Threat from the Right Intensifies
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THREAT FROM THE RIGHT INTENSIFIES May 2018 Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................1 Meeting the Privatization Players ..............................................................................3 Education Privatization Players .....................................................................................................7 Massachusetts Parents United ...................................................................................................11 Creeping Privatization through Takeover Zone Models .............................................................14 Funding the Privatization Movement ..........................................................................................17 Charter Backers Broaden Support to Embrace Personalized Learning ....................................21 National Donors as Longtime Players in Massachusetts ...........................................................25 The Pioneer Institute ....................................................................................................................29 Profits or Professionals? Tech Products Threaten the Future of Teaching ....... 35 Personalized Profits: The Market Potential of Educational Technology Tools ..........................39 State-Funded Personalized Push in Massachusetts: MAPLE and LearnLaunch ....................40 Who’s Behind the MAPLE/LearnLaunch Collaboration? ...........................................................42 Gates and Zuckerberg Support PL Nonprofits Through Boston’s New Profit ..........................44 Funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative .............................................................................46 Personalized Learning Support from Laurene Powell Jobs .......................................................48 Baltimore County’s Cautionary Personalized Learning Tale ......................................................50 Quick PL Growth Spurs Privacy and Academic Worries ...........................................................52 Tax-Cutting Fever Threatens Public Education and Other Public Services ....... 53 The Fair Share Amendment .........................................................................................................56 The Anti-Tax Groups ....................................................................................................................62 Menacing National Forces Aligned Against Educators and Public Schools ..... 67 National Right to Work and State Policy Network Think Tanks Provide Legal Muscle ............71 Donors Behind Janus, Labor Challenges and the Right-Wing Network ...................................73 The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation ..................................................................................74 Charles and David Koch ..............................................................................................................75 Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund ......................................................................................77 The American Legislative Exchange Council..............................................................................78 The Association of American Educators .....................................................................................80 A ‘Choice’ Advocate at the Federal Controls: Education Secretary DeVos ..............................82 Conclusion .............................................................................................................85 Source Notes .........................................................................................................91 Threat From the Right Intensifies | Introduction Introduction This report, Threat from the Right Intensifies, is the third in a periodic series issued by the MTA to alert members and others about the current status of efforts to undermine public education and destroy unions. The last edition of the report, Threat to Public Education Now Centers on Massachusetts, was published amid our efforts to fight what would become Question 2 on the 2016 Massachusetts ballot — an attempt to radically expand charter schools. As most readers are aware, the MTA and its allies in the Save Our Public Schools coalition defeated Question 2 in a landslide, winning 62 percent of the vote on Election Day. Throughout the campaign, the pro-charter forces, with Governor Charlie Baker front and center, put forth falsehoods intended to distract the public from the toll the initiative would take on the students in the Commonwealth’s public schools. But the true level of deceit embraced by the initiative’s supporters became glaringly clear only after the election, when the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance leveled the largest penalty in its history, fining Families for Excellent Schools — Advocacy more than $400,000 and requiring it to disclose the names of prominent donors whose identities it had kept hidden during the campaign. While the result of the No on 2 campaign stands as a great victory for public education in Massachusetts and elsewhere, election night also dealt unions and the public good While the result of the a massive blow: the election of Donald Trump as president. Trump, whose policies are No on 2 campaign allied with the goals of many of the groups described in the following pages, went on stands as a great victory to name billionaire privatization and voucher advocate Betsy DeVos as his secretary for public education of education. Not long afterward, Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch was confirmed as a in Massachusetts and U.S. Supreme Court justice. Those two developments, accompanied by many others, elsewhere, election helped pave the way for today’s reckless White House agenda of promoting educational privatization, health care cuts, unchecked corporate influence, environmental night also dealt unions degradation, attacks on immigrants, and opposition to commonsense gun control. and the public good a massive blow: the election One crucial result of the election is the virtual certainty that Janus v. AFSCME, a case of Donald Trump as intended to undermine public-sector unions and disempower their members, will president. bring an affirmative ruling from the Supreme Court, with Gorsuch playing a deciding role. The right wing hopes and believes that the case, which seeks to prohibit unions from collecting agency fees, will be fatal to organized labor throughout the country. But unions themselves will have a great deal of influence over their own fates, notwithstanding the many powerful entities aligned against them. That knowledge is at the heart of the All In effort, which is gaining traction across the state as members talk to one another, organize and build the power of their locals and the MTA. It is also evident in the recent strikes and other actions that have drawn national attention to the needs of students and educators in states such as West Virginia and Oklahoma. So it is clear that once again we are at a point where much hangs in the balance. There can be no doubt that even with unchecked charter expansion in abeyance for the time being, unions and their allies in the social justice movement face a daunting set of challenges. With the 2018 election drawing near, huge amounts of money are being amassed by the right as it seeks to keep its hold on Congress and to defeat any progressive measure that makes it to a state ballot. The 1 Threat From the Right Intensifies | Introduction Janus case must be treated as an existential threat. Takeover zones are the latest concept among the so-called “disrupters,” who have turned their attention to removing groups of schools from the control of local elected officials and giving oversight to appointed boards. In addition, as this report will detail, the forces behind charters, vouchers and other forms of privatization are now intrigued by the prospect of “personalized learning,” with its potential to generate massive profits and displace professional educators in public schools, colleges and universities. These forces are working hard to make Massachusetts a testing ground for their unproven strategies and are being met with open arms by officials of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, among others. In approaching these attacks, it pays to keep in mind that in many respects they amount to putting a new face on programs that are similar to the ones that MTA members have been fending off for years. Right-wing money and “reform” advocates were speaking loudly during the Question 2 campaign even as it collapsed among the electorate — and it is highly possible that a Trump-induced swing of the pendulum could be in the offing this November. Progressive efforts are alive and well within the MTA and in Massachusetts as a whole. On every front, we are determined to advance the interests of all students and all members, including education support professionals and adjunct faculty. This year, the association is a key participant in the coalition seeking to ensure a $15 minimum wage and paid family and medical leave for workers. We are proudly engaged in the battle to enact the Fair Share Amendment — which would add a 4 percent tax on annual income over $1 million and constitutionally require that the resulting funds be spent on public education and transportation — and are committed to finding another path to ensure adequate revenue if the Supreme Judicial Court unwisely knocks the measure off the ballot.