries FreedomWorks bill themselves as supporting "Lower Taxes, Less Government, More Freedom! Educating and equipping a grassroots army for liberty." FreedomWorks joins a bevy of extreme right-wing groups supporting the Walton Family Foundation backed Parent Revolution and their Parent Trigger law, including The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and The Heartland Institute. The link to their pro-Parent Revolution tweet appears in my tweet above, but it's provided here as well: https://twitter.com/FreedomWorks/status/340660302884528128

Right-wing groups stand behind Parent Revolution and Ben Austin—The FreedomWorks Teabaggers

Weigand ES Community protest the trigger happy Parent Revolution astroturf reactionaries

"This further substantiates our claim that by not openly demanding wealth redistribution, reparations, or justice for exploited workers, white social justice non-profits function as brokers for the wealthy." — Tiffany Lethabo King and Ewuare Osyande (The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, 82)

Great footage by LArepresents of the community protesting the astroturf perpetuators of the latest corporate drive by in Los Angeles. Parents, community members, and educators held a press conference decrying flaws in the Parent "Tricker" Law, and the deceptive, divisive, and duplicitous tactics used by ALEC and Heartland Institute's closest ally, Parent Revolution. Astroturfers tried to encroach, and were sent scurrying back to their crevices. From the video's introduction:

Parents, teachers and concerned community members at Weigand Elementary say "NO!" to outside billionaire-funded group "Parent Revolution" that has been accused of lying to and misleading K-12 parents in Los Angeles and other cities in California. For more info: Parent Trigger - False Promises, Divided Communities and Disrupted Young Lives

David Phelps (the privileged white male in the white button down shirt) is quite the tough guy getting in the faces of female community members protesting his Walton Foundation funded charter market share expansion group. Please, please, please let David Phelps, Gabe Rose, the diminutive Ben Austin, or any of the other cowardly corporate trigger goons try that intimidation nonsense with me at one of these events in the future.

The footage of the protesters sending Ben Austin's neoliberal austerity crew packing is just as entertaining, as is its following caption.

Parents, teachers and community members send a clear message to outsiders of billionaire backed astroturf group "Parent Revolution." Outnumbered and apparently understanding that they are not welcome at Weigand Elementary, the ParentRev outsiders leave, as their organizer is left alone standing with his clipboard and a smirk on his face.

Considering the unlimited resources the billionaire boys club has devoted to anti-public education outfits like Parent Revolution, we're up against a formidable foe. That said, ordinary working class families, community members, and educators can, and must, run these corporate proxies off our streets and away from our schools!

Weigand ES Community protest the trigger happy Parent Revolution astroturf reactionaries