By Matthew Dunn
“You
wake up every morning knowing that 46,000 kids are counting on you right now,
and that most of them are getting a pretty crappy education right now.”- Michelle
Rhee, Waiting for Superman,
2010.
Michelle
Rhee could be described as something of a lightning rod for the school choice
movement. During her tenure as the
Washington D.C. Public Schools superintendent, she earned a reputation for a
no-nonsense approach to pushing her policies through. Her tenure at this position was marked by
firings of teachers and principals based on school results. She was hailed as the tough person who could
turn around the public schools of Washington D.C. During her years at the head
of the schools the students of D.C., showed great improvements on standardized
tests. However, she made many enemies
throughout her time at this position and she contributed to the defeat of Mayor
Adrian Fenty who appointed her. In the
wake of her tenure, many of her claims of improving student test results have
been called into question, and claims of cheating have appeared.
However,
she’s a go getter. She started a
non-profit called Students First in the wake of her short term as D.C.’s
Superintendent. This non-profit devotes
itself to school choice efforts and changes in public education. They rate states based on their educational
policies, they attempt to create more school choice for parents, and they
confront what they see as the powerful influence of teachers’ unions.
Rhee
has made a name for herself with an aggressive public persona. She has been shown firing staff on camera,
and has made quite a name for herself.
She has appeared on many talk shows and in publications demonstrating
her beliefs about the problems with public schools, and how organizations like
hers are working to fix them. Her
organization has become an influential voice in the school reform movement, and
is a very effective lobbying organization.
So how did Students First become so influential in only a couple of
years? In order to do that, we have to
look beyond Rhee and take a look at some of the biggest supporters of her organization.
John Arnold
The Laura and John Arnold
Foundation has been one of the biggest donors to Rhee’s organization, Students
First.
[i] They
have pledged millions to Students First for lobbying and operating costs. John Arnold is a former futures trader and
hedge fund manager. Arnold became a billionaire
in the energy derivatives business (selling contracts based on the future costs
of energy). Arnold was so successful he
was able to retire before the age of 40, with a net worth of $2.8 billion. Arnold now devotes most of his energy with
his wife to philanthropy, through their foundation The Laura and John Arnold
Foundation.
So how did Arnold become so wealthy
at such a young age? Arnold got his
start in the business in the 1990’s at the now defunct Enron. Arnold made a killing at Enron earning
millions. When Enron’s ponzi scheme came
crashing down in 2002, Arnold went into business for himself founding his own
energy derivatives hedge fund called Centaurus.
Arnold
made his money largely through trading derivatives on natural gas. While at Enron, one of his colleagues
referred to him as the “king of natural gas.”
[ii] His
new hedge fund continued to make millions, so much so that he was able to do
what many Americans dream of doing, retiring before the age of 40. He and his wife started their foundation with
their profits.
Now,
Arnold appears to truly fit the mold of an unscrupulous businessman. Enron was notorious for defrauding investors
and employees, and the two major executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay,
were sentenced to long prison sentences.
Natural gas has also become a controversial issue because one of the
main ways of obtaining it is through a geological practice known as Hydraulic
Fracturing, or fracking. What this
process entails is drilling into the Earth’s shale layer and causing
disruptions which cause natural gas to become available.
However,
fracking has become controversial for a number of reasons. One is that fracking is known to release a
well known carcinogen, benzene, into the water supply. Benzene has been documented by medical
scientists as one of the carcinogens which can lead to leukemia, a cancer of
the white blood cells. Leukemia, is well
known as the most common childhood cancer, and while treatable can still be
fatal.
Now,
Arnold is someone who profits greatly off of natural gas extraction. His operations lead to benzene being pumped
into the water supply, and causing a great risk factor for childhood
leukemia. Children, who are diagnosed
with leukemia, will definitely not be able to attend any school for long periods
of time. As important as education is to
children, it is not as important as their health.
Betsy and Dick Devos
Betsy Devos,
has been a strong campaigner for conservative causes and school reform in
recent years. She has worked with Students
First to promote school vouchers as a form of school choice. School vouchers are a controversial idea, in
which parents are given money by the state government and then they can use
that money to send their children to any school of their choosing. This idea is controversial because it can
been seen as a state subsidy to religious private schools. Betsy has been very involved in this campaign
along with her husband Dick DeVos Jr.
Betsy and Dick are throwbacks to
the good old days when you could accuse a woman of being a witch and burn them
at the stake. As highly religious
people, they put their faith into not only Jesus Christ but free unregulated
capitalism. Besty is a member of the
prestigious Prince family of Michigan. The
Prince family became wealthy by owning an auto-parts supply manufacturing
business. Betsy’s brother Erik, became
famous for serving in the Navy Seals and then founding the private security
firm (which is code for mercenaries )Blackwater. Blackwater has served all over the world as
private soldiers, and has been implicated for their roles in war related
crimes. Dick, the son of Dick Sr. Devos, is heir to
the Amway Corporation, as well as the Orlando Magic basketball team.
Betsy and Dick spend much of their
private time involved in a number of conservative causes. Dick Jr. ran for governor of Michigan in
2006, running on a platform that included opposition to the teaching of
evolution, opposition to abortion in all instances, and the promotion of
religious charter schools. Dick and his
father, Dick Sr., have also donated large amounts of funds to the Dominionist
Project which seeks to reclaim America for Christ. They campaign largely against what they see
as activist judges, and want to put LGBT (lesbian,gay,bisexual,transgender)
people in prison along with women who seek abortions.
[iii]
Betsy
and Dick have worked hard to push not only for more school choice but for school
vouchers which would allow parents to send their children to religious schools
with state funds. DeVos has given a
great deal of time and energy to school privatization efforts and has worked
with Rhee’s organization on several occasions.
[iv]
Now
refusing to teach evolution in schools, while openly professing hatred for LGBT
people does not seem like a recipe for creating good schools. LGBT children have a significantly higher
suicide rate than the rest of the population, and it seems that people who wish
to deny them their civil rights, are hardly the kind of people we should take
advice from on putting “students first”.
Paul Tudor Jones
Paul
Tudor Jones is the founder of The Excellence Boys Charter School and he has
been a financier and Board member of Students First NY.
[v]
Paul Tudor Jones is another financial power
player, known for his aggressive style.
Working again in high finance he has become well known for a type “take
no prisoners” style of financial trading.
Jones is kind of a carpetbagger in reverse, who was raised in a prominent
southern family in Tennessee, and then moved to New York to make it big in
finance. Jones was profiled in a piece
several years ago on
60 Minutes in
2013, where he talked about his philanthropy efforts at The Robin Hood
Foundation which he founded. Jones also
founded his own charter school, The Excellence Boys Charter Schools, and he
sits on the board of Students First NY.
[vi]
Now
Jones was profiled about his so called business philanthropy efforts on
60 Minutes, but they did not talk about
his background. Jones’ family has great
connections to the cotton business in the Southern states. Jones’ cousin William Dunavant was the leader
of Dunavant Enterprises which was one of the leading cotton transporters in the
world. Dunavant Enterprises goes all the
way back to the post-civil war days.
Dunavant’s grandfather Colonel William Dunavant founded the company with
Nathan Bedford Forrest after the Civil War as a railroad transport for cotton.
[vii]
For
those who are not familiar with the name Nathan Bedford Forrest, he is probably
someone that a company would try to disassociate themselves from. Forrest was a general for the Confederate
States of America during the Civil War.
Known as a brilliant tactician, he fought the Union army strongly in
several battles. During this time, he
also gained a reputation for massive brutality.
At the Battle of Fort Pillow, Forrest’s troops gunned down black
soldiers and refused to take any prisoners.
Some of the black soldiers were burned alive.
[viii]
This became known as the Fort Pillow Massacre, and became a rallying cry for
black Union troops in the battles that came after. After the war, Forrest became a successful
railroad executive. In his spare time,
he helped to found the Ku Klux Klan, and became its first honorary Grand
Wizard. The Klan’s reported goal at this
time was “to keep the niggers in their place.”
[ix]
The Ku Klux Klan would then carry out acts of terror on blacks and their
political allies in the Reconstruction years.
Colonel William Dunavant proudly went into business with Forrest after
the war. Southerners largely were able
to keep blacks in a state of slavery after emancipation by creating the
sharecropping system, which lead to blacks remaining in a state of poverty.
Now if
Jones talked about his family’s role in all of this, he would probably become a
sympathetic figure. However, his family
connections have led to his wealth, so a family history of involvement with
terrorists would not be mentioned. It
further complicates things because of the charter school that he helped
found. Jones’ charter school Excellence
Boys Academy serves 690 boys in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn
according to their website. They proudly
talk about the accomplishments of the proficiency levels of the students at
their school. If one looks closer at
their school report card one can find other interesting statistics.
It
seems as though the Excellence Boys Academy as well as being segregated by sex,
is also segregated by race. According
the New York State Report Card 95% of the students at the school are African
American. There are no white students at
the school. During the famous
Brown v. Board of Education Supreme
Court Case evidence was presented about the psychological harm of
segregation. Psychologist Dr. Kenneth
Clark’s famous doll study concluded that segregation negatively affected the
self-esteem and psyche of African American children. These findings helped convince the court to
desegregate public schools in the United States.
[x] By
the fact that his school is completely segregated Jones and the staff of this
school would seem to be denying these studies.
Also it
is revealed with the New York State Report Card that Excellence Academy has a
very high suspension rate for students.
In 2010-2011, the school reported a 35% suspension rate, signaling that
the school has a strong discipline policy.
This is much higher than nearby Boys and Girls High School, a public
school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which reported a suspension rate of 13% the same
year. One can imagine that students who
face suspension and punishment, can probably be removed from the school easily
as well. It almost seems that Jones’
believes in hard work and discipline for black students, almost putting his
staff at the school in the position of overseers.
Jones,
Arnold, and the DeVos family are some of the major power players behind the
school choice movement. They claim that
public schools are failing American children and parents need to be given more
school choice in order to improve American children’s education. This message can have great appeal and seems
to promote a positive message. However,
there is a darker side to this. These
people have shown that while they publicly speak of putting students first,
they do not always have children’s best interests at heart. Mr. Paul Tudor Jones, promotes racial
segregation in his school, while the DeVos family helps to encourage negative
attitudes towards marginalized members of our population. Mr. Arnold has major ties to an industry
which has been documented to be harmful to our environment and public
health. There is no doubt that American
public schools have some problems, but are these the individuals we want to
address them?
[iii]
Zirin, Dave. Bad Sports: How Owners are
Ruining the Games We Love. New York;
Scribner. 2010.
[viii]
DuBois, W.E.B.
Black Reconstruction. New York; Russell and Russell, 1935.
[ix]
Roediger, David.
How Race Survived U.S. History. London; Verson, 2008.
