Say you’re a young man who is all about *crushing* the achievement gap and you just happen to have a cool $20K of daddy’s money to plunk down in order to influence an important local election. But who do you support? Do you go with the first-generation Haitian-American who would be the first minority OR woman to represent a part of Boston still scarred from the busing wars of the 1970′s? Or do you go big and bold, backing the white guy with the Irish name from a powerful South Boston family of the sort that has dominated this part of Massachusetts for decades?
Well that was easy! According to Democrats for Education Reform’s patented endorsement process, which seems to involve googling a candidate’s name together with “charter schools, support for,” there was only one education reform candidate in this race. Here’s a clue: Linda Dorcena Forry never even mentions charter schools and their outstandingess or their excellence on her campaign website. Instead, she only wants to make college more affordable for low-income students and who did that ever help??? Meanwhile, DFER pick Nick Collins is a founding member of the board of local miracle charter, UP Academy, where he is joined by other bold innovators like the VP of Bain Capital, the head of equities for Columbia Management and Michael Kineavy, chief of staff for Mayor Menino.
Poll dancing
Alas the DFER kiss and a crew of energetic young business students banking the phones wasn’t enough to propel brother Collins past Dorcena Forry and her support from minorities, immigrants and gays and lesbians, a coalition that political observers say heralds a new day for Boston politics. Which is ironical in the extreme because if there is any organization that has the backs of Boston’s people of color community it’s DFER. In fact, DFER cares so much about voters of color that it recently placed this op-ed in the Bay State Banner, reporting on the results of a DFER “poll” in which support for charter schools among people of color was found to increase as these voters were told more and more great things about how great charter schools are. OK, so the op-ed doesn’t mention that the number one concern of voters was budget cuts in the public schools which are absolutely not related in any way to the expansion of charter schools that is DFER’s sole policy objective.
The white way
The point is, that win or lose, the brothers of DFER (and I’m referring to actual fraternity brothers) bought it brought it . And while some haters may be relishing the opportunity to point out the group’s almost comical lack of knowledge about Boston, their well-funded quest to remake the public schools they never attended has won them at least one new BFF: hot-for-charters Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh. In this “column,” Lehigh reports on the results of DFER’s “poll” and drools at the prospect of the DFER boyz playing a significant role in the upcoming mayoral contest. But which of our excellence loving candidates will be lucky enough to receive the DFER magic???
Note: the California Democratic Party recently passed a resolution criticizing Democrats for Education Reform as a hedge-funded front for corporate interests and Republicans. Similar efforts are underway in several other states, although Massachusetts isn’t one of them.
Hi. Longtime BMGer, have noticed you up here recently, so welcome.
Anti-charter stuff is reasonably popular here, so you’ll do just fine. I’m affiliated with a Boston charter, so I occasionally pop by to cheerily protest…only to be drowned out fairly quickly.
Anyway, my question: do you have any affiliation with the Massachusetts AFT?
It’s okay either way of course, but I’m curious.
Greetings sir: thanks for the warm welcome! Of course I know who you are: I write about MATCH fairly regularly and also make a point of dropping by Starting an Ed School. I thought the recent exchange about how to handle high turnover among charter teachers was terrific. Just let me know if you’d like to have me on 🙂
As to your question, I am not affiliated with either teachers union. I use a pen name for my blog and my posts here because I have an edu-job that requires my remaining on good terms with assorted edu-crat officials with whom I happen to disagree on edu-policies matters large and small. In other words I am nibbling upon the hand that feeds me…
check out https://twitter.com/EduShyster.
good stuff — topical, current,balanced, informative — I find myself reading the a Globe story and checking edshyster to find out what really happened.
Thanks Judy! I suspect we can look forward to plenty of excellent Boston Globe “journalism” this week as legislators “ask hard questions” about the impact of lifting the charter cap. Speaking of which, if you haven’t looked at the language of Barry Feingold’s bill, I recommend it (although you’ll want to have plenty of alcohol on hand). Section 11 is basically a land grab that will allow charter schools to take over public school buildings, at a rent-controlled price. In other words, public school districts will be required to give up their school buildings to charters and to subsidize their rent. It even looks as though once the public school property is sold to the charter, it is no longer public property, and won’t revert to the public, even if the charter school subsequently closes. Check it out here: http://www.bostonfoundation.org/uploadedFiles/Sub_Site/web_specials/Race_to_the_Top/An%20Act%20to%20Further%20Close%20the%20Achievement%20Gap%20%281.17.2013%29.pdf
For anyone who wants to speak before the Joint Education Committee as they consider Barry Feingold’s bill and a raft of others relative to charter schools, there is a public hearing tomorrow, May 7, at 10 a.m. in Room A-1. (Written testimony can also be submitted for those who can’t attend in person.)
No matter which side of the charter school debate you are on, there are bills to support or oppose. For bill summaries and other information on the hearing, see the Citizens for Public Schools web site’s home page, here.
for clarifying. Someone had told me until recently you worked in communications for the AFT. Sorry for the misperception.
There’s another rumor going around that I’m actually a woman 🙂
paper houses really throw matches?
For the white guy is always wrong!
And here I was thinking this was just a grassroots uprising of regular folks who really really like standardized tests.
If by grassroots you mean gra$$root$ then you have hit the well-funded nail on the well-funded head!
They have the Illinois Friends of Children group here too pushing their privatization agenda, the nice thing is the Illinois Teachers have had enough money to get on the airwaves and counter all the attacks. They have done a good job defending their pensions as well. The irony is labor may be irrelevant within Chicago, but in the rest of the state it is still a force to be reckoned with.