Bill Daley gets big money from school privatizer Finnegan

Paul Finnegan

Bill Daley, who recently jumped into the Chicago mayor's race just received $200,000 from Paul Finnegan, co-CEO of Madison Dearborn Partners investment firm (net worth $1.8B). Through his Finnegan Family Foundation, he's been a major underwriter of Chicago's privately-run charter schools and school privatizers.

He's been one of the biggest donors to the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS). He sits on the board of Teach for America, Inc. and has given millions to KIPP, Noble and other Chicago charter school networks. He's also a big backer of the union-busting group, Stand For Children.

Madison Dearborn had been among Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s most reliable campaign contributors for years. Three executives, including Finnegan, dumped $705,000 into Emanuel’s campaign in June, three months before Emanuel chose political retirement over the uphill battle for a third term.

Finnegan's support for Daley could spell trouble for candidate Paul Vallas the other big charter supporter in the race.

Charter billionaires invade WA to attack supreme court justice

Chief Justice Barbara Madsen

In September, WA's state supreme court ruled that charter schools are unconstitutional because they are governed by appointed — rather than elected — boards and therefore are not “common schools” eligible for state education funds. The chief justice, Barbara Madsen, wrote that “money that is dedicated to common schools is unconstitutionally diverted to charter schools.”

Now, charter supporters, including billionaires like Eli Broad, Paul Allen, Connie Ballmer, Ken Fisher and Alice and Jim Walton, are backing a campaign to oust Madsen.

Much of the money is flowing in from outside the state. The political arm of an organization called Stand for Children is backing Madsen's pro-charter opponent, with some $116,000 in July alone.

Most of the cash is coming from Connie Ballmer, a philanthropist married to former Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer, who gave $500,000. Others include Vulcan Inc. and Netflix founder and Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings.

Fisher funded a new political action committee called Judicial Integrity Washington. In recent weeks, the PAC has spent $100,000 on radio ads for Madsen's pro-charter opponent, Greg Zempel.

In 2011, Stand for Children’s Jonah Edelman, co-founder and chief executive officer, was caught on video, bragging about how he manipulated people to get reform legislation passed in Illinois.

Charles Schwab -- A core member of the 'charter cabal'

Brokerage firm founder Charles Schwab rode the emerging wave of online investing to amass client assets of over $2 trillion, and a net worth of $6 billion. He's now become one of the biggest patrons of corporate-style school reform, investing millions in privately-run charters schools like KIPP, Teach for America, The New Teacher Project, and Michelle Rhee's operation, Stand for Children. Schwab also helps bankroll right-wing ed think tanks like the Fordham Institute.    

From Inside Philanthropy...

We're not sure why charters and finance billionaires go together like peas and carrots, but we'll save the theorizing for another article. What's notable about Schwab is that he's deeper into this area than many of the more glitzy hedge fund donors who get so much attention.

A $1 million gift to the Charter School Growth Fund in 2011 stands out, not only because of the size of the gift but also because of its destination. Founded in 2005, the Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a bit like the mother ship of the charter school movement, working to grow and professionalize this alternative ed sector. A lot of the major players in the charter school funding world have given to CSGF, including Walton, Gates, Dell, Bradley, and Fisher. Schwab 's investment here is yet more evidence that it's a core member of the charter cabal. 

Schools are broke but Rahm rolling in election campaign dough

While he was busy closing public schools, shuttering public health clinics, and reaming the teachers pension fun, Rahm still found time to raise another $1.1 million last month for his election war chest. He hopes to be able to exceed the $14 million he used to buy the election the last time around.

You won't be surprised to learn that the mayor got a $10,000 gift from the group, Stand For Children, which has been promoting anti-union policies nationwide and in Chicago.

Crain's Greg Hinz reports:

Some folks who have obvious issues of importance pending at City Hall also were big donors. Like United Center owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who gave near the maximum $5,300 gift and has been waiting for Mr. Emanuel to sign off on a renewed tax break for the stadium and a proposed shopping complex near it. Or Todd Ricketts, co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, who gave $2,500 and whose family stands to gain from a plan to rebuild Wrigley Field that was pushed through the City Council by Mr. Emanuel. Then there was $3,000 from Arlington Park race track, which would be hurt by Mr. Emanuel's proposal for a downtown casino but perhaps just wants to stay on speaking terms.

Hinz adds that the bulk of Rahm's money is coming from a national network of donors put together by Mr. Emanuel on behalf of Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, with the aid of Mr. Emanuel's Hollywood agent brother, Ari Emanuel.

With all that money, can Rahm be beat? I think so.

Stand for Children spreads $$$ around in Washington State

Ken Libby reports that the corporate "reform" group, Stand For Children, spent $750,000 in a mostly losing cause, to support anti-public school, anti-union candidates in local elections. But their influence peddling wasn't a complete bust since it appears that Initiative 1240, which would allow charter schools in the state and a clear favorite of Stand, appears to have passed by a slim margin.

Boston Consulting Group -- Engineers of school privatization

CEO Hans-Paul Buerkner of BCG.

Where Romney got his start

They're the Bain Capital of public education. Politically connected Boston Consulting Group consultants are paid million of dollars, much of it from public funds that might ordinarily be used to fund public education. Instead they are financing the dismantling of public education, mainly in urban school systems, responsible for the education of primarily poor kids and children of color. BCG can take credit for the ongoing replacement of these public institutions with networks of private education management companies operating charter schools, distance learning companies, and tutoring programs.

With 4,800 consultants in 74 offices in 42 countries, the firm ranks as one of America's Largest Private Companies, according to Forbes magazine. BCG's consultants include notables such as Mitt Romney, Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi; Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric; Sally Blount, dean of the Kellogg School of Management; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Romney and Netanyahu became close associates while both were consulting for the group and Romney was recruited to Bain Capital directly out of BCG.

Romney & Netanyahu at BCG

Former Ed Secretary and architect of NCLB, Margaret Spellings who currently operates something called the Campaign for Free Enterprise, is a senior BCG advisor. Kermit King, who played a major role in bankrolling anti-gay legislation in California is one of BCG's leading consultants.

The group was also brought into Chicago by Arne Duncan and the Gates Foundation in 2008 to design the failed high school reform and school privatization component of Mayor Daley's Renaissance 2010. Duncan continues to involve BCG in his Race To The Top initiative.

In Philadelphia, BCG has been deeply involved in nearly every hot-button issue faced by the District, including continued expansion of charter schools. After decades of this corporate-style reform however, there is no evidence that BCG's work has produced any better outcomes for students or for the communities in which they live. 

According to a report in Huffington,

BCG has identified up to 60 Philadelphia school buildings as potential candidates for closure and helped line up private vendors willing to replace the School District's unionized blue-collar workforce at a $50 million discount. The broad scope of BCG's efforts this spring are detailed in previously unreleased "statements of work" obtained by the Notebook/NewsWorks under Pennsylvania's Right to Know law. 

But in Philly, where BCG is credited with identifying some $122 million in "achievable savings," the result has been an even larger and rapidly growing budget deficit, now estimated at around $282 million. 

Documents obtained Friday by the Notebook/NewsWorks outline the complex relationship connecting BCG with the William Penn Foundation and United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania. William Penn has directly contributed $1.5 million and helped raise $1.2 million more to fund BCG's work, and United Way has served as a fiscal conduit for those funds.

In separate interviews Friday, top leaders from William Penn and United Way lauded BCG's work and dismissed as "conspiracy theory" the claims by some critics that the firm and the private philanthropists supporting its work are part of a coordinated effort to privatize the city's public education system.

I'm one of those critics who believes there really is such a conspiracy.

Stand for Children back in Chicago flush with cash

Best antidote to Stand For Children, Rudy Lozano, Jr.

Union-busting school reformers  Stand For Children, are back in Illinois with deep pockets. This time around SFC is bankrolling a gaggle of Republican (and a few anti-union Dems) in local elections. In a letter to the Chicago Tribune, SFC's director, Mary Anderson lauds the conservative paper's endorsed, mainly Republican candidates list. 

Most importantly to Chicagoans, Stand tossed $70,000 behind anti-teacher candidates running in opposition to CTU-backed progressives, Rudy Lozano (21st District) and Kenny Johnson (26th District). CTU Political Director Stacy Davis Gates (no relation, I'm sure), says the best response to the STC invasion should be:

1.Vote for Rudy and Kenny
2.Tell your friends and family to vote for Rudy and Kenny
3. Volunteer this weekend and Election Day to help us Get Out The Vote

The Griffins -- hedge fund power couple

Ken Griffin and wife Anne, have become two of the most prominent and powerful names associated with Chicago's corporate-style school reform. As the founder and head of the Chicago-based hedge fund Citadel, Griffin is reported to be worth $2.3 billion, making him the fifth-richest Chicagoan and 159th-richest American, according to the 2010 Forbes 400.

He and his wife, Anne Dias Griffin, have been major players in the world of political money: Campaign finance records show that the Griffins have donated more than $3 million to candidates and political action committees—including $450,000 last fall to Republican Bill Brady in the tight 2010 Illinois governor’s race.

The Griffins, along with other Chicago billionaires like Penny Pritzker and Bruce Rauner, also helped underwrite the anti-union lobbying group Stand For Children, headed by Jonah Edelman.  In 2010, Ken gave $500,000 each to two different political action committees—on October 25th to American Crossroads, an organization, according to its website, “dedicated to renewing America’s commitment to individual liberty, limited government, [and] free enterprise” and on December 15th to Stand for Children Illinois.

He also contributed  $150,000 to Mayor Daley in 2006 and $200,000 to Rahm Emanuel's mayoral campaign.

Noted art aficionados, they own works by Monet, Degas, and Cezanne, and paid $80 million for a Jasper Johns painting reportedly worth $2.3 billion, Ken bundled money for both Obama and John McCain during the 2008 election. In the 2012 election cycle, the couple has given $500,000 to the Republican Governors Association, $300,000 to Rove's American Crossroads, and $150,000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth. Bonus: Charles Koch named them as part of alist of elite donors who have pledged $1 million to his and his brother David's conservative fundraising machine.

The Rise and Fall of Stand For Children

Edelman's unsolicited confession

A Chicago News Cooperative story in today's NY Times, "Education Group Tries to Rebound After Diatribe," documents the crash-and-burn of the corporate reform group, Stand For Children and its national director, Jonah Edelman. The Portland-based group with pockets filled with cash supplied by the Gates Foundation and local one-percenters like the Crown and Pritzker families, along with the Citadel Group’s founder, Kenneth Griffin, made their move on Illinois laste year.

In a video, Edelman later admitted self-critically, how SFC poured millions into the campaign coffers of local politicians like State Sen. Kimberly Lightford in exchange for their backing of anti-union legislation which Arne Duncan hailed as a "national model. Edelman also revealed how SFC pressured teacher union leaders who went along with the plan at the expense of their own members, and how he fabricated talking points on the longer school day, which he and his billionaire patron, Jim Crown, then fed Mayor Rahm Emanuel. 

According to the NYT story, the group has now hit bottom and can't seem to raise a penny in this year's election cycle. The state chapter of SFC has now installed Mary Anderson, a crony of machine boss Michael Madigan as its new director to take charge of the $3 million remaining from last year's fund-raising efforts. Madigan also came off looking like a tool in the Edelman confession.

A still-willing Lightford, vice chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said she met with Anderson recently to discuss how they could work together to carry out the new education legislation. Lightford's only problem with Edelman was his honesty and transparency.

“For him to come to Illinois, and not understanding the politics, to suggest these things and expose private conversations was very immature of him.”

The good news is that Edelman's boasting and apologia seems to have discredited SFC and its tactics as well as the corporate reformers and easily buy-able politicians like Lightford who did their dirty work. In the long run, this may make it more difficult for them to run their game in Illinois and other states.

Who brought Jonah Edelman amd SFC to town? Bruce Rauner

Education blogs are buzzing about Stand For Children anti-hero, Jonah Edelman, whose braggadocio has left the corrupt underbelly of corporate school reform badly exposed. But to understand this story, one has to look past Edelman because, as everyone over at the local saloon knows, behind every small-time player stands a big-time player.

In today's Chicago Sun-Times, "Braggart angers teachers' union after tough negotiations over reform bill", education writers Roz Rossi and Abdon Pallasch tell at least part of the story about Edelman's trip to Illinois, his bags packed with hundred-dollar bills in search of willing politicians (are there any unwilling in this state?) ready to abandon their traditional union base and vote for the anti-union SB7.

Enter the big-time player:

Edelman was recruited to Illinois by Bruce Rauner, a Republican venture capitalist and former client of Mayor Rahm Emanuel who helped make Emanuel a millionaire when Emanuel was an investment banker. Because Rauner is Republican, Edelman said some expected his group to fund Republican candidates. But Edelman said he realized [State Sen Michael] Madigan was the game in Illinois and so he funded six of Madigan’s Democratic legislative candidates and only three Republicans.

Billionaire Rauner who bankrolled Emanuel's mayoral campaign, is also a charter school entrepreneur with a chain of Chicago charters bearing his name. Rauner chairs the the education committee of the powerful anti-union Civic Committee of the Commercial Club and his name even appeared in local gossip columns as a possible choice for Emanuel's new schools chief. 

“Sneed hears rumbles mega-rich venture capitalist Bruce Rauner, who burps money and made certain a ton had been tossed into Rahm’s election campaign, is being eyed as the city’s new school CEO.”

With Rauner's help, and millions more coming from local billionaires with names like Pritzker, Crown and Zell, Edelman spread the money around like a horny John, outspending and out-foxing the unions at every turn. 

“They [the unions] essentially gave away every single provision related to teacher effectiveness that we had proposed — everything we had fought for in Colorado,” Edelman said in Aspen. “We hired 11 lobbyists, including four of the absolute best insiders and seven of the best minority lobbyists, preventing the unions from hiring them.”

Almost too disgusting to quote. It's no wonder that everyone on all corners of EdelGate want this thing to go away. Not a chance.

How Stand For Children, Jonah Adelman, Jo Anderson, others with millions in corp backing, took IL unions for a ride.

Stand for Children's Jonah Adelman (right).

Fred Klonsky says, "It’s too bad there is not a transcript of the Aspen video of Stand For Children’s Jonah Edelman’s presentation. It could be studied in every Local and Region in the IEA."

He says their ability to raise $3 million dollars from the Chicago corporate community allowed them to “jam it down their throats.” When they met in the lame duck session following their electoral victories, Edelman says that the IEA and the IFT were willing to discuss all the issues they would not discuss just six months earlier. In fact, he says they “gave away” in the first minutes of negotiation what it took the entire struggle in Colorado to accomplish, where they eventually destroyed collective bargaining. Edelman says the cave-in was led by the IEA. “It has a history of pragmatism,” he says. -- Fred Klonsky's blog

Go to the 22 minute mark on the video where he describes, in glowing terms, former IEA Executive Director Jo Anderson, Jo’s son who runs Chicago’s Teach for America and Audrey Soglin.

* Since this was posted, the video was pulled from the Aspen website. Here is the transcribed version, thanks to Parents Across America. 

Free-Market Think Tanks and the Marketing of Education Policy

Kevin Wellner, professor of education and director of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC),writing in Dissent Magazine:

The most engaged in this neoliberal education campaign are organizations focused on school choice: Democrats for Education Reform (and their 501(c)(4), Education Reform Now Advocacy), Education Sector, and the Progressive Policy Institute; as well as service-oriented groups like New Leaders for New Schools, the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) and Green Dot charter networks, Teach for America, The New Teacher Project, Stand for Children, the New Schools Venture Fund, and even the leadership of the Harlem Children’s Zone.