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[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]PP again. Jeff, I almost had to put on a tin foil hat after reading that article, the basic premise of which seems to be that rich people may get tax breaks by investing in certain non profits, like charter schools. It's simply not possible that that explains why hedge fund people support the DFERs of the world. I think a better explanation is that rich business people (and I mean uber rich) who want to donate to education are skeptical of school districts and instead [b]want more of a business approach to schools (objective measurements, results).[/b] That may not be the best thing for public schools but it's not a "Plan" to set up schools so they can make money.[/quote]

That is how they always explain it and maybe that is true in some cases. Obviously, none of them are going to publicize that they support Charter schools because they hope to financially benefit from it. None of them are that stupid. But, if you look at how things have played out (again, less so in DC than other places), you will see constant examples of their extracting funds from the public and lining their own pockets.

There are other non-financial aspects to their agenda such as opposing teachers' unions and, in some cases, weakening elected school boards, that are also controversial. But, they rarely, maybe never, run on that agenda. Instead, their advertisements will be about crime or whatever. For instance, DFER-funded flyers supporting Goulet said he stood for "safer streets". True or not, that's not why DFER supported him.

See this article about DFER's misleading advertisements:

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/304500/a-national-procharter-school-group-is-flooding-dc-mailboxes-with-campaign-flyers-this-cycle/

DFER was so off-base that the organization eventually released a statement apologizing, saying, "We made a mistake, and we have learned from it."

https://dfer.org/2020/06/07/dfer-dc-releases-statement-on-organizational-values-and-ward-4-primary/

I don't see how even a cursory examination of DFER's agenda and campaign practices would result in being comfortable with the organization's involvement in local politics. Obviously, those being supported and those who believe the ends justify the means are all for it. But, I don't think that most of us are.
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