Tuesday, February 25, 2014

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?


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


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.


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

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