Schools Matter: Yolie Flores Aguilar email colluding with charter school executives

First published on Schools Matter on February 20, 2017

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“PLEASE don’t forward this email. simply state it in your own words.”—Yolie Flores Aguilar

This email was addressed to some 60 individuals, including myself, on February 4, 2017. While its authenticity is not absolutely certain, I have researched the email addresses in the email body and they all seem legitimate. The content is consistent with the language that these charter school executives use both in public and internal conversations.

Yolie Flores Aguilar was an employee of the infamous Gates Foundation (of ALEC and Discovery Institute donation fame) while she sat on the LAUSD Board. She brought a resolution to give away new schools built with taxpayer dollars to privately managed charter school corporations.

Here Flores colludes with several well paid charter executives to avoid public mention that her resolution (inappropriately named Public [sic] School Choice) was essentially a real estate bonanza for the lucrative charter school sector. Marco Petruzzi and Ben Austin of Green Dot/Parent Revolution, Judy Burton of Alliance, Mike Piscal of ICEF are the big names in this secret missive. The lot of them have been plagued by scandals, but most of them are still profiting mightily from the charter industry.

Flores is currently running for U.S. Congress. If she's capable of this sort of duplicity and malfeasance while on a school board, imagine her in another position of power to further serve her corporate masters. Arch-reactionary Betsy DeVos would love to have more neoliberal Democrats that support her school privatization agenda of charters-vouchers. DeVos already has corporatists like Corey Booker in her thrall, Yolie Flores would be no different.

The second document should help authenticate this email chain. It's an email from Dr. Danny Weil with Yolie Flores Aguilar's <itsyolie@sbcglobal.net> email address in the to field. I recall she had a blog by the same name (i.e. "itsyolie"), and remember seeing emails from her from that address back in that era.

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Yolie Flores Aguilar email colluding with charter school executives by Robert D. Skeels on Scribd

Dr. Danny Weil email with Yolie Flores Aguilar's <itsyolie@sbcglobal.net> email address by Robert D. Skeels on Scribd

Schools Matter: Yolie Flores Aguilar email colluding with charter school executives

@ THE CHALK FACE: Banker Marshall Tuck put student lives at risk by terminating Health Education

First published on @ THE CHALK FACE on October 15, 2014

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"To reduce sexual risk behaviors and related health problems among youth, schools and other youth-serving organizations can help young people adopt lifelong attitudes and behaviors that support their health and well-being—including behaviors that reduce their risk for HIV, other STDs, and unintended pregnancy." — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Eli Broad-trained neoliberal operative Marshall Tuck is running for California's Superintendent of Public Instruction seat. The former Wall Street banker Tuck has never taught a day in his life, and has no background in pedagogy or child development, but he is financed by the corporate education plutocracy. Despite being the most profoundly unqualified candidate for the office, this backing by reactionary billionaires has made for the possibility of him being elected. The doting corporate media has recklessly ignored the dismal performance of the schools he managed, the astonishing remediation rates of students he claimed were "college ready," his racist shuttering of Ethnic Studies programs, and his closure of Heritage/Dual Language Programs. All in all, Tuck's record has been one of failure and bigotry.

Around this time of year in 2012, when I was running for school board at Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), a community AIDS group reached out to me and explained an urgent situation with health classes. According to them, The Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (PLAS) administration, namely Marshall Tuck, wanted to use the funds for health classes on some software project to improve math scores. I can't say for sure if that last part is accurate, but according to a Tuck quote (reproduced below) in the Los Angeles Times, there is some credence to the statement. Regardless of the exact reason, we know for fact that Tuck eliminated all health education classes from PLAS when he was their "CEO." That callous act by Tuck is not in dispute.

It's really unsurprising that business banker Marshall Tuck would deem wringing a few more Average Yearly Progress (AYP) points out of students more important than their very lives. However, I had forgotten about this whole narrative until recently when I happened upon a "California: #2 in Syphilis Cases" sign on a bus bench by my law school. It reminded my of Tuck's vacuous ‪#‎CAbytheNumbers Twitter ‬campaign where he rails against the state of California schools (not mentioning his were among the absolute worst of course). The Tuck campaign tweets banalities like: "#1 in wine production, #45 in education. CA is a great state. It's time we had great schools." Suddenly I remembered that he had shuttered all health education at PLAS, and I knew I needed to tie the concepts together. The above meme image is the result of that epiphany.

From the May 20, 2012 Los Angeles Times:

Schools also are supposed to teach such topics as nutrition, safety, mental health awareness and about drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse. But generally there's no penalty for skipping these topics, and experts believe many have long done so.

PLAS was one of a number of Los Angeles schools (mostly also privately managed charters) that dropped health classes altogether. John Deasy wanted to follow suit, but the elected LAUSD school board prevented him from doing so. PLAS has an unelected board, and hence no one to protect students and community from unilateral decisions by corporate executives like Tuck. When the Times questioned Tuck on his imprudent decision, he responded:

"Less than 10% of our kids are at grade level in math," said Marshall Tuck, head of the mayor's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. "If you don't get them caught up early, they're going to fall further behind. All of us are forced to make really difficult decisions." [emphasis mine]

Difficult decisions indeed. Note that his vapid statement includes the focus on math scores, just like the organization that contacted me about the PLAS situation said. Bear in mind that PLAS gets millions in extra funding from right-wing billionaires like Richard Riorden, Eli Broad, et al. They could easily budget both health and math, but corporate priorities like Common Core State Standards have made it clear that students aren't the focus, only their scores are. Oddly, Tuck's priorities didn't seem to help. For example, both math and English scores declined at Tuck run Figueroa Elementary School from 2012 to 2013, after health had been jettisoned for math.

Of course, anyone actually involved in the teaching of students knows that health is a far reaching topic, something lost on investment banker Tuck and his supporters:

"Health is probably one of the only classes in the entire curriculum that is about kids," said longtime Birmingham High health teacher Wayne Sink, who's retired but still volunteers at the school. "It is all about their lives and what is going on about diet, nutrition, puberty, sexuality, dating — all those things they were going through. It's vital."

Health classes are vital. I want to conclude using the prose I wrote for the meme itself, I think it sums Marshall Tuck up quite neatly.

At a time with Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) running rampant, business banker MARSHALL TUCK SHUT DOWN ALL HEALTH EDUCATION CLASSES at the schools he managed, putting students' health at serious risk. Tuck says he has a "kids first agenda," but his actions proved otherwise. When bankers run schools, students' lives take a back seat to corporate profits. Stop banker Marshall Tuck's agenda! Vote for the teacher instead.

@ THE CHALK FACE: Banker Marshall Tuck put student lives at risk by terminating Health Education

Reactionary Marshall Tuck killed Ethnic Studies, but progressives like ERUSD's Jose Lara made them standards!

Reactionary @MarshallTuck killed Ethnic Studies, but progressives like #ERUSD's @JoseDelBarrio made them standards! pic.twitter.com/9ChadbFrJy

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) July 28, 2014

Reactionary Marshall Tuck killed Ethnic Studies, but progressives like ERUSD's Jose Lara made them standards!

@ THE CHALK FACE: Alex Johnson’s corporate SuperPAC run by Eli Broad’s Dan “students must pledge to capitalism” Chang

First published on @ THE CHALK FACE on July 29, 2014

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"Financed by conservative billionaire philanthropists like Bill Gates and Eli Broad, charters willingly carry out the indoctrination their benefactors seek." — Professor Ralph E. Shaffer

Corporate candidate Alex Johnson and his backer Mark Ridley-Thomas have already raised incredible amounts of money in their attempt to seize a seat on the Los Angeles Unified School (LAUSD) on behalf of the school privatization project. The charter school industry trade group, California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), has raised huge sums on his behalf in the form of an Independent Expenditure (IE) as well. All of this to try to overwhelm the community candidate of choice, the highly regarded lifelong educator Dr. George McKenna.

Notably missing from this LAUSD special election is the notorious neoliberal corporate education reform SuperPAC — the Coalition for Education Reform (CSR). Founded and funded by right wing billionaires, anti-government ideologues, and charter school sector profiteers, the CSR has provided unparalleled support to anti-public school LAUSD candidates for years. Manipulated by former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, candidates including Tamar Galatsan, Antonio Sanchez, Monica Garcia, Yolie Flores, Kate Anderson, and other privatizers have all counted on a flood of CSR money over the years. Philip Anschutz, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Bloomberg, Frank Baxter, Eli Broad, Jerry Perenchio, and many other reactionary right-wing ideologues have funded the CSR over its existence.

In the absence of the CSR to pump even more funds into non-educator Johnson's campaign, corporate reformer Dan Chang has conjured yet another SuperPAC: the Great Public Schools Los Angeles Political Action Committee. Chang might not be a household name, but he has been a longtime operative on behalf of the ALEC/Gates/Broad/Walton agenda to destroy public education. A graduate of Eli Broad's Urban Residency, his previous positions includes stints with the struggling Green Dot Charter School Corporation, the lackluster Education Management Organization (EMO) LA's Promise, and recently with John Deasy's 501c3, the LA Fund — an organization best known for serving LAUSD students expired processed foods in unsanitary conditions.

Chang's connections to fellow Ayn Rand acolytes has paid dividends for the already asymmetrical fundraising of the Alex Johnson Campaign. In only a few days Chang's corporate SuperPAC managed to raise nearly $100,000. With the big money to be made in the lucrative charter industry through no-bid contracts and sweetheart deals with their unelected boards of directors, charter schools are a favorite investment vehicle of the one percent, who consider these political donations prudent investments.

Like many born into privilege and having studied business rather than the humanities, Chang has difficulty acknowledging that right-wing heroes Howard Roark and John Galt are in fact fictional characters. His obsession with so-called free markets and social darwinism is so unshakable, that he was the central figure in perhaps one of the more shameful episodes of the Green Dot Charter School Corporation's dubious history.

Shortly after the hostile take over of Alain Leroy Locke High School by the privately managed Green Dot corporate charter chain, an important ideological battle played out over astonishing language in the Locke "charter" document itself. The language was discovered by Ralph E. Shaffer, Professor Emeritus of History, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The charter required for students in history and social studies to "demonstrate an understanding of American history, government, economics and a belief in the values of democracy and capitalism." [emphasis mine]. Here is a copy of the orignal charter.

Green Dot Public [sic] Schools' original Alain Leroy Locke Charter High School petition by Robert D. Skeels

Standing up to Green Dot Corporation's indoctrination of students that clearly violated the US Constitution's First Amendment, Shaffer was right to say Green Dot "can't require students to believe in any ideology. Even requiring a belief in democracy violates students' right to believe in whatever political system they wish." Dr. Shaffer took the issue to Green Dot Corporation and to LAUSD, which, as the authorizing body for the charter, had nominal "oversight" in the issue. Rather than admit to indoctrinating students with the ideology of their backers, Green Dot, and namely Dan Chang — their Vice President of New School Development — dug in. They desperately tried to hold on to their ability to subject young minds to the propaganda of their top funders (e.g. the Walton Family Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the Broad Foundation). This letter from Chang shows breathtaking corporate arrogance.

Green Dot Public [sic] Schools' Daniel Chang's smug letter defending their capitalism indoctrination clause... by Robert D. Skeels

Chang's patronizing statement that "Mr. Shaffer may have interpreted a few words of our petition out of context" is stunning in both its arrogance and its ignorance. Only in Eli Broad's version of reality is non-educator with a MBA somehow better equipped to understand a civics rubric than a lifelong educator with a PhD in history. Shaffer, author of several books, and hundreds of published articles and Op-Eds, is infinitely more qualified to "interpret" a rubric than Chang, whose ignorance of the "California state content standards [sic]" is clear in his haughty letter. To be sure, "California's social studies guidelines do not even mention capitalism" whether on require that students demonstrate a belief in its "value." In the end, much to their chagrin, Chang and his corporate charter chain employer were forced to remove the highly offensive requirement from their charter. It's likely that Chang had to bury himself in Rand's The Fountainhead, or The Virtue of Selfishness to salve his wounded pride after having to write this last letter

Amendment Request for the Alain LeRoy Locke Charter High School charter petition - Green Dot Public [sic] S... by Robert D. Skeels

Being able to raise money for fellow neoliberal corporate reformer Johnson is the sort of thing Chang thrives on. While he himself is not a member of the one percent, he is a loyal servant to the power and privilege of the plutocrat class. The dirty money raised to push the Alex Johnson Campaign has been used to try and besmirch community candidate Dr. McKenna. Chang's lack of respect for students, as demonstrated in his letters above, is no different that that of his wealthy backers. Trying to force an unqualified Alex Johnson on a community in desperate need of authentic leadership by a lifelong educator is one more example of how the plutocrat class pushing corporate education reform will stop at nothing to achieve their aims.

@ THE CHALK FACE: Alex Johnson’s corporate SuperPAC run by Eli Broad’s Dan “students must pledge to capitalism” Chang

Schools Matter: Open letter to Ellie Herman, or how Green Dot's Marco Petruzzi's special education policies hurt everyone including their own administrators

First published on Schools Matter on July 12, 2014

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"It is not legally or morally acceptable that these so-called "schools of choice" that are concentrated in urban communities and supported with public funds, should be permitted to operate as segregated learning environments where students are more isolated by race, socioeconomic class, disability, and language than the public school district from which they were drawn." — COPAA

Wall Street privatization darling Marco Petruzzi (above) led a beleaguered Green Dot through charges of racism, embezzlement, poor performance, and even cheating. He has claimed that his lucrative charter chain doesn't receive money from rich guys, meanwhile foundations give them millions. He has gone beyond denying that Green Dot discriminates against special needs students, he takes pride in it.

July 11, 2014

Ms. Herman:

I occasionally read your posts with skepticism. Typically, even when you seem to almost reach the correct conclusion about an education topic, you find a way to ignore your own evidence. In the end nearly all your pieces cheerlead for the lucrative charter industry, and provide cover for the biggest enemies of public education.

My interest was piqued today with a piece you wrote on a Green Dot Corporate Charter principal stepping down from one of the schools they seized from the public system. Here is the passage that caught my eye:

Nat was taken aback to find that 18% of the students were in Special Ed. "We thought they were overidentified. Turns out they were underidentified." When I ask why there were so many kids with special needs, he's not sure. Part of it, he thinks, is that the number of kids in foster care may be a factor, because foster kids are often moved from school to school, not staying long enough for their issues to be identified. "It's just conjecture, but kids in foster care, they're often in foster care because their parents were on drugs or couldn't take care of them, well, are you more likely to be unable to take care of a kid with special needs and behavior problems?"

For years those of us engaged in social justice activism have criticized the corporate charter chains—Green Dot Corporation has always been a particularly egregious example—for under-identifying special needs children. I've spent years advocating for families struggling for Special Education (SPED) equity, working closely with the former chairperson of the LAUSD SPED Community Advisory Committee. Marco Petruzzi, the erstwhile hedge fund manager running Green Dot Corporation, has gone as far as to attack those of us that have brought up this issue. He has called us liars (among other things), and gone on to say that Green Dot's SPED percentage are low because LAUSD somehow over-identifies SPED. The mendacious corporate executive stated that the entities' outside of Green Dot "over identifying" SPED children is—this will be hard to comprehend for any reasonable person—is a "civil rights" issue. That's right, the wealthy CEO of Green Dot is on record saying just that. Here's one instance of Petruzzi's convoluted corporate thoughts on the matter [1]:

our track record serving kids speaks for itself for those who want to look at the real numbers, but is a very technical issue and this is not the forum for it. For example, the special Ed issue is fraught with misunderstanding and manipulation of data. LAUSD has high numbers because it over identifies African American and Latino boys relative to many other urban Districts, a civil rights issue, not something to be proud. It also has high numbers because it doesn't serve kids well and thus exits them from special Ed in the typologies of special Ed that can be addressed. It serves special Ed kids in over restrictive environments. Anyway, I realize we will never agree with certain folks, particularly those employed by the current system and that view us as a job threat.

Ms. Herman, I appreciate your post as it bears testament to what many of us have always said about Green Dot and other corporate charter chains. Public schools also under-identify SPED as well, but unlike the well heeled executive quoted above, nobody boasts about underserving them. Petruzzi seemingly makes it a point of pride that Green Dot SPED IEPs are significantly lower than that of public schools. Green Dot has a long record of avoiding obligations to SPED students [2]. Moreover Petruzzi has a long record making outrageous statements, like when he told the families of Animo Justice that Green Dot Corporation doesn't get any money from "rich guy[s]". [3] Must have been all those years he worked for Mitt Romney's sister company, Bain & Company, Inc.

I agree with you and Mr. Pickering on the SPED issue. Since Green Dot Corporation, like all corporate charters, is about bottom lines rather than education, that will never change. Ironically Petruzzi is right to frame the issue in terms of students' civil rights, but he and his fellow six-figure profiteers are the ones violating them.

Advocating Public Education and Social Justice

Robert D. Skeels ****@ucla.edu

"Problem posing education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor" — Paulo Freire

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[1] http://venice.patch.com/groups/schools/p/space-for-a-new-building-at-walgrove-elementary-likel839b5a4cd8
[2] http://www.scribd.com/doc/100558792/Green-Dot-SPED-Binder
[3] http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2010/04/advocating-public-education-roundup.html the video in which Petruzzi claims Green Dot gets no outside funding is here: http://youtu.be/kbtUUBS3eO0 the transcribed quote is "We have no money. We're a nonprofit. We don't have a rich guy that gives us extra."

Schools Matter: Open letter to Ellie Herman, or how Green Dot's Marco Petruzzi's special education policies hurt everyone including their own administrators

Open note to Bill Gaffney of Steve Barr and Bill Gates' Teacher Action Network

Mr. Gaffney:

Last time we spoke you were very angry that I had exposed your ties with Bill Gates and Steve Barr's privatization organization. That's understandable, since no public school teacher would want to be associated with wealthy individuals bent on privatizing education. You abruptly left our conversation with the following statement:

Bill Gaffney: Please become a real teacher and then we can talk. Sorry you lost the campaign for school board.

I wanted to respond, but was very busy with both my course-load at UCLA, and my full time job. Now is my chance to return your pleasantries.

Sorry you lost the campaign for UTLA President, and I'll become a "real teacher" so we can talk just as soon as Bill Gates and Steve Barr do.

Your attempts to silence those that speak truth to power are hypocritical at best when your exhortation to become a "full time classroom teacher" would also have to apply equally to all of the politicians, corporate education reformers, and nonprofit industrial complex operatives meddling in education if it was to have any weight.

Moreover, for all your mocking of my school board run, at least I garnered a double digit percentage of votes. In fact, I managed to triple your vote percentage without the backing of one of the world's wealthiest billionaires. Put another way, you were the candidate for the 1% and your colleagues voted accordingly.

I would like extend to you my sincere wish that you sit down with the social justice crowd and listen to the case against school privatization. I'd be willing to make the case to you if you were willing to listen. I'm clear that you're not the enemy, the people you work for are. At the end of the day Steve Barr's involvement with education has netted him millions of dollars, while my involvement with public education has earned me the thanks of my community.

Best of luck in your future endeavors

Robert D. Skeels

2014 UTLA Election Information Center
Candidate	Votes	Vote%
Bill Gaffney	323	4.55

Los Angeles Unified School District 2, 2013
Candidate	Votes	Vote%
Robert D. Skeels	5,244	15.2

Conversation With Bill Gaffney by Robert D. Skeels

Open note to Bill Gaffney of Steve Barr and Bill Gates' Teacher Action Network

Bill Gates and Steve Barr are trying to take over UTLA, again

Bill Gates and Steve Barr are trying to take over UTLA, again by Robert D. Skeels

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

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1 http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/11/local/me-greendot11

2 http://dianeravitch.net/2014/01/22/oprah-charter-school-star-in-new-orleans-is-closing-down/

3 http://www.examiner.com/article/green-dot-s-locke-charter-reality-bites-and-the-press-starts-to-get-it

4 http://www.amuanimo.org/important-documents/AMU%20Contract%20PDF%202013-%202016.pdf

5 http://www.scribd.com/doc/65809661/Los-Angeles-Parents-Union-DBA-LAPU-or-Parent-Revolution-2008-Form-990

6 http://www.scribd.com/doc/25496653/Green-Dot-Public-sic-Schools-Los-Angeles-Parents-Union

7 http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2011/07/the_scaled_down_contract_boon_1.html

8 http://bitly.com/bundles/rdsathene/f

9 http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/09/10/charter-school-gravy-train-runs-express-to-fat-city/

Bill Gates and Steve Barr are trying to take over UTLA, again

So Steve Barr's proxy Bill Gaffney now claiming Barr had no role in Parent Trigger and Parent Revolution?

So @SteveBarrLA's proxy Bill Gaffney now claiming Barr had no role in #parenttrigger @parentrev? #LAUSD http://t.co/4D0jePDNDt

— PESJA Los Angeles (@PESJA_LA) February 26, 2014

He is either completely misinformed about his new masters, or lying. Don't just take my word for it, the Los Angeles Times has also documented what Barr did.

So Steve Barr's proxy Bill Gaffney now claiming Barr had no role in Parent Trigger and Parent Revolution?

Bill Gates and Steve Barr's corporate candidate for UTLA plays fast and loose with the truth

Saw a corporate candidate for UTLA president publish the following lie today: "Mr. Barr has started schools that are teacher-driven and wall-to-wall unionized in partnership…"

Most of us don't consider Yellow Unions actual unions. Furthermore, nonprofit corporations with unelected boards are anything but "teacher-driven." We know the truth about poverty pimp Steve Barr and the corporate empires he has forged. The "union shop" lies need to end here and now!

Here are two essays on Green Dot's special yellow brand of company unions:

Dana Goldstein "Hearts" Yellow Unions and Company Crafted Contracts

Right-wing Reactionary “Guggenheim on Unions, Green Dot”

Here is a compendium of information about the so-called "teacher-driven" corporate schools mentioned above.

Charter Schools are NOT Public Schools!

The corporate candidate's impassioned email also lauded Barr's former schools. Schools that despite getting millions more in funding, and having the ability to pick and choose their student population have results like these:

Fall 2010 Locke Senior High Admissions into the California State University system: system: 88% were NOT proficient in mathematics and an astonishing 98% were NOT proficient in English.

For more on this see:

Perfidious Petruzzi calls for accurate evaluations of Green Dot Charter Corporation?

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Update: More mistruths and mendacity from the corporate candidate today. All of which are refuted here.

I didn't fall for anything. Say what you will. I'm sorry, but your "privatization" claims about unionized charter schools don't hold up. Please go speak to teachers within unionized charter schools before forming an opinion. We can agree to disagree in this area. 

Unions, yellow or otherwise, do not determine whether a school has been or is privatized. What determines privatization is its governance model. If a school is not run by a government entity (eg. LAUSD, UCLA, etc.) then by definition it is a private institution. Especially in the case of schools governed by nonprofit corporations, like Green Dot and FIN. This has been repeatedly stated by Federal and State Courts, the Census Bureau, and the National Labor Relations Board. There's no need to agree to disagree, Gaffney's claims have been disproven in court multiple times.

Again, please do your due diligence before making claims about stakeholders in education and myself. Just so you know, Mr. Barr is not the founder/ instigator of the Parent Trigger law and all its negative consequences on public education. 

Patently false! Steve Barr was on the Board of Directors of Parent Revolution (née Los Angeles Parents Union (LAPU)) before, during, and after the Parent Trigger was formulated with help from ALEC, Schwarzenegger's staff, and others. He was completely immersed in the process.

Parent Revolution (and its founders) took Green Dot's Parent's Union concept of sustained parent engagement and social and political capital empowerment in partnership with the CTA and changed its original purpose to pass the Parent Trigger law through Gloria Romero. 

Again, abject lies. Ben Austin was hired by Green Dot to run LAPU. Both Marco Petruzzi and Steve Barr were on the board of LAPU when the name change occurred, there was no hijacking involved. Green Dot's Petruzzi is still on their board. LAPU was created to deceive parents into supporting the privatization of more schools via the corporate charter model. Unfortunately for dissemblers like Mr. Gaffney, I have a copy of the infamous Annenberg Document that proves who founded LAPU. Also, they still have both names on their 990 forms, and if you type http://parentsunion.org into a web client, guess what site comes up?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/25496653/Green-Dot-Public-sic-Schools-Los-Angeles-Parents-Union

"Social and political capital empowerment"? Please Mr. Gaffney, at least right-wing billionaire Eli Broad admits on his foundation's 990 forms what he provides funds to LAPU/Parent Revolution for: "To support efforts to help Charter Management Organizations apply for new LAUSD schools under LAUSD's School Choice Resolution"

See http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/09/eli-broad-pays-parent-revolution-to.html for more on this.

Although I do genuinely support organizing and empowering parents, I do not support Parent Revolution's strategies and also the way the Parent Trigger law is written that allows them to continue.

Steve Barr played a role in that. The only thing Barr has ever empowered are the bank accounts of his billionaire backers. As are you Mr. Gaffney by being associated with a group that is funded by the Gates Foundation, The Moriah Fund, and The New Schools Venture Fund.

Respectfully, Bill

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So @SteveBarrLA's proxy Bill Gaffney now claiming Barr had no role in #parenttrigger @parentrev? #LAUSD http://t.co/4D0jePDNDt

— PESJA Los Angeles (@PESJA_LA) February 26, 2014

He is either completely misinformed about his new masters, or lying. Don't just take my word for it, the Los Angeles Times has also documented what Barr did.

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Bill Gates and Steve Barr are trying to take over UTLA, again by Robert D. Skeels

Bill Gates and Steve Barr's corporate candidate for UTLA plays fast and loose with the truth

Schools Matter: Parent Trigger charlatan Ben Austin booted off The State Bar of California

First published on Schools Matter on November 9, 2011

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"Making students accountable for test scores works well on a bumper sticker and it allows many politicians to look good by saying that they will not tolerate failure. But it represents a hollow promise. Far from improving education, high-stakes testing marks a major retreat from fairness, from accuracy, from quality, and from equity." — Sen. Paul Wellstone (1944-2002) quoted on Alfie Kohn's site

Apparently the right wingers at Parent Revolution are immune to cognitive dissonance. How else could we explain an organization that frequently co-hosts meetings with The Heartland Institute calling the National Educators Association (NEA) teabaggers? In a desperate attempt to preserve George W. Bush's fringe right-wing No Child Left Behind legislation (NCLB), the Parent Revolution reactionaries claim that anyone opposed to Rod Paige's vicious anti-public school project are teabaggers, and somehow opposed civil (read corporate) rights.

The basis for these wild and specious claims? Parent Revolution doesn't want to see what they term "accountability" removed from ESEA/NCLB. Never mind that NCLB's false forms of accountability were never intended to do anything other than make it easy for the neoliberal consensus in Washington to push the corporate agenda. That agenda includes forced school closures, reconstitutions, and ultimately the privatization of the whole system for the benefit and profits of Wall Street hucksters like Whitney Tilson, real estate moguls like Eli Broad, and convicted predatory technology monopolists like Bill Gates. Indeed, in defending NCLB, Parent Revolution wants to maintain the standardized testing status quo.

All their astroturf blather about "accountability" got me thinking. When I think of paragons of accountability, Ben Austin and Parent Revolution are poles apart from those thoughts in every sense. Let's look at the facts. California Parent Trigger author Austin was under investigation by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission (Case # 2010-36) because he was collecting a check at the City Attorney's Office while at the same time he was a full time charter school advocate (and part time Green Dot consultant) at Los Angeles Parents Union (aka LAPU or Parent Revolution). Besides double dipping, he used his city employee connections to host closed meetings with his political connections garnered from his City job, like with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Those connections also brought lucrative business to his wife, Tracy Austin, who makes a fortune as a fundraising consultant for the very same politicians that gave Austin a pass on his ethics violations. Where was the accountability in all of that?

Of course, Austin's conflicts of interest while working at the City of Los Angeles pale in comparison to when arch-reactionary Milton Freidman acolyte Schwarzenegger appointed the Parent Revolution chief to the California State Board of Education (SBE) to join the rest of the charter-voucher profiteers the SBE was stacked with. Austin used his SBE seat to push through the California Charter Schools Association agenda. He also used the seat to lobby for and manipulate the implementation of his and Gloria Romero's hideous charter takeover law entitled the Parent Empowerment Act, but most often referred to by culturally loaded name Parent Trigger. Austin's unethical and illegal behaviors on the SBE earned him a letter of censorship from the SBE demanding he stop breaking the law. Where was the accountability in all of that?

Ben Austin's latest foray into the realm of accountability?

Parent Trigger charlatan Ben Austin booted off State Bar of California

I'll reproduce my original take on this situation:

Parent Trigger author, Benjamin Benchley Lain Austin, aka the Beverly Hills Barrister, aka the Foppish Millionaire of Benedict Canyon is not eligible to practice law in California because of his failure to take a LEGAL ETHICS course as part of Minimum Continuing Legal Education. It's no small irony that a charlatan that claims to know so much about education doesn't keep up with his own, and more importantly, avoids taking classes on ethics!

I suppose we can't blame Austin for avoiding classes on ethics, since ethics are anathema to him. So next time the slick charter school spokesman and his band of pernicious privatizers prattle about accountability, we can remember that they have no understanding of the word whatsoever.

Special thanks to Lisa for bringing Austin's current State Bar of California status to our attention.

---

Addendum: A reader chastised me for not noting another form of accountability Parent Revolution astroturfers are guilty of shirking, and that's keeping their paperwork for tax exempt status in order. I'm a little embarrassed that I neglected to mention this, but in Trigger Happy Parent Revolution Refuses Form 990 Request, we explored how the Parent Revolution scoundrels weren't accountable to the tax paying public. The IRS sent me a letter explaining that they are investigating these poverty pimps.

While we're at it, let's not forget wealthy white Gabe Rose, deputy director of Parent Revolution, has the dubious distinction of being caught posing as a Compton parent when he has never lived in Compton, nor been a parent.

Schools Matter: Parent Trigger charlatan Ben Austin booted off The State Bar of California

Roles and responsibilities of public officials?

Recently, the agents of school privatization have been exposed for their criminal behavior and utter disregard towards the public at large in pursuit of market share and profitability. Their response? On rare occasions they recused themselves from votes or lobbying when the policies that dumped ever more money into their charter school colleagues pockets looked too obvious.

Gloria Romero, Ted Mitchell, and Ben Austin recused themselves as spectacle only, they're master manipulators. It's no secret that their tenures as State Senator in Romero's case and the SBE in Mitchel and Austin's case consisted of boosting lucrative charter market share and nothing else. The constitution of the Freidman worshiping Schwarzenegger's SBE was akin to letting the Environmental Protection Agency be run by petroleum and coal executives — their interests were not those of Californians, but of profit.

Austin had to be told that he was breaking the rules, and his lame excuses about fellow privatizer Ted Mitchell telling him it was okay fall on deaf ears outside of the corporate privatizers. A wealthy Beverly Hills lawyer couldn't figure out simple and straightforward rules for public officials? Right.

Here's the real account of Austin's epic hypocrisy:

Pots, Kettles, and Ben Austin's Unconscionable Hypocrisy

"Parent" Trigger co-author Austin knew he was breaking laws while he lobbied the California State Board of Education

Austin and company are so adverse to the truth that they're making up a new version of how their little Walton Family Foundation funded privatization 501C3 was founded. Yuritzy Anaya recently lied to the Altadena media that Parent Revolution was formed by a group of moms! I guess if Steve Barr and Ryan Smith count as a group of moms, then Anaya would be telling the truth. I suppose privatizers are wholly incapable of telling the truth.

Scoundrels!

Or should we say Crooks and Liars.

Roles and responsibilities of public officials?

Schools Matter: "Parent" Trigger co-author Austin knew he was breaking laws while he lobbied the California State Board of Education

'[Skeels] believes that Austin is only pretending to show concern for students at underperforming schools, and that his primary concern is promoting the "privatization" of public schools.' I would restate that: Austin's primary concern is promoting whatever he's paid to promote, and pretending to show concern for whatever he's paid to pretend to show concern for. — Caroline Grannan (Journalist, Editor, Educator)


"Parent" Trigger co-author Austin knew he was breaking laws while he lobbied the California State Board of Education, my latest Schools Matter piece, contains incontrovertible evidence that criminal mastermind Ben Austin, of the Walton, Broad, and Gates Foundation funded astroturf charter school proxy group Parent Revolution, illegally and unethically influenced the passage of the so-called Parent Empowerment Act (aka parent trigger) law while it was being considered at the California State Board of Education (SBE). The letter from the SBE is dated March 30, 2011, which means Austin was making personal appearances for three months unabated, and even after the admonishment for his lawlessness, sent his lieutenants and Walton Family Foundation sponsored busloads of duped parents to the SBE.

Although the State Board warned Austin that his actions were in violation, he and his group were able to circumvent democracy and get their charter school market share growing legislation pushed through the SBE. The SBE letter vindicates my informed accusations of Austin's malfeasance in Pots, Kettles, and Ben Austin's Unconscionable Hypocrisy.

Published 2011-07-23 on Schools Matter, please read it there and share widely.

Schools Matter: "Parent" Trigger co-author Austin knew he was breaking laws while he lobbied the California State Board of Education

Pots, Kettles, and Ben Austin's Unconscionable Hypocrisy

First published in Schools Matter on 2011-07-18

There's nothing the matter with teachers that a little less unionization and more COMPETITION couldn't cure. — Ann Coulter (racist reactionary right wing pundit)

It would force the district to learn how to run great schools by forcing them to COMPETE. — Ben Austin (Executive Director LAPU/Parent Revolution)


Few people are more despicable than Ben Austin, Executive Director of the so-called Parent Revolution (née Los Angeles Parents Union - LAPU) school privatization junta. After all, anyone mendacious enough to claim they're a parent with children enrolled in school when they have no school age children is lacking of any scruples. [1] Moreover, a man who can walk into impoverished neighborhoods like Boyle Heights or Compton and tell parents "I'm just like you" when he has chosen to live in a community that's "87.5% white and has a median household income is $169,282" goes beyond being amoral, he's downright immoral.

Of course Austin's ongoing campaign of dishonesty and pressing scorched earth policies for public education have made him more than just a pariah in Los Angeles. He and profiteering organization recently joined the ranks of fellow reactionaries like Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Glen Beck, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter on the world famous "Crooks and Liars" website.

Public education advocates like myself have been following the Green Dot Public [sic] Schools' LAPU/Parent Revolution spinoff since its inception, and have beem following the vile Ben Austin since he first took [2] the helm of the privatization pushing organization. We've seen them do cynical things like having their well to do white male Deputy Director Gabe Rose pose as a Compton parent in order to deceive real Compton parents. We've heard parents from Garfield High School tell us paid organizer Mary Najera used to go monolingual Spanish church services with English only petitions and tell unwitting parents to sign the petition if they wanted their children to go to college — those petitions were actually to turn Garfield over to the Green Dot corporate charter chain. The list of Austin and his organization's lies, deceit, and duplicity goes on and on, and one would think that there's no lower depths that they could plumb.

They've found a way to sink lower.

A couple weeks ago, in preparation for last week, when the California State Board of Education (SBE) was about to vote on revisions to the deceptively named "Parent Empowerment Act," right wing reactionary "parents" Lydia Grant, Bruce Wasson, Monica Jones, and Carolynn Martin, with pro-bono legal support from the "Parent Revolution's" deep pocketed plutocrat backers, filed an ethics complaint against SBE member Patricia Rucker. Their claim? They stated that Rucker's employment with the California Teachers Association constituted a conflict of interest and that they would only drop their charges if Rucker would recuse herself on voting on the privatization regulations.

One wonders where these parents were when Parent Revolution's foppish millionaire leader was sitting on the selfsame board, voting on the very same regulations, but the hypocrisy of these "parents" and their "revolution" goes much deeper than that.

Kettles and Caldrons

Let's look at the first "parent" on the list of privatization plaintiffs against Ms. Rucker, the loathsome and imposing [3] Lydia Grant. The one thing all the mainstream (read corporate) media left out regarding Grant is that she is a long time board member of the so-called Parent Revolution. Yet she can speak about conflicts of interest. Aside from being nearly as detestable, Grant shares another quality with Ben Austin — she too has no children currently enrolled in the school she is attacking. Libertarian Grant is also a follower of right wing libertarian Ron Kaye and is a member of his "SLAP" project.


Grant's claim to fame is that she turned a personal beef with Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) Mount Gleason Middle School's principal into a festering vindictive campaign to oust them. She began signature gathering with Austin's blessings to have the principal removed. Of all the Sunland/Tujunga area parents I spoke with that knew of Grant, only one sympathized with her, and the rest described her as a pariah that browbeat many parents into signing petitions with her overbearing and abrasive personality.

My one encounter with the snarling, mean spirited Grant was outside the Beaudry Building at a LAUSD meeting where she was accosting and haranguing hardworking teachers. The woman's seemingly sociopathic resentments run deep, and I was somewhat taken aback listening to her bark at anyone not wearing the blue t-shirts identifying themselves as members of the reactionary school privatization groups Families That Can and Parent Revolution. I took these photos of her at that event, and even at that proximity I couldn't believe the vitriol spilling out of her mouth. Grant will be the subject of an upcoming article when time permits.

Parent activist Scott M. Folsom, whose popular 4LAKids blogs chronicle all things LAUSD, had the following to say about Grant being on the list of plaintiffs at the behest of her puppet-master Austin:

smf: One of the "four California parents", Lydia Grant, was the Parent Revolution Community Organizer of the Month for Oct 2010.

Parent Revolutionary-in-chief, PR Executive Director, Parent Trigger author, former Green Dot and Mayor Riordan staffer Ben Austin (whose 'day job' is Assistant LA City Attorney @ $119K per year) was removed from the State Board of Ed (Can you say 'Conflict of Interest?') in Brown's ascendency. Austin lobbied for the Parent Trigger Law in the State Board of Ed and also in the legislature.

But, hey - it's not personal!

Pots, Kettles, and Brewing Free Market Fantasies

Next, let's consider that when the reactionary Milton Friedman worshiping former Governor of California wanted a way to help his good friend and fellow charlatan Jed Wallace, of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA), increase market share with as little resistance as possible, he brought in two well known neoliberal opponents of public education: former State Senator and current Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) California Director Gloria Romero, and Ben Austin of Green Dot's LAPU/Parent Revolution. In what was a perfect storm of Rand/Friedman ideologies, neoliberal principles, naked opportunism, greed, Heartland Institute and Hoover Institution fantasies, and lucrative charter market share grabs, Schwarzenegger, Austin, and Romero crafted a vile piece of legislation that became colloquially known as the "parent trigger." The law allows for well financed charter-voucher advocacy groups, like say, Parent Revolution, to drop into impoverished neighborhoods to bamboozle, browbeat, and bribe a bare majority (ie. fifty percent, plus one) of parents from the school in question, and/or the feeder schools [5] into "triggering" one of the four punitive provisions from Rod Paige and arch-reactionary George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. Of course the only provision Schwarzenegger, Austin, and Romero were ever interested in is the charter conversion clause, in which publicly financed schools are handed over to privately run corporations. The law could be most appropriately referred to as the corporate charter trigger, as it has nothing to do with empowering parents.

For his enthusiastic participation in co-authoring the charter market share growing law, Austin was granted a seat on Schwarzenegger's hand picked SBE, which was already stacked with charter school executives, vendors, and other profiteers. Austin, as a highly paid spokesperson for the charter-voucher industry, was a perfect fit, and his job was to insure that the so-called Parent Empower Act be implemented without a hitch, and that both market share and profitable side enterprises of the lucrative charter sector grew to satisfy their investors. Austin was all at once, the bill's author, biggest advocate on the SBE, and the sole stewart of how the regulations were being written, and rest assured he was making them as friendly to charter advocacy groups like his own as he could. There were no cries of conflict of interest then. No astroturf "parents" lodging complaints. No accusations in the mainstream press of ethics violations. No cacophony calling for Austin to recuse himself from the proceedings.

Austin knows a quite a bit about conflicts of interest and ethics violations, he was under investigation by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission (Case # 2010-36) when he was collecting a check at the City Attorney Office while being a full time charter school advocate (and part time Green Dot Employee) at Los Angeles Parents Union (aka Parent Revolution). He was also using his connections to host closed meetings with his political connections garnered from his City job, like with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

But Austin's own myriad conflicts of interest and ethics violations while on the SBE pale in comparison to his recent transgression. His hypocritical and self serving attacks on Patrica Rucker will look at the more reprehensible in the following section.

Pots Calling the Kettle Black, Austin Illegally Lobbied the SBE

In early March of 2011 an activist showed me footage of Ben Austin speaking at the SBE on behalf of the charter trigger legislation. Bear in mind that by March, Austin and several other of Schwarzenegger's fringe right wing appointees had been swept from the Board by the incoming Governor, and while many charter-voucher industry profiteers remain — like the reprehensible Yvonne Chan — a few of the most egregious members are gone. I knew that former Board members were barred from lobbying at the Board for a period of time, although I thought the span was twenty four months. Astonished that Austin would be so brazen to flout the law and regulations in such a high profile forum, I immediately contacted the State Board of Education and spoke with then employee Regina Wilson.

Wilson confirmed that Austin had indeed spoken and lobbied at the SBE after he had been officially removed from the board. She also informed me that the period they weren't allowed to appear at the Board to lobby was twelve months, rather than what I thought, and that Austin had certainly violated the rules. I told Ms. Wilson I was working on a story, and asked her to get back to me on a few other questions I had, including: "were the other Board members aware of the regulations regarding former Board members lobbying?"

I waited a week for Wilson and called her again, she said she gathering information and would get back to me. I then went on holiday with my wife to visit her family in Korea. When I returned from Daegu, I called Wilson, but was greeted with an answering machine informing me that she was no longer with the SBE [6] and to contact a Ms. Carol Gorman. I called Gorman, discussed the situation with her and was told to expect a call back. There was no call back. After leaving several voicemails, I grew wary of carrying out my investigation verbally and sent Gorman an email on June 10, 2011. Following is her response that contains my original email:

Dear Mr. Skeels:

I am in receipt of your email of this date, and have forwarded it to the attention of our Deputy Executive Director, Patricia de Cos, for her review. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Sincerely,

Carol K. Gorman
Executive Assistant
California State Board of Education
1430 N Street, Suite 5111
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-319-0705 Direct
916-319-0175 Fax
cgorman@cde.ca.gov
http://www.cde.ca.gov/be

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert D. Skeels [mailto:rdsathene@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 3:54 PM
To: Carol Gorman
Cc: Superintendent ; Rebecca MacLaren
Subject: Ben Austin at SBE meetings before 12 months completed
Importance: High

Ms. Gorman:

I've spoken with you on the phone and left multiple voice mails about this issue. I was in contact with former SBE employee Regina Wilson prior to that.

I am a freelance education writer in Los Angeles. I have seen video footage of former SBE member Ben Austin speaking at the board in February or March of this year. I am aware of the rule prohibiting former SBE members from lobbying at the SBE for 12 months.

My questions still remain. Are the SBE members aware that Mr. Austin has broken these rules. Will there be disciplinary measure brought against Mr. Austin.

I am about to publish my article about the incident and have expended due diligence trying to obtain answers from the State board of Education. At this point, and I hate to say this, it seem like a cover up. I was hoping a Governor Brown appointed board with be less opaque than that of our reactionary former Governor. Sadly, this doesn't seem to be the case.

Mr. Austin has violated ethics, and perhaps even the law in what he did. He should be held accountable for his vile actions.

Advocating public education and social justice

Robert D. Skeels

Note she uses the phrase "email of this date," as if that was our first communication, despite having spoken on the phone with me. There's still been no word from Ms. Gorman although I wrote her again on July 8, 2011 requesting a status on the above email.

Ms. Gorman:

Now that Mr. Austin and company have attacked SBE Board Member Rucker, it's imperative that his and his own organization's clear conflicts of interest and violation of SBE rules be brought to light.

It's unfortunate that the SBE is seemingly stonewalling my efforts to expose Austin's malfeasance, and I am somewhat taken aback by the intransigence of the board regarding this matter. Does Mr. Austin still have this much influence that this entire affair is being swept under the rug? I'm of of the mind to publish all of our correspondence publicly if there is no response on this.

Robert D. Skeels

Clearly a cover up is taking place. The Board is not only well aware that Ben Austin has violated the rules, but seem oblivious that his connections to the well financed charter voucher industry and their plutocrat backers provide him with immunity to consequences for his actions. Meanwhile he sicks his dogs on current SBE members like Patrica Rucker with impunity. Moreover the SBE members are still clearly pawns of the deep pocket charter school sector as evidenced by SBE President Michael Kirst's disgusting pro-privatization comments during last week's vote to ratify the clean up of the corporate charter trigger law deceptively named Parent Empowerment Act.

The hypocrisy of Ben Austin and his school privation organization claiming Rucker has a conflict of interest is staggering. I like to fancy myself an aspiring wordsmith, but lack the vocabulary to describe the scope of this reprehensible, repugnant, and revolting incident in the light of Austin's ongoing unconscionable behavior. The charter industry has a real gem in Austin, since no lie is unspeakable and no scruples are necessary in his orbit. Like I said in my email above "Mr. Austin has violated ethics, and perhaps even the law in what he did. He should be held accountable for his vile actions."

The only way we can stop these crooks and charlatans is to continue real, grass roots parent and community organizing. They have dozens of paid charter drive "organizers" in the field preying on parents looking for answers to systemic problems. We need to expose the Ben Austins, Gabe Roses, and Pat DeTemples for the reactionary agents of privatization they are. We need to point out that the narrative of parents versus teachers has been forced on us by the same Wall Street hucksters who just swindled us all, and are now tricking us into blaming each other. The real battle is communities versus corporations, but as long as charlatans like Ben Austin and Scott Walker push working people into blaming other working people, the longer the corporations will continue to win.



_____
NOTES
[1] Austin's eldest child, already a preschooler, will probably be starting Kindergarden this fall. Listening to Austin's perfidious rhetoric would lead one to think that she's been enrolled for over decade.

[2] By all accounts Austin first took a consulting position (paying $94,475) with LAPU quite unwillingly, and only after persistent persuasion by his close friend the businessman Marco Petruzzi. Once Austin recognized how lucrative and politically expedient it was to be working for the Broad/Gates/Walton Triumvirate did he, ever the opportunist, agree to take the Executive Director position. Petruzzi is still on the Parent Revolution Board, having ousted Steve Barr from both the organizations Barr founded.

[3] One Tujunga/Sunland area parent I spoke with called Grant "girthsome" and made several other rotund references, but I felt it more appropriate to use the word imposing despite the chance to use my favorite literary devices to follow loathsome.

[4] Green Dot Charter Corporation and Parent Revolution didn't break ties until the Summer of 2010. Until then Green Dot paid LAPU/Parent Revolution's rent and many other expenses. They were still receiving money from the Broad/Gates/Walton Triumvirate, but not nearly as much as they do now. To wit, the bigots comprising the Walton Family Foundation dumped a half a million into Austin's school privatization efforts last year.

[5] "Feeder" schools comprise the school from which the next classes of students at a school will potentially come from. In the example of a middle school, all the attendance boundary elementary schools would be considered its feeder schools. Never mind the fact that those families may move, choose to send their kids to parochial, charter or other private schools, their signatures are as good as gold under the so-called Parent Empowerment Act. Inequitable and unfair that a community's public school could be turned over to a private corporation with only a tiny minority of the community making the decisions? Sure, but the law was to build charter school market share, not empower parents or communities in any way.

[6] So that the rest of the press can reluctantly (given their aversion to public schools and love affair with the profiteers in the charter sector) verify my story, the number I was using to contact Regina Wilson (916) 319-0693. Now that number has a message that says "I'm no longer with the State Board of Education, if you need assistance please call Carol Gorman at (916) 319-0705.

Pots, Kettles, and Ben Austin's Unconscionable Hypocrisy