Monday, March 23, 2015

The Backbone of the School Choice Movement

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? 




[i] Students First Information, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StudentsFirst#Funding. Retrived 3/22/15.
[iii] Zirin, Dave.  Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love.  New York; Scribner. 2010. 
[iv] Clawson, Laura.  “Rhee’s Students First hires Republican Lobbyist to Push Pennsylvania School Privatization Bill”. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/10/1024762/-Rhee-s-StudentsFirst-hires-Republican-lobbyist-to-push-Pennsylvania-school-privatization-nbsp-bill#, Retrived 3/22/15.
[vii] Dunavant Enterprises, History.  http://www.dunavantenterprises.com/about-us/dunavant-history/. Retrived 3/22/15. 
[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. 
[x][x] Teaching with Documents: Order of Argument in the Case, Brown v. Board of Education. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brown-case-order/. Retrived 3/22/15.  

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