Like WI. Representative Mark Pocan, I also had a weird thing happen to me on the way into Phoenix to protest ALEC on November 29th. In August after his flight landed, Pocan overheard a woman speaking on the phone while at the baggage carousel at the NOLA airport. She was saying;
"Yeah, I’m at the American Legislative Exchange Council Meeting, you know we write legislation and people pass our ideas, it’s the free market!"
My similar incident occurred at 32,000 feet somewhere over Texas on the way into Phoenix. Just by luck or providence, our flight was booked to the max with every seat filled. Seated next to me was a young woman traveling with a gentleman who had a seat in the row behind her. As most travelers do on such lengthy flights, we struck up a conversation and from that I learned that the woman and her companion were representatives of Basis Schools Inc. (BSI), a private Charter School outfit out of AZ. and more recently in DC.
Through the rest of the flight myself and one or two other passengers were told about BSI and what the two passengers had been doing back in my fair state of Indiana.
Before I get into the meat of this diary - the issue of privatized education and ALEC - I have to interject an observation here. ALEC and Koch proponents like to say that the involvement of ALEC or the right wing conservative organizations and entities under the sway of Koch money in initiatives we object to, are merely coincidental. They like to proclaim that since all of those associated with them are "Conservative" and have similar interests about business and what's right for "our" country, it's natural that their beliefs and actions coincide.
Time and again on every issue; healthcare, worker's rights, unions, voter suppression and as in this case, education - the same players, institutes, foundations, individuals, organizations and legislators - are equally involved across the board. Whether the issue is education or our mail service - all research leads back to them, regardless of the issue. That said, let's look at what I've learned from the conversations I had with BSI representatives on my flight...
A passenger asked the woman BSI representative why their schools were so spread out across the US. Her response was that they opened their schools where legislation had been changed to allow them to open their private "Charter" schools and its programs. Indiana happens to be the latest state where Conservative Republican lawmakers have been able to pass legislation authorizing school privatization, vouchers, etc. They were returning to Phoenix after spending several days in Indiana meeting with lawmakers and school officials in preparation for expanding their Charter operations to Indiana.
I inquired of both how they were funded and was told that they receive state funding to operate their facilities and often receive federal grants to purchase school materials and desks, chairs, books etc. In addition they said that much of the wages and salaries for their teachers were provided from private donors. Another passenger inquired what the curricula was for their schools and was told that it was basically the same as at public schools but was provided differently in such a manner that it allowed the students a better chance of learning. Right about then I started to scratch my head, but didn't intervene and ask just how their teaching methods did that.
I did ask why teacher salaries were provided from private funding and I was told by the man behind us that it was due to BSI's philosophy of not requiring their teachers to be certified as teachers. He explained rather, that their concept was to hire accomplished chemists to teach chemistry, historians to teach history, scientists to teach science and economists to teach mathematics, etc.
The BSI woman added that some of their teachers were provided by the private funding sources, coming straight from institutes, universities and businesses who helped fund and support BSI. The man added that in Arizona they had passed legislation with a provision teachers did not have to have actual teaching accreditation or licensing, but merely were required to have an understanding of their fields of "expertise" - hence the chemists teaching chemistry and "scientists" teaching science.
Now I was perplexed by this, trying to understand how someone without any teaching experience or accreditation or licensing could be qualified and acceptable for teaching K-12 students - and do it in such a manner as to "allow the students a better chance of learning." But I could not fathom how such a system removing licensing requirements of teachers, benefited state educational curriculum - or would actually benefit students. Just because someone is a whiz at chemistry or science does not - in my mind at least - ensure that they have the ability to "teach" others about their occupation. There was the additional thought that if a particular chemist was actually of such high caliber, he/she would be reluctant to leave a lucrative position within industry or business and take a job teaching which could not possibly provide them with the same or even similar salaries. I also wondered how you could have English, History and Geography instructors teaching children in those subjects without their being certified, accredited and licensed? Also the statement about the private funding and support by "providing instructors" to teach the students bothered me. Who were these funders and providers of science, economic and other "teachers"?
I decided as we landed that I was going to look into the Basis School operation and find out more about it when I had the opportunity. Before deplaning, I failed to ask either of the BSI Representatives for their names. I did find out that they actually had two corporations - one for profit and one non-profit, but they did not divulge the name of the second one nor how it was involved. They did say they had left a third BSI rep in Indiana to work on BSI's expansion project in my state.
I attended the joint ALEC press conference the following day at the statehouse with members of PDA, PFAW, Common Cause, CMD and others. I briefly spoke with them about the BSI school privatization, but most were unaware of them. One did confirm that they were an Arizona outfit that had 27 privately run Charter schools in that state, but had no idea of their staff, curricula or funding. On December 1st some of us had dinner with Lisa Graves of CMD and Randall Holmes of the Arizona DFA. Over our meal I raised the issue of BSI to both and all were as perplexed as I and without much knowledge about BSI. I did find out that my Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Tony Bennett was a keynote speaker at the ALEC States and Nation conference we were protesting there in Scottsdale, AZ. and that Indiana Rep. Dave Frizzell was named ALEC's National Chairman to replace LA.'s Noble Ellington.
I and other VLTP and DK members attended the ALEC Protests at the Westin Kierland and later marched with Reverend Jackson to an ALEC member's business there in Phoenix and back to the Occupy Phoenix site. We stayed long into the night, speaking, mingling and informing the crowd about ALEC, Koch and the Cabal. It was a long and grueling week for many of us, fielding questions about ALEC's legislation in Arizona, speaking to the masses and helping to generate knowledge about and interest in everything ALEC.
When I returned home I had almost forgotten about BSI and the strange conversations I'd had with the two fellow passengers, when I happened across an article in a Ft. Wayne Indiana paper: "ALEC's model state" published Tuesday morning. It was about the privatization of education here in Indiana, mentioning Dr. Bennett's speech at ALEC's conference and talking about ALEC's model legislation focused upon privatizing education.
Reading this and having read an article Monday informing Bill and Melinda Gates' Foundation had just donated over $376,000.00 to ALEC for educational projects, I decided it was time to dive back into the ever-present "Rabbit Hole" where ALEC and the cabal dwell...
I came away with a better understanding about ALEC, the Gates and how BSI is tied to both of them - as well as the Goldwater Institute, Charles G. Koch and many more of the cabal I've written about so frequently over the past year plus. To me it is frightening and fills me with dread about the future of education and the teaching of our children in this new millennium. Below is what I found and offer up to you readers for your review and possibly exclamations of "son of a bitch!"...
Basis Schools, Inc. began operations in 1998 (founded by Olga and Michael Block)and over the years have opened more and more Charter facilities across Arizona. Over the years they have received kudos from MSM outlets such as Newsweek, the Washington Post and U.S. News and World Report. On the surface BSI appears to be simply a new form of educating based upon privatization and not affiliated with any organization or political entity. However when we begin to look closer at BSI we find some disturbing facts.
The Board of BSI is composed of seven members; Craig R. Barrett, Ph.D. President and Chairman, Michael K. Block, Ph.D. Director, Clint Bolick, J.D. Director, Donald V. Budinger, Director, John Morton, Treasurer and Secretary, Terry Sarvas, Director and Steve Twist, J.D. Director. Impressive board and nothing out of the ordinary - until you start to read their professional bios.
Craig R. Barrett -
" In 2009, he stepped down as Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation, a post he held from May 2005 to May 2009, following 35 years of service to the company.
"Dr. Barrett chairs Achieve, Inc., Change The Equation (a national science, technology, engineering and math [STEM] initiative), the Governor’s Arizona Ready Education Council and Dossia. He is vice chair of Science Foundation Arizona, and is a member of the Board of Directors of K12 Inc., Society for Science and the Public, the Arizona Commerce Authority Board, and a faculty member of Thunderbird School of Global Management. Dr. Barrett has co-chaired the Business Coalition for Student Achievement, the National Innovation Initiative Leadership Council, and has served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the U.S. Council for International Business and the Clinton Global Initiative Education Advisory Board."
Michael K. Block -
"Michael K. Block serves as the Chairman of the BASIS School Boards. He is the co-founder of the BASIS Scottsdale and BASIS Tucson schools and is the Co-CEO of BASIS Educational Group, an educational management organization for BASIS Schools Inc. Prior to his involvement with BASIS, Dr. Block was a Professor of Economics, Professor of Law and Director of the Office of Economic Education at the University of Arizona. Dr. Block also held positions as a Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Fife Symington’s office, a Commissioner for the United States Sentencing Commission, and the Director of the Center for Economic Studies of the Justice System at the Hoover Institution. He has worked as a consultant to the World Bank, the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Arizona Corporation Commission’s Securities Division, and the Office of the State Attorney General’s Antitrust Division, among others."
Clint Bolick -
"Clint Bolick serves as the director of the Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation at the Goldwater Institute. The Goldwater Institute's Center for Constitutional Litigation is the first of its kind and a new avenue for free-market organizations to advance freedom in the states. A legal pioneer in a number of areas, Bolick is perhaps best known for his leadership in defending state-based school choice programs. He has argued and won significant cases in both state and federal courts, winning school choice victories in the Supreme Courts of Wisconsin, Ohio, and Arizona, as well as in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris before the Supreme Court of the United States. Before joining the Goldwater Institute, Bolick was a co-founder and former vice president of the Institute for Justice and former president and general counsel of the Alliance for School Choice."
John Morton -
"He was vice president for program development for the National Council on Economic Education and chaired the advisory board of The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition. Mr. Morton has written over 40 publications and books of instructional activities for high school economics courses, including four widely used textbooks. He was greatly involved in establishing economics as an Advanced Placement course and served three years on the College Board task force to develop the AP Economics curriculum and a subsequent four years on the test development committee. Mr. Morton is also the author of the widely used supplemental package for the AP Economics course, Advanced Placement Economics."
Terry Sarvas -
"He has been providing services in corporate compliance, taxation, accounting, financial consulting and litigation support since 1980. Prior to founding Sarvas King & Coleman, P.C., Mr. Sarvas spent six years with the office of the Arizona Attorney General. He has extensive experience with closely-held businesses, public companies, corporate compliance and ethics programs, attorney trust funds, bankruptcy/receivership, commercial litigation, including litigation in health care, insurance loss, and RICO, environmental litigation, forensic accounting, fraud audits, governmental accounting and budgeting, and school finance...
...Away from the office, he is a member of the Goldwater Institute for Public Policy Research, the Arizona Voice for Crime Victims and the Arizona Economic Forum.
Steve Twist -
"Steve Twist is an adjunct professor at the ASU College of Law where he teaches crime victim’s rights law; he also serves as Vice President and General Counsel for Services Group of America (SGA), the largest privately held company in Arizona. Prior to joining SGA, he was Assistant General Counsel for Viad Corp in Phoenix, had his own private practice of law and served as the Chief Assistant Attorney General for the State of Arizona.
"He is a founder of the Goldwater Institute, Arizona Voice for Crime Victims, and the Arizona Economic Forum. He served as a member of the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools, also serving as its President, and the Arizona Juvenile Justice Commission, both gubernatorial appointments."
WOW what a heavy concentration of individuals with involvement in economics! One of the key pursuits of the Koch brothers is the funding of major state universities Economics' departments. Endowments in exchange for a say in the curricula taught and a voice in the selection of instructors. In addition ALEC has a Board of Scholars that is heavy with "professors" of Heritage, Reason and similar foundations who have developed an alternative form of economics that benefits the top 1% and their companies (Laffer, Moore, etc.)
A couple of these folks are associated with the Goldwater Institute - Twist a founder of GI - which as many now know is affiliated with and has been funded by Charles G. Koch and most of Koch's other wealthy cabal members. It is affiliated with ALEC and other cabal members, including Mackinac Center. In case you did not know it already, the Goldwater Institute was one of the Plaintiffs in Arizona’s public campaign law ruled unconstitutional by SCOTUS following their now infamous "Citizen's United" decision.
Twist and Block have direct links and ties to ALEC and one of its task forces. In 1997 they co-authored an article for ALEC titled: "Run Away Loses" for ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force. This article was in support of private bail bonding in Los Angeles. Again, the American Bail Coalition (ABC) is a long time ALEC member and ABC's President Jerry Watson continues to tout this joint Twist/Block report today (as noted above, Block founded BSI the following year).
Looking closer to the present I found direct links between BSI Directors and Koch's cabal and its various member organizations, foundations and institutes. Just within the past 60 days all of them were together at an event known as the "2011 Philanthropy Roundtable". At that event Block and Bolick were present representing BSI:
"On this K-12 site visit, we had the opportunity to explore two of Arizona’s highest-performing, distinctive, and fastest-growing charter school networks. BASIS Schools’ demanding program uses an accelerated AP-driven curriculum; students take a minimum of eight AP courses and at least six AP exams during high school. BASIS is demonstrating that American students are capable of competing academically with the best in the world, thanks to a rigorous curriculum, student accountability, and excellent teachers. Great Hearts Academies employ a classical liberal arts model that relies on character development to increase achievement. At Great Hearts, K–12 students develop an appreciation for the true, the good, and the beautiful—and 100 percent go on to college. Neither school charges tuition; both are public charter schools achieving outstanding results and attracting more students each year, which many argue is a catalyst for reforming public education. Learn more about these schools’ ambitious plans to expand their reach to low- and middle-income families and their effects on the educational landscape of Arizona —and the nation.
Michael Block, co-founder, BASIS Schools, Inc.
Clint Bolick, director, Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation, Goldwater Institute
Dan Scoggin, CEO, Great Hearts Academies
Eileen B. Sigmund, president and CEO, Arizona Charter Schools Association
Others in attendance at this multi-day event?
Steven Moore, executive director, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
Arthur C. Brooks, president, AEI
Michael Hartmann, director of research and evaluation, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
Michael M. Crow, president, Arizona State University
Virginia Vander Hart, foundation executive director, DeVos Foundations
Fred Clark, Casillas Foundation
and hidden way down in the program was this tidbit:
Steve Twist, Services Group of America
Any idea who or what GSA is? It is as stated in Twist's bio, the largest employer in Arizona...
and a member of the Koch brother's $1 million dollar donor listing to their Conservative cabal and attendee at the secret Koch meetings.
"The billionaire Koch brothers can count dozens of corporate executives and philanthropists among their million-dollar donor club, according to a new report that revealed the big givers.
"Charles and David Koch hold retreats twice per year to court donations for their conservative and libertarian causes, and Mother Jones obtained audio recordings from the June retreat near Vail, Colorado.
"Also mentioned: billionaire former head of ABC Supply roofing company Diane Hendricks; Chair of the board of Tamko Building Products Ethelmae Humphreys and her son David, Tamko’s CEO; Jacobs Levy equity management firm cofounder Kenneth Levy and his wife Frayda, a national director for the Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity; millionaire Republican booster Art Pope and his wife Kathy; CEO and chair of Natural Resource Partners Corbin Robertson and his wife Barbara; founder and CEO of the philanthropy group the Ariel Foundation Karen Wright and the foundation’s vice president of marketing and engineering Tom Rastin; and Services Group of America CEO Peter Smith."
Among the topics discussed at this "Roundtable" were: "Super Committee, Tax Reform, Deficit Reduction: What You Need to Know Now", "Lobbying vs. Educating Your Member of Congress", "Sustaining Evangelical Schools", "How Schools of Education Can Build Better Teachers", "Entrepreneurship as a Philanthropic Investment: Reinvigorating Economic Growth and Job Creation", "Philanthropy’s Rx for American Health Care" and "How to Make an Impact With Your State and Local Elected Officials".
We also have numerous other attendees:
Thomas J. Tierney, chairman and co-founder, Bridgespan Group
Jeff Raikes, chief executive officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Eugene B. Meyer, executive director, The Federalist Society
Mitch Muncy, executive director, Alexander Hamilton Society
J.D. Foster, Norman B. Ture senior fellow, Heritage Foundation
John Goodman, president, National Center for Policy Analysis
Grace-Marie Turner, president, Galen Institute
Charles G. Koch, chairman and CEO, Koch Industries
Philip Anschutz, chairman, Anschutz Foundation
J. Peter Simon, co-chairman, William E. Simon Foundation
Charles R. Schwab, chairman of the board, The Charles Schwab Corporation
Betsy Morris, former senior editor, Fortune
Philip K. Howard, founder and chair, Common Good
William H. Mellor, president and general counsel, Institute for Justice
Len Gilroy, director of government reform, Reason Foundation
Kim O. Dennis, president, Searle Freedom Trust
Sal Khan, founder, Khan Academy
Meg Whitman, former president and CEO, eBay
Michael W. Grebe, president and CEO, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
(Was this the meeting where Bill and Melinda Gates were coerced into participating in the ALEC and Koch styled "Education reform"? Was this where the touch was put on their foundation to contribute to this privatization initiative? Within 60 days they wrote the huge check to ALEC, so my guess - in the absence of any refutation - is yes it was).
Returning to the BSI site I began looking down the list of teaching staff at each of their numerous "schools". As I had been told on the plane, most of their "teachers" are without licensing or accreditation from Arizona education authorities. Take the time at the BSI links and check this out for yourself.
After all this research I came away with the depressing thought that as the cabal advances their education privatization initiatives across the U.S. state by state, the future of our children is in great peril. In the cabal's rush to profit off of education they are willing to do away with actual teachers and replace them with personnel who have concepts of science, math, economics and environment that is in line with the faux "science" and "economics" of Koch and the cabal's Heritage foundation, Mackinac Center, George Mason University, Reason Foundation and the list goes on for pages.
The are not only working hard to erase our history - informing today's students that Jefferson was in favor of corporations and profiteering, that the Civil War wasn't really about slavery and that Paul Revere's famous place in history was warning the British - they are working equally hard to create a false world for those students to live within. A world where there is no threat to humanity from climate change, where corporations rule and where resources are unlimited and supposed to be quickly consumed by manufacturing processes for the good of society.
In this parallel and faux Conservative world envisioned by the cabal, there is little use for proper education and thus no need for qualified teachers. CO2 is beneficial to human life, coal energy is ultra clean and should not concern any of us and as of this week, regulating rat poison to avoid injury upon 12,000 to 15,000 of our children is termed by ALEC "an acceptable risk", when to enforce such regulation would cause financial harm to one of their corporate task force members (Reckitt Benckiser).
As I wrote in the intro above - all roads seem to lead back to the cabal - a group that as we continue to research has its tentacles in every topic, subject, initiative and issue of importance to American's and humanity in general. Where we investigators once thought of this cabal as a small group of hard core conservatives, we have discovered it is not so "small". BSI with their ALEC and Koch affiliated Board of Directors demonstrates that there are thousands (if not tens of thousands with Koch's intern programs) "little people" who serve as minions and enablers for the Cabal.
As most are aware, my expertise has always been on the topics of prison industries and prison privatization. Education has been the bailiwick of others in our group and here on DK. They research and try and prevent the growing pursuit of privatizing our schools, eliminating teachers and others associated with education, voucher legislation etc. The past couple of days I've spent down in the ALEC rabbit hole has given me a new awareness of the depth of the corruption surrounding ALEC and Koch. It has also filled me with a sense of urgency to stop this "train wreck" that is ALEC and Koch led and fed.
To that end we must be smart in our national and state voting in 2012. Please do your part by showing up at the polls - with the proper "Conservative demanded" documents and cast your ballots for candidates and incumbents who are not members of ALEC or beholding to the likes of Charles and David Koch. Secondly help us to continue outing the cabal as we put together our national state by state bus tour! We need donations to make this happen. PLEASE consider donating to this necessary cause by going to www.vltp.net and clicking on the donate button. Every penny helps us fight ALEC and Koch in the streets and through articles and these diaries. The next ALEC event is May 12-14th in Charlotte NC. Start planning now to attend and lend your voices to ours as we continue to protest their existence and activities in Charlotte.
