{"article":{"id":244037,"heading":"Gates' Yolie Flores displays an all new level of mendaciousness on ACLU settlement","author":"Robert D. Skeels","created":"2011-01-25 01:58:45","modified":"2011-08-11 20:33:37","last_modified":"Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:33:37","article":"

\"Hedge funds are always looking for ways to turn a small amount of capital into a large amount of capital.<\/strong> A wealthy hedge fund manager can spend more than $1 million financing a charter school start-up. But once it is up and running, it qualifies for state funding, just like a public school... It is extremely leveraged philanthropy<\/strong>\" — Predatory Hedge Fund Manager Whitney Tilson in bold, rest of quote is Joe Nocera<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\nDon't know if people caught the evil princess of privatization's latest fact free op-ed on the Daily News, but I had some choice words in response to her mendaciousness:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Classic Gates Foundation employee propaganda: \"...trumps the research that seniority does not guarantee effectiveness.\" A single peer reviewed study that backs your wild and specious claim?<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Ms. Aguilar, when brave people like Martin Terrones, Julie Van Winkle, Sean Leys, and Jose Lara held a hunger strike to protest the layoffs at schools including John Liechty Middle School, YOU GLEEFULLY RIFED (LAID OFF) THE VERY SAME TEACHERS YOU ARE NOW SAYING SHOULD HAVE BEEN RETAINED -- ALL THE WHILE KNOWING THAT LAUSD HAD OVER A HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN RESERVE!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

A craven act so despicable, I lack the vocabulary to describe it adequately. No teachers should have received RIFs when the district had so much funds on hand -- that's true \"intransigence.\" Furthermore, had LAUSD continued to comply with the Rodriguez v. LAUSD settlement, we never would have arrived at this point! Since that settlement didn't serve the interests of the Broad\/Gates\/Walton Triumvirate, you and the Mayor's other board allies came up with quite an underhanded deception.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Here's a great quote from one of my readers: 'Yolie Flores Aguilar once said to me and others during the hunger strike that the threat of \"recall\" was not going to work on her, that not passing the budget would put the many progressive programs this school board has put into effect in jeopardy, like \"all day kindergarten\", and that her passion for public education cannot be questions.' In other words, as you say, a \"disproportionate number of their teachers, nearly two-thirds, were laid off in a period of two years\" because you voted out of political expedience<\/strong> rather than in the interest of anyone's \"civil rights.\" By the way, whatever happened to all day kindergarten?<\/p>\r\n\r\n

You can tell yourself that you're meeting \"needs of children\" all you want, but the checks you're cashing from the plutocrats whose agenda you serve demonstrate the only motivation you've ever had.<\/p>\n","contact":"rdsathene@sbcglobal.net","link":"http:\/\/rdsathene.blogspot.com\/","address":"90026","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Addressing the outrageous mendaciousness of Yolie Flores' recent anti-community and anti-labor op-ed on the Reed Settlement.","numcomment":2,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2011\/01\/244037.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":244040,"heading":"test comment","article":"this is a test comment.","author":"johnk","parent_id":244037,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2011-01-25 02:34:29","modified":"2011-01-25 02:34:29","fileurl":""},{"id":247339,"heading":"Follow the Charter Money !","article":"A post below about Jan Perry and the South Central Farm mentioned Ralph Horowitz, which elicited a stray memory about some douchebaggery about Yolie Flores, charter schools, and filthy hedge-fund money, so i did a Google seach, "Charter schools" and "Hedge Fund," and i found the following Op-Ed from Indiana... Charter schools suck @ss !!! they destroy public education !!!\r\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r\n\r\nIndiana created a \r\nperfect storm in \r\neducation\r\n\r\n Written by\r\n\r\nED EILER \r\nFor the Journal & Courier \r\n\r\n2:50 PM, Aug. 9, 2011|\r\n\r\n The perfect storm is upon us.\r\n\r\nThe Indiana Legislature has created an \r\nenvironment that, in time, will result in \r\nteacher shortages, drive teachers and \r\nadministrators to flee schools with high \r\npoverty and possibly the state, and leave \r\nschools struggling to fund programs that \r\nprovide educational opportunities to public \r\nstudents while the state uses tax dollars to \r\nsubsidize children in private schools.\r\n\r\nThis has been the result of a well-funded \r\ncorporate and political assault on public \r\neducation. It is instructive to follow the \r\nadvice of Deep Throat in "All the \r\nPresident's Men" and follow the money!\r\n\r\nIn July, Don Whittinghill wrote an article for \r\nthe Louisiana School Boards Association \r\ndetailing some of the involvement of hedge \r\nfund managers and other corporate \r\ninvestors in the charter school and \r\nprivatization movement. The article titled \r\n"Follow the Charter Dollars" can be found at \r\nwww.lsba.com and is illuminating and \r\ndisturbing.\r\n\r\nA May 9, 2010, New York Times article \r\n reported that "a favorite cause of many of \r\nthe wealthy founders of New York hedge \r\nfunds (has become) charter schools."\r\n\r\nThe article goes on to provide the following \r\nexample of their involvement in New York: \r\nHedge fund managers "have been \r\ncontributing generously to lawmakers in \r\nhopes of creating a friendlier climate for \r\ncharter schools.\r\n\r\n"More immediately, they have raised a \r\nmultimillion-dollar war chest to lobby this \r\nmonth for a bill to raise the maximum \r\nnumber of charter schools statewide ... ."\r\n\r\nA Google search of hedge fund and charter \r\nschools yields 1,530,000 hits.\r\n\r\nWhy would billionaires and hedge fund \r\nmanagers be interested in charter schools \r\nand privatization?\r\n\r\nIn a May 7 New York Daily News column, \r\nJuan Gonzalez explained how the new \r\nmarkets tax credit program established by \r\nCongress in 2000 to spur new or increased \r\nAdvertisement investments into operating businesses and \r\nreal estate projects in economically \r\ndepressed communities is being used by \r\nbanks and private equity firms to make \r\nlarge sums of money by creating charter \r\nschools.\r\n\r\nThe new markets tax credit provides a 39 \r\npercent tax credit over a seven-year \r\nperiod, which Gonzalez contends results in \r\ninvestors nearly being able to double their \r\ninvestment during that period.\r\n\r\nHedge fund managers have spent millions \r\nof dollars on promoting charter schools. \r\nThe intent of these managers is to make \r\nmoney, not improve the plight of children.\r\n\r\nIt has been reported that some private \r\ncompanies establish a nonprofit school \r\nthen use a for-profit affiliate to buy school \r\nbuildings and charge the school rent, which \r\nis a substantial portion of the school's \r\noverall budget.\r\n\r\nProfit is made at the expense of students \r\nand teachers.\r\n\r\nThis is at best a distortion of the intent of \r\nthe new markets tax credit program. If \r\nCongress was looking for a tax loophole to \r\nclose, using the new market tax credit for \r\ncharter schools would be an excellent \r\ncandidate.\r\n\r\nI do not believe greed is a good \r\nreplacement for the commitment, \r\ncompetence and compassion of a teacher.\r\n\r\nIf you care about children, you have a duty \r\nto become informed and involved.\r\n If you are a member of the fourth estate, \r\nyou have a duty to be an independent \r\nwatchdog that serves the public interest by \r\ninvestigating and reporting, not merely \r\npassing along corporate positions.\r\n\r\nIf you are a teacher, hold on to the belief \r\nthat there are millions of people thankful \r\nfor the role you have played in their life \r\nand support you.\r\n\r\nThe perfect storm is upon us. I'm afraid \r\nour children might become lost in the \r\nstorm. They deserve better.\r\n\r\nFor the sake of our children, I can only \r\nhope public education survives the storm \r\nand continues to serve as a beacon of \r\npromise and opportunity.\r\n\r\nEiler is superintendent of Lafayette schools.\r\n\r\n","author":"Ralph Horowitz cross reference","parent_id":244037,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2011-08-11 20:33:37","modified":"2011-08-11 20:33:37","fileurl":""}]}