Why Sharpton is teaming with Gingrich to promote charter schools: payola,

[Hannah Bell]

"As I continued reading, questions immediately arose as to the status of the non-profit group, Education Reform Now, which served as the pass through or ‘front group’ for the $500,000 to Sharpton and his organization. Who or what is ‘Education Reform Now’ and just what do they stand for and why the subterfuge in paying off Sharpton?

...who actually runs Education Reform Now? It didn’t take much digging to find the answer: it was and still is as of this writing, Joe Williams, the former New York Daily News reporter who also directs another educational think tank or front group, Democrats for Education Reform, a leading advocacy group for expanding charter schools throughout New York. Now the whole complex web was starting to make sense and the story eventually came full circle when it was revealed that Joe Williams is also listed as the president and the treasurer of the same Education Equality Project (EEP) launched by Rev. Al Sharpton and Joel Klein in 2008, for which Sharpton’s National Action Network was handsomely paid...

Although Joe Williams, head of the group, prefers to remain silent on the matter of the $500,000 payoff to Sharpton, current New York City Schools Chancellor, Joel Klein not only acknowledges the payment but has been busy using his connections and the high-profile Sharpton partnership to raise more than $1.6 million dollars for EEP; no doubt the $500,000 investment in Sharpton’s glitzy media image, political influence and rhetorical support is paying off for the burgeoning New York city think tank and their ongoing efforts in New York to privatize education through charter contract schools, much in the same vein as we see in Chicago, Washington D.C., and New Orleans."

http://www.counterpunch.org/weil08252009.html

[madrchsod]

1. this topic certainly is`t popular with some people here.

it`s up to us to defend public education against the "reformers"

[Hannah Bell]

2. :>)

[goclark]

9. I'm all for Reform but the Charters will really have to show

me something new.

The lovely lady that helps us with the house is going to send her child to a new Charter in Granada Hills ( 1 1/2 hours by bus) beause she heard it is a "good school."

Can she get to PTA meetings, NO

Can she get to talk to the teachers - no

Could she get a better school, even a charter closer in ----- yes!

[BolivarianHero]

3. Sharpton's a GOP mole...

He's given lots of support to Pataki and D'Amato.

[HamdenRice]

4. Early in Sharpton's career, he was outed as an FBI informant

It's amazing that that did not end his career as an activist. The liberal tabloid, Newsday, broke the story in 1988, that Sharpton had worn a wire and otherwise informed on black activists for 5 years.

Why this does not discredit him as an activist is beyond me.

[Nikki Stone1]

6. Do you have a link for this?

Thanks.

[HamdenRice]

7. Pretty well known among Black people of a certain age in NYC

http://www.answers.com/topic/al-sharpton

scroll down to the late 80s.

Also, p 94:

http://books.google.com/books?id=wqJmZUeU33AC&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=sharpton+fbi+informant&source=bl&ots=hJnldWAHcq&sig=UWwrkahowmPRDHYMFAVsWBEg_J4&hl=en&ei=XrmmSqHdNJWGnAeI_YW6Bw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#v=onepage&q=sharpton%20fbi%20informant&f=false

On edit: Here is the original Newsday article:

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/539.html

and here in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/21/nyregion/protest-figure-reported-to-be-a-us-informant.html

[Nikki Stone1]

8. Thanks, I'll check it out.

nt

[Joe Fields]

5. Jeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzusssssss Chhhhhhriiiiiiisttttttt.....

[democracy1st]

10. Sleeping With the GOP: A Bush Covert Operative Takes Over Al Sharpton's Campaign

Roger Stone, the longtime Republican dirty-tricks operative who led the mob that shut down the Miami-Dade County recount and helped make George W. Bush president in 2000, is financing, staffing, and orchestrating the presidential campaign of Reverend Al Sharpton.

Though Stone and Sharpton have tried to reduce their alliance to a curiosity, suggesting that all they do is talk occasionally, a Voice investigation has documented an extraordinary array of connections. Stone played a pivotal role in putting together Sharpton's pending application for federal matching funds, getting dollars in critical states from family members and political allies at odds with everything Sharpton represents. He's also helped stack the campaign with a half-dozen incongruous top aides who've worked for him in prior campaigns. He's even boasted about engineering six-figure loans to Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN) and allowing Sharpton to use his credit card to cover thousands in NAN costs—neither of which he could legally do for the campaign. In a wide-ranging Voice interview Sunday, Stone confirmed his matching-fund and staffing roles, but refused to comment on the NAN subsidies.


Sharpton denounced the Voice's inquiries as "phony liberal paternalism," insisting that he'd "talk to anyone I want" and likening his use of Stone to Bill Clinton's reliance on pollster Dick Morris, saying he was "sick of these racist double standards." He did not dispute that Stone had helped generate matching contributions and staff the campaign. Asked about the Stone loans, he conceded that he "asked him to help NAN," but attributed the financial aid to his and Stone's joint "fight against the Rockefeller drug laws," adding: "If he did let me use his credit card to cover NAN expenses, fine." The finances of NAN and the Sharpton campaign have so merged in recent months that they have shared everything from contractors to consultants to travel expenses, though Sharpton insists that these questionable maneuvers have been done in compliance with Federal Election Commission regulations.


http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-01-27/news/sleeping-with-the-gop/1

[rucky]

11. There must be bigger bucks in a charter schools than I thought.