Times Provides Real Data and Real Insights On Funding of 1240
Well, it's not exactly hell freezing over but the Times has a very good piece about the small group of big money tech people pushing 1240 and examines the spending from previous charter elections. To whit:
State voters voted down charter school ballot measures in 1996, 2000, and 2004. But some wealthy individuals are committed to these schools and are funding I-1240.
Where's the money coming from?
Of the $2.3 million raised by the “Yes on I-1240″ campaign as of the July 6 signature filing deadline$1.6 million came from seven families tied to Microsoft. Add one Amazon family to this tech millionaires club, and the total is $2.1 million. to get the initiative on the ballot, the state’s Public Disclosure Commission reports
Microsoft executives Bill Gates and Paul Allen have been major supporters of this family of ballot measures to the tune of more than $5 million.
Other heavy hitters have joined the cause since the filing deadline. Specifically, Alice Walton of the Walmart family donated $600,000 while Seattle philanthropists Bruce and Jolene McCaw ponied up $100,000.
Note: in 2004, it was another Walton, John, who gave but let's give it time.
According to FollowTheMoney, here were the top five R-55 contributors (accompanied by percentage of total money raised) in 2004:
If voters adopt I-1240, they will be saying “yes” to a new state agency — the Washington Charter School Commission. They are directing the state’s Board of Education to manage the process for approving charter schools.
They are also politically appointed, have to practically take an oath of love for charters, have ZERO oversight and no mechanism to get rid of any low-performers (and there's that accountability issue again).
Linkage to other charter groups?
They agree Washington charter schools must follow practices developed by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and the Robertson Foundation – some of the very people bankrolling this initiative. (bold mine)
The poison pill of the initiative (which the reporter doesn't fully spell out, neglecting to say ANY school, failing or not, could be taken over by a charter with a majority of signatures on a petition) :
In addition, I-1240 enables an existing public school to be converted to a charter school if the applicant has majority support of the parents or of the teachers. The resulting charter school would not pay rent to the public school district that owns the facility.
(And, the district has to pay major maintenance on the building as well from capital dollars.)
Information to know and consider. Even if you like charters, you have to wonder about the huge push by a small group of very wealthy people AND why this initiative is so flawed.
State voters voted down charter school ballot measures in 1996, 2000, and 2004. But some wealthy individuals are committed to these schools and are funding I-1240.
Where's the money coming from?
Of the $2.3 million raised by the “Yes on I-1240″ campaign as of the July 6 signature filing deadline$1.6 million came from seven families tied to Microsoft. Add one Amazon family to this tech millionaires club, and the total is $2.1 million. to get the initiative on the ballot, the state’s Public Disclosure Commission reports
Microsoft executives Bill Gates and Paul Allen have been major supporters of this family of ballot measures to the tune of more than $5 million.
Other heavy hitters have joined the cause since the filing deadline. Specifically, Alice Walton of the Walmart family donated $600,000 while Seattle philanthropists Bruce and Jolene McCaw ponied up $100,000.
Note: in 2004, it was another Walton, John, who gave but let's give it time.
According to FollowTheMoney, here were the top five R-55 contributors (accompanied by percentage of total money raised) in 2004:
- John T. Walton (Walmart) — $1,020,000 (25.86%)
- Bill Gates (Microsoft) — $1,000,000 (25.35%)
- Donald G. Fisher (The Gap) — $965,388 (24.47%)
- Eli Broad (Real estate & insurance magnate) — $200,000 (5.07%)
- Reed Hastings (Netflix) — $190,255 (4.82%)
If voters adopt I-1240, they will be saying “yes” to a new state agency — the Washington Charter School Commission. They are directing the state’s Board of Education to manage the process for approving charter schools.
They are also politically appointed, have to practically take an oath of love for charters, have ZERO oversight and no mechanism to get rid of any low-performers (and there's that accountability issue again).
Linkage to other charter groups?
They agree Washington charter schools must follow practices developed by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and the Robertson Foundation – some of the very people bankrolling this initiative. (bold mine)
The poison pill of the initiative (which the reporter doesn't fully spell out, neglecting to say ANY school, failing or not, could be taken over by a charter with a majority of signatures on a petition) :
In addition, I-1240 enables an existing public school to be converted to a charter school if the applicant has majority support of the parents or of the teachers. The resulting charter school would not pay rent to the public school district that owns the facility.
(And, the district has to pay major maintenance on the building as well from capital dollars.)
Information to know and consider. Even if you like charters, you have to wonder about the huge push by a small group of very wealthy people AND why this initiative is so flawed.
Comments
There's another thread on here that's got steps - I don't have time to find it. I suspect an email to Melissa or Charlie would point you to it.
http://www.geekwire.com/2011/netflix-founder-microsoft-director-reed-hastings-joins-board-facebook/
http://livingbehindthegates.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/going-down-the-rabbit-hole-the-mad-world-of-bill-gates-and-pearson-publishing/
$$$$ IMHO Public School Parent
I think she's made a lot of good points but I hate the superior attitute. She's at college level but that doesn't make her necessarily smarter. In fact, I would disagree strenuously with some of her points about early intervention and class size. Both are critical but in different ways and at different times for different groups of students.
Wish I'd chimed in earlier.
n...
Sorry, it just drives me nuts.
The problem -- as I see it -- is that business models based on failure of the weakest, bankruptcy, culling of the (relatively) incompetent, etc. do not work well when the "product" is the care and raising of our nation's kids. Schools that advertise one thing and deliver something less, schools that ruthlessly weed out (either through admissions hurdles or by simply failing kids they don't want to bother with -- or otherwise harrassing them out of the building with punitive disciplinary policies), schools that abruptly run out of money and close overnight -- leaving kids with no schools -- these things may be fine for competing doughnut shops, or cell phone devices, or insulation companies. But what is the damage done to a kid who needed learning accommodations, but who was instead given Fs, and subjected to harsh discipline and painful parent-teacher conferences in a blatant attempt to make him miserable enough to just leave a charter school so they don't have to deal with his educational issues? What are the effects on kids of teacher retention policies that routinely get rid of teachers who have 6 or 7 years of experience because they are more expensive than first years?
Schools are much more like families, or communities, than they are like for-profit businesses. Kids succeed when adults get to know them well enough to understand how they best learn, what motivates and excites them, and when they know that the adults who teach them, run the office, sit in the counselors' office, etc. all deeply care about them, their dreams, and their successes. It is far harder to drop out when you are letting people who love you down then when you are making them happy that they can get rid of you.
Who here thinks back and concludes that the teacher who really motivated them -- the one who inspired them to pursue physics, or art, or college -- was one who frankly didn't care about anything except their test scores? We don't run our families this way. Why do we think our children will thrive and reach their full potential in schools run this way?
And yet -- a "survival of the fittest" business model is at the heart of the charter movement. No one disagrees that we need to find ways to replicate what works well, and end what does not. But that is NOT the same as saying that adopting "business principles" is what we need to effectively change schools.