General Discussion

madfloridian

(88,117 posts) Sun Nov 23, 2014, 11:23 PM Nov 2014

NY's Success Academy charter has 7.75 million fundraiser. Erik Prince, Campbell Brown, Jeb Bush

and others helped her save her education "empire". Many other rich folks were in attendance as well.

From the Raging Horse blog from April:

Moskowitz, Jeb Bush, Hedge funders and Blackwater USA Team Up to Raise Millions To Undermine de Blasio, Unions and Public Schools

Members of the mega rich and politically powerful gathered together last night at Cipriani to distort the truth, bash unions, shower each other with praise and raise $ 7.75 million for education entrepreneur Eva Moskowitz and her ever expanding Success Academy empire. Indeed, Moskowitz who for weeks busied herself acting the helpless victim of evil Bill de Blasio ( while at the same time benefiting from a five million dollar anti de Blasio PR blitzkrieg ) announced that she intends to extend her empire in several ways. “ As of August, Success will have 32 schools and 9,000 students. Four years from now, Success plans to have 55 schools with 21,400 students, which, Moskowitz said, would make it the equivalent of the fifth largest district in New York State and half the size of the Washington, D.C. school system. “

.....Displaying their limitless love for the children of the urban poor were many leading representatives of the occupation that was instrumental in bringing the world to the brink of economic collapse: hedge funders. Indeed, Dan Loeb, of the hedge fund group, Third Point LLC, who is also chairman of the Success Academy board, hosted the event. Jimmy Lee, vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co.has this to say of Loeb: “Away from all the business press he gets, I think being chairman of his board and giving his time, not just his money, makes him a role model. You can tell he cares.” According to the report in Bloomberg, “ The event was filled with men and women in the hedge-fund industry, including Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital Management, Joel Greenblatt of Gotham Asset Management, Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital and John Paulson of Paulson & Co. “

.....The key note speaker was no less than former Florida Governor and future presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who did an admirable job pretending not to understand de Blasio’s moral and ethical issues with charter schools — namely, evicting members of the most challenged student population in the city so Moskowtiz could again get what she wanted — along with his usual union bashing.

Nestled into a paragraph listing the holy hedge funders was this little line that sent a chill down my spine: “Also present: Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater USA and former Navy SEAL.”

Money buys Eva Moskowitz a way to get her message out while those who support public schools have few options financially.

The Message of Moskowitz and her Billionaire Backers: We Are the Government

For the past three weeks New Yorkers experienced an extremely concentrated version of the highly skilled propaganda campaign that the deformers have been poisoning the entire nation with for over a decade now. Editorials lamented the “war on charters.”
TV talking heads nodded sympathetically with the suddenly omnipresent Moskowitz, never questioning a single claim the woman made, no matter how preposterous or false. The airwaves were filled with no less than 3.5 million dollars worth of super slick tear jerking commercials showing the beautiful young faces of school children (again using children as political pawns) being somehow deprived of an education by the evil monster named Bill de Blasio.

What has transpired in the past month is as disgusting as it is disturbing and would not survive in a vibrant and healthy democracy. In a sick and dying democracy, such as we are now experiencing, such stuff has simply become the way the zero sum game is played. And it has done so with as[link:http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/6859|tonishing speed. We have become, a government of the super rich, by the super rich and for the super rich. The state budget agreement is simply the most recent example. And we have, by and by, acquiesced, if only by default. We are as a people, as a nation, wholly ill equipped to deal with such a rapacious class of predators, the desire of whom is nothing short of the whole sale privatization of the entire public school system with themselves – hedge fund mangers, financiers, and Wall Street tycoons — at the helm, insuring the vast publicly funded revenue stream is diverted into their coffers.

In the meantime, they are celebrated as heros when not out right saviors. It is they, billionaires and entrepreneurs, who care about educating the poor and the marginalized, not the teachers who have dedicated their lives to this noble and difficult endeavor.

This is beyond dangerous. This is beyond cynical. It is a ticking time bomb. No nation can survive this kind of insanity for long.

Just a reminder of how Eve M and her empire take over a public school.

Eva Moskowitz moves charter school into another public school's space, boots them from classrooms.

The "Eva" Empire has expanded to the Bronx, bringing a Harlem turf war for school space into the borough. Eva Moskowitz, the City Council member-turned-charter school CEO, has opened two new academies from her charter school franchise, Success Charter Network, inside Public School 30 in Mott Haven, and PS 146 in Morrisania. And Bronx Success Academies 1 and 2 are already ruffling feathers with district school staffers.

..."Staffers at the district schools say their new neighbors have booted them from classrooms and stairwells, while sharing the libraries, cafeterias and playgrounds.

...."Staffers at PS 30 say Bronx Success 1 sealed off the third floor to its staff and students - even taking over a stairwell - so Success students don't mingle with their district school neighbors.

"We are not allowed there," said one PS 30 teacher, noting the classrooms taken over by Success were formerly used for tutoring children with special needs. Now we have to do therapy sessions in the hallway."

And just think of all the money taken from public coffers and given to these charter schools whenever a child leaves public schools for charters. It's turning over taxpayer money to these management companies and not having any regulation over what they do.