Education reform group asks for personnel file of teacher/blogger who opposes them.

[madfloridian]

They have harassed this blogger before by asking the school district for all his school emails. They got them. The blogger wrote about it as it happened.

Now they have requested his personnel file from his school district.

The return of Velderman. This time dressed as Kyle Olson.

It was about 9 months ago that I first heard of the Education Action Group, a small right-wing cult out of western Michigan.

Their political program consists of hating teacher unions. That’s it.

Ben Velderman, the gofer for the outfit, filed a Freedom of Information request for all of my work emails. As the law required, my school district supplied them. Fascinating reading. Meeting agendas. Paint supply orders. Meeting agendas.

..."Today they sent a new demand to my school district.

This time they want my entire personnel file.

Here's the request from them he posted.



This is a scary group indeed. Not long ago the Michigan Education Association warned their readers to be on the alert for their activities. They sent letters to the editors as one of their activities. One of them landed in the Tampa Tribune.

They are not really a group to make education better. I agree with Klonsky that their goal is very anti-union. Here is what the MEA had to say, and here is a sample of the Tribune letter.

Another "false front" education reform group? Keep eye out for their op eds in local papers.

EAG isn’t really a group. It’s two very partisan men with ties to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Dick DeVos of Amway Corp. fame. Olson’s brother is director of education policy at the Mackinac Center, another anti-union, pro-privatization group. The man who incorporated EAG, Eric Doster, is a Michigan Republican Party lawyer who has served on the board of the Great Lakes Education Project, a political action committee linked to DeVos. DeVos, of course, helped finance the failed 2000 vouchers initiative.

EAG bashes the collective bargaining process and school employees’ rights to inform the community and to work to elect leaders who value students and the employees who teach and help them at school.

The group refuses to tell their funding sources.

Here is part of the letter they wrote to the Tampa Tribune. They are criticizing the Florida teachers' union for filing a lawsuit about the new anti-tenure laws.

By filing this suit, union leaders are telling people that teachers should not be held accountable for the performance of their students. They want us to believe all teachers are equally intelligent and motivated. They're saying that all teachers should continue to have a guaranteed job for life under tenure and remain on a common pay scale, regardless of the outcome of their work.

More than anything, FEA leaders are blatantly displaying their disrespect for the democratic process. They have no interest in the outcome of the elections that put Scott and his legislative allies in office. They are willing to use the courts to overturn the will of the people.

So much for majority rule. Union leaders, with all their wealth and influence, can simply shop for a politically-friendly judge who will rule in their favor. The eventual ruling may have little to do with the constitutionality of the new law and more to do with judges who accept donations from the teachers' union and feel obliged to pay them back.

The MEA warns that people be on the alert...."The MEA website says this EAG group has tactics that "include sending anti-union mail to residents, attending local school board meetings and using the news media to further its negative agenda."

[badhair77]

1. Very scary.

It's to the point where there are so many anti-union groups we don't know whom to fight first. They're sucking away our energy and resources.

[madfloridian]

2. Yes, it's scary. There is no party taking up for teachers. They are on their own.

You are right about not knowing where to put resources first. Things would be better if our own party wasn't doing so much of the reforming.

[madfloridian]

3. It looks like someone in leadership would speak up for the teacher part.

The blogger part of him can take care of it himself.

[Octafish]

4. Forgive me for asking, but isn't the Democratic Party the one that's supposed to support unions?

And union members? I mean I used to remember things that way before the big changes and all. And wouldn't that, eh, supporting include teachers?

Geesh, madfloridian. The Mackinac Center are the rightwing nutjobs who've wrecked Michigan. Where's the cavalry?

[madfloridian]

5. The answer to all is yes.

The Mackinac center has done great harm. And look what Betsy DeVos had to say about buying influence...she's proud of it. She says she admits they expect things in return. The teachers have no defense against groups like that.

DeVos doesn't take offense that they are "buying influence" She admits it.

""Or consider Greg Brock, the American Federation For Children’s Executive Director, who just happens to also be Executive Director of a group called “All Children Matter”, which lobbies for vouchers: again, for public subsidies of private, for-profit education. Betsy Devos is at the head of “All Children Matter”; according to RightWingWatch.org, she once admitted that her financial support for politicians like Senator Hopper is motivated entirely by a quid pro quo:

“I know a little something about soft money, as my family is the largest single contributor of soft money to the national Republican Party. I have decided, however, to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect some things in return.” – Betsy DeVos (Roll Call, 1997)

Finally, it’s interesting to note that “All Children Matter” was apparently bankrolled back in 2004 by Wal-Mart heir John Walton. Just what we need: publicly funded but privately owned Wal-Marts of education! When that robo-call from the American Federation For Children today warned me about unnamed special interests that don’t have the welfare of children in mind, it was right."

[meow2u3]

6. DeVos? Aren't they the folks behind Scamway?

:shrug:

[Octafish]

10. The very same.

Betsy's hubby ran for Michigan governor in 2006. Her brother's famous, too. His name's Erik Prince, of Blackwater fame.

[madfloridian]

14. Erik Prince is Betsy DeVos' brother? I did not know that.

[sulphurdunn]

21. Amway is the only legal

ponzi scheme I know of. I think Tupperware parties and Avon ladies are history.

[sulphurdunn]

22. I do not believe

that personnel files are part of the public domain or that just anyone can demand to see them without a court order. Even if I'm wrong about this, your school board should tell these people to "go @#%*+%# yourselves and we'll see ya in court."

[Bozita]

23. The DeVos clan and AFC were heavily involved in the 2010 WI elections & 2011 recalls

Right-Wing Billionaires Invest in Wisconsin's Recall Elections
John Nichols on August 8, 2011 - 10:41am ET

-snip-


Organized by Michigan billionaires Dick and Betsy DeVos, Americans for Children is officially nonpartisan. But Dick DeVos is a former Republican nominee for governor of Michigan and Betsy DeVos is a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party. Together, they have poured tens of millions of dollars into the ideological and electoral infrastructure that supports school privatization.

“Dick DeVos has used his family’s fortune and status to create an intricate national network of nonprofits, political action committees and federal groups known as 527s that effectively fund the political arm of the school voucher movement,” notes a People for the American Way study of the political projects of the heir to the Amway fortune and his wife. “Nowhere is the impact of the DeVos family fortune greater, though, than in the movement to privatize public education.”

AFC chair Betsy DeVos has for decades been a high-stakes political player on behalf of school privatization. But that does not mean groups with which she is associated always play by the rules. One DeVos-led group, the political action committee “All Children Matter,” was fined a record $5.2 million by the Ohio Elections Commission after being charged with illegally shifting money into the state to support candidates considered friendly to private-school “choice” initiatives. It was also fined for political misconduct in Wisconsin, where the group’s 2006 campaigning violated campaign finance laws by expressly urging voters to cast ballots against legislative candidates who backed public education.

Those troubles led to the evolution of “All Children Matter” into “American Federation for Children,” which has collected money from a who’s who of right-wing billionaires, including the political operations of Charles and David Koch—top donors to Scott Walker’s 2010 campaign and, in the case of David, the subject of a much-publicized prank phone call to Walker during the current dispute in Wisconsin.

Ardent backers of Walker and his legislative agenda, Americans for Children “spent an estimated $820,000 on independent expenditures and phony issue ad activity in the 2010 fall legislative races,” according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

AFC has reprotedly spent more than $500,000 in television ads to support Darling and other Republicans facing recall elections because of their support for Walker’s anti-labor legislation.

-snip-

more...
http://www.thenation.com/blog/162613/right-wing-billionaires-invest-wisconsins-recall-elections-save-school-privatization-age

[saras]

31. It's called bribery, and we expect things in return - prison time.

[Reader Rabbit]

7. Creepy. But something similar happened here.

An individual from an ed "reform" group started posting negative comments about a longstanding DU member in the Education Forum. This person had somehow found DU and a thread discussing her reform group, even though we are all careful to post as anonymously as possible.

Nothing like being stalked by corporateers.

[madfloridian]

8. Is the post still there?

That is creepy. I was thinking today that if I were still teaching I would not post about this EAG group. Is the DU member they posted about ok?

[Reader Rabbit]

30. If you go back in the archives, you can probably find it.

I remember that several individual posts were deleted, but the thread itself should still be there. Can't remember the time frame, though.

It was incredibly sinister, because the DU member was letting us know about a number of questionable "reform" movements in her district, spearheaded by this reform group. Only a day or two later, this reform group supporter had found our thread and was commenting on it, stating that the DU member was misrepresenting facts, etc. That DU member is always incredibly careful not to mention the name of her school or even her district, so we have no idea how the reform group supporter found our tiny, little thread out of all the discussions going on in cyberspace.

It definitely lent a sinister air to all this education "reform" and the groups that promote it.

[msanthrope]

9. They can't get his personnel file. It's exempt under FOIA. nt

[fklonsky]

11. Illinois FOIA

I'm the blogger in question. Personnel files are not exempt under Illinois law.

[madfloridian]

12. Thanks. I did not think they were exempt.

What a scary bunch they are.

I am very angry about the attacks on teachers from all sides. Good luck to you. Florida teachers finally becoming more aware, but there is no one in their corner. We can count Democrats in the legislature here on one finger, and they mostly do what the GOP wants done. :shrug:

It's discouraging.

[msanthrope]

19. Personal information and teacher performance evaluations are indeed exempt.

I've just given Fred the legal cites, but he should pursue obtaining his own legal counsel in Illinois.

[msanthrope]

18. Personal information is indeed exempt under Illinois law 5 ILCS 104/7(b) and (c). Evaluations

are specifically excluded from FOIA requests by amendments passed in early 2010. (P.A. 96-1483) Further, your medical information, the details of any dispute you might have had with any agency or employer, (but not outcome) etc, all remain exempt.

So, in my humble opinion, they can't get your personal information. They can't get your evaluations. They also can't get any info on any disputes you may have had regarding services or agencies.

There are 44 categories of exemption from Illinois FOIA. Your union should be able to provide you with legal advice on exactly how your 'personnel file' and the information contained therein is protected--I won't give you legal advice, but suggest you contact a lawyer.


Edited to add--you might find this letter interesting.

http://www.publicschoolspending.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Anthony-Reeves-letter-to-Congresswoman-Tammy-Baldwin.pdf


I wonder that you have never requested certain records from Mr. Olsen's 501(c)(3)?????? What's good for the goose.....

[fklonsky]

24. Personnel files

Thanks for taking the time to send me the citations. I, of course, have been in contact with both IEA staff and IEA legal in regard to this matter. And I am fortunate to have a supportive district. Similar information has been shared by both the district and my union.
I have no fear on anyone reading my personnel file. I would gladly make it public, including 27 years of performance reviews by over a dozen principals, all of which provide evidence that I am a outstanding teacher. Kyle Olson is welcome to have them. But he knows that.
That is not the issue here. Following the Education Action Group's FOIA request of all of my emails last February, this request for my personnel file is a tired attempt at intimidation. I am an outspoken teacher unionist. My blog, wwwpreaprez.wordpress.com, is read by over 1,500 visitors a day. I am an activist around teacher, peace and union issues. And I organize others to do the same.
Olson's demand for my personnel file is not really aimed at me. It is aimed at us. They want to try and shut teachers up. Too late.

[msanthrope]

25. Zeeland Public Schools. Ben Velderman worked for them, right?

Kyle Olson runs a 501(c)(3)? An organization required by law to provide requesters tax filings????

I might ask your 1,500 readers to express an interest.

[fklonsky]

27. How do I make the request?

[msanthrope]

28. Okay, I have some info for you.

But let me put a disclaimer on this. Although I am a lawyer, I am not acting as YOUR lawyer, nor am I giving you legal advice. You should always contact an attorney in your area, rather than rely on the Internets.

That being said, a quick perusal of the Michigan statute and the attorney general's website seems to indicate that you can request the 'personnel file', and all records pertaining to the hire, evaluation of, and termination/separation of Ben Velderman from ZPS. If I were requesting information on Mr. Velderman, I might include all of that terminology, because it would encompass information that might not be in just his 'personnel file.'

I spoke to a very nice lady in the administrative offices of ZPS. She could not tell me who the FOIA administrator was, but suggested that you send it to the Superintendent. He's got five days to get back to you.


David Barry, Superintendent
Zeeland Public Schools
183 W. Roosevelt
Zeeland, MI 49464
[phone]


I found a pretty handy guide to requests, (with sample request letters and forms) here:

http://www.rcfp.org/ogg/index.php

I have not examined FOIA exception in Michigan in detail. So I don't know what you will get, and what is exempted. But the fun is in the asking, no?

**************

Now, as for the other cretin, Kyle Olson, he claims on his website that he founded EAG in June of 2007. He also claims that The Education Action Group Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible.

501(c)(3)s have a public disclosure requirement. They must have 990s available for public inspection (same day if you go to their offices,) or must give you their 990s and attendant forms within 30 days of you requesting it, in writing. They can charge you the IRS going rate for copies. Here is a link to the requirements, as explained by Guidestar.

Get the Facts: 990 Disclosure Rules

The website claims that their address is

Education Action Group Foundation , Inc.
801 W. Norton, Ste. 1
Muskegon, MI 49441

[phone]


Here's what's funny, though....

I can't find that organization on Guidestar. Which tells me that Mr. Olson is either not filing his 990s, OR, EAG's 990s are part and parcel of a larger, umbrella organization that files for them, and Olson is merely a subsidiary/front.

I also can't find them on the list of registered charities in Michigan. Now, in Michigan, the rule may be that they can solicit legally, since they are merely a subsidiary.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/lic_chrty1_40579_7.pdf

Here's the number from the state of MI that you can call regarding charities. I might call and ask a few questions. Like, who is the parent charity? Does an organization in MI that claims to be a 501(c)(3) have to register with the state?

517 373 1152
http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164-17334_18095-45043--,00.html

Nothing I have provided to you is a 'smoking gun' of wrongdoing. In fact, Mr. Olson might be able to provide you perfectly legal, valid reasons why AEGs 990 is not available on Guidestar. I would write him and ask. ;)

Best of luck, Fred.

[fklonsky]

29. Fun

I will consult locally. But thanks for the leads. Sounds like fun.

[madfloridian]

26. Yes, intimidation is their goal.

This method began in Florida when Jeb became governor in 98. His policies enabled all the bullies to launch attacks against public education and the teachers.

[madfloridian]

13. Be sure to read the 6th comment at the blog post. It has a threatening tone.

http://preaprez.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/the-return-of-velderman-this-time-dressed-as-kyle-olson/#comment-5621

This is pretty mean and ugly stuff going on here.

I wish more people cared. I wish our Democratic party leaders cared. I wish bloggers were not the only ones on the firing line facing groups with billions of dollars behind them.

But then, I am only a retired teacher.....so what do I know. Right?

[madfloridian]

15. Some of Olsen's articles at Breitbart's site...interesting.

http://kyleolson.org/?page_id=11

This one is esp. interesting. Darn those rich teachers' unions.

"Teachers’ Union Spreading Wealth Around the Globe
According to the propaganda of the teachers unions, these are bleak times for public education. Younger teachers are being laid off, school employees are making benefit concessions, and unions are losing bargaining privileges. Heck, things are so (allegedly) bad that President Obama is barnstorming the country in an effort to whip up support for his latest <...>

The fat cats at the AFT are living large – dare I say like the 1%?

The union’s recent financial report filed with the federal department of labor reveals President Rhonda “Randi” Weingarten saw a cool 15% increase in her compensation – a bump of over $65K, taking her to $493,859.

An additional 193 employees make more than $100,000.

Remarkably, the union – while being bludgeoned in places like Wisconsin and Tennessee – apparently sees value in supporting new teachers unions around the globe.

The report reveals several expenditures to unions around the country, including:

Federacion Colombiana de Educatores – $51,876
Federation of Mongolian Education and Science Unions – $51,875
KK NSZZ Solidarnosc (Poland) – $51,876
National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa – $42,951
NASWUT (UK) – $42,951
Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (Philippines) – $46,200"


A lot for Randi, I agree....but the other numbers not so bad. And most certainly nothing like the 1%

Another article:

"#OccupyOakland Teachers Gone Wild
It’s sad that teachers – who have such an influence over the future of America – where right in the mix when the riots and vandalism broke out Wednesday in Oakland, California. Obviously that’s where their hearts are at. Trouble was brewing when the Oakland Education Association – an affiliate of the National Education Association –"

[radical noodle]

16. They have been in Indiana too

I first saw a letter to the editor from them in our tiny local newspaper. Typically, they were advocating the destruction of unions and protections for teachers as the only way to a great education for our kids.

I checked them out and it was easy to see who they really are, but most people are not that suspicious and assume they're "experts." I sent an email to Rachel Maddow hoping that she might expose some of these groups, but I recognize there's only so much she can do. We need someone with media clout to "out" these guys.

It has nothing to do with education, of course, since this is a party in love with stupidity. I've stopped buying from Wal-Mart and other big businesses who support these creeps but I'm just a drop in their ocean of cash.

[madfloridian]

17. Interesting. I guess they can cover a lot of states with all that corporate cash.

and still have time to harass bloggers.

[msanthrope]

20. Wisconsin, too--see the letter I posted above.

I wonder why no one has asked Mr. Olsen for the records of his 501(c)(3). What's good for the goose...