Race to the Top and the Politics of Corruption: Follow the Money

[Hannah Bell]

"Schools Matter" blog writes that Arne Duncan chose Joanne Weiss, COO of the "New Schools Venture Fund," to administer "Race to the Top".

What's the "New Schools Venture Fund"?

It's a "philanthropy" established 1998 to undermine public education & promote charters -- funded by the usual suspects, most notably:

- Eli Broad
- Bill Gates

Diane Ravich says:

"As we both know, personnel is policy. Secretary Duncan put Jim Shelton, a Gates Foundation executive, in charge of the department's half-billion-dollar Innovation Fund.

And he selected Joanne Weiss to run the Race to the Top competition. Weiss was chief executive officer of the NewSchools Venture Fund, whose primary purpose is to launch charter school networks... she has never been an education practitioner or scholar or policymaker. She is an education entrepreneur, who has sold goods and services to the schools, and who most importantly led an organization dedicated to creating privately managed schools that operate with public money.

So, why should it be surprising that the Race to the Top reflects the priorities of the NewSchools Venture Fund (charter schools) and of the Gates Foundation (teacher evaluations by test scores)."

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2010/02/conflicts_of_interest_and_the.html


The "Schools Matter" Blogger goes on to note that Delaware's winning RTTT application was developed by another "non-profit" organization -- "Mass Insight".

The winning plan for Delaware schools?

"The state is going to create a team to oversee these schools, with leadership coming from Mass Insight Education & Research Institute, a Boston group that favors replacing the staff and leadership when overhauling a failing school. Mass Insight... supports the type of reform model that led to the recent firing of the principal and teachers at Rhode Island's Central Falls High School."


And who funds "Mass Insight"? Quelle surprise!

- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- New Schools Venture Fund


Nice little circle-jerk your owners & betters got going here.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/


"Just continue to follow the money. This race to the trough will make the Reading First crooks under Bush look like dopey Boy Scouts."


FYI, other big "Mass Insight" funders:

- Exxon Mobil Corporation (no intro needed)

- Nellie Mae Education Foundation ("philanthropy" originally involved in the student loan biz, spun off that biz which was snapped up by for-profit Sallie Mae)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLM_Corporation

- Barr Foundation: Boston-area foundation, charter school funder

- The Boston Foundation: Boston-area foundation, old New England money, "one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation"

- Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (computer $/bush republican/military contractor)
http://corporateswine.net/dell.html

- National Math & Science Initiative: a "public-private" venture formed to address the "intellectual threat" of the (sic) "declining" number of students prepared to take rigourous college coursework in math & science. Funders? You guessed it:

- Exxon Mobil
- Gates
- Susan & Michael Dell

(Echo chamber, echo chamber, echo chamber)

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