Success Academy Chair Donates $1 Million To Families For Excellent Schools

Ben Chapman in the Daily News:

Two hedge fund billionaires dropped $1 million each on a controversial charter school advocacy group in April, the Daily News has learned.

Officials at pro-charter lobbying powerhouse Families for Excellent Schools have declined to name the nonprofit’s funders since it was founded in 2012.

But a July filing with the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics shows finance titans Dan Loeb and Julian Robertson both donated a cool million to the group.

...

Both Loeb and Robertson have a history promoting the growth of charter schools, but neither has been directly linked to Families for Excellent Schools until now.

Loeb, who runs an $18 billion investment group called Third Point, is network chair of Success Academy charter schools, the city’s largest charter network.

Chapman goes on to write that the $2 million in cash from Loeb and Robertson "is probably just a fraction of the income the organization will receive in 2015."

And indeed, that's the case.

Families for Excellent Schools has broken lobbying expenditure records in the past (see here) and drops a huge amount of cash on lobbying on a regular basis (see here.)

They've got a lot of money to burn and they use it to help Eva Moskowitz and Success Academies.

Success Academies likes to maintain a distance from Families for Excellent Schools, claiming the two organizations are not linked or coordinating, but that's laughable on its face.

When FES released a race-baiting ad a few weeks ago, Eva Moskowitz of Success was one of the few to defend FES and the ad.

Though FES doesn't reveal its donors, we know at least one of those donors has substantial links to Eva (as Chapman reported, Dan Loeb chairs the SA board.)

And they often seem to coordinate "rallies," with SA students, parents and teachers making up much of the "audience" at the FES political functions (indeed, Eva even closes her schools for these rallies.)

They also coordinate messages, with both FES and Moskowitz hitting on the "De Blasio hurts black children" message in ads, press conferences and newspaper op-eds.

Families for Excellent Schools is the propaganda and political wing of Success Academies, spending millions in cash that appears to be raised from many of the same sources that SA raises its cash from, to promote Eva Moskowitz's political agenda.

The two entities can claim they're not one and the same all they want - with SA chair Dan Loeb revealed as an FES donor as well, we start to see just how closely linked these entities really are.

Ruben Diaz Jr. Declares Himself Pro-Charter, Looks To Use Issue For Mayoral Run

The pro-charter mayoral possibilities just keep coming.

So far we have Hakeem Jeffries and Eva Moskowitz on the list of potential mayoral candidates.

With this move, we can add Ruben Diaz Jr:

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who has stayed out of the war over charter schools, has agreed to speak at a massive pro-charter event where he will defend the schools and declare, “Charters are here to stay.”

Although he heads a borough with 59 charter schools, Diaz has not been outspoken in the battles that have pitted charter-school operators against Mayor de Blasio and the teachers union.

That will change Wednesday when the six-year leader of The Bronx will speak at City Hall, where thousands of charter-school supporters are expected to converge following a rally at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn and a march over the Brooklyn Bridge

“I support charter schools. I always have,” Diaz told The Post in an interview. “Charters schools are part of the public-school system. We need to offer all the support we can give them.”

The politics behind this are obvious:

Diaz dismissed talk that his role in the pro-charter rally is tied to a possible mayoral run in 2017.

“The education of children in The Bronx and the city of New York is way more important than anyone’s politics,” he said.

Political consultant George Arzt said Diaz’s decision to take such a high-profile role backing charters could distinguish him from rival Democrats down the road.

“People will view him from a different perspective,” Arzt said. “It definitely shows Ruben as a person who disagrees with the incumbent mayor. It show him as independent.”

While the borough president has stayed out of the limelight on the charter issue until now, his father, Bronx state Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., has been a vocal and longtime charter-school booster.

Sure his role at the pro-charter rally has nothing to do with a potential run for mayor in 2017.

Sure.

Charter School Entrepreneurs Roll Out De Basio Attack Ad For Their "Not Political" Rally

Eliza Shapiro at Politico NY:

A new television ad produced for the pro-charter group Families for Excellent Schools accuses Mayor Bill de Blasio of forcing minority students into failing schools, according to a copy of the yet-unreleased ad obtained by POLITICO New York.

The ad will likely be made public later on Friday, ahead of the group's pro-charter rally on Sept. 30. The rally, which will take the form of a march across the Brooklyn Bridge, is officially intended to help "restore school equality."

...

The ad features two young boys, one white, with blonde hair, blue eyes and a blue shirt, the other black, with a buzzcut and a red shirt.

The clip puts into stark terms the racial and class politics that FES and its allies have embraced in their fight against de Blasio over the last 18 months.

"Because he lives in a wealthy neighborhood, this 6-year-old will attend a good school," the ad's narrator says as the young white boy is walked to school by a white parent.

But when the black boy appears on the screen, the narrator says, "Because he lives in a poor neighborhood, this 6-year-old will be forced in a failing school."

The two boys briefly pass each other on the street as the narrator claims that the white child will likely go to college, while the black boy has little chance of ever attaining a college degree.

A split screen shows the two boys in school; the white boy is happily reading, while the black child is frowning, apparently bored, at his desk.

"Mayor de Blasio, stop forcing kids into failing schools," the narrator says. "Half a million children need new schools, now."

I know a child who attended one of Eva Moskowitz's test prep factories who frowned all the time at school because he was a) bored by the constant test prep and b) sick of being beaten into submission by the abuse and "discipline" from the Success staff.

He doesn't frown much anymore because he's out of the Success prison system and into a school where it's not "All Test Prep All The Time" and "Eyes Up Here!"

I'm sure this ad has been tested by FES and therefore will be effective at further driving down de Blasio's poll numbers, hitting him most where it hurts - with black voters - in order to help Eva Moskowitz or some other pro-charter shill to run for mayor against de Blasio in 2017.

But it's pure lies and propaganda for a whole host of reasons - from the exclusionary attack (charters are, by definition, exclusionary - just ask any child who's been tossed from Success) to the black children are bored in bad schools attack  (which certainly wasn't true in the case of the child I wrote about above.)

That they're rolling out a political attack ad on de Blasio before a rally that they insist is "not political" is even evidence of just how political and full of jive the charter entrepreneurs are.

StudentsFirst Runs Pro-Republican Ads In NY State Senate Campaigns

Can we dispense with the idea that education reform groups are "liberal"?

Take StudentsFirst, for example:

ALBANY—A pro-charter school group spent a combined $78,000 on Thursday on radio and TV ads in three competitive State Senate races, according to financial disclosure filed with the state's Board of Elections.

New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, formed by StudentsFirst and run by the New York chapter of the organization, spent $47,000 on a radio ad on behalf of Republican State Senate candidate Tom Croci, who is vying to replace State Senator Lee Zeldin, a Republican who is vacating the seat to run for Congress.

...

Republicans have repeatedly tried to tie Democratic candidates to de Blasio as a way of alienating voters outside New York City. De Blasio campaigned on a pledge to limit the influence of charters in New York City.

New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, an independent expenditure political action committee created last month and funded largely by pro-charter hedge fund executives, is dedicated to preserving the current majority in the Senate. The upper chamber is controlled by the Republicans and the Independent Democratic Conference, who have been largely supportive of charter schools.

Capital reported yesterday that the PAC had spent $107,000 surveying battleground State Senate districts around New York.

New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany spent an additional $31,000 on cable and radio "media productions," in two competitive districts in the Hudson Valley.

Time and time again, we see these education reforms groups - from the Orwellian-named "Democrats for Education Reform" to supposed Democrat Michelle Rhee's group, StudentsFirst - raising money from the wealthiest (and toniest) of Republican donors (i.e., hedge fundies and other Wall Street types), then using that money to promote right-wing policies and right wing candidates, mostly with (R) after their names.

Carl Korn, spokesman for NYSUT (which is putting up some ads for Senate Dems), puts all this in perspective:

"What we see here is a small group of hedge fund billionaires working to privatize public education by siphoning money away from those schools that serve the vast majority of New Yorkers," NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn told Capital. "In terms of our work, we are proud to support those candidates who support public education and oppose the overreliance of standardized testing…We're working aggressively in a number of Senate races, and Assembly races , to elect candidates whose values align with out members".

StudentsFirst is using dark money from unknown sources to push for their right-wing policies and elect right-wing candidates to keep the State Senate Republican.

There's nothing "liberal" about them - they're no different than any other Republican donor group.

Which is fine - I have no problem with Republican donors groups raising cash and putting it into campaigns to elect their own people and push their own causes and issues.

I simply want those Republican donors to openly say "We're a Republican interest group pushing Republican causes and Republican candidates."

Not to much to ask, right?

Apparently with StudentsFirst it is.

Ask Eva Moskowitz About The Attrition Rate At Success Academies

From State of Politics:

At 6:30 a.m., Success Academy Harlem Central Middle School scholars will appear on MSNBC’s Morning Joe with their principal, Andrew Malone.

Yesterday the hosts of the Morning Joe Clown Show beatup on Mayor de Blasio over the Success co-location issue.

Today, they let Eva use the program for more pro-Success propaganda.

But one stat never makes it into these mainstream media propaganda fests - the attrition rates at Success Academies:

Many uptown Manhattan parents hope that winning the lottery for a seat at Harlem Success Academy I will put their child on the path to academic achievement. But just because a child gets into Harlem Success does not mean he or she will complete 5th grade there. The school -- part of Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy network -- has a high attrition rate, leading critics to charge that the school may push out low achieving or difficult students.

Harlem Success denies that's the case, and says the attrition can be explained by children moving away--or even skipping a grade. Without better data from the state, it's impossible to say who is right. But one thing is certain: Harlem Success loses a lot of kids between kindergarten and 5th grade.

According to figures on the school's New York State Report Card, 83 students entered kindergarten in 2006-07, the school's first year of operation. When that class reached 4th grade in 2010-11, it had only 53 students -- a drop of 36 percent. Harlem Success also took in a 1st grade class with 73 students in 2006. When that group reached 5th grade, it too had shrunk appreciably -- by 36 percent.

The attrition accelerated as the classes advanced. The 2006-07 1st grade class, for example, did not shrink at all as it entered 2nd grade, but saw one sharp falloff between 2nd and 3rd and another between 4th and 5th.

So far, following classes have not shown a similar decline. The 2007-08 kindergarten started out with 123 students, increased to 127 the following year and then fell back to 117 by the time it reached 3rd grade in 2010-11.

The United Federation of Teachers charges that the school may weed out students before they take standardized tests at the end of 3rd grade. Citing Harlem Success's attrition during a panel discussion on charter schools sponsored by the New York City Bar Association, UFT vice president Leo Casey said, "All of the students who would have brought down the statistics are gone."

In a subsequent email, Casey wrote, "It may be significant that the bulk of the attrition at Harlem Success Academy 1 seems to have come in the tested grades."

Harlem Success boasts extremely high test scores and the network has made them a major selling point.

Asked about the attrition at Harlem Success, a spokeswoman denied the school pushes out students. "Success Academy Charter Schools does not counsel out students or encourage them to leave," she said in an email. Shifts in size, according to the school, come from students moving, skipping a grade or having to leave for other reasons, such as illness.

You can be sure the clowns on the Morning Joe Clown Show did not ask about all the kids who used to be at Success Academies who mysteriously disappear before they have to take the state tests.

My Response To Newsday's Pro-Charter Editorial

Not sure my comment on this piece of pro-charter Newsday claptrap will survive because I put a link in it, so wanted to save it for posterity:

Charters often do no better than traditional public schools on test measurements, often do worse.  The lie you op-ed writers perpetrate in the corporate media about this is a zombie lie that just won't die.  Doesn't matter if it's the News, the Post, the WSJ, the Times, Newsday - same lie told over and over.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/charters-not-outperforming-nations-traditional-public-schools-report-says/2013/06/24/23f19bb8-dd0c-11e2-bd83-e99e43c336ed_story.html

Too bad you're too busy writing you're anti-union propaganda to tell the truth.