Yes, the $Billionaires are lining up to invest in Charter Schools and are looking for like-minded entrepreneurs. Nothing new here. BUT and I mean a BIG BUT.....
Does anyone have a problem with Venture Capitalists, Charter Schools, and Entrepreneurs all being in the same sentence?
You should.
David Sirota has done a great job following the well-funded Charter School, often scandalous, and mediocre-at-best movement. Here's his recent article:
School reformers give a lesson in corruption
Paradoxes come in all different forms, but here’s one that perfectly fits this Gilded Age:
The most significant lesson from the ongoing debate about American education has little to do with schools and everything to do with money.
This lesson comes from a series of recent scandals that expose the financial motives of the leaders of the so-called education “reform” movement — the one that is trying to privatize public schools.
David hits the "For Profit Charter School drive" nail on the head in this video. (embedding twice, with both the old and new embed codes).
IN A NUTSHELL: Charter Schools are For-Profit Public Education, run by hopeful entrepreneurs, funded by $Billionaires, Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity firms who will profit from For-Profit Public Education.
Oh, I get it. It's the IMF model.
For-Profit Public Education is a $1.3 Trillion dollar market. All those yet unscooped dollars must be driving some investors absolutely crazy.
So Yes, todays K-12 kids are commodities whose education is being used as an investment scheme using OUR TAX DOLLARS. Free Markets!
Is it obvious to anyone else that there are many aspirations, along with greed, hoping to privatize our kids education. There are the religious fanatics, the patriots, the haters, the segregationists, the snooty, the stingy, and so on. All dream of a school that will suit their child and the hell with the rest, BUT they want The Rest to pay for their kids special, exclusive school.
We all know that the Waltons and the Gates are funding school privatization.
But what about Steve Jobs widow, Laurene Powell Jobs? Laurene is now a Director of NewSchools Venture Fund funded by $Billionaires, THAT INVESTS in Charter Schools and who is looking for entrepreneurs.
Did I mention that Laurene is also now dating former D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty.
Yes, the Adrian Fenty that launched Michelle Rhee's career as an "Education Reformer" followed by Fenty's defeat and Michelle Rhee's DC bon voyage.
Like the privatized prison business model, K-12 School privatization is just another humanity-callous opportunity for the 1% Owners to profit from the 99% Serfs.
SHAME ON AMERICA!
Imagine how wonderful public education would be today if these uberly wealthy people had spent their $Trillions on improving existing schools and building enough new schools to keep the student teacher ration below 20:1
But, hey, who expects anyone to invest in America's children and their future without some promise of profiting.
This isn't Sweden, you know!
Will the $Billionaires pockets keep the money train rolling if the Charter train crashes? Are they aware they might be making unsound investments?
According to the following, today's Charter School profits might just crash the train in the not-to-distant future. Here's why
Even television's somewhat conservative Legal Authority, Jonathan Turley, is raising the alarms about Charter School Investors profits being made off of publically-funded, privately-owned Charter Schools.
Shockingly, the GOP Congress, towards the end of Bill Clinton's second term, provided the financial incentive to make HUGE PROFITS from building Charter Schools: New Markets Tax Credit Program (NMTC Program)
Turley writes:
Charter Schools and The Profit Motive
Gonzalez said the banks and other wealthy investors had been making “windfall profits” by taking advantage of “a little-known federal tax break to finance new charter-school construction.”
That little know tax break, the New Markets Tax Credit, can be so lucrative, Gonzalez said, “that a lender who uses it can almost double his money in seven years.”
He added that the tax break “gives an enormous federal tax credit to banks and equity funds that invest in community projects in underserved communities, and it’s been used heavily now for the last several years for charter schools.”
WHAT WILL WALL STREET AND THE $BILLIONAIRES BET ON NEXT? My guess is federally-funded Pre-School.
Who is providing all the cash?
THE WALTONS
Note two items the Waltons are funding: New Teacher Project and Students First. Both of these organizations were launched by Michelle Rhee, as seen in this chart.
There is so much big money flowing into the Charter School movement it is mind boggling. For instance,
BILL & MELINDA GATES, JP MORGAN, & other $Billionaire Foundations
WHAT WAS MISSING WAS HOW THE MONEY FLOWED from $Billionaires to Entrepreneurs to build and open Charter Schools.
There are several funnels but NewSchools Venture Fund is a key financial sourse element. And, yes, Ms. Rhee got a grant from them, too.
PLEASE FOCUS ON TWO NAMES IN THIS LAST CHART:
Kim Smith, Co-Founder of NewSchools Venture Fund; and
Deborah McGriff, Partner of NewSchools Venture Fund
THIS IS WHERE THE RIGHT WING MEETS THE LEFT WING and Cory Booker is on board.
Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO): Community Voice or Captive of the Right?
BAEO announced its formation on August 24, 2000 at a national press conference in Washington, D.C. Former Milwaukee Schools Superintendent Dr. Howard Fuller, the group's president and founder, said it would support tax-funded voucher programs, private scholarships, tuition tax credits, charter schools and public/private partnerships.
Note that Deborah McGriff is also Vice Chair of BAEO and Kim Smith and Cory Booker are two of the directors of BAEO.
Also, note that Theodore Mitchell is a Director of New Leaders AND he is the CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund.
He has long been a leader in education reform in California and nationally. From 2008 through 2010, he served as president of the California State Board of Education.
So here's how it works:
$Billionaires make money selling to us, the profits are donated to their foundations that then fund organizations that are organized to fund entrepreneurs to grow the Charter School movement, change political policy to be more favorable to Charter Schools, and to fund politicians that will go with the Charter School program which, once built, will be PAID FOR BY US and our children forever.
To add spice to the HUGE K-12 MARKET, you can invest in all sorts of new businesses springing up everywhere THANKS TO FUNDING from the $Billionaires and their foundations.
You will find an interactive link here that you can use to find the hundreds of new business NewSchools is helping to launch.