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