PAVE (parent advocacy group) is a false front formed by Walton Foundation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who didn’t know that PAVE has deep pocket supporters? How else could they have paid for their conferences, staff and swag?

Didn’t Walton Foundation also give start up funding to DCI and other charters? Their money is all over the city. It is what the grantees do with the money, not who gives.

Disagree. There are a lot of conservative billionaires and foundations that tie their donations to their political ends. And their political ends are usually their own, not helping poor kids, despite what they might say (put another way: coincidentally, the causes the Koches claim to care deeply about also happen to help them make more money.)

Not all foundations and nonprofits are like this - Gates, Soros, Buffett, Clinton Foundation (don’t @ me, conservatives— they’ve done great public health work to benefit societies) are very visible. But the majority of billionaires spend money on their own conservative interests. That includes the Walton Family Foundations. And yes, charter schools help conservatives achieve their political ends (see eg the speech DeVos’s husband gave at heritage.)

Long story short: the source of the money may well matter, but not always.

That's certainly the reason for the Koch's advocacy for open borders on immigration.

Exactly. The Koch brothers are anti-conservative. They’re Libertarians, not Rebublicans.

Do NOT believe these lies. The Koches are Republicans, who brought us Trump. They fund the Daily Caller. They bought Senate seats for Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey. They spend big money to deny climate change. They fund the Federalist Society. They bought Scalia a named law school. They fund Heritage. Their org, AFP, is tightly entwined with the GOP.

The Koches currently have a PR campaign on to tell everyone the lie that they’re not Republicans. Because they see that things like concentration camps at the border (the words used by historians, despite rightwing lies disagreeing) are going to stain forever the GOP. And they want to not be associated with it. So they’re lying about who they support and why.

The Koches are Republicans. They tolerate racism and hate when it served their purpose (enriching themselves). That IS today’s GOP. The GOP is the Koches and the Koches are the GOP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is up with this, how did this self-appointed group get to "recommend" a charter to compete with Leckie ES?

https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/stories/k-12-education/amplifying-parent-voice-in-education-and-community

They weren't self-appointed. I applied to be in this group.

Why are you all of a sudden concerned about Leckie? Do you have a child at Leckie? I do and I want another option. And I want that option away from the other charters in ward 8 that experience shootings nearby on the regular.

Why does PP have to only care about her child? I care about kids from Leckie and other schools. Everyone should.

I don’t believe you. People on dcum rarely show they care about ward 8 schools unless it’s something like this, something that affects other schools across the city. In this case, the Walton foundation. The fake outrage because it’s affecting Leckie right now is easy to see through.

[Anonymous]

pave is funded by charter advocates. It focuses on galvanizing charter parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many conservatives believe in charter schools. It doesn't necessarily mean they have "ulterior" motives in funding charter schools. They may fund them because they believe -- and in order to prove -- that they work. I'm not at all conservative, but I don't see a problem with this. A city can separately decide whether to allow charters or not; but, once they do, why shouldn't conservatives pony up? Wouldn't it actually be hypocritical if they didn't given that the success of charters often relies on private fundraising?

Yes, but the money behind charter schools comes from conservative billionaires like the DeVoses, Bradley foundation, etc.
Those conservative donors’ agenda is to damage public schools to:
- make money from privatization
- reduce number of conserv kids who learn about the world and thus become liberal (same reason the donors created Hillsdale, Liberty U, etc)
- keep people uneducated (no coincidence the biggest predictor of Trump voting was low education level)

Great if many conservatives immersed in a low-information conservative media bubble like charter schools.

But Charter schools are a win-win-win for conservative donors. And outside of a few city schools where they bring up low performance levels, charter schools are a failure for the 99.99% of us that are not billionaires.

Do you mean Katherine Bradley? Not a billionaire or conservative. But does have more influence on DCPS and charter education than elected and appointed officials. Different issue that's specific to DC.

Why does Bradley have such influence?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many conservatives believe in charter schools. It doesn't necessarily mean they have "ulterior" motives in funding charter schools. They may fund them because they believe -- and in order to prove -- that they work. I'm not at all conservative, but I don't see a problem with this. A city can separately decide whether to allow charters or not; but, once they do, why shouldn't conservatives pony up? Wouldn't it actually be hypocritical if they didn't given that the success of charters often relies on private fundraising?

Yes, but the money behind charter schools comes from conservative billionaires like the DeVoses, Bradley foundation, etc.
Those conservative donors’ agenda is to damage public schools to:
- make money from privatization
- reduce number of conserv kids who learn about the world and thus become liberal (same reason the donors created Hillsdale, Liberty U, etc)
- keep people uneducated (no coincidence the biggest predictor of Trump voting was low education level)

Great if many conservatives immersed in a low-information conservative media bubble like charter schools.

But Charter schools are a win-win-win for conservative donors. And outside of a few city schools where they bring up low performance levels, charter schools are a failure for the 99.99% of us that are not billionaires.

Do you mean Katherine Bradley? Not a billionaire or conservative. But does have more influence on DCPS and charter education than elected and appointed officials. Different issue that's specific to DC.

Why does Bradley have such influence?

$$$

[Anonymous]

Bradley (Citybridge Fdtn) is a player for both charters and DCPS. Gives money to both.

Her foundation is also where Jenny Niles landed.

[Anonymous]

And she bankrolls EL Haynes and PAVE. PAVE is just so charter focused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And she bankrolls EL Haynes and PAVE. PAVE is just so charter focused.

PAVE is for charter parents. No one pretends otherwise.

[Anonymous]

PAVE gets a lot of money from Walton and other school choice finders. At least K Bradley lives here.

[Anonymous]

pave pretends otherwise. Pave says they are for all, but they are really for “choice”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pave pretends otherwise. Pave says they are for all, but they are really for “choice”.

Which does cover about 75% of students in DC, since only half of DCPS students are in their IB schools in addition to the charter kids.

[Anonymous]

But they mean “choice” charter. Not “choice” dcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But they mean “choice” charter. Not “choice” dcps.

1) PAVE's agenda is set by the parents annually - and they are DEFINITELY not all charter parents
2) PAVE supported Bard coming to DCPS - so they are about choice across sectors

PAVE is doing really great work with parents across both sectors - I've loved being a part of it. If you think it's a "false front" or some kind of conspiracy I encourage you to actually get involved and see what it's really about, parent empowerment.

[Anonymous]

I went. I heard. Charter agenda masked by parent voice. Tricky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But they mean “choice” charter. Not “choice” dcps.

1) PAVE's agenda is set by the parents annually - and they are DEFINITELY not all charter parents
2) PAVE supported Bard coming to DCPS - so they are about choice across sectors

PAVE is doing really great work with parents across both sectors - I've loved being a part of it. If you think it's a "false front" or some kind of conspiracy I encourage you to actually get involved and see what it's really about, parent empowerment.

I think a concern is that they are not a grassroots organization bootstrapped by parents, like most PTOs. They are 100% funded by Walton, et al to create the appearance of parent involvement and engagement, to further Walton’s agenda. In that sense, it is a front, yes. It’s board includes self-selected folks from the same Walton-funded crowd. Does its founder or leadership have children in DC schools?