If you want to know why so many politicians think so highly of charters, there is a basic rule of  politics that explains it all: Follow the money.

The most visible organization promoting corporate reform is called Democrats for Education Reform, known as DFER (commonly pronounced “D-fer”). DFER is the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ group. It always has a few non-hedge funders on the board, especially one or two prominent African-Americans, to burnish its pretentious claim of leading the civil rights movement of our day. Kevin Chavous, a former council member from Washington, D.C., fills that role for now, along with the DFER stalwart, Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark. DFER has its own member of the U.S. Senate, Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado. It has also raised money generously for Congressman George Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Education and Labor Committee.

This group bankrolls politicians, woos them, raises campaign cash for them, and persuades them of the advantages of turning the children of their district over to privately managed schools. Watch their website to see which politician they favor this month and scan those they have recognized in the past.

In New York City, Hakeem Jeffries, DFERs’s candidate for U.S. Congress, announced his support for tax credits for religious schools on the day after he won the election. His support for charter schools was already well known. Unless there is targeted new funding, support for charters and religious schools comes right out of the budget for public schools, which are already stressed by cuts.

Trouble in New Orleans Charter Paradise

http://dianeravitch.net/2012/07/03/trouble-in-new-orleans-paradise/
July 3, 2012

Down in New Orleans, which corporate reformers treat as a model for the nation, there’s trouble.

One of the charter groups, called the Algiers Charter Schools Association, is in hot water with parents. Algiers has eight charters, enrolling over 5,000 students. It recently lost its CEO and hired an interim chief academic officer, Aamir Raza, from New York City to implement changes. Raza is a management consultant (not an educator, needless to say) who had worked for the New York City Department of Education charter office.

Algiers has this problem: Some of its charters are high-flying (a 93-97% pass rate on the state tests) and some do very poorly (a 7% pass rate on the same test). Critics in New Orleans attribute the disparity to a conscious policy by the Algiers leadership to use certain schools as “dumping grounds” for low-performing students so the others look like miracle schools.

Raza, who is on a 90-day contract at $16,000 a month, decided toshake things up. He fired the central office staff and announced his intention to move the principals from the high-performing schools to the low-performing schools. This caused a ruckus.

Parents were furious. They held meetings to express their rage; they did not want to lose their principal, and they were outraged by the lack of transparency of Raza’s decisions.

When the Algiers association held its board meeting, the parents turned out by the hundreds to express their anger. The president of the Algiers Neighborhood Presidents’ Council said, “”I am unfortunately going to advise you that in the opinion of all 16 neighborhood presidents, Mr. Raza exhibited the utmost lack of respect, extreme arrogance and uncompromising demeanor.” Of course, Raza was doing only what he saw school leaders in New York City do for the past ten years, that is, whatever they wanted.

But this time, for once, maybe for the first time ever in charter school history, the voices of the parents were heard. The board backed down. The board put a hold on Raza’s proposal.

Perhaps the most outrageous idea from Raza never got past the memo phase.

A leaked memo from Raza’s office revealed details of a plan to shame the administrators and teachers at one of the lowest performing schools. The head of the Algiers association told a reporter from theNew Orleans Times-Picayune that this idea would not be implemented.

But here it is:

“The document, with a heading from Raza’s firm, the Raza Consulting Group, includes a list of suggested motivational methods, including “Order Eisenhower Charter School shirts for all teachers and administrators with Eisenhower Charter School on the back and Grade D on the front.”

“It is recommended that the principal wear the Grade D shirt every day as a reminder to the school staff after enrollment drive is over,” the document continues. “Declare Friday as dress down day only for those teachers and administrators who will wear the D grade shirt.”

Referring to the state-issued school performance scores based largely on standardized test scores, the Raza report also calls to, “Display the school’s current letter grade (as determined by SPS scores) in teacher lounge and all other areas of the school once the enrollment drive is over.”

And it says, “Place the Grade D in large font on top of each internal communication and memos to the school staff.”

Really, you can’t make this stuff up.

This confirms my belief that the corporate reform agenda is not 21^stcentury thinking. It is actually 19^th century thinking, taking us back to the days when children were told to wear a dunce cap and sit in the corner. Only now it is the teachers who will wear the dunce cap and a big letter D.

I wonder if Raza, whose group consults for business, has made similar proposals to major corporations to motivate their employees? Can you imagine a corporate headquarters where every employee is required to wear a D on his or her suit?