Showing posts with label Families for Excellent Schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Families for Excellent Schools. Show all posts

Monday, February 5, 2018

Hallelujah Piece of Shit Astroturf Families For Excellent Schools Closing Down

Fuck FES and good riddance. Jeremiah Kittredge took FES down with him. Read this almost hilarious account of Kittredge's transgressions by a woman who said she could have broken him in half.

For Immediate Release:

Contact:
Julia Watson, Statewide Communications Coordinator, AQE
julia@aqeny.org  

PRESS STATEMENT

Families for Excellent Schools' Closure: The Defeat of Astroturf Education Advocacy 
NEW YORK, NY (February 5, 2018) — The corrupt charter school advocacy group Families for Excellent Schools is closing in part or full following a series of scandals. They were shut down in Massachusetts for corrupt election activities for which they were forced to pay the largest election law fine in Massachusetts state history. Today it has been reported that they are curtailing operations following the firing last week of the Executive Director as a result of an investigation into sexual harassment charges.

"FES is the latest of the astroturf charter school advocates to sputter into irrelevance in New York State, just another group that tried and failed to do any real grassroots parent organizing,” Zakiyah Ansari, Advocacy Director, Alliance for Quality Education. “The only way these groups can generate a crowd of supporters in when large charter school chains shut down their schools and mandate parent participation in rallies. The lack of any real grassroots support is why their corrupt charter school ballot initiative in Massachusetts failed, even after spending $20 million on the campaign. 

"The one thing FES and others have been effective at is influence peddling with politicians, so keep your eyes open because it will not be shocking if the billionaire hedge fund crowd that backed FES moves their money into a new organization."

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE** FEBRUARY 5, 2018

New York, NY – Statement from Bryan Lawrence, Board Chair of Families for Excellent Schools:

“This is a sad day for everyone at Families for Excellent Schools. We are very proud of the work we’ve done to help thousands of families stand up for educational opportunity in their communities, and believe our vision of a world where every child has access to an excellent school has never been more important.

Unfortunately, after a series of challenges over the past year and particularly given recent events, we have determined that the support necessary to keep the organization going is not there. We are beginning the process of winding down our work. I want to thank all those who have given their heart and soul to this organization since its inception; I know they will continue to advocate for the families and communities we serve.”



Friday, February 2, 2018

Astroturf Phony Parent Group Families for Excellent Schools CEO Jeremiah Kittredge fired

O, the joy!
DUHHHHH! Jeremiah Kittredge has been totally inappropriate in so many ways. Another loser pal of Eva Moskowitz, who had no comment. Et Tu Eva?
JEREMIAH KITTREDGE FIRED — POLITICO's Eliza Shapiro : Jeremiah Kittredge, the CEO of the pro-charter school group Families for Excellent Schools, has been fired following an "independent investigation" into "inappropriate behavior toward a non-employee," according to a statement from FES board chair Bryan Lawrence on Wednesday afternoon. A spokesman for the group declined to comment further. The group is one of the best-funded charter advocacy organizations in the country. It received more than $13 million from the Walton Family Foundation between 2014 and 2016 alone. It has become omnipresent in New York over the last several years, and has served as an unofficial lobbying arm for Success Academy, one of the nation's highest-performing and most influential charter school networks.
More links:

Pro-charter school group CEO booted for inappropriate behavior - NY ... www.nydailynews.com/.

Pro-charter school CEO fired over 'inappropriate behavior' accusations ...https://nypost.com/..

And for an analysis of Kittredge's disastrous venture into the Massachusettes charter debate - see (also below the break).

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2018/01/31/families-for-excellent-schools-ceo-jeremiah-kittredge-fired-after-investigation-into-inappropriate-behavior-229294

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Families for Excellent Schools busted - Pro-charter school group pays state’s largest campaign finance penalty

A wealthy New York organization that poured $15 million into last year’s unsuccessful ballot question to expand charter schools in Massachusetts was hit Monday with the largest fine in state campaign history after officials found the group was illegally hiding the identities of its donors.

Families for Excellent Schools-Advocacy, a nonprofit that was the single largest funder behind Question 2 in Massachusetts, was slapped with a $426,466 fine, the largest in the 44-year history of the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.... Boston Globe

Chair of the board overseeing charter schools gives half a million to promote charters? Bald blatant corruption! Prosecute! Fire! If a Democrat did that the GOP would be totally on fire! ... Comment on Boston Globe story on FES
The shit hit the fan on the actions of the slime ball astro turf Families for Excellent Schools on their actions in Massachusetts.
The list of donors is here: http://files.ocpf.us/pdf/guides/fesacreport.pdf
Check out this story and please share in NY threads. Note that the Chair of the MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Education gave - in secret- $500k to support the charter ballot question last fall.

a small but meaningful victory
solidarity
Barbara Madeloni
 
Jia Lee writes:
The Massachusettes Teachers Association, under Barbara Madeloni's leadership and EDU's (their social justice caucus) organizing, worked successfully against millions in dark money to fight a charter ballot question AND now this!

The outrage is that the press, especially Chalkbeat, acts like FES is a legit grass roots org. This quote from the story:
Maurice Cunningham, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said the cloak of secrecy helped Families For Excellent Schools-Advocacy project an image as a grass-roots organization focused on helping urban youth.
“You can’t say, ‘We’re Billionaires for Excellent Schools,’ ” said Cunningham.
Leonie Haimson:

The only NY donor at first glance was Kenneth Langone of Home Depot.

Problem is there is about $3M listed from FES - which means the money is still dark and probably from NY as well.  Wonder if anyway we can get identities of those donors.  If not, perhaps there should be a letter to the NY AG and/or legislators, demanding action on the dark money issue similar to the disclosure laws they have in MA.

Also troubling is that while FES is barred from campaigning in MA for 4 years, their major donor the Walton Foundation has now set up another fake AstroTurf org in MA apparently called Mass Parents United.
See Ravitch on the story:

Massachusetts: State Fines Dark Money Group $426,000 in Charter Battle



Here is the complete Boston Globe Story  where you should read the comments. Also below the page break.

Friday, August 4, 2017

On "Fair" Student Funding, ATRs, Chalkbeat Deformer Reporting

I blogged yesterday (Farina to Principals - Wink, Wink - Go Get Em - Schools With Placed ATRs Must Absorb Salaries) about that ridiculous Chalkbeat story echoing the Families for Excellent Schools line on ATRS. Why a deformy group would focus so much attention on ATRS -- not exactly the crucial education issue of our time? The answer it that they are using it as a wedge as part of the broader attack on seniority, tenure, highly paid teachers, disparaging certified teachers- the "hey, anyone can teach" etc.

Arthur Goldstein took on Chalkbeat on his blog --
Reformy Chalkbeat Deems Paying Teachers Inconvenient - Who'd have thought that Chalkbeat NY, after taking all that money from Gates and the Walmart family, would suddenly go all community service on us. Arthur was as perturbed by that phony demo photo used as I was.
 I just adore the photo Chalkbeat chooses to recycle, the one of a dozen people organized by the well-financed so-called Families for Excellent Schools standing around stereotyping ATR teachers. It would take me about five minutes to organize a dozen people to stand outside the Chalkbeat office with signs that say "Chalkbeat Sucks."
Not a bad idea to illustrate a point.

Then there is a parent shill named Nicole Thomas who writes a piece at the Daily News assaulting ATRs. Nicole just woke up one day and decided the existence of 800 ATRs in a system of 100,000 education personnel is the most important threat to her children's education. Nicole is one of those bought parents by the deformies. I bet she was at one of those phony 20 people rallies.

ATR Peter Zucker took Nicole Thomas on and ripped her op ed to piece.
I know where your bread is buttered Nicole. StudentsFirstNY butters it, and butters it well. You want to hang with these people? You think for a moment that StudentsFirst cares about you or your family, or even your community? You are being played like a fiddle and when you outlive your usefulness, see how long, if ever, it takes Jenny Sedlis to return your calls.
But if you want to hang with these people, know that StudentsFirst is the evil spawn of Michelle Rhee. Read this and tell the world how you would feel if Rhee was your child's teacher. These are the type of people you are being a sycophant for.
SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL Open Blog Post to Nicole Thomas (ATR Basher) Parent at PS 256 in Brooklyn

Now we know that one of the wedges used to attack teaching as a career is the fair student funding formula.

Leonie Haimson savages the Fair Student Formula in a must-read blog: https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2017/08/fair-student-funding-atr-system-two-bad.html

Fair student funding & the ATR system - two bad policies undermining NYC schools

Today Chalkbeat covers the budgetary ramifactions of the new agreement between the UFT and the NYC Department of Education in which the DOE will place ATR teachers (on Absent Teacher Reserve) in schools with vacancies, whether the principal chooses these particular teachers or not.  In addition, unlike earlier years, the principal will have to pay the full amount of their salaries – which are often much higher than the average teacher salary, even though the school only receives funding for the average salary under the Fair Student Funding system, implemented by Joel Klein in 2007, after much controversy and protest.
Let's look at how our stalwarts at the UFT are handling the situation. Arthur comments:
 I'm also disappointed in UFT leadership, which seems to believe that, even with the idiotic so-called Fair Student Funding, that there will be no issue hiring senior teachers. In fact, schools themselves now have to pay teachers out of their own budgets. Why would a principal hire a 100K teacher when a 50K teacher would do? After all, who values experience anymore? You could stock your whole building with newbies and turn them over every three years before they get tenure and start speaking up.
 Mulgrew, given an opportunity to point out certain essential truths, punted. I will urge our high school ex bd people to hold their feet to the fire on making a strong stand -- including educating the public - on the damages of FSF.


 

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Panic in the Charter Lobby: Families for Excellent Schools (FES) Attack Public School High Scoresl Test Gains, Ignore Charter Phony Gains

Kittredge and FES will soon be calling for a ban on immigrants who might raise test scores in public schools.
Several charters had notable jumps but Families for Excellent Schools didn’t target them. They include Imagine Me Leadership Charter School in East New York, where 71% passed in math in spring, up from 41% the year before.... WSJ, Some Brooklyn Test Scores Jump, Sparking Call for State Investigation
Pro-charter group sees big gains as ‘suspiciously high’
Following on their loss at the NAACP (NAACP Sends a BIG FU to Charter Lobby), the charter lobby is increasingly in a state of panic.

Oooh, the poor boobies at the slimebag astroturf  FES led by the ultimate piece of shit, Jeremiah Kittredge, are scared that high test scores from public schools in neighborhoods with clusters of charters are becoming a threat to them.

As public schools begin to rise in test scores they present an inherent threat to the pro-charter narrative. So now FES is asking for schools with jumps in test scores to be investigated.

How funny considering charters mark their own tests, toss low-scoring kids back into public schools and in their closed environment can cheat like hell. A charter school teacher caught cheating probably gets an award. At most they will get rid of a teacher but cover it up. A public school teacher caught cheating not only can lose their job but go to jail - see Atlanta.

Some public schools threatened by charters have figured out ways to attract some of the parents who might go charter.

PS 147K, my former schools, is listed by FES. I had to laugh. I was in the school stuffing mailboxes during the UFT election on one of the testing days and the principal not only gave me a tour of the building to show me all the new stuff they had - hydroponics lab, state of the art library, a hot stuff computer lab - and then invited me into her office for a long chat about education policy. I remember my old principal in the 80s-90s being neurotic on test days and poring over the test papers to make sure everything was OK. No signs of that at all.

She took me in to see the Japanese dual language program which, as the only school in the city, has attracted Japanese parents. I'll leave it to readers to figure out if that has had an impact on test scores. And as we know that if you get a critical mass of kids who can function academically it raises all boats.

Kittredge and FES will soon be calling for a ban on immigrants who might raise test scores in public schools.

Yes Kittredge, let's open up Eva's schools for total scrutiny and watch you guys squawk. 

In some cases the opt-out movement might be having an effect. The assumption has been that the better scoring kids opt out - and in many areas that is true. But some of the low-scoring kids who have enormous struggles with the tests might also be opting out to avoid the trauma of tests that are so clearly unsuited for them. 


Lisa Rudley commented on the CTS listserve:
No surprise the charter schools are upset that they can't take over more schools to line their pockets and disrupt local communities. To call for full transparency is an insult when charters are the most secretive, non-transparency entities themselves with laws that protect them to be so.

The WSJ clearly is clearly not being balanced as charter school scores 'supposedly' went up even more.  Should they be investigated? In the end, these scores are not even comparable! 

Lastly, there were several charter schools across the state that had students opting out and did not meet the 95% threshold. .. Lisa Rudley, NYSAPE
Here is the WSJ article in full.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Ed Deform Erodes: Eva and Front Group Families for Excellent Schools Allies Resort to Race Baiting, Community Reacts

FES is resorting to naked racism to promote their September 30 rally attacking de Blasio. People are calling on them to take it down. But then where would they put their half a million bucks? Not in the schools, pray tell. I pray tell they leave that ad up for the public to see.

You know, so many teachers are also attacking de Blasio from the other side for not reversing many of Bloomberg's policies and also attacking the UFT/Unity leadership for not doing enough to pressure him for changes because they want to be a partner (ie, stool at the table.) I keep thinking if we would be better off with the alternative - Eva or someone of that ilk - like Hakeem Jeffries who would savage teaching core and put a charter in every pot. They are going to knock off de Blasio and we will not end up with a more teacher friendly mayor -- but maybe that's better - to have a clear enemy to battle.

I reported on the Success Charter leaked memo on how to force parents into bringing their children to the upcoming Sept. 30 Charter school rally by closing down her schools and leaving them without child care, forcing many of them to take off from work that day: Eva Moskowitz Sept. 30 Rally.
Charters force march parents and students

Eva's version of the Bataan death march.

On the surface it seems as if Eva is winning. But with every outrageous act skepticism grows among the public and press. Imagine of FES has put their millions into supporting, not degrading schools?


Someone emailed me about doing something the day of the rally to protest. My response was that FES and Eva closing schools and holding a naked political rally only helps in the battle of ed deform.

Here are reports on the racist FES ad from Schools Matter and Capital NY:

Schools Matter via the Observer

NY Charter Movement Calls Mayor de Blasio Racist for Not Supporting Apartheid Charters

from the Observer:

“The rhetoric of this ad, and the people and money behind it, are part of the problem,” she said.
Luis Garden Acosta, the founder of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice and the father of a child who attended a charter school, said FES was “race-baiting.”
“‘Race baiting’ like ‘red baiting’, exploiting the values and legitimate concerns of our city’s communities of color, for whatever political purpose, is abhorrent and posits a dangerous and expanding wedge in a city all to segregated by class, color and community,” Mr. Acosta stated, noting that Roberto Perez, a City Hall staffer, encouraged him to speak out. “It is abhorrent that a movement that emerged as a demand to tell the truth is used to obfuscate, divide and attempt to denigrate New York City’s progressive agenda”.
While Mr. de Blasio is enlisting surrogates to fight back on his behalf, his office was a bit less hostile, though it called the ad “crass.” “Our students and our families need solutions, not another crass political ad. That’s why Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Farina are focused on ensuring that every child, in every classroom, has a future that isn’t limited by their ZIP code,” said Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for the mayor.
Since failing last year to halt the expansion of Success Academy Charter Schools, run by his old political foe Eva Moskowitz, Mr. de Blasio has softened his rhetoric toward charter schools, even as his liberal allies continue to seethe. Democratic elected officials aligned with the city and state teachers’ unions see charters as a thinly-veiled, well-moneyed effort to erode job protections for teachers.
“These folks have figured out a way to make profit off the same kids that they disdained for years and years. As far as I’m concerned, its predatory education, subprime schools,” Ms. Lewis said. “Eva Moskowitz and none of them wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t making enormous profit. To then turn around and say, ‘Oh black people, I’m trying to save you from the big bad white man, the mayor, who wants to put you in a failing school’–that’s racist.”
A spokesman for FES declined to comment.

Critics call new charter school ad ‘racist’

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/09/8577871/critics-call-new-charter-school-ad-racist

A coalition of elected officials, community organizations and union-allied groups criticized a new Families for Excellent Schools ad Friday, accusing the pro-charter group of "race-baiting" in order to advance its political agenda.
The ad, first reported by POLITICO New York, is called "Tale of Two Boys" and argues that Mayor Bill de Blasio is forcing minority students into failing schools. It began running Friday, though it was not publicly promoted by FES.
The ad buy will cost FES about half a million dollars this week and will become a multimillion-dollar ad buy over the next few weeks, according to a source.
The ad contrasted the educations of a young white boy and a black boy in New York City, saying the white child would attend a good school and go to college while the black child would be trapped in a struggling school and never make it to college.

Bertha Lewis, the president of the Black Institute, called it "the most racist ad I've seen in my life."
"They found a way to make money and profit off little black boys and girls," she said. "They act as if they are here to save us."
Zakiyah Ansari, the advocacy director of the Alliance for Quality Education, made a similar argument. AQE is partially funded by city and state teachers' unions.
"They are using a black face to push their political agenda, and they make the assumption that all black people are poor," she said. "They used our children in a race-baiting commercial."
Some called on FES to remove the ad on Friday.
Brooklyn Assemblyman N. Nick Perry called on FES to "do the right thing" and pull the ad. Perry — who is also the chairman of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus — said he was "incensed over the use of blatant race baiting tactics to advance the agenda of FES."
Other elected officials also took issue with the ad.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer accused FES in a statement of helping to "divert money, resources and space from our public schools ... into increasingly unaccountable private empires. The rhetoric of this ad, and the people and money behind it, are part of the problem."
New York City Council education committee chair Danny Dromm called the ad "highly divisive and harmful."
Representatives for three of New York's largest charter networks — KIPP, Uncommon, and Achievement First — did not respond to requests for comment about the ad.
A spokesperson for FES declined to comment.


Thursday, February 5, 2015

The Cost of Stupid: Families for Excellent Schools Totally Bogus Analysis of NYC Schools

Capital NY reported today: Families for Excellent Schools will hold a press conference calling for state takeover of 40 of the city’s failing schools.
I emailed them:
Check out Bruce Baker piece exposing their analysis as a sham - and please include a link. To only "report" on their press conference based on bogus, politically motivated "data" is only partial reporting.

The Cost of Stupid: Families for Excellent Schools Totally Bogus Analysis of NYC Schools

Families for Excellent Schools of New York – the Don’t Steal Possible folks – has just released an impossibly stupid analysis in which they claim that New York City is simply throwing money at failure. Spending double on failing schools what they do on totally awesome ones (if they really have any awesome ones). A link to their press release is here:
http://www.familiesforexcellentschools.org/news/press-release-cost-failure
And what is their astounding new evidence that validates that NYC is stealing possible by throwing money at failing schools? Well, they ever so carefully identified the 50 worst and 50 totally awesomest schools in the city, and then took the average of their per pupil budgets to show that the worst schools are substantially outspending the awesomest ones. Thus – money doesn’t matter- especially when in the hands of schools under the governance of their nemesis Mayor BDB and his possible-thieving lackeys.
Oh, where to even begin on this analysis. Let’s peel it all back a little, one layer at a time. Let’s begin with the fact that New York City a while back, under their favored Mayor Bloomberg, adopted something called Fair Student Funding
Read it in full as a perfect example of how political astro-turf groups like FES use phony data to cover their real intentions to degrade the public schools and promote charters and other privatization schemes.

https://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/the-cost-of-stupid-families-for-excellent-schools-totally-bogus-analysis-of-nyc-schools/



Friday, December 12, 2014

Show Us the Money? When Charter Schools Are Nonprofit in Name Only

The contracts are an example of how the charter schools sometimes cede control of public dollars to private companies that have no legal obligation to act in the best interests of the schools or taxpayers. When the agreement is with a for-profit firm like National Heritage Academies, it’s also a chance for such firms to turn taxpayer money into tidy profits....“It’s really just a pass-through for for-profit entities,” said Eric Hall, an attorney in Colorado Springs.....When Charter Schools Are Nonprofit in Name Only
Perdido Street posted about the charter lobby in Albany spending $3 million: Pro Charter Group Families For Excellent Schools On Tap To Have Most Expensive Lobbying Campaign In New York History

Lobbying is an investment. Break the charter cap in NYC and it's "Katy bar the door" time. Using the word "excellent" = charter slugs.

http://www.alternet.org/education/when-charter-schools-are-nonprofit-name-only?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

When Charter Schools Are Nonprofit in Name Only

Trying to open the books of pro-profit management companies hired by charter schools is a difficult task.