Democrats For Education Reform Hiring For COO, Communications Director

Dust off those resumes:

Director of Communications

Job posted by: Democrats for Education Reform

About Us: We are Democrats leading a political reform organization that cultivates and supports leaders in our party who champion America's public schoolchildren.
Our Vision: To make the Democratic Party the champion of high quality public education.
Director of Communication Job Purpose: The Director of Communications is responsible for the creation and implementation of a strategic, progressive communications program designed to expand the organization's brand and to advance the organization's mission concerning bold school reform for kids. This position will require the candidate to craft and oversee creative communication projects to further advance the national message of the organization. The position accomplishes this through a strategic, progressive and bold style, guided by the core values of the organization, and fully aligned with its mission. Reporting to the National President, the Director of Communications will serve as the voice of the organization, bringing to light the need to improve the country's public schools.
Major Job Duties:

• Support and spread the national message of the organization
• Develop effective communication and social media strategies
• Serve as support for national team and each of our 11 state chapters
• Establish and advance long-term working relationships with various entities including elected, the media, members of the community, public offices and partner organizations.
• Identify opportunities to support national initiatives and develop associated communications materials and programs
• Respond to media requests for information and facilitate media interviews with elected officials, community members, journalists, etc.
• Possess strategic communication skills

The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications:

• 7-10 years of relevant experience
• Branding experience
• Political/policy experience preferred but not required

Skills/Qualifications: developing standards, communicating cross team, strong writing, branding and presentation skills, humility, dedication to mission, analyzing information, dealing with complexity, thinking quantitatively about results, high attention to detail, confidentiality, time management, flexibility.

How to apply

Please submit resume and cover letter to: employment@dfer.org

And even better:

Chief Operating Officer

Job posted by: Democrats for Education Reform

About Us: We are Democrats leading a political reform organization that cultivates and supports leaders in our party who champion America's public schoolchildren.
Our Vision: To make the Democratic Party the champion of high quality public education.
Chief Operating Officer Job Purpose: The Chief Operating Officer position will oversee the daily implementation of the organization's strategic goals of supporting leaders throughout the country who champion America's schoolchildren. The COO is charged with ensuring the financial and operational integrity of the organization and with working with the leadership team to ensure the organization executes its goals at a high level. The COO will oversee the day-to-day implementation of the organization's strategic objectives and ensure that all team leaders are aligned and coordinated in achieving each of their respective objectives and acting in a complementary way to achieve organization-wide goals. The COO, specifically, will partner with the organization's communications, operations, policy, political, and development units to ensure high-level implementation that supports the leaders and associated policies that will achieve substantial improvements, nationwide, in outcomes for kids
Major Job Duties:

• Work with the National President to ensure the organization implements its strategic vision, each day, in a complementary and effective way
• Manage daily operations across the organization's several units
• Motivate and lead a highly talented team of professionals
• Possess strategic decision making skills to develop effective systems and processes
• Leading teams in a way that builds trust and buy-in, while maintaining the discipline around performance-based accountability for results

The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications:

• 7-10 years of relevant experience
• Management experience
• Finance/operations experience
• Experience with advocacy or political organizations – preferred but not required

Skills/Qualifications: developing standards and holding teammates accountable for meeting them, communicating cross team, humility, dedication to mission, analyzing information, dealing with complexity, reporting research results, high attention to detail, strong writing, confidentiality, flexibility.

How to apply

Please send resume and cover letter to: employment@dfer.org

 Ability to do evil a must.

Hillary Clinton Vows To Close Every Public School In The Country

I know, seems like crazy talk - and yet, here it is, in plain English:



The Federalist, a conservative Internet outlet, puts the Clinton comment in perspective: 

According to U.S. Department of Education statistics, there were just over 98,000 public schools in the U.S. as of the 2011-2012 school year, the most recent year for which complete data are available. Under Hillary Clinton’s proposed education plan to shutter all average and below average schools, that would mean that nearly 50,000 schools would have to be shut down, assuming that the median and average national school performance were roughly equal. Nearly two-thirds of those schools targeted by Clinton’s proposal–over 30,000–would be elementary schools.

Well, that's how the plan would play out initially.

But then, after you've closed half the schools in the country, you'd have to re-calculate the whole thing, as Mercedes Schneider points out:

A numeric average is a relative statistic. If I have a set of numeric values and I calculate an average using the set, by definition, some individual values will fall below average, and likely, some will be right on the average. If I remove these below-average and average values, the original average does not remain fixed– and if I average the remaining originally-above-average values, some will newly be below average, and likely, some exactly average.

...


Of course, closing “below average” and “average” schools only leads to a recalculated average among remaining schools– some of which would be “below average” upon recalculation– and some of which would likely be exactly average.

In short, by the end of the evaluation process, if we keep closing schools that are "less than average" we will end up with just one school left.

But even then, that school wouldn't be above average, since it would be the only one left.

As Schneider notes, under the Clinton education plan for closing schools, that one would have to go too.

An entire school closure plan for the country -  that, it seems, is what Hillary Clinton intends.

That would be the Obama administration's Race to the Top policies on super steroids.

Now perhaps she misspoke, perhaps she's tired from all the time and energy spent on the campaign trail, perhaps she doesn't understand what the word "average" means in the way that she used it.

Perhaps.

Or perhaps she is the same pro-charter, pro-privatization shill who sat on the board of Walmart for all those years getting set to do to the country's public school system what George W. Bush and Barack Obama could only dream of doing.

I'll say this:

I don't trust her, I don't like her and I wouldn't vote for her for any reason.

After this latest Clinton mess, I am so glad my union, the American Federation of Teachers, already endorsed her during this summer, a full year+ before the election.

One final point:

Since her pal, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said multiple times he wants to "break" the public school "monopoly" and called for the "death penalty" for "failing" schools, perhaps Clinton can hire him as secretary of education to carry out her closure policies?

Given the destruction Clinton plans for the public school system, Cuomo sounds like he would be perfect for the job of Head School Closer.

Assuming Cuomo's not in prison, that is...or Hillary isn't, for that matter...

Michael Mulgrew: Governor Cuomo Is For Sale

Much of this isn't new information about how education reformers are rigging the political system, having been covered well by others including Chris Bragg in the Times Union on Sunday and Eliza Shapiro at Capital NY in February, but now the NY Times has it too.

Read the whole piece, but I just want to highlight the part that relates to the governor:

Among the backers of StudentsFirstNY are major donors to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, and to the Republican majority in the State Senate, two of the three parties to all negotiations. Emails and interviews show that StudentsFirstNY has been in regular contact with the governor’s office since his re-election.

At the same time, the two groups have become a major nuisance to Mr. Bloomberg’s successor as mayor, Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, who campaigned on reversing some of his predecessor’s policies and is friendly with the city teachers’ union.

The groups have delivered a drumbeat of attacks on Mr. de Blasio’s education policies, in television advertisements, rallies where parents upbraid the mayor for not confronting what they call an education crisis, and weekly, or at times daily, emails to reporters. Amid this onslaught, Mr. Cuomo and the Senate delivered a rebuke to the mayor this year by agreeing to only a one-year extension of mayoral control of city schools. (By contrast, Mr. Bloomberg, a political independent, was initially given control for seven years, then received a renewal for six.)

In language that echoed that of important figures in both groups, Mr. Cuomo suggested that Mr. de Blasio had to earn the right to govern the city’s schools.

“Next year we can come back,” the governor said, “and if he does a good job, then we can say he should have more control.”

The governor speaking in reformyist terms with language coming straight from the reformers?

You don't say.

Here's more:

Making teacher evaluations more dependent on test scores, reforming tenure and increasing the number of charter schools in the city were all priorities of StudentsFirstNY and became significant pieces of the governor’s agenda for the 2015 legislative session, which he announced in his State of the State speech on Jan. 21.

Emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Law, as well as interviews, show that Mr. Cuomo and his senior education advisers were in close touch, by email and telephone, with Ms. Sedlis and her board members in the weeks after the governor’s re-election last November.

On Dec. 9, for example, the governor met with Ms. Sedlis and several of her board members at the Harvard Club to discuss education policy issues, a spokesman for StudentsFirstNY said.

...

The governor’s proposals, particularly one that would base 50 percent of teachers’ evaluations on their students’ test scores, stirred fierce opposition from state and local teachers’ unions, as well as many principals and parents.

“If you look at the governor’s State of the State speech, it was almost taken word for word from their website,” Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, said of StudentsFirstNY.

“We’re going to just tell everyone the governor is basically for sale at this point, because that’s what it is,” Mr. Mulgrew added. “It’s not a belief system.”

For once, I agree with Mulgrew.

Must be a blue moon out there.

In any case, the article details some of the money the hedge fundies have given to Cuomo and state Senate Republicans to pass their education reform agenda, covers the record "shadowy" millions Families For Excellent Schools has spent on lobbying without disclosing who's donating to them and points out that this is probably all legal because of the way the law is in New York.

If you've been following Cuomo and his hedge fundie/reformer buddies, you know they've had a close relationship for years.

As Cuomo began his run for governor, he met some hedge fund managers/education reformers at what was billed as not a "formal fundraiser," just a meet-and-greet where some hedge fund managers/education reformers could get together and talk reform with Candidate Cuomo.

Cuomo left with plenty of promises for future campaign cash:

 After hearing from Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Williams arranged an 8 a.m. meeting last month at the Regency Hotel, that favorite spot for power breakfasts, between Mr. Cuomo and supporters of his committee, Democrats for Education Reform, who include the founders of funds like Anchorage Capital Partners, with $8 billion under management; Greenlight Capital, with $6.8 billion; and Pershing Square Capital Management, with $5.5 billion.

Although the April 9 breakfast with Mr. Cuomo was not a formal fund-raiser, the hedge fund managers have been wielding their money to influence educational policy in Albany, particularly among Democrats, who control both the Senate and the Assembly but have historically been aligned with the teachers unions.

...

Mr. Cuomo also has expressed support for charter schools. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo declined to answer questions about the breakfast at the Regency, but Mr. Williams said it had gone well.

“We said we were looking for a leader on our particular issue,” he said, and as a result, when Mr. Cuomo is next required to disclose his contributors, “You will see a bunch of our people on the filing.”

When Eva Moskowitz was playing victim for having a couple of Success Academy school co-locations turned down by the NYCDOE, it was Andrew Cuomo himself who suggested a big Albany rally to stick it to de Blasio and make sure charters got either guaranteed co-locations or rent for space paid for by NYC:

It was a frigid February day in Albany, and leaders of New York City’s charter school movement were anxious. They had gone to the capital to court lawmakers, but despite a boisterous showing by parents, there seemed to be little clarity about the future of their schools.

Then, as they were preparing to head home, an intermediary called with a message: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo wanted to meet.

To their surprise, Mr. Cuomo offered them 45 minutes of his time, in a private conference room. He told them he shared their concern about Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambivalence toward charter schools and offered to help, according to a person who attended but did not want to be identified as having compromised the privacy of the meeting.

In the days that followed, the governor’s interest seemed to intensify. He instructed charter advocates to organize a large rally in Albany, the person said. The advocates delivered, bringing thousands of parents and students, many of them black, Hispanic, and from low-income communities, to the capital in early March, and eclipsing a pivotal rally for Mr. de Blasio taking place at virtually the same time.

The moment proved to be a turning point, laying the groundwork for a deal reached last weekend that gave New York City charter schools some of the most sweeping protections in the nation, including a right to space inside public buildings. And interviews with state and city officials as well as education leaders make it clear that far from being a mere cheerleader, the governor was a potent force at every turn, seizing on missteps by the mayor, a fellow Democrat, and driving legislation from start to finish.

Mr. Cuomo’s office declined on Wednesday to comment on his role.

The coordination between the reformers and Cuomo was evident before he was elected and has continued to this day, with reformers and their backers spending handsomely to donate to either Cuomo or some of the shadowy groups that push his agenda (Families for Excellent Schools is one of the current groups, but let's not forget the Committee To Save New York, the PAC that pushed Cuomo's agenda with millions of dollars in ads before it shut down when the law was changed and it would have had to reveal its donor base.)

Cuomo is as corrupt as can be, completely in the pockets of the hedge fund managers and education reformers, but given the way the laws are written here in New York, much (or all) of this corruption is legal, depending upon how you parse it.

To that end, Families for Excellent Schools hired the former state regulator on lobbying to oversee their lobbying operation so that they know exactly where the line of legality and bribery is:

Families for Excellent Schools, which spent $1.6 million on New York lobbying so far this year, has an issue-oriented nonprofit arm that would have to disclose its benefactors. But the group does almost all its lobbying through its apolitical arm, which does not have to report its donors under New York lobbying laws and can take tax-deductible donations.

The apolitical arm spent a staggering $9.7 million on Albany lobbying in 2014, but did not disclose a single donor.

Such apolitical nonprofits, categorized as 501(c)3 groups, face restrictions from the Internal Revenue Service on how much they can spend on lobbying — a likely reason why such nonprofits are exempt from disclosing their donors under New York law.

The heavy lobbying spending as defined by New York law, plus the IRS restrictions on lobbying by such nonprofits, could raise potential issues regarding the group's tax status.

But David Grandeau, an attorney for Families For Excellent Schools and former top state lobbying regulator, has maintained that the IRS definition of lobbying is far narrower than the one found in New York law, a distinction that he says makes the heavy New York lobbying spending by the group permissible under federal regulations.

The group's lobbying spending has also dropped this year from its 2014 heights.

Grandeau said last year that the group had "correctly disclosed its spending in New York state, and we are confident that our activity is within the limitations allowable."

There you have it - all legal, or so says the former state lobbying regulator, now on the hedge fundie/education reformer payroll.

Corruption is endemic in New York State, as we've seen from the corruption cases taking down much of the political leadership in the state, including five former state Senate Majority Leaders, one Assembly Speaker and the state Senate Deputy Majority Leader.

But none of that has cooled the corruption going on in public education policy where the Masters of the Universe have rigged the system such that they run Albany and have a governor dangling on their strings, using their talking points as he successfully pushes for implementation of their legislative goals and public policy.

How Many Teachers Voted For Obama In 2012?

I didn't - not after Race to the Top and Arne Duncan and the Rhode Island teacher firings that Obama applauded.

But I bet lots of teachers out there still voted for Obama because they were scared that Mitt Romney might get elected.

Well, here's what Obama and his people are doing now, teachers:

Teachers unions are girding for a tough fight to defend tenure laws against a coming blitz of lawsuits — and an all-out public relations campaign led by former aides to President Barack Obama.

The Incite Agency, founded by former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and former Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, will lead a national public relations drive to support a series of lawsuits aimed at challenging tenure, seniority and other job protections that teachers unions have defended ferociously. LaBolt and another former Obama aide, Jon Jones — the first digital strategist of the 2008 campaign — will take the lead in the public relations initiative.

And you can bet Obama supports his former aides working to destroy the teaching profession and protections for teachers, because that's exactly what Race to the Top and the rest of the Obama education policies were all about.

In the future, don't let the bogeyman scare you away from NOT voting for an anti-teacher, anti-public education Democrat.

 

I refuse to be bullied into voting for an education reform Democrat no matter who he/she is running against.

 

Take New York, for example.

 

I'm not supporting Cuomo no matter what - not even if a poll the night before the election shows GOP candidate Rob Astorino within striking distance of Sheriff Andy.

 

Cuomo is anti-teacher, anti-traditional public schools and anti-union - so I am anti-Cuomo no matter what.

 

Obama is also anti-teacher, anti-traditional public schools and anti-union - so I am anti-Obama no matter what.

 

Teachers who supported Obama despite his record - well, he's paying you back now as he sends forth Obama administration shills to attack teachers. 

Andrew Cuomo Shows His Cowardice

In case you missed the news, Andrew Cuomo has pulled out of his billed appearance at the Education Reform Now-sponsored education reform retreat at Whiteface Lodge in Lake Placid.

According to Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY, Cuomo cited scheduling difficulties for the conference and has sent a video along instead of driving himself over on his motorcycle and appearing as the "honorary chair."

I'm sure Cuomo's cancellation had nothing to do with the growing protests over the conference or the anti-Cuomo rebellion spreading across the state as parents and educators fight Cuomo on his education reform agenda.

Oh, no wait - I bet that's exactly the reason why he's cancelled his appearance.

Cuomo has made himself less available this year, not just over the education policy protests - Zach Fink at Salon wrote that's he making many fewer appearances before the Albany press for Q & A.

Cuomo's on the run over Common Core, the state's education testing regime, the tax cap, the Moreland Commission, and his complicity in Chris Christie's Bridgegate scandal, among other things.


Cuomo's cancellation at the Camp Philos event is just another example of the vulnerability he is experiencing going into his re-election campaign.

Cuomo needs to stage manage his appearances as much as possible and after last week's protests outside a Long Island fundraiser, he looks like he's going to get a little more controlling about where he makes those public appearances.

Just as Christine Quinn couldn't make a public appearance when she was running for NYC mayor without having the Anybody But Quinn people protesting her, Cuomo's got angry parents, angry teachers and a curious press corps looking to confront him over various things and, like the coward he is, Cuomo seems to be looking to duck them all.

Andrew Cuomo To Run For Re-Election As A Republican

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo stunned his audience at a speaking engagement at the Harvard Club today when he announced he will be running for re-election as a Republican.

Cuomo, speaking to a sparse group of financiers and GOP powerbrokers including John Catsimatidis, the supermarket magnate who ran for mayor in the NYC Republican primary last year, said that he has decided to dispense with the sham of calling himself a Democrat and just come out as the corporate-toadying Republican he really is.

"99% of my campaign donation were big-money donations, coming from corporate interests and/or affluent people.  My fiscal policies, my environmental policies, my education policies all favor wealthy people and corporate interests.  I have pushed tax cuts for rich people even as I have cut education aid to districts that serve poor and minority students.  I have handed out tax breaks to wealthy real estate interests in return for campaign donations and expanded legalized gambling across the state to pay back my casino campaign donors.  There really is no point to calling myself a "Democrat" anymore - I have just decided to come out as the Reagan Republican I really am."

While Cuomo spoke to his wealthy audience inside the Harvard Club, 50 anti-fracking protesters outside the club vowed to follow Governor 1% around the state, saying they would not allow Cuomo to sell out the environment to his corporate friends and donors:

"Everywhere the governor goes, whether it's upstate or downstate, [there] the anti-fracking movement will be, demanding that he do the right thing and protect our health and safety," said Alex Beauchamp of Food & Water Watch, which opposes the gas-drilling process on which Cuomo has yet to make a final pronouncement. 

Meanwhile inside the Harvard Club, the GOP powerbrokers and Wall Street financiers who gave Sheriff Andy envelopes with unmarked bills as "Christmas gifts" on the way into the talk, said they were impressed with Cuomo's Republican/conservative credentials:

Overall, "I would say it was exactly the kind of crowd that you need to have if you want to run for governor of this state, especially from the Republican side," said GOP consultant Michael McKeon, a former top aide to then-Gov. George Pataki, after the event.

"I think his presentation won over a lot of people today who I think will be prepared to stand with him in November," said McKeon, who wasn't willing to confirm he's officially heading this cycle's "Republicans For Cuomo" movement, as he did four years ago.

Many in the press were surprised by Cuomo's announcements that he was changing parties and becoming a Republican, but could not ask the governor any questions after the event, as Cuomo fled the scene with a sack full of little white envelopes stuffed with cash and business cards with contact information so he can receive his Valentine's Day, Easter, Passover and Father's Day gifts from the GOP powerbrokers and Wall Street financiers.

Earlier today, Cuomo's office announced that Governor Cuomo has the largest war chest of any U.S. governor up for re-election.

After the audience with the Wall Street financiers and GOP powerbrokers at the Harvard Club today, you can see just how he got all that money.

Governor Cuomo On The Take

Capital Confidential:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has filed its six-month report with the Board of Elections, which is due today. The raw numbers:

Opening Balance: $27,811,546.11
Total Receipts: $7,019,967.87
Total Expenses: $1,507,972.95
Total On Hand (End of Period): $33,323,541.03

Whomp! By way of comparison, consider Cuomo’s previous five January filings:

• 2009: $5.6 million
• 2010: $16.1 million
• 2011: $4.2 million
• 2012: $14.4 million
• 2013: $22.5 million

This means that Cuomo has raised more in the past 12 months (about $300,000 more) than he’s raised at any point in his political career.

Capital Confidential notes the following:

Pro-charter New Yorkers for Putting Students First gave Cuomo $25K in Nov '13; same amount in Dec. '12.
— Capitol Confidential (@TUCapCon) January 15, 2014

And:

Another pro-charter group, Democrats for Education Reform, gave Cuomo $20K in past 6 months.
— Capitol Confidential (@TUCapCon) January 15, 2014

To which I said:

@TUCapCon @edbobgreen @NYGovCuomo No wonder Governor Cuomo promotes their agenda - they're funding it for him.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) January 16, 2014

It's a joke when Cuomo points fingers at the Legislature in Albany for corruption - this guy's raking in the bucks from the real estate industry, the gambling industry, the education reform industry and giving them their preferred policies in return.

Surprise, Surprise - Cuomo's Ed Reform Committee Calls For Cuomo's Preferred Reforms

From Jessica Bakeman at Capital NY:

A panel of education experts recommended expanding pre-kindergarten, boosting technology in schools and rewarding high-performing teachers with financial incentives in a long-awaited report commissioned by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo designed his education priorities last year and this year based on the commission's recommendations. The final report is four months late, as Capital reported Monday.

Lots more spending on technology, merit pay and pre-K - gee, what a surprise this commission report is.

Bakeman writes that Cuomo based his educational priorities the past two years on the education commissions reports.

The reality is, these were the policies he wanted to promote, the commission simply gave him some extra added cover to promote them.

In short, these were Cuomo's priorities whether there was a Cuomo Education Reform Commission Of Pearson Shills or not.

Everything Cuomo pushes is a favored policy of Cuomo's DFER funders.

That's who set the policy agenda, no matter what jive commission Cuomo puts together that says otherwise.

De Blasio Puts Diane Ravitch On Inaugural Committee

This is a good sign:

.@deBlasioNYC puts @DianeRavitch on his inaugural committee
— Lisa Fleisher (@lisafleisher) November 30, 2013

Again, putting a few pro-traditional public school advocates on his transition team and inaugural committee does not guarantee a pro-traditional public school agenda for his administration, but it surely is a good sign.

He could have put a DFER like Resham Saujani (whom he hired as deputy public advocate) or a Students First figure on these teams.

He chose instead to put friends of traditional public schools there.

A very good sign.

Good News From Tish James

Good to hear her get very specific about education and where she would like to see the de Blasio administration go:

Over the course of the campaign, de Blasio made some of his own educational priorities clear: universal pre-K, a plan to charge well-financed charter school networks to operate in public space, a moratorium on school closures, and the elimination of the school letter-grade system.

More broadly, James said she and the mayor-elect agree on the need for “a more comprehensive idea of education,” meaning more resources for schools, smaller class sizes, and what she termed “disbanding standardized testing.”

The desire to de-emphasize testing is why she said she would be consulting Carmen Farina, the former second-in-command at the Department of Education who later criticized the use of test scores to measure schools, during her transition. (Farina, whose name has been floated as a possible chancellor, has been informally advising the de Blasio campaign.)

If charter school advocates are hopeful that de Blasio can be swayed toward more pro-charter positions as the governing process begins, they definitely won’t find such flexibility from James. She speaks of “charter schools” and “public schools” as separate entities, and repeatedly referred to what the money the city spent supporting charter schools could do for other parts of the school system.

...

“I don’t think, in terms of education, we diverge on much of anything,” James said, referring to de Blasio.

The standardized testing and teacher evaluation problem cannot be solved by a de Blasio administration looking to de-emphasize standardized testing.

But couple a de Blasio administration looking to de-emphasize testing along with the ongoing parent revolt around the state over the state education reform agenda, the Common Core, the data collection, et al. and we could actually see some real and positive change in the public education system here in NYC.

We'll see - I'm still waiting for the hedge fundies and edu-entrepreneurs to parachute in with suitcases full of cash for anyone in power willing to continue the ed deform status quo.

Let's see what happens after that.

Still, good to hear James continue to talk tough on corporate deform.

She put Reshma Saujani on her transition team, but she hasn't started parroting Saujani's DFER rhetoric.

De Blasio's Inner Circle

Very useful graphic at the Times showing de Blasio closest advisers and counselors.

There are some neo-liberal Clintonistas like Harold Ickes on the list (as you would expect given de Blasio's work in the Clinton administration and for Hillary), but no real DFER- or ed deform-red flags that catch my eye.

Take a look at the list and let us know what you think - anything that worries you on this list of de Blasio's kitchen cabinet advisers?

Tish James Puts DFER Reshma Saujani On Her Transition Team

Okay, bad news folks:

members of .@Tish2013 transition team: @reshmasaujani, the publisher of El Diario & C. Virginia Fields. #pubadv2013
— Azi (@Azi) November 6, 2013

De Blasio calling Rahm Emanuel a "great mayor," James putting DFER fav Reshma Saujani on her transition team.

Starting to look like we have two "progressives" who put their walking shoes into the closet once they got elected.

Commissioner King's Firing Won't Solve The Problems With Common Core And The State's Education Reform Agenda

Techydad points out how getting John King fired from NYSED won't solve the problems that we're having in the NY State public education system:

Even now, people are calling for King’s resignation.  Sadly, I don’t think this will cause real change.  Instead Commissioner King will likely become a scapegoat.  He will be publicly fired and blamed for the fiasco.  Then, they will appoint a new commissioner to continue on the same over testing path hoping that parents and teachers will be placated by this token gesture.

Don’t fall for it.

The goal here is not Commissioner King getting the boot.  The goal here is to ensure a good educational future for our children.  The goal is to make sure that our kids don’t dread going to school because they’ve got test after test to take.  The goal is to stop punishing creative students because their answer doesn’t fit into the box that Pearson has drawn for them.  The goal is to allow teachers to assess how their particular students will learn best instead of forcing them to follow a "one size fits all" plan that actually fits nobody.  We cannot be distracted by a show firing because what is riding on this is our children’s future.

Demand educational accountability from the New York State Department of Education now!

I completely agree.

Let's dial the clock back to the Cathie Black days when there was a large and loud clamor to get Cathie Black fired from her chancellorship position at the NYCDOE.

Many people pointed out how unqualified she was, how little she knew (or seemed to care) about education, how we needed an educator to run the system.

They were right on all those counts.

But I said at the time, I didn't think getting Cathie Black fired would help make the public education system in NYC better.

The problem was Michael Bloomberg, the autocrat with dictatorial control of the school system, not Cathie Black (or Joel Klein, Dennis Walcott, Shael Polakow-Suransky or any of the other top functionaries at Tweed.)

Bloomberg has a privatization agenda and no matter who he hired to run Tweed and the NYC school system, that privatization agenda was going to be carried out.

In the end, a more competent deformer in the figure of Dennis Walcott took over the system after Black resigned and the pro-privatization agenda continued on unabated.

At the state level, the problem with the system goes well beyond SED and John King.

King was simply hired to carry out the privatization plans of the plutocrats in this state (like Merryl Tisch) and their functionaries in government (like Andrew Cuomo.)

When Andrew Cuomo was first running for governor, the NY Times ran a story about how he met in a hotel room with some hedge fund managers/education reformers, took a suitcase full of cash from them, and began promoting their education reform/privatization agenda the very next day.

We can get rid of John King all we want, but so long as Andrew Cuomo is still in power and still taking the cash from the hedge fund managers/education reformers to promote their policies, so long as plutocrat Merryl Tisch continues to run policy at the Board of Regents, the damaging corporate education reform policies students, parents and teachers are suffering under will continue unabated.

As Techydad notes, we cannot get distracted with the "Fire John King!" show.

Yes, I'd love to see him fired and forced to leave Albany in disgrace.

The arrogant King deserves no better.

And given how no prominent deformer has come to King's defense since the Poughkeepsie meltdown, I suspect the powers that be may be getting ready to toss Commissioner King to the sharks.

But alas, the corporate education reform policies will continue after King is gone if we do not take aim at Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, DFER-supported Governor Andrew Cuomo, and the rest in the legislature who appoint the reform functionaries at the Board of Regents and pass reformy laws like the Race to the Top law and the APPR teacher evaluation law.

So sure, let's see Commissioner King fired for his disgraceful Poughkeepsie performance and his calling parents "special interests."

But let's put pressure on both Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Governor Cuomo to force them to end their authoritarian imposition of the corporate education reform agenda.

Common Core, Common Core tests, inBloom data tracking and the like isn't just John King's agenda.

It is Merryl Tisch's and Andrew Cuomo's agenda as well.

Cuomo, Lhota Compadre On Charter Schools, Other Issues

So says our old ed deform friend and failed DFER candidate Basil Smikle:

Smikle said Cuomo also is philosophically closer to Lhota than de Blasio on education issues, particularly on charter schools. For his part, de Blasio has proposed a moratorium on charters, which are publicly funded but privately run, and even supports charging them rent.

“That would eviscerate the charter school movement,” said Smikle.

Mayor Bloomberg provides the charters co-located in public schools with free space. De Blasio also said he supports a moratorium on closing low-performing schools, arguing that more should be done to address their needs before the doors are shut.

In Buffalo last month, Cuomo said failing public schools should get the “death penalty.” Lhota supports the policy of closing low-performing schools.

The Post article notes that Cuoo refuses to raise taxes on rich people (a stance Lhota shares with Cuomo) while de Blasio wants to raise taxes on rich people to fund universal pre-K.

The Post also reports that Cuomo dismissed any policy differences between himself and de Blasio:

 “No mayor or governor in recent memory will have as close a personal relationship as Gov. Cuomo and Bill de Blasio,” a source close to the governor said.

As I have written before here at Perdido Street School, if de Blasio and Cuomo are working well together on issues, it will mean that de Blasio has caved to the governor on many of his progressive policy positions from the campaign and is following along with Cuomo's Third Way social liberalism/economic corporatism stances.

So here's hoping they don't work well together.

One final point:

If Cuomo is compadre with Joe Lhota, the former Giuliani administration official, on so many issues like taxes and charter schools and education reform, why is Cuomo a "Democrat"?

The question is rhetorical, of course.

Cuomo is a "Democrat" the way the hedge fund managers at the Democrats For Education Reform are "Democrats."

What De Blasio Is Really Saying In His Call For A Closure/Co-Location Moratorium

First, in case you were working all day and missed the press release, here's the important stuff:

Brooklyn, NY – Public Advocate and Democratic candidate for mayor Bill de Blasio today criticized Mayor Bloomberg’s eleventh-hour efforts to push through deeply divisive school co-location plans, and blasted Bloomberg’s chief ally Speaker Quinn for refusing to call for a moratorium on school co-locations and closures – effectively acquiescing to these eleventh-hour changes.

“If Mayor Bloomberg has his way while his closest political partner Speaker Quinn stays silent, nearly half of the proposed co-location plans will put schools over 100% capacity.  This means larger class sizes for our students,” said de Blasio.  “Bloomberg’s proposals are a cynical effort to lock communities into permanent changes while ignoring community voices, and Speaker Quinn’s refusal to support a moratorium is letting Bloomberg have his way.”

Bill de Blasio is calling for an immediate halt to co-location and closure plans for the remainder of Bloomberg’s term and until a new process can be put in place. Despite years of community opposition and multiple efforts at reforming this deeply broken process, the thirty recently released Educational Impact Statements – the plans that outline significant changes in school utilization – unfortunately represent “business as usual” for Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn.  Of the proposals released, nearly half will place school buildings over 100% capacity.  In two proposals, when the school is fully phased-in, the buildings will be close to 135% capacity.

“The next administration deserves the opportunity to shape the future of the educational system in New York City, not be saddled with another Bloomberg plan offered in the twilight of his term that will last long after he is gone,” said de Blasio.  “Speaker Quinn seems content to stand by and let that happen.  These thirty ”schools – nearly half of which will be left overcrowded – deserve better.”

De Blasio isn't calling for a moratorium on closures and co-locations forever, just until the next mayor takes over and can redo the system.

He doesn't want to get stuck with Bloomberg's plans for the next four or eight years.

Bloomberg is trying to extend his influence well past December 31, 2013 by sticking the next mayor with all kinds of consultant contracts, business deals, real estate deals, and future co-locations.

De Blasio is pointing out what Bloomberg is doing and Quinn's complicity in it.

I bet he'll bring this up in tonight's final mayoral debate at some point.

De Blasio does say he wants to bring in much more community input into policy decisions, co-locations and closures in the future.

That would be great and I hope it happens.

But again, I think the thrust of this press release is to point out the shenanigans Bloomberg is involved in and Quinn's role in helping him through her inaction.

The press release says more than once, a vote for Quinn is a vote for Bloomberg Education Policy Mach IV.

De Blasio is certainly right about.

And notice how he used DFER Joe Williams to prove his point that Quinn = Bloomberg:

FACT: Key Bloomberg Education Backer Said That Schools Will Probably Still Close if Quinn Became Mayor and That “The Policy Itself May Be Not All That Different [From Bloomberg's]“. In a Jan 2013 Wall Street Journal story, Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, praised Quinn’s approach on school closings. The story states, “Williams said schools will probably still close if Quinn ends up leading the city” and that “the policy itself may be not all that different” from Mayor Bloomberg’s proposals. [Wall Street Journal, "In Speech, Quinn Spells Out Education Platform", 1/15/2013]

I wonder what the DFER's are thinking on all of this.

I assume they figure they'll ride in after the election carrying cash and buy the same old same old policies.

De Blasio's talking a good game about changing the system for real.

We'll see if he follows through after the DFER's and their hedge fund/Wall Street/corporate allies come calling with cash.

I hope he sticks to his promise to change the system for real regardless of how much the elites offer to keep the status quo on closures, co-locations and the like.

DFER's Ally With Tea Party To Bring Charter Schools To Kentucky

One of the arguments we have heard from education reform groups like Democrats For Education Reform for why progressive educators shouldn't ally with right wing Tea Party types in a common cause against Common Core is that right wing Tea Party types hold views in anathema to progressives on other issues - from vouchers to teaching evolution in schools to sex education and Obamacare - and progressives shouldn't join with these people in common cause against anything.

Back in May, Education Week laid out the blueprint for how the DFER's are employing this "divide and conquer" strategy to try and keep progressive educators from joining with Tea Party types to fight the Common Core:

Stand for Children Indiana, a pro-common-core group, which supports broad early-education opportunities and charter schools, released two different 30-second TV advertisements, one on March 5 and another on April 16, defending the standards. The campaign also included radio spots.

A spokesman for the group, Jay Kenworthy, declined to disclose how much it spent on the ads and said it hadn't decided whether to renew the public relations push when common-core hearings get underway in Indiana this summer. 

That state is also ground zero for a pro-common-core argument aimed at a liberal audience: that many of the loudest common-core opponents hold other political views that the audience would find abhorrent.

For example, Larry Grau, the director of the Indiana affiliate of Democrats for Education Reform, or DFER, wrote on the group's blog April 23 that GOP Sen. Scott Schneider wants schools to teach creationism and has sought to make enforcement of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act a felony. DFER Indiana has also used language that warned about "bedfellows" in the anti-common-core movement that could cause someone to say, "I hate myself for this in the morning." Mr. Grau said he wanted the group's rhetoric to be "a little edgy."

He argued that Democrats suspicious of other policy proposals, like vouchers, should not let those views lead them to lash out at the common core. "They're not thinking before they're saying who they're partnering with on the common core," Mr. Grau said in an interview.

Last week we learned from a reformer at another prominent education reform organization that the reform movement is truly "terrified" that progressive educators and Tea Party types will join together to fight the Common Core, so the reform movement will do anything to divide these groups and make sure they don't join together against the Core.

Thus the argument about "How Can Self-Respecting Progressives Join With These 'Inherit The Wind' types to fight Common Core?" stuff.

The funny thing is, today at Politico we learn that the DFER's are joining with Tea Party hero Rand Paul to try and bring charter school's to Paul's home state of Kentucky:

CHARTER CAMPAIGN – Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell today kick off a campaign to bring charter schools to their home state of Kentucky. They’ll be joined by various pro-charter groups, including one from across the aisle – Democrats for Education Reform. Why focus on Kentucky? Look at the map, DFER’s policy director, Charles Barone, tells POLITICO. Just eight states in the U.S. block charters from opening, and several of the holdouts are so rural (looking at you, North and South Dakota) that they don’t have the population centers needed to support robust competition in public education. Kentucky, however, seems ripe for reform, Barone said.

It won’t be easy, though. Two other Southern states, Alabama and West Virginia, have rejected charter laws time and again. In another pocket of resistance, Washington state, it took charter backers 16 years, four ballot measures and an $11 million campaign to finally get voters to authorize charters last fall. Barone says he has no idea what a campaign will cost in Kentucky, or how long it will take. “We’re just getting our feet wet,” he said. As for that whole strange-bedfellows thing, Barone says DFER is not exactly allying itself with Republicans Paul and McConnell, though they all share the same goal. “We’re not really doing this with them,” he said. “We just both happen to be there at this event.”

I see - so it's okay for the DFER's to work with (though not exactly ally themselves with) Tea Party types like Rand Paul to try and bring charter schools to Kentucky though it's not okay for progressive educators to work with (though not exactly ally themselves with) Tea Party types to fight the Common Core.

What political expediency and hypocrisy these DFER's engage in, eh?

The next time you hear one of these guys ask how progressive educators can work with Tea Party types against Common Core even though Tea Party types hold views in anathema to many views that progressive educators hold on other issues, ask how it is the DFER's can work with Tea Party types to expand charter schools even though Tea Party types hold views that are supposedly in anathema to ones the DFER's have on other issues.

Common Core Proponents Are Terrified The Tea Party Right And Anti-Test Left Will Join Together To Kill The Common Core

The NY Times has an article about the "rocky debut" of the Common Core.

The article takes a look at the opposition to the national standards that is coming from both the right and left that threatens to derail the standards movement.

In the piece we get the following statement from a prominent education reformer:

“The danger here is that you have two kinds of problems going on,” said Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a nonprofit group that works to close achievement gaps. “One is a Tea Party problem, which doesn’t have deep roots but does have lots of political muscle behind it, and then you’ve got a bit of antitest rebellion coming from the left. The question is what’s going to happen if they both get together. That’s the more terrifying prospect.”

I have long said the way to kill the Common Core was to join with Tea Party and libertarian right Common Core opponents in a united battle against the nationalized standards and assessment movement.

The model I like to use for this is the work Dennis Kucinich did with Ron Paul to get people in Congress on both the right and the left to audit the Federal Reserve.

Kucinich didn't agree with Ron Paul on lots of policy issues, but he certainly did on the importance of auditing the Fed, and it was by right and left joining together in this fight that the House finally passed a bill requiring more transparency at the Federal Reserve.

I believe Common Core opponents from both the right and the left can join together as well to put a stake through the heart of the Common Core movement.

Common Core proponents like the Democrats For Education Reform are aware of the dangers of a united front of righties and lefties fighting the Common Core reform movement and have deployed a "divide and conquer" strategy to play up differences between the right and left on other issues in order to sidetrack the united battle against the Common Core.

There are some on the left who say they won't join with anybody on the right to work against Common Core, playing right into the DFER/Obama divide and conquer strategy.

Kati Haycock's statement that a united group of Tea Partiers and anti-testing lefties is a "terrifying prospect" to the Common Core proponents ought to give pause to those on the left who are saying they won't join with anybody on the right to fight in common cause against the Common Core.

Common Core proponents know the only way they can keep the Common Core imposition going is to isolate opponents on the left from opponents on the right.

Then they can have two small fights on their hands rather than one large firefight.

I think lefties who vow to fight the Common Core on their own and refuse to join with those on the right in common cause against the Common Core play into the hands of the corporatists and deformers who want the Common Core as the national standards.

Quite frankly, the old right and left doesn't exist the way it used to anymore anyway, with fault lines showing in both parties.

On the Dem side, you have the corporatists, Wall Street Dems and ed deformers in the party establishment and many in the rank and file who are opposed to many of the policies of those in the party establishment.

On the GOP side, you have the corporatists, Wall Street Repubs and ed deformers in the party establishment and you have some in the rank and file who are opposed to many of the policies of those in the party establishment.

The old blue/red dichotomy on policy and politics does not hold the way it used to and we would be foolish to continue to follow it.

On so many issues, from the surveillance state to food policy to agriculture policy to Common Core to overseas empire, I have more in common with many libertarians than I do with establishment Democrats like Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, George Miller (ranking Dem in the House on education) and Tom Harkin (chair of the Senate education committee.)

Why should I refuse to join with libertarians in the fight against Common Core (or the surveillance state or overseas empire or food policy or agriculture policy) and join with the Democratic establishment to fight against my own interests?

Common Core proponents are "terrified" that right and left will join together to fight the Common Core.

Let's give them something to really be terrified about by joining together to put a stake through the heart of this national curriculum.

Do Not Allow The Education Reform Corporatists To Play Their "Divide And Conquer" Strategies Against Common Core Opponents

There's a steady barrage of attacks against the Common Core coming from the right these days.

Just this week we have Michelle Malkin's take-down of Tony Bennett and Jeb Bush at Townhall, a critique of the Common Core at Rupert Murdoch's FOX News, an attack on the data-mining components to the Core at the American Thinker, Tea Partiers in Ohio looking to repeal the standards in the state, Tea Partiers and conservative rank and file giving it to Common Core shill/Idaho governor Tom Luna, and a small group of Tea Partiers protesting Governor Scott Walker's support of the Common Core in Wisconsin.

The Obama administration, the neoliberals in the Democratic establishment and the hedge fundies at the Democrats For Education Reform are worried that progressive critics of corporate education reform might join with these Tea Party and conservative opponents to the Core to drive a stake through the heart of the standards implementation movement.

As such, they're using a "divide and conquer" strategy to try and remind progressive opponents to corporate education reform just how much they do not have in common with these conservative Common Core opponents.

It's a classic strategy that's been used for ages in America to divide people with common interests by exploiting issues of race and religion.

Buried in a May 2013 Education Week article about how Common Core proponents are fighting back against the Core backlash was the blueprint for the "divide and conquer" strategy:

Stand for Children Indiana, a pro-common-core group, which supports broad early-education opportunities and charter schools, released two different 30-second TV advertisements, one on March 5 and another on April 16, defending the standards. The campaign also included radio spots.

A spokesman for the group, Jay Kenworthy, declined to disclose how much it spent on the ads and said it hadn't decided whether to renew the public relations push when common-core hearings get underway in Indiana this summer. 

That state is also ground zero for a pro-common-core argument aimed at a liberal audience: that many of the loudest common-core opponents hold other political views that the audience would find abhorrent.

For example, Larry Grau, the director of the Indiana affiliate of Democrats for Education Reform, or DFER, wrote on the group's blog April 23 that GOP Sen. Scott Schneider wants schools to teach creationism and has sought to make enforcement of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act a felony. DFER Indiana has also used language that warned about "bedfellows" in the anti-common-core movement that could cause someone to say, "I hate myself for this in the morning." Mr. Grau said he wanted the group's rhetoric to be "a little edgy."

He argued that Democrats suspicious of other policy proposals, like vouchers, should not let those views lead them to lash out at the common core. "They're not thinking before they're saying who they're partnering with on the common core," Mr. Grau said in an interview.

Common Core proponents know that they have lost the Tea Party/conservative base on Common Core. 

The Common Core support of Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Mitch Daniels is not keeping the Tea Party people from taking to the streets after listening to Glenn Beck rail about the Core on the radio and reading Michelle Malkin rail against it in the blogosphere and protest the Common Core implementation.

In state after state, you're seeing these Tea Party protests that have been very effective in either sidetracking Common Core implementation (Indiana, Michigan) or setting up a battle between Core proponents and opponents that might lead to a sidetrack in the future (Ohio, Idaho.)

That's got Common Core proponents, especially the Republican ones, very worried.

But so long as Common Core Democratic proponents can keep the teachers unions on board, can keep most progressives either happy with the Core or agnostic at best, the Core just might survive in states without large Tea Party elements.

That's where the "divide and conquer" strategy comes.

They're telling progressives, hey, you can't join with Glenn Beck or Michelle Malkin or Tea Party people to oppose Common Core - these people are creationists and anti-abortion advocates, they believe the world was made in seven days for Chrissakes!  You've seen "Inherit The Wind" - you know what we're dealing with here.

I have seen this critique come from some teachers in the education blogosphere as well.

But the truth is, much of the critique of the Core coming from the right is accurate and fair and as unwingnutty as you can get.

For example, here's Michelle Malkin yesterday on Jeb Bush and Tony Bennett:

These good ol' boys bonded over their zeal for the top-down racket known as Common Core. As I've reported previously, this Fed Ed program is supported by both big-business interests (Microsoft founder Bill Gates and News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch's education arm) and government educrats. Progressive activists in both parties have worked on nationalized standards, tests and curriculum for decades under previous names: outcome-based education, national school-to-work, Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind, for example. Obama administration bribery through "Race To The Top" greased the wheels for adoption of the Common Core program by cash-strapped states, many of which had more rigorous standards than the fed-imposed system.

Common Core cheerleaders falsely claimed that untested standards were "internationally benchmarked." Math and English standards have been dumbed down. And a plethora of data-mining firms stand to gain billions from student information gathered under the Common Core assessments umbrella. The Obama administration's sabotage of federal educational privacy protections will help supply that data to the highest crony bidders.

After Bennett was voted out of office in Indiana last fall over his efforts to ram the phony "standards" and nationalized testing scheme through, Team Jeb came to the rescue. In addition to greasing the wheels for the Florida schools chief job, Bush's foundation named Bennett one of its "Chiefs for Change." That group champions Common Core, and many of its members are part of a behemoth, federally funded testing consortium called PARCC (the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers), which raked in $186 million through Race To The Top to develop nationalized tests "aligned" to the top-down Common Core program.

Bush's foundation has now joined with the Common Core-peddling Fordham Institute under a new phony-baloney umbrella group: "Conservatives for Higher Standards." While its list of supporters includes federal bureaucrats, politicians and business interests, there are no grassroots conservative parents or teacher groups. So beware of this "conservative" front. And remember: Astro-turfing runs in the Bush family. Under George W. Bush, the federal Department of Education paid GOP mouthpiece/columnist Armstrong Williams to shill for No Child Left Behind.

Heather Crossin, a conservative Indiana mom who helped spearhead the drive to eject Bennett from office and reject Common Core in her state, put it best. She told me after the latest crony Republican education scandal this week:

"This situation illustrates why it is crucial that parents be reinserted into the decision-making process when it comes to the education of their children. When their voices and concerns take a backseat to 'command and control' approaches to ed reform, the public trust can easily be broken." It's elementary.

And the critique of Common Core at the American Thinker:

Although high information Americans are becoming aware of the federal takeover of education through Common Core Standards, there seems to be little recognition yet that Common Core gives schools and third parties unprecedented access to students' personal information.  The federal government is acquiring a massive amount of data that can be sold to the highest bidders. This is an invasion of student and family privacy and a violation of our 4th Amendment rights
.
While many Americans are focused on NSA and other such "phony scandals," the Washington education police are swarming around in schools gathering intimate data on children and families.

The education technology buzzards are circling overhead and, having smelled the strong scent of money, are salivating at the thought of making billions from this new goldmine.

 Reuters reported that in 2012 technology startups for the K-12 market attracted more than $425 million in venture capital.  Rupert Murdoch, owner of Amplify Education, one of the country's largest education technology companies, estimates that K-12 education is a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone.


Although the federal government was prohibited legally from gathering student specific data for a national database, the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- "Stimulus Bill" -- provided a loophole.  Money from the ARRA was given to each of the states to develop longitudinal data systems to catalog data generated by Common Core aligned tests.

The deal was sweetened and guaranteed state compliance when the Obama administration used data system development as the key criterion for awarding additional K-12 funds through the "Race to the Top" program.


In 2011the U.S. Department of Education reinterpreted the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to permit a student's academic record to be shared with virtually anyone including non-governmental organizations without prior written parental consent!


Education technology companies can use the information to develop software for students, teachers, and administrators.


Beginning with the 2014-2015 school year, students in states that have accepted Common Core standards will begin taking state standardized tests that are aligned with the Common Core learning standards.


The state tests will glean student-specific data to be stored by the states in their new longitudinal data systems that are designed to track a student from pre-school through college and even further.

The National Center for Education Statistics, which is part of the USDOE, helps states to identify and code the various types of information.


The range of data that can be collected includes hobbies, psychological evaluations, medical records, religious affiliation, political affiliation, family income, behavioral problems, disciplinary history, career goals, addresses, and bus stop times and locations. 


Research Fellow Joy Pullmann at the Heartland Institute said the February 2013 report by the USDOE, "Promoting Grit, Tenacity, and Perseverance," p. 44, reveals that Common Core's data mining includes "...using cameras to judge facial expressions, an electronic seat that judges posture, a pressure-sensitive computer mouse and a biometric wrap on kids' wrists."


Under Arne Duncan, President Obama's Secretary of Education, there is an unprecedented level of opportunity for private influence on education.  Thus public-private partnerships are flourishing.

Exxon Mobil Corporation used television coverage of the Masters Golf Tournament to blitz ads promoting Common Core.  Bill Gates has spent millions of dollars to develop, support, and fund the establishment of Common Core standards and testing in U.S. public schools.


In fact, a massive $100 million public school database spearheaded by funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been developed to share student information with private companies -- such as Gates' Microsoft -- that sell educational products and services so they can mine the information to create new tailored products.  


Strange new alliances have emerged from this project, with the likes of the liberal Gates Foundation which provided most of the funding and Amplify Education, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which developed the database system.  The partnership then turned it over to a nonprofit corporation called inBloom to operate and control the information.


The inBloom website states that security of the stored student data cannot be guaranteed:

"While in this day and age no security protections can be 100% guaranteed, inBloom has greatly improved student data protection beyond the measures currently used by most school systems."

This admission that security of student files cannot be guaranteed has the public riled up. Parents from Louisiana and New York have written state officials in protest, as have the Massachusetts chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and Parent Teacher Association.  A growing number of Republican lawmakers nationwide have expressed concern about Common Core data mining and are considering introducing legislation to stop the sharing of student data with outside groups.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington is suing the USDOE in an effort to stop the illegal collection, storage, and sharing of student data.  President and executive director Marc Rotenberg said that, "Once the data gets out there it has all sorts of ramifications. It weakens the [FERPA] structure Congress put in place because Congress understands that a lot of student data can be stigmatizing, keeping people out of jobs, for example."


ParentalRights.org President Michael P. Farris maintains that personal privacy is being destroyed by those who want to track children. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has browbeaten nations to create a national database so that the government can track children, purportedly to protect their human rights.


Touting this centralized database system as a method to personalize student education is a naïve notion by the tech industry, which evidently thinks the massive problems of public education can be fixed with a bit of slick technical engineering.

Sure, the writer gets a little wingnutty at the end by calling this a program of the Marxist Obama government - it's actually a program of the corporatist Obama government. 

And I think the writer is wrong when she calls the NSA data mining a "phony scandal" -  it's actually connected to the very student data mining movement she's writing about. 

Indeed, Microsoft is a player in each of these data mining movements by the government.

But really, other than that, the writer provides a solid argument for why Common Core should be opposed - because it is being used by the federal government, in concert with corporations, to gather, mine and exploit student data for their own ends.

And Malkin connects all the right dots on how Common Core came about and who stands to profit from it.

There is much that I agree with in these critiques of Common Core coming from the right.  Rather than focus on the things I do not agree with these people on, I prefer to emphasize the points we do agree on and use this as a base to build widespread support against the corporatist takeover of the public education system.

As I wrote in an earlier post about this very issue:

I, for one, am happy to work with people on the right against the Common Core.

I like to use Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul as my model for that kind of work.

Sure Kucinich and Paul might not have agreed on a lot of different policies, but there were some core ones they agreed upon, including opposition to the Surveillance State, opposition to overseas wars and the need to add some transparency to the Federal Reserve.

Those men worked together on those issues, even if on other issues they were as far apart as the sun and the moon.

Progressive and Tea Partiers can work similarly against Common Core.

Yes, the two sides may oppose Common Core for different reasons.

But the important thing is, both sides oppose this federal curriculum and are fighting to repeal it in state after state after state all across the nation. 

Beware people on the left telling you that you can't work with Tea Partiers or conservatives to oppose Common Core because of the fundamental differences you may have on other issues.

That's a "divide and conquer" strategy emanating from the education reform establishment these days to try and save the Core from what is starting to look like its imminent demise as state after state looks to drop out of the Common Core and the assessment consortia associated with the standards.