Schools Matter: The Monica Garcia - Betsy DeVos connection

First published on Schools Matter on December 13, 2016

---

“Monica Garcia believes in… choice… She expanded charter schools” — Michael R. Bloomberg and A. Jerrold Perenchio’s Coalition for School Reform

Extremist Betsy DeVos was a long time favorite of neoliberal corporate education reform oriented Liberals and reactionary organizations like Democrats for Education Reform, so it's surprising that there's a little bit of consternation coming from some Democrats over Trump's ED pick. On the other hand, right-wing extremists like Campbell Brown seemingly can't contain their joy over the arch-reactionary appointment. Ultimately DeVos's school privatization policies won't differ substantively from those of the doltish Arne Duncan or John King. She'll just get to our rulers' end goal of eliminating public education quicker than the Bush and Obama Administrations were able to.

Los Angeles has had its own Betsy DeVos for many years in the form of anti-public school politician Monica Garcia. Garcia is running for a third term, and her long record of expanding revenue streams and market share for the lucrative charter school industry is legendary. Here are some of DeVos and Garcia's connections and shared values:

• Betsy DeVos financially supports, and was on the board of publisher (The 74) of the dubious "LA School Report", a high-profile blog that has provided non-stop favorable publicity and propaganda for Moníca García since its inception.

• DeVos has made sizable contributions to organizations that in turn made campaign contributions to SuperPAC Independent Expenditures supporting García's elections. Follow the money to organization like the now defunct Coalition for School Reform, and Great Public Schools Los Angeles, and also the current CCSA run Parent Teacher Alliance dark money SuperPAC.

• DeVos funds the organizations espousing racist "school choice" policies from which García derives many of her policy positions and talking points.

• DeVos and García openly support religious, and religious affiliated organizations running charter chains. DeVos with the various Christian Identity and white supremacist organizations she's associated with, and García, whose long time relationship with The Pacifica Institute and the shadowy Gülen network are well documented.

Schools Matter: The Monica Garcia - Betsy DeVos connection

Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC Audit

May 12, 2015

Contact: Bennett Kayser HQ
Cell: 323-535-9930
 

DEFLATE GATE AT LAUSD AS RODRIGUEZ SUPPORTER GARCIA TRIES TO SQUASH RODRIGUEZ AUDIT SHOWING BAD BUSINESS.  BAD BOOKS AND VIOLATIONS – AUDIT DISAPPEARS, AGAIN!!

Los Angeles – Bennett Kayser, Board member of the second largest school district in the nation, has balanced three, $7 billion dollar budgets affecting 660,000 students, their families and those who serve them.

The report shows that Kayser’s Board District 5 challenger Ref Rodriguez couldn’t keep one school, with only 100 students, balanced for nine years (9) straight! This “insolvent” bad apple is Lakeview Charter, part of the Rodriguez/PUC charter chain. Ham-handed attempts by Rodriguez’s supporter to hide the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) audit of the Rodriguez-run PUC Lakeview Charter School, and affiliated enterprises, have been exposed.

The audit became a hot political football to be deflated by Rodriguez’s ideological ally. Howard Blume of the Los Angeles Times first reported last week on the surreptitious attempts to hide the facts: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-puc-charter-audit-20150428-story.html

Under extraordinary circumstances, the independent audit of Rodriguez’s charter was withheld from the public, diverted into a “closed session” of the Tuesday, May 12th Board meeting and shoved under “attorney-client privilege” in an attempt to bury the damning report. The audit was also withheld from the usual public posting on the OIG’s website. Though still not posted, the audit can be viewed here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2070211/puc-lakeview-charter-academy-audit-4-23-2015-1.pdf

The Inspector General's report lays out how Rodriguez's school violated child abuse requirements, the State’s Education Code, State labor rules, best practices, and even its own charter, multiple times. On page three the report highlights “...the fact that for nine straight years of school operations, the Lakeview Charter Academy had poor financial results, and was fiscally insolvent.” (aka bankrupt!)

Perhaps out of fear that the scathing audit would trigger calls for additional investigations and oversite of Rodriguez’s schools, the topic was dropped from the Board’s Closed Session agenda for May 12, 2015.

The fact the PUC audit was pulled from the Board’s closed session agenda is proof-positive that games are being played by political allies to hide poor management, if not serious violations by Rodriguez and his executive team. What the PUC?
 

###

Paid for by Re-Elect Bennett Kayser for School Board 2015 - General – 419 North Larchmont Blvd., #37, Los Angeles, CA 90004 – ID #1375891 – More information available at Ethics.lacity.org – Bennett2015.com – (323) 535-9930

Ref Rodriguez's Game of Hide the PUC Audit

CCSA's Ref Rodriguez campaign now linked to ALEC, Kochs, SFER and DFER

---

April 21, 2015

Contact: Bennett Kayser HQ
Cell: 323-535-9930

HEY NEW YORKERS, WELCOME TO OUR L.A. SCHOOL BOARD RACE, NOW FOLLOW OUR LOCAL ETHICS AND TRANSPARENCY RULES!!

Los Angeles – New York money continues to attempt to buy influence in the Los Angeles Unified School Board race in District 5. Out-of-state “Reform, Inc.” money still pours in against local teacher and current Board member Bennett Kayser. One NYC billionaire was good for $450,000 as of December. Now, a front group from NYC linked to the hard-core Republican super PAC known as ALEC and the Koch brothers has inserted money in our school board race.

“Students for Education Reform” (SFER) has landed with boots on the ground, paid boots. (Whether they were flown in is another question.) SFER has spent $20,120.80 so far. Just two weeks in town and SFER has already violated our local ethics and transparency requirements.

SFER has failed to follow both California and the City of Los Angeles’ election ethics rules for mail communications. They are required to include a disclaimer specifying the name, address, a registered ID number and to inform the public who paid for the material and that additional information is available at ethics.lacity.org. Once again Rodriguez supporters are circumventing the law, violating local ethics rules and hiding out-of-state billionaire backers.

The following is SFER’s non-disclosure, “dis-closure” found on their mail: “Paid for by Students for Education Reform Action Network and not authorized by candidate(s) or any committee controlled by the candidate(s).”

Astroturf Activism: Who is Behind Students for Education Reform? (by George Joseph in the Nation)

SFER has received $1.6 million from Education Reform Now, whose PAC, Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), shelled out $1 million to attack the Chicago Teachers Union. DFER worked with the Koch brothers and ALEC to push Proposition 32, which if passed, would have blocked labor unions from using automatic payroll deductions for political purposes. Though SFER claims neutral territory, its motives are laid bare by its rallying around the funding of charter schools, the issue of limiting tenure, and its strict focus on testing. The testing corporations and charter school CEOs might agree with hedge funder and DFER founder Whitney Tilson’s explanation for his interest in education: “Hedge funds are always looking for ways to turn a small amount of capital into a large amount of capital.”

http://www.thenation.com/blog/172174/astroturf-activism-who-behind-students-education-reform

Nothing says democracy, education Reform, Inc.-style more than a trip to Walmart and valet service!



http://ethics.lacity.org/disclosure/campaign/search/public_ie_search_results.cfm

###

Paid for by Re-Elect Bennett Kayser for School Board 2015 - General – 419 North Larchmont Blvd., #37, Los Angeles, CA 90004 – ID #1375891 – More information available at Ethics.lacity.org – Bennett2015.com – (323) 535-9930

Copyright © 2015 Re-Elect Bennett Kayser For School Board 2015 - General, All rights reserved.

CCSA's Ref Rodriguez campaign now linked to ALEC, Kochs, SFER and DFER

PESJA: Online Forum by Parents Across America - The Parent Trigger from California to Florida

Online Forum by @parentsacrossam The Parent Trigger from California to Florida parentrigger.eventbrite.com#LAUSD twitter.com/PESJA_LA/statu…

— PESJA Los Angeles (@PESJA_LA) May 17, 2013

Sunday, May 26, 2013 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM (PDT)

We will be hearing from Lori Yuan, a parent in Adelanto who fought the Parent Trigger at her school, and Parents Across America Founding Member Rita Solnet who, along with other organizations, defeated the Prent Trigger bill in the Florida State Senate on March 9, 2013.

Parents Across America is a non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization that connects parents and activists from around the country to share ideas and work together to improve our nation's public schools.

PESJA: Online Forum by Parents Across America - The Parent Trigger from California to Florida

Education Opportunity Network: “Parent Triggers: Another Reform Misfires"

Education Opportunity Network: “Parent Triggers: Another Reform Misfires,” youtu.be/HtTGMqHYaJk #LAUSD #parenttrigger

— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) March 16, 2013

Education Opportunity Network: “Parent Triggers: Another Reform Misfires"

Parent Trigger - False Promises, Divided Communities and Disrupted Young Lives

Thank you for this thoughtful and informative video exposing The Heartland Institute, Parent Revolution, and ALEC's corporate charter trigger law. We're hopeful that videos like this will counter the lies the trigger proponents promulgate, and that communities will resist when these outsiders come to steal our schools. — rdsathene

The video tells the story of Adelanto, California where a well-funded, outside group "Parent Revolution" came to town and instead of working to improve the schools tricked parents with false promises, bitterly divided the community, and disrupted the education of young children.

"The video makes clear that that parent trigger laws, pending in 14 states, are not a magic wand that improves education -- there is no magic wand," said Roger Hickey of the Education Opportunity Network. "Schools need better resources, engaged parents, good teachers and a supportive community. What schools do not need is divisive campaigns that mislead parents and disappoints parents," he said.

The Education Opportunity Network is part of a new movement that is building in America aimed at assuring that all children and youth have the opportunity to learn. The Education Opportunity Network is a project of the Institute for America's Future, in partnership with the Opportunity to Learn Campaign.

"We need to work together for student success. Let's give our teachers and students the tools and resources they need to succeed," said Jeff Bryant -- education writer and editor of the Education Opportunity Network. "We also need to invest in the priorities that build the foundation for student learning: small classes, early childhood education, up-to-date textbooks and computers, and classes like history, art, PE and music," he said.

Parent Trigger laws are about pitting parents against each other instead of everyone in the community working together on real solutions for educating all children," said Bryant.

Parent Trigger - False Promises, Divided Communities and Disrupted Young Lives

ALEC/DFER's Gloria Romero Stands Her Ground on Won't Back Down

ALEC/DFER's Gloria Romero Stands Her Ground on Won't Back Down

"The idea of “choice” has been manipulated by the corporate reformers and spread by groups like ALEC, who seek to use methods such as the Parent Trigger to turn public schools over to privately-managed charters. This is not real choice; nor is it parent empowerment." — Parents Across America.

My commentary in response to: Gloria Romero: 'Parent Trigger' fight hits the big screen. First published on Schools Matter on 2012-10-04.

Photo by Mark Warner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The corporate charter trigger film is a shameful farce, and it isn't just film critics that have realized that the Murdoch/Anschutz financed propaganda piece is a joke. Daniel Barnz's Won't Back Down holds the dubious distinction of having the WORST opening weekend for a wide release (2,500-plus screens) in the last 30 years. Audiences aren't interested paying to see such strident and insulting nonsense.

Ms. Romero, who discusses "special interests," should be taken very seriously on that issue. She is an expert in special interests after all. As a politician she enjoyed a constant flood of campaign funds from the lucrative charter school sector to craft pernicious legislation like SB 592, which hands public school property over to private corporations.

Romero and Austin's corporate charter trigger law, which she forgets to mention had plenty of input from Bill Lucia of Reed Hastings' EdVoice (one of Romero's favorite corporate contributors by the way), and Friedman acolyte Arnold Schwartzenegger. These fringe-right forces made sure the trigger law would be amenable to The Heartland Institute and The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The former is the trigger law's biggest promoter, the latter turned the commons robbing idea in ALEC template legislation.

When her billionaire special interest backers couldn't buy her the State Superintendent job, they gave her the next best thing: a quarter million dollar a year gig with the hedge fund supported DFER. In other words, Romero went from taking money from special interests while she was in Sacramento, to being one of the deep pocketed special interests influencing her former colleagues to push through more revenue streams through school privatization.

ALEC/DFER's Gloria Romero Stands Her Ground on Won't Back Down

Chicago Teachers Union Versus Astroturf Billionaires

Billionaires like the Koch Brothers, Betsy DeVos, and Bill Gates fund astroturf tools like Jonah Edelman, Rebecca Nieves Huffman, and Kyle Olson. Working with anti-working class politicians like Rahm Emanuel, these groups and individuals strive to privatize public education, union bust, and profit off the sufferings of the poor. Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is on the front lines of the battle to save public education, but they are fighting right-wing forces with limitless resources. Their bold actions in the face of overwhelming odds may well be the turning point in the battle to prevent the neoliberal project from eliminating public education nationwide. They need our support, please contribute to the CTU Solidarity Fund.

Here's CTU's introduction to the film:

The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.

On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.

Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation's wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.

Chicago Teachers Union Versus Astroturf Billionaires

Daily Kos: American Center for School Choice Versus The John Birch Society

First published July 06, 2012 in Daily Kos

---

The so-called "Parent Trigger" is an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) template law written primarily by right-wingers Bill Lucia of EdVoice and Ben Austin of Green Dot School Corporation. DFER Corporate school privatizer Gloria Romero, who signed her name on that bill that was snuck through the California legislature in a desperate attempt to win Race to the Trough bribe dollars, recently took offense to the fact that many people are starting to learn the reactionary origins of charter trigger laws. Romero recently penned a ridiculous attack on the distinguished Professor Diane Ravitch. Since Romero is a pariah even in her own political party, the only place that would publish her work is the American Center for School Choice (ACSC). My recent polemic and comments against Romero and the ACSC seemingly offended ACSC's Doug Tuthill, who accused me of "name calling, ad hominem arguments or false assertions." The following open letter is my response to Mr. Tuthill.

Mr. Tuthill:

I rather appreciate your call for "civility and accuracy." In the interest of the latter, let's examine the issue. Nowhere did I say Mr. Coons was a member of the John Birch Society. What I said, and you quote it, is that your organization is headed up by "John Birch Society types" like Coons. I'm using the word "type" as in the widely accepted definition "a person or thing symbolizing or exemplifying the ideal or defining characteristics of something."

Let's put my assertion to the test. I posit that both Mr. Coons and your organization espouse ideals in the realm of education policy that are central to those the John Birch Society. I won't waste time compiling too many examples, but here are a few quotations that are seemingly identical:

"parental authority forms the foundation for broadening the support for choice in education." John E. Coons

"for this reason we support choice of education in both curriculum and methods of funding with all matters being addressed by parents" John Birch Society

"Parental authority is precisely that legal attribute lodged in the adult person who, together with the child – and generally others" John E. Coons

"We must protect the liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children." Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) quoted on John Birch Society site.

An exhaustive comparison would yield dozens and dozens of nearly identical quotes. However, given that the American Center for School Choice is a small fringe-right-wing group itself, it isn't surprising that the examples are bountiful.

Your turn Mr. Tuthill. In the interest of accuracy can you show me any substantive differences on education policies between The American Center for School Choice (ACSC) and the John Birch Society (JBS)? Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of these points.

• Both ACSC and JBS support charter schools
• Both ACSC and JBS support vouchers (sometimes cynically called opportunity scholarships)
• Both ACSC and JBS support public funds being used for religious schools
• Both ACSC and JBS support homeschooling
• Both ACSC and JBS support a form of school choice that includes institutions without publicly elected schoolboards
• Both ACSC and JBS support absolute parental authority
• Both ACSC and JBS support and extol the "qualities" of market based education "solutions"

You state Mr. Coons was a "leading liberal" (whatever that means) for several decades. Yet the ACSC site biography cites Coons as having "championed the cause of school choice for four decades." Given that school choice, the clarion call of the segregationists during the height of Jim Crow, is anathema to progressive ideals, it would seem that Mr. Coons holds many views that are the antithesis of those held by progressives and leftists.

More to the point, let's leave the JBS out of the picture entirely. How does ACSC or Mr. Coons' views differ on education from any of the extreme reactionary think tanks like The Heritage Foundation, The Manhattan Institute, The Cato Institute, The Heartland Institute, The Hoover Institution, The Koret Foundation, or any others?

I think I've made a cogent and ironclad case that I am not engaging in "name calling, ad hominem arguments or false assertions," but rather speaking some very uncomfortable truths to one of the bulwarks of oppression.

Advocating public education and social justice

Robert D. Skeels

Daily Kos: American Center for School Choice Versus The John Birch Society

Schools Matter: Democrats for Neoliberal Education Reform's Gloria J. Romero's Parent Tricker days are numbered

I think about former Senator Gloria Romero comparing Compton educators to "batterers" and wondered whether the writers of those words ever stop to think about the consequences of their prose. — Martha Infante

Photo by Mark Warner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

As the DFER veneer for right-wing "parent trigger" laws wears off, and more and more people see the privatization agenda for what it is, charlatans like Gloria Romero and Ben Austin have been scrambling to hide or minimize their ties to right wing extremists. The good news is that it isn't working, and that aside from shills like Andi Rotherham and Alex Russo even mainstream media journalists are starting to see through what the distinguished Professor Diane Ravitch refers to as the "Parent Tricker."
My recent Schools Matter essay, Democrats for Neoliberal Education Reform's Gloria J. Romero's Parent Tricker days are numbered, looks at DFER's Gloria Romero' unconscionable attacks on the distinguished Professor Diane Ravitch.
Published 2012-07-02 on Schools Matter, please read it there and share widely.
Bonus: Open letter to Doug Tuthill of the American Center for School Choice. My response to Mr. Tuthill's insistance that his fringe right organization and colleagues differ with the John Birch Society on education policies.

Schools Matter: Democrats for Neoliberal Education Reform's Gloria J. Romero's Parent Tricker days are numbered

Schools Matter: Peas in a pod: Koret Foundation, The Hoover Institution, and Democrats for Education Reform

"I tell you, my friends, the trouble with this whole country is that so many are selfish! Here's a hundred and twenty million people, with ninety-five per cent of 'em only thinking of self, instead of turning to and helping the responsible business men to bring back prosperity! All these corrupt and self-seeking labor unions! Money grubbers! Thinking only of how much wages they can extort out of their unfortunate employer, with all the responsibilities he has to bear!" ... "Then was revealed the New American Education, which, as Sarason so justly said, was to be ever so much newer than the New Educations of Germany, Italy, Poland, or even Turkey." — Sinclair Lewis [1]

It's no secret that the malicious types running Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) hold the same ideological positions as the furthest-right think-tanks around. Starting with their founder Whitney Tilson, [2] who channels American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) Andy Smarick at every opportunity, DFER is a bastion of right-wing thought that amounts to an enormous serving of Milton Freidman's free market fantasies finished with a healthy dollop of Ayn Rand's infantile insistence that "Big Business" is "America’s Persecuted Minority."

My recent Schools Matter essay, Peas in a pod: Koret Foundation, The Hoover Institution, and Democrats for Education Reform, looks at a recent event DFER's Gloria Romero did with arch-reactionaries Terry Moe of The Hoover Institution and Lance Izumi of Koret Foundation. The connections between both funders and shared ideology are frightening and not for the feint of heart.

Published 2012-01-26 on Schools Matter, please read it there and share widely.

Schools Matter: Peas in a pod: Koret Foundation, The Hoover Institution, and Democrats for Education Reform

Professor Daniel Willingham on Merit Pay, Teacher Pay, and Value Added Measures

The private sector rewards only true merit - not! — Caroline Grannan (Journalist, Editor, Educator)




[click here if you can't view this video]

Professor Daniel Willingham on Merit Pay, Teacher Pay, and Value Added Measures

Open Letter to DFER's Gloria Romero regarding her recent reactionary letter to the AFT

I think about former Senator Gloria Romero comparing Compton educators to "batterers" and wondered whether the writers of those words ever stop to think about the consequences of their prose. — Martha Infante

Photo by Mark Warner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sen. Romero:

Here are some questions I'd like to ask you for an upcoming Schools Matter article I'm writing regarding your recent letter to the AFT:

Why did you find the AFT slide show offensive?

Why does the Parent Empowerment Act only contain the punitive portions of NCLB? Why nothing to help existing schools improve? Why nothing that would actually empower parents?

You mention "bake sales," in reference to supposed parental power at public schools. Are you aware that charter corporations have nothing like Governing School Councils, School Site Councils, or Governing boards like Pilot, Traditional, and ESBMM schools have. Why no efforts to increase the existing decision making power parents have in those venues, and why don't you advocate for charter schools to provide similar mechanisms for their disenfranchised parents?

You authored SB-191 and SB-592 on behalf of the deep pocketed trade group California Charter School Association. No apologies for helping the CCSA increase market share and the already considerable wealth of their executives? Any explanation from Democrats for Education Reform as to how privatizing schools empowers parents or communities?

Lastly, what's to stop cynical charter-voucher proxy groups like Parent Revolution from using the "trigger" law to increase charter school market share? Also, were you aware that Ben Austin broke the law when he lobbied at the State Board of Education? Did you know he received a letter of admonishment for his illegal activities? There's a copy of the letter in this article: "Parent" Trigger co-author Austin knew he was breaking laws while he lobbied the California State Board of Education.

I appreciate your prompt response to my questions

Advocating public education and social justice

Robert D. Skeels

Open Letter to DFER's Gloria Romero regarding her recent reactionary letter to the AFT

Democrats for Neoliberal Education Reform

"Like special interests, our constituents deserve some consideration also." — Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte (LAUSD Board). At least someone was thinking of parents and community before corporations and privatizers at LAUSD.


If we ever needed more insight into just how manipulative and insidious Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) is as an agent of the corporate and neoliberal agenda, they've published a white paper discussing how they managed to railroad the anti-community, anti-teacher, pro-corporate SB-191 through the Colorado Legislature. The bill, which further disenfranchised communities in favor of corporate "ed-reformers," and stripped Colorado teachers of nearly any protections whatsoever is a prime example of how it isn't only teabagging darlings like Florida's Rick Scott and Wisconsin's Scott Walker that want to destroy public education and bust all unions.

Using a systematic methodology of guile, deception, and select co-opting of various other entities, DFER politicians were able to pass a pernicious bill that all but turns the teaching profession into a career path akin to working as a fast food fry cook. Of course, that's how the well heeled hedge fund managers that founded DFER view anyone outside of their insular world of finance capital to begin with.

Although the document is an extremely boring read — chock full of corporate "ed-reformer" jargon and buzzwords — it's important for social justice activists and public education advocates to read it in order to understand what we are up against. These are the type of tactics the plutocrats and corporate reformers have perfected.

http://www.dfer.org/CO_Case_Study.pdf

Probably the most disgusting and revolting passage in the paper:

Not only as a respected interest group, but also as the primary consumer of the students Colorado schools produce, the sponsors rightly believed that the business community’s support would add important diversity and depth to the coalition. [emphasis mine]

Although we shouldn't be surprised that ultimately DFER espouses some of the vilest concepts of Freidman and Rand's ideology, the fact that they openly discuss students as mere commodities to be consumed by the owners of the means of production is a grim reminder of what drives the so-called education reform crowd. For them the working class and our offspring are just a means for their financial backers to generate ever more profit, and DFER doesn't even try to obscure the exploitation that the system depends on, indeed, they willingly embrace it.

LAUSD's Corporate Superintendent John Deasy is slated to do an event with DFER's depraved Gloria Romero on March 31, 2011 in Glendora, California. We can rest assured that many of the provisions in Colorado's SB-191 will be discussed as the inevitable corporate future for LAUSD at that event. Mussolini and Franco must be beaming with pride in the Ninth Circle right now, their dreams of a completely corporate state being fulfilled with nary a whimper.

Since we're discussing the ruling class lackeys of DFER, I want to republish my response to deformer Paul Hoss' obsequious support of the school privatizers currently headed by the right wing Joe Williams in the comments following a Valerie Strauss piece.

Contrary to @paulhoss' reactionary right-wing nonsense above, DFER serves two functions. First, it gives the nouveau riche an opportunity to network by joining charter-voucher school boards and the boards of charter-voucher related trade associations. Since these aspiring socialites and elitists, many of whom made their fortunes shorting housing derivatives and by other "honorable" means, aren't able to get on boards dominated by "old money," DFER/TFA and the like give them a chance to play self important neo-gilded-age tycoons much like the robber barons of old. They like to call themselves philanthropists, although they are nothing of the sort.

The "ethos" of these budding plutocrats are are those of neoliberalism and markets. Freire and Macedo referred to this as "...a perverse ethics that, in fact, lacks ethics." DFER's advocates for policies that Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman espoused, policies that incorporate vile concepts like competition, market solutions, and choice — all highly discredited ideas. How progressive are DFER's ideas when they are universally lauded (and for the most part coined) by the likes of Heritage, AEI, Cato, Hoover, Hudson, and all the other extreme right wing think tanks?

Indeed, DFER and like minded groups merely provide an ostensible liberal veneer for the most reactionary aims. Their operatives and supporters deserve nothing but universal disdain. Cloaking privatization in the guise of "helping children" goes beyond cynical, it's downright sinister.

Democrats for Neoliberal Education Reform