Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/15938
and make them think that change is right around the corner — and now it’s on to the next game,” says Gordon. The district spent a staggering $82 million on consultants last year, says Olson-Jones. Money from the Gates and Broad founda- tions, the Dell Foundation, and the Rogers Family Foundation sponsored “Expect Suc- cess,” a project costing more than $20 mil- lion, which mostly funded the reorganization of the District Office. The union was not in- volved in the plan. OUSD, just freed from state takeover, ABOVE: Manny Lopez, an Oakland Education As- sociation member, at Jefferson School. RIGHT: Craig Gordon, a social studies teacher at Paul Robeson School in Fremont. lost them as funding and staffs were cut. Some schools attracted high achievers and had better scores than others. “It is a phony reform to distract people had had three graduates from the Eli Broad Academy serving as state administrators. Vince Matthews, the most recent state ad- ministrator and Broad alum, still has veto power over the elected school board. Since 2003, nine other Broad associates have also held high-level district positions — and Broad has donated $6 million to the district. Broad helped finance an expensive lobbying campaign to prevent the return of local con- trol to Oakland schools. “There is such a big push from Eli Broad and other billionaire philanthropists for testing, accountability, getting rid of ‘bad’ teachers and measuring teachers by student test scores,” says Olson-Jones. “They want schools to be run like businesses, even though businesses are failing left and right. If schools were banks, they would have been bailed out a long time ago.” foundations wield enormous power in Los Angeles charters to $56 million since 2000, serving 25,000 total students, according to RedOrbit.com, a Texas-based Internet news source. Recently, Eli Broad donated $10.5 million to the Green Dot charter schools organization that will go toward opening 21 new high school campuses and enrolling about one of every 10 high school students currently in LAUSD over the next several years. “This trend for increasing charters is hurting teachers and kids,” according to a statement issued by United Teachers Los Angeles. “It’s creating a two-tiered educational system — one for the haves and one for the have-nots. Charters get the cream of the crop when it comes to kids because they are based on a lottery system that attracts parents who are the most motivated. These schools don’t have the same percentages of English learners or special education students. And when they have discipline problems, they send them back to the public schools because they can’t handle them.” When the school board rebuffed the mayor’s plan it was a victory for educators, but pro-charter corporate foundations continue to wield tremendous power in LAUSD, where they are entrenched in top district administrative positions. John Deasy, a top official with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was hired in June as second in command of the district. As deputy superintendent, his contract calls for a starting salary of $275,000 — $25,000 more than Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines — according to the Los Angeles Times, and puts him in position as top candidate for superintendent within two years. At the Gates Foundation, he managed the process through which school districts and charter schools apply for grants to develop new teacher-evaluation methods that include linking instructors to student test scores, reports the Times. Deasy’s position is paid for by LAUSD, but corporate foundation money is paying for other key staff positions within the district. Matt Hill manages the district’s reform initiative, which pushed for the mayor’s plan, and has a salary covered by the Broad Foundation. According to the Times, “The pay of more than a dozen others is funded by a nearly $4.4 million grant from the Wasserman Foundation, a $1.2 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation [founders of Wal-Mart] and smaller amounts from the Hewlett and Ford foundations.” These employees and consultants are developing a new system to evaluate teachers and administrators and were brought on board after the district superintendent helped Broad develop an academy to train school district leaders. Broad’s efforts to control the news media may strengthen his hold on schools. According to several reports, he has looked into purchasing the Los Angeles Times. Undoubtedly, he would use that as a vehicle to perpetuate the myth that schools are failing and should be governed by private industry. “It certainly is worrisome and a cause for concern when you have non-educators in control of public education in the second-largest school district in the country,” says the UTLA statement. “They come in with preconceived notions, without the view from being in the classroom, and it’s very problematic. “Foundations do some good, and given the right set of circumstances they can be good for public schools. But in a reasonable, sane world, why would anybody really choose a corporate entity to run public education, considering the worldwide economic straits the corporate world has gotten us into?” SEPTEMBER 2010 | www.cta.org 15