Feb. 20, 2006: Why are PPS School Board members attending seminars at a right wing think tank?

David,

Thank you very much for posting on our website. We hope you and other school board members will come back and visit often!

While we can understand the attraction to board members for attending the Broad trainings/retreats, we are deeply concerned about PPS being associated with Broad. NSA is not accusing our hard-working volunteer board members of malfeasance--we are sounding the alarm and asking the board to distance itself and PPS from this organization.

It is a fact that Broad is pro-charter, anti-union, and very pro-privatization. Broad is insidious because they couch their ideology in progressive terms. "Improvement", "reform" and "reinvigoration" sound good, but the mechanisms and end goals Broad supports are not progressive. "Governance," for example, tends to mean a private takeover of a public school.

As for "eliminating the achievement gap for poor and minority students [being] at the heart of all of the conversations"--the Bush Administration and No Child Left Behind say the same thing.

Broad may seem "policy neutral" when they are providing you with a pleasant, stimulating (and well-deserved) retreat weekend, but the ongoing association with this organization puts PPS at risk of coming under their sway--if not directly then in subtle ways. (For instance, it may be merely a coincidence that the board members who attended the Broad training last summer are the same ones who supported the two charters that got approved--but how do we know?) More directly, what is the role of the "Broad Fellows" who are mentioned in the Gates grant?

You mentioned that a teachers union leader is also on the Broad "heroes" list and suggest we are being selective in our depiction. For the sake of providing an accurate picture of Broad's views and priorities, below is the complete list of the "heroes" from the Broad website.

Please take a few minutes to read through this list; the themes of charters, privatization, high-stakes testing, and top-down management are pervasive.

Is this list of Broad's "heroes," and the priorities it reveals, in line with Portland's values and vision for its public schools? We think not.

Thank you,

Ruth Adkins

Broad Hero #1:

Rod Paige (teachers union=terrorists); also the Houston scandal of fabricating dropout statistics: "Houston's 'Zero Dropout'" http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bushplan/drop181shtml

Broad Hero #2:

Aspire's Hybrid Team: "Aspire Public Schools, the growing California-based, nonprofit charter management organization, is reshaping local public school systems in California under the leadership of Don Shalvey, Gloria Lee and Elise Darwish."

Here is an admiring description of Aspire's rapidly expanding charter empire: "If Aspire succeeds in its goal of 100 charter schools in 10 years, it will be the 14th largest school district in California, giving it the leverage it needs to frame the debate about education reform, serve as a role model for local school systems, and have a direct impact on students and local school districts." http://www.ashoka.org/fellows/viewprofile3.cfm?reid=97577

Broad Hero #3:

"Dynamic Duo Taking a Stand in San Diego" -- Alan Bersin and Tony Alvarado.

Here is one view of their tenure: "The San Diego Unified School District “Blueprint for Success” is Dead!" From the very inception of this plan the Blueprint was a quagmire of problems, obstacles, dissension, and disconnect with the parents, in particular Hispanic parents, teachers, administrators, and with the citizens and residents of the San Diego Unified School District. http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/july09-04/blue.htm

Broad Hero #4:

Boston superintendent Thomas W. Payzant -- Under this team of leadership, the School Committee also negotiated a groundbreaking three-year contract with the Boston Teachers Union that supports pilot schools, high school restructuring and improved teacher accountability and evaluation. ["Groundbreaking"? Sounds like union-busting] It opened 11 in-district charter schools...

Broad Hero #5:

Teachers union reformer Adam Urbanski--The Broad Foundation is an enthusiastic supporter of TURN's efforts to create collective bargaining agreements that center around student achievement and reward performance instead of simply dealing with work rules, salaries and grievance procedures.

Urbanski has an article called "Reform or Be Reformed" in a publication of the Hoover Institution--which by any measure, is a right-wing think tank. http://www.educationnext.org/20013/38urbanski.html

Broad Hero #6:

New Leaders for New Schools -- dedicated to recruiting, training, placing and supporting public and charter school principals in urban schools across the country. Launched in 2001, New Leaders for New Schools aims to train and place up to 2,500 new principals over the coming decade.

Broad Hero #7:

Houston Superintendent Sets the Bar for Excellence--Kaye Stripling. Stripling was the successor to the infamous Rod Paige and carried on his legacy of top-down management and high-stakes testing along with with questionable statistical reporting.

Broad Hero #8:

Former Colorado Governor Roy Romer, Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District. He is also committed to improving teacher training, altering the school day and school year to maximize the learning opportunity for each child, encouraging parents to actively participate in the education of their children, increasing school choice by giving families access to charters and other public schools that work and reducing class size.... And in googling one finds "LA School District Superintendent Roy Romer Seeks Counsel of Hoover fellows"--http://www.hoover.org/pubaffairs/newsletter/01winter/romer.html --another case of well-meaning administrators getting sucked into the conservative agenda?

National schools expert/activist Jonathan Kozol, author of “The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America,” had this to say about Roy Romer in a Sept. 2005 speech in Portland:

I knew the Superintendent of the Los Angeles schools. I've known all these guys for years. But boy, I don't see how he can sleep at night. I don't mean to make thes ad hominem, but his name is Roy Romer and I don't see how he can sleep at night. I don't think he ought to be able to sleep well at night." Kozol goes on to talk about brilliant Black kids that he met in LA in 2005, who were being forced to take sewing and hair-dressing courses: "I thought, surely they don't do that any more. There it is in Los Angeles today. That is why I am so mad at the superintendent there. His name is Roy Romer. Did I say that before? I am just furious with him."

Broad Hero #9

Sacramento's Legacy - Supt. Jim Sweeney. Sweeney did raise test scores. Here is a local news story: "Sacramento Schools Superintendent Resigns”: Sweeney leaves as the district is again facing tough times. Angry teachers are trying to decide whether to strike in the fall. Parents are upset about Sacramento High School being closed and then re-opened as a charter school. Some parents have called for a grand jury investigation into the district's finances. http://www.news10.net/storyfull.asp?id=4564

Broad Hero #10

Seasoned Educator Makes High Marks in Atlanta - Supt. Beverly Hall. Hall also increased test scores. Can't resist this nugget from 2003: U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today joined Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall, students, educators and other community partners to kick off the "No Child Left Behind Summer Reading Achievers" program for students in Atlanta Public Schools. ...Students who participate will receive an embossed "No Child Left Behind Summer Reading Achiever" certificate signed by the Secretary Paige and Superintendent Hall." http://www.susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=24

Broad Hero #11

Setting Standards, Transforming Leadership -- Marc Tucker and Judy Codding, National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE). This outfit appears to be all about high-stakes testing and corporate-model school leadership. "They argued that the role of principals has changed dramatically in the United States, having created a need for professional training for principals. They advise that this training be similar to an executive development program in a business school rather than a current masters degree program in an education administration school."

Broad Hero #12

Trio's teamwork boosts teacher salaries in Denver- Superintendent Jerry Wartgow, School Board President Elaine Gantz Berman and Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) President Becky Wissink worked together to establish the Joint Task Force on Teacher Compensation, the entity that then implemented Denver's Pay for Performance Pilot. This merit pay program shows up in yet another Hoover Institution article: http://www.educationnext.org/20051/10.html

Broad Hero #13

Venture Philanthropist Increases Options for Children- Kim Smith, New Schools Venture Fund (NewSchools), a nonprofit venture philanthropy fund that improves public schools by supporting education entrepreneurs. ... The Broad Foundation currently supports NewSchools' Charter Accelerator Fund, a $30 million fund focused on fueling rapid, scalable growth of nonprofit charter systems in key areas ripe for reform.

From the NY Times: "The companies they form are nonprofit charter school management organizations, capable of running publicly financed elementary and secondary schools that are freed from some rules and regulations in exchange for producing educational results better than those of the large urban school district. Almost all their students are eligible for free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches.... Financing from New Schools and charitable foundations helps them to build or buy school properties and to get elementary, middle and high schools up and running. But their operations are expected to quickly become self-sustaining on the stipends paid from local, state and federal taxes for educating each student."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/business/16sbiz.html

David, just this once I think it would be in your interest to open your ears (and eyes) to well-intended criticism before you so vociferously defend an entity you know very little about.

Hat in hand, this Board and Superintendent are scouring the countryside for grant money to help fill funding gaps. While this effort cannot be faulted per se, even you must admit it has the potential to create conflicts and uneasy bedfellows. The last thing you want is to see your strategies and goals hijacked by a private foundation that now has funding authority over your enterprise.

Whether or not the Broad Foundation (or the Gates Foundation for that matter) is a right-wing entity set on privatizing public schools, you need to be sensitive to the issue of public concern about private grant money in our public school system. Your comments above do not reflect that sensitivity.

I trust you will agree that the Bush Administration is a vocal advocate of charter schools and vouchers. Your constituents are opposed to these right-wing initiatives and would be alarmed to see you accept funds from foundations that support them.

For a balanced view of the Broad Foundation, please see the following link:

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/19_04/who194.shtml

Best regards,

Mike Miller