By Robert D Skeels Currently under investigation by a number of authorities, including the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Office of Inspector General and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Charter industry mogul Refugio “Ref” Rodriguez’s innumerable front groups are hard to keep track of. The following articles should help contextualize the situation, […]
Didn’t dullard Duncan say Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans?
“…let me be really honest. I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina.” — Arne Duncan The absolute worst education President, and Secretary of Education in U.S. history. For Immediate Release: May 13, 2015Contact: Madison Donzis, madison@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 210.488.6220 New Report Exposes Holes in Louisiana’s Charter School Program and Millions […]
Rally against the cuts to Adult Education, Early Education, School Nurses, and Counselors
All the Pieces Matter Join us at LAUSD headquarters on Beaudry next Tuesday, May 12, for UTLA’s “All the Pieces Matter!” rally against the RIFs. Come together and show support for our students and Adult Education, and other programs being cut such as Early Education, and counselors. As educators, we are all an important piece […]
LA Progressive: Ref Rodriguez—What the PUC Is Going on Here?
By Robert D Skeels “The L.A. County district attorney’s office indicated Monday that it expected another, separate probe to be conducted by L.A. Unified’s inspector general.” — LA Times Ref Rodriguez: What the PUC Is Going on Here? In the LA Progressive piece What the PUC Is Going on Here? Hans Johnson and Hector Huezo of […]
New Report Finds Over $200 Million in Fraud and Abuse at Charter Schools
“The Tip of the Iceberg: Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse” Exposes Costly Consequences of Lacking Charter Schools Accountability, Transparency ** Full report available here: http://bit.ly/1DDlpjM ** A new report by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) and the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) found that financial fraud, waste, and mismanagement by […]
LAUSD District 5: Money, education and the school board race! On KPFK’s Politics or Pedagogy? with John Cromshow
Featuring an analysis of education, policy and practice affecting our public schools. KPFK 90.7 FM KPFK’s Politics or Pedagogy? with John Cromshow Tuesday, April 28 7:00 PM Call in number: (818) 985-5735 TOPIC: Money, education and the school board race. Case in point, LAUSD District 5. It takes money to run a political campaign – […]
How is CCSA’s Ref Rodriguez hiding his billionaire and ideologue contributors?
“In the long run, charter schools are being strategically used to pave the way for vouchers. The voucher advocates, who are very powerful and funded by right-wing foundations and families, recognize that the word voucher has been successfully discredited by enlightened Americans who believe in the public sector. So they’ve resorted to two strategies. First, […]
PROFITS! Why Ref Rodriguez and his CCSA covet the LAUSD Board Seat
“The education industry represents, in our opinion, the final frontier of a number of sectors once under public control… represents the largest market opportunity… the K-12 market is the Big Enchilada.” — Montgomery Securities prospectus quoted in Jonathan Kozol’s The Big Enchilada Most of the time the charter school industry’s corporate leadership is able to […]
Alliance corporate charters, teacher organizing, and moral imperatives
First published on solidaridad on March 19, 2015 “The shady nature of Alliance’s real estate dealings, their dismal SAT scores and CSU remediation rates, and their refusal to educate every child are all compelling… [a]llowing these private entities to cherry pick students and avoid educating the most vulnerable and needy students is immoral. Taking a […]
Open letter to Andrew Thomas regarding the LAUSD District 5 runoff
Dr. Andrew Thomas: Congratulations on your respectable election finish, and on noting on your website that out-of-town billionaires are financing the campaign of charter industry profiteer Refugio “Ref” Rodriguez against an incumbent endorsed by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). Your analysis ignores the fact that most UTLA teachers are also public school parents, live […]