No one would be foolish enough to give me a couple million to start an online education news network. I’m the wrong guy for the job, in spades. But it would be nice if someone on the progressive side of education got that kind of money to put together a slick, comprehensive website to cover education news, staffed with serious, experienced journalists.
I don’t see that happening. But ex-CNN and NBC anchor Campbell Brown is getting big money to start an online news network with a privatization/”education reform” slant. It must be nice to have friends in high financial places.
Brown’s nonprofit news site is supposed to go live in mid July. She’s hired 13 people so far, including a former editor at Time magazine and a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. It takes a decent chunk of change to pay 13 quality staff members while also taking care of general startup costs. But money isn’t really a problem when your funding comes from the likes of Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Walton Family Foundation, among others.
As in the world of politics, there’s a financial imbalance between the people supporting conservative and progressive education agendas. In education, the big money is on the anti-union, anti-tenure, pro-charter, pro-voucher side. They have the means to package and disseminate their message. There’s just not the same kind of money on the progressive side.
This isn’t Brown’s only educational venture. She also runs another nonprofit with deep pockets devoted to fighting teacher tenure and seniority laws in court. And she’s hardly a lone voice crying in the wilderness. A number of well funded organizations push a similar agenda. For instance, there’s Students First, the group started by Michelle Rhee who built her educational reputation on lies and half truths about her successes as a teacher and as chancellor of the Washington, D.C. schools. She raised lots of money before she got kicked out of her own organization. Students First also has a high powered Board of Directors. One of the board members is Dan Senor, who was an aide to President George W. Bush, chief spokesperson for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, foreign policy advisor for Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential bid — and Campbell Brown’s husband.
And speaking of the Bush family, there’s Jeb’s group, Foundation for Excellence in Education, which he had to leave when he began his presidential run. Donations to the group totaled $46 million from FEE’s beginnings in 2007 until 2014. Some of the donors, whose names Jeb disclosed in the past few days, are: Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Walton Family Foundation, the Bill Gates Foundation, Rupert Murdoch’s New Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Duke Energy and BP America. And let’s not forget the for-profit education concerns that also contribute: Pearson Publishing and Renaissance Learning, among others.
Between money from gazillionaires’ foundations and donations from hedge fund managers and other very wealthy people, Campbell Brown, Michelle Rhee, Jeb Bush and others have all the funding they need, and more, to mount a multi-pronged attack to spread their privatization message. There’s no comparable funding on the progressive side. The only counterbalance with any financial heft are the teachers unions, and they’re spread thin with their need to put out fires and advocate for their affiliates across the country, as well as working to get politicians who support their agenda elected. There’s not a whole lot left for pure PR work. And, no surprise here, one of the main targets of the hydra-headed education privatization movement is weakening the unions.
This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2015.
“Giving me…”
Says it all, doesn’t it. Pigs at the trough never change their tune.
David,
Perhaps the reason that a “progressive” education fund is difficult to put together is because the progressive approach has been in action for most of 40 years now and found wanting, if not a near-total failure. In several of your own, well written articles, you show that the failure of education is largely based on a failure at home, albeit for various reasons.
Rebuilding the family structure and, importantly, the moral position of the traditional American family is a much better goal. How to do this remains elusive, but ho not to do has been amply demonstrated by the “Great Society” and “War on Poverty” debacles that have wasted trillions of dollars, while destroying families and morals. Free or easy money is never the answer to these problems.
Poor people in other societies (African, Asian and Latin where I have years of experience) still lift themselves out of the morass of a poverty unimaginable to Americans, with little help, in part because they are families. Something reminiscent of our country a century or more ago.
Once American schools taught moral and individual responsibility as well as the value of working for
a collective good, a thing called patriotism. It worked well but has now been discarded except in private schools which somehow seem to generally produce a better quality of graduate. Perhaps we need to go back; abandoning the “progressive” and ethnic identity-based approaches which continue to fail.
So how come the “progressives” are not as popular as the groups getting all the money? Could it be an alignment with the “hate & envy” theme?
In the FD there is a proprietary education channel centered around safety & training; what group pays for THAT channel? Is it the firefighter unions? I wonder aloud because would the same thing be possible in the manner you suggest? Could this be another direction for the teacher’s union?
You have a good start on public access which others have expanded outward from the local stations through the “public access” network. As an example, prior to her demise, Madeline Murray O’Hare sent around a weekly program via tape. It was a small “garage band” production but she was still able to get her message out and maintain her funding. Yeah, Tucson Public Access is again on the financial ropes, which is too bad but that doesn’t mean you can’t put together the network you envision. Bill Curtis did. Good luck.
http://www.progressiveeducationnetwork.org…
The answer is really simple. The Koch brothers who believe in McCarthyism (rich get richer… poor forget them and white entitlement is the natural course of events philosophy) have people voting against their own best interests,. Progressives have no sugar daddies (who really don’t help anyone. in the long run.. just appear to). Here’s another one besides Campbell Brown (1 more of many) who want to take freedom away also: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/04/s… ( I call this the anti-transparency law- thank God the people screamed).
Some people may say, hopefully soon, “How did this happen? WHy is our economy like 1933? What is happening to education? “. Unions create balance. Read your history. Here is what is really happening:
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/8/as_ob…
At least President Obama has some expectations of accountability in the new funding(and will withhold money if it is not given). At least it is a start.
How do you ,who think privatization is so great, support the lack of transparency and accountability and justify what is happening? It is a rhetorical question. I don’t really need an answer. Some may have short memories but I do not. We have had privatization (charter schools) since the 90s and big time since the Bush administration. Arizona has more charters than any other state. Where are we in funding and achievment? Almost last in both. (Some say last in both but i will not argue that point… it’s bad period).
It seems like the energy and ideas are on the privatization side.
The oddly named ‘progressive’ (big government) side is really the conservative in this fight, standing for maintenance and extension of what has been the status quo in education since at least the New Deal era. While the ‘conservatives’ are pushing the changes.
I don’t think much of the moneyed/privatization side’s approach, but I don’t even understand the progressive side’s agenda (other than rearguard action action against the privatization side).
The only leader I can think of on the progressive side is Robert Reich who I disagree with on virtually everything mainly because of his very odd anti-homeschooling rants. He believes educated suburban parents should be forced to sacrifice their children to the greater good in the currently horrid public school system so as to bring up the overall quality.
Heck, Ted Kennedy brought us the No Child Left Behind testing disaster. What is the alternative to the testing/privatization side?
Greece has become very progressive. Don’t look away…you may make us next.
Well, these comments for the most part tell you everything you need to know about why public education in America is being dismantled.
http://www.alternet.org/belief/are-america…
@ Guardians
White entitlement? I don’t think so. My great grandparents came here from Europe, legally and worked, served in the military – and we have done so for 3 generation on both sides.
What have you done? Other than familiarize yourself with the unfair Jail Bond system that your children have had to use. Let me guess, not your fault and not their fault either, right?
If you think Obama is anything other than Bush Jr in blackface – you are ignorant of anything that has occurred during his presidency.
Keep propping up the current failed and failing model of the public education system. It has become as disgusting as the military industrial complex.
Guardian, do you believe that government is open and transparent? This administration has been a joke. And then look at Hillary putting a “corral” around the media to keep them away from her. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Shame on the lazy impotent media. She owns them.
Why not ask George Soros, Bill Gates or Warren Buffet? Those libs give away billions each year, although I can never find stories about the great results.
Bslap, there is a difference between discussing what is wrong and needs to be fixed in the charter school system and having a goal of the destruction of public education which is what Koch brothers want. They want it all privatized. ( If you read any bios about the Koch brothers, they make no secret of the fact that they think anything that is not privatized is Communism). I have said charter schools are fine with me if they follow the same rules as regular public schools which is hard to discern when taxpayer funds are mixed in with corporate profits. Again, why aren’t they required to repay taxpayers when they make a profit? The idea was to give parents more choices, not to hide profits made or salaries paid or what they are doing with taxpayer money. Public schools are investigated, audited and held accountable. Charter schools have very little accountability which is why many got away with receiving extra funds for ‘small schools’ and were actually part of corporations for a long time.
Koch brothers have wanted public ed. gone forever. They are the primary funders of this cause. Those who mention the other wealthy donors here, I have not found any funding by them for public education of this type at all. This is not a picking on the Koch brothers(Creators and funders of ALEC). That is what we are talking about… this program and why it is in existence and why there is no comparable show funded by ???? for public school support. So for me the lines are not blurred at all.
“If you think Obama is anything other than Bush Jr in black face – you are ignorant of anything that has occurred during his presidency.”
That has to be the stupidest thing ever written.
Uh, President Obama IS black. He doesn’t need to do black face.
Well, Pima Mujer, here’s a quote by another person not all that thrilled about the president:{In November 2012, Cornel West said in an interview that he considered Obama a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface.”} It looks like there is more stupid out there than you are aware of.