Jersey Jazzman

I'm sure folks will have plenty to say over the next few days about Michelle Rhee's corporate money funnel, StudentsFirst: Joy Resmovits of the Huffington Post just published the group's latest IRS report:

The national lobbying group that aims to spread the education-reform gospel of former Washington, D.C., public schools chancellor Michelle Rhee is hauling in significantly more cash but has so far failed to meet its own fundraising goals, recently filed tax documents obtained by The Huffington Post show. 

When Rhee launched StudentsFirst in December 2011 in an appearance on "Oprah,"she said her goal was to raise $1 billion in one year. StudentsFirst then adjusted its projection, saying it aimed to raise that hefty sum over five years.

The group still appears to be falling short. In the fiscal year starting August 1, 2011 and ending July 31, 2012, StudentsFirst raised $28.5 million, more than tripling its $7.6 million fundraising the previous year. During that period, the group's political 501(c)(4) arm raised $15.6 million and spent $13.4 million. Rhee herself drew a salary of about $300,000. [emphasis mine]

Hey, she's doing it for the kids...

I've been combing through the From 990, and some interesting things have emerged. As Resmovits reports, StudentsFirst is giving a lot of money to the lobbying-industrial complex:

The documents show how the organization has spent its money. StudentsFirst spent about $638,000 on Change.org petitions and paid $302,000 to lobbyist Bradley Tusk and $2 million to the public relations firm SKD Knickerbocker. According to blogger Alexander Russo, the group gave candidates $3.7 million in campaign contributions in 14 states -- 42 percent to Democrats, 58 percent to Republicans.

More on those campaign contributions later; for now, let's take a look at the lobbyists, starting with Bradley Tusk. We here in Jersey know this character far too well; here's the Star-Ledger from 10/27/11:

One of every three dollars of private money spent so far in Newark’s bid to reform its schools has gone to consultants and contractors, many with ties to Mayor Cory Booker and acting state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf, records show. 

[...] 

The second biggest recipient of the Facebook money is Tusk Strategies, a New York political consulting firm that managed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 re-election campaign. Cerf left his post as a deputy education chancellor in Bloomberg’s administration to serve on the campaign. 

Calls to Tusk were not returned, but according to founder Bradley Tusk’s online biography, the group was responsible for creating and advising PENewark, the heavily-criticized campaign to gather public input on the school reform effort in Newark. 

When PENewark first began its work last November, Booker said only $1 million would be spent on the effort — roughly $500,000 for salaries and $500,000 for advertising. Tusk was paid more than $1.5 million between October 2010 and April 2011, according to the e-mails. Taylor said Wednesday the cost of the PENewark initiative was $2 million. [emphasis mine]

Hey, he was doing it all for the kids...

Tusk is merely one of a gaggle of Cerf's buddies who have done very well for themselves since old Chris managed to insert himself into the NJDOE. Of course, Tusk hasn't limited his self-enrichment to this side of the Hudson, as Leonie Haimson has documented in nauseating detail:

Tusk is the former Lt. Governor and right hand man to former Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, who is now serving a 14 year sentence for corruption. Subsequently, Tusk became the manager of Bloomberg’s 2009 mayoral campaign, which spent $109 million and won by only 4.5  percentage points, after inundating NYC voters will hundreds of mailers like those being sent out about Hagel.  Tusk’s website also takes credit for running the campaign that lifted the cap on charters for DFER/ERN and the hedgefunders, and states that he now works for Michelle Rhee’s StudentFirst NY and Eva Moskowitz’s chain of Success Academy charters:

With StudentsFirst, led by Michelle Rhee, we have played an integral role in the first comprehensive attempt to pursue and implement education reform across the country. This includes launching full campaigns in target cities and states across the nation. With the Success Charter Network, Tusk Strategies has helped introduce high performing charter schools to new neighborhoods across New York City.

More about Eva's links to this little playgroup in a second. We know Tusk studied at the feet of Blagojevich; who else does he hang with?

His website brags that he helped organize an education forum in October 2011 during the Presidential campaign,  with four GOP candidates, co-hosted by the College Board and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation:  “While all of the GOP candidates were invited to participate, only former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum attended in person, with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Cain speaking via satellite.”  Who moderated?  None other than our former chancellor, Joel Klein.

Murdoch? That's interesting: according to Steve Brill, Murdoch is one of StudentsFirst's biggest funders; the website RheeFirst claims the amount could be as much as $50 million. Of course, Joel Klein has been Murdoch's consiglieri in the NewsCorp phone hacking scandal, and now runs Murdoch's education arm, Amplify, where he is utterly shameless.

That's quite a crew for a "liberal" like Tusk to be hanging with, don't you think?

Haimson also recounts Tusk's jihad against the confirmation of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hegel, which Tusk claimed was financed by LGBT groups Hegel angered. Problem was, it didn't appear Tusk was being straight (sorry...):

Though Tusk claims this campaign is being funded by progressive members of the gay community, LGBT groups have criticized Tusk for keeping his donors secret, and Rachel Maddow has suggested that it’s most likely funded by right wingers disguising themselves as liberal. The NYT article suggests that this campaign is really being financed by GOP forces allied with hawks on Israel and who may want to hand Obama a defeat.  According to the NY Times:

In an interview, Mr. Tusk would only identify its financiers as Democratic “gay and L.G.B.T. people who have been active in campaigns around the country.” Yet federal records show that Use Your Mandate uses Del Cielo Media, an arm of one of the most prominent Republican ad-buying firms in the country, Smart Media, with clients that have included the presidential campaigns of former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah and Senator John McCain of Arizona; the 2010 Senate campaign of Christine O’Donnell, who was known for positions against homosexuality, in Delaware; and, as it happens, the Emergency Committee for Israel. 

So Tusk organized a debate between four of the biggest homophobes in the Republican party, then claimed he was working for LGBT donors, then used an ad buying firm that represented even more Republican homophobes.

Hey, he was doing it all for the kids...

But it actually gets worse, because Tusk was taking money from Mark Zuckerberg, who turned out to be one of NJ Governor Chris Christie's biggest supporters. As I said earlier this year:

- By now, everyone in New Jersey knows that Mark Zuckerberg is throwing a big fundraiser for Chris Christie's re-election bid. No one is more responsible for keeping marriage equity from coming to the Garden State than Christie, yet Zuckerberg still supports him.

But here's Tusk, indignantly claiming the LGBT community is outraged at Hagel's nomination, even though Tusk happily took money from the guy who empowers New Jersey's biggest bigot. 

I wouldn't expect Tusk to give the money back at this point, but I would dearly love to hear him chastise Zuckerberg for supporting Christie, openly and publicly. Think he'll do it? If his clients really are “gay and L.G.B.T. people who have been active in campaigns around the country," they should be thrilled to hear his condemnations of Zuckerberg for backing Christie.

Trust me - that never happened.

So that's the story on Tusk; what about SKD Knickerbocker? Well...

The Success Academy Charter Schools Inc., run by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, applied in April for an increase from $1,350 to $2,000 in the annual per student payment it receives from the state to run 10 of its charter schools. 

[...]

Last year alone, the network spent an astounding $883,119 on "student recruitment" - much of it for glossy flyers mailed to hundreds of thousands of parents; bus stop and Internet ads and an army of paid recruiters to go door-to-door soliciting student applications.

That includes internet ads that run on this very blog - thanks New York taxpayers! Aren't you happy you're subsidizing me?

Even other charter schools rarely spend more than a few thousand dollars on student recruitment.

Meanwhile, Moskowitz's network spent another $1.3 million on what it described as "network events and community outreach."

It paid $243,150 to SKD Knickerbocker, a high-powered public relations firm, to supplement its own in-house press people, and another $129,000 to a Washington consulting firm founded by President Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod.

Hey, they do it all for the kids...

SKD Knickbocker got the original $100K contract to do Rhee's Extreme Makeover - Reformy Edition back when she was fleeing from the wreckage she had caused in the Washington, D.C. schools. But that's chump change compared to their real business: selling access to the neo-liberal corporatists at the Obama White House:

As we’ve reported, SKDKnickerbocker is led by a team of former Democratic operatives and key White House figures. But instead of promoting a progressive agenda, or even an Obama agenda, these consultants score huge contracts by helping corporate interests lobby for policies that are not in line with the public interest. Many SKDKnickerbocker employees, including Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director, are also frequent White House visitors.

We’ve compiled a partial list of SKD Knickerbocker’s clients. Since the firm refuses to register as an ordinary lobbying firm, we don’t know their full roster of clients:

-– SKDKnickerbocker was hired by Kaplan Education to block Obama’s reforms on for-profit college companies, an industry plagued by low quality education, false promises to students, and fraudulent business practices.

[...]

– SKDKnickerbocker consults for Students First, a lobbying group aimed at destroying collective bargaining, and replacing public education with a mix of charters, private schools, and online learning companies. According to documents revealed the blog At The Chalk Face, Students First helped craft bills in Michigan to break teachers unions by severely limiting collective bargaining.

Hey, they do it all for the kids...

So, what's the point of all this? From where I sit, two things:

- How much more proof do we need that the Democratic party infrastructure has sold out public education, teachers, and their unions to corporate money funnelers like Rhee? When fraudulent liberals like Tusk and the SKG Knickerbocker crew happily suck up money from the likes of StudentsFirst, any notion that the party insiders continue to have allegiance to public education is patently false. Don't let anyone try to tell you that the center-left is pro-public education, pro-teacher, and pro-labor; they aren't.

- There are a lot of people making a lot of money off of education "reform." So let's once and for all drop the cant about how these people have some higher, morally superior motive:

"The one really important difference is that the people we represent are the kids and the families," said Derrell Bradford, executive director of the policy arm of the group [B4K]. "I know everybody says it's all about that. We have no financial interest in public education, at all. Every other group does. I don't say that in a way that's meant to disparage anyone. We can be about pure activism because we don't have anything to gain from the success of the agenda other than that kids get better educational opportunities."

That is a steaming pile of dung. People are making money left and right by bad-mouthing teachers, bad-mouthing unions, and, yes, bad-mouthing students:



Don't fool yourself, folks: this cheap shot, courtesy of Rhee, StudentsFirst, and all of their "advisors," is mocking our children. It is designed to sow seeds of doubt about our students' accomplishments with the specific goal of raking in cash so the people around StudentsFirst can get fat and happy.

They are not doing it for the kids.



COMING UP: Speaking of B4K and StudentsFirst...

We simply cannot afford to wait any longer on the Common Core assessments! Jeb! Bush is leading the charge, and he will simply not tolerate delays! Randi Weingarten is wrong to attack the Common Core (even though she never did), and we should no longer put up with her and the other lovers of the status quo incessantly whining that we are not ready! Full speed ahead! All of Jeb!'s Chiefs For Change agree!

Er... don't they?

State Superintendent Janet Barresi announced Monday that she is withdrawing Oklahoma from testing through a consortium of 20 or so other states to coincide with the new Common Core curriculum standards. 

That would be the very same Janet Barresi who, as a member of Jeb!'s Chief For Change, signed off on a letter to SecEd Arne Duncan that said:

The members of Chiefs for Change reject any calls for a moratorium on accountability. This position overstates the challenge and undervalues our educators. A one-size-fits-all suspension of accountability measures denies the unique circumstances each state faces. We will not relax or delay our urgency for creating better teacher, principal, school and district accountability systems as we implement more rigorous standards. That is a disservice to our students and would undermine the tremendous amount of preparation our states’ education agencies, districts, schools and educators have contributed to this multi-year effort. 

The Chiefs for Change states are prepared to thoughtfully manage the transition. We have participated in the development of the new assessments; put in place comprehensive plans to provide necessary professional development to educators; and our accountability systems are ready for this change. Over the last few years, each state has developed its own unique accountability model that is demanding in regard to academic outcomes but flexible, when necessary, with regards to changing processes. [emphasis mine]

So, uh, Superintendent Barresi: how's that "thoughtful management" coming?

Many educators and parents groups have been vocal in recent months about their concern about the additional hours of test-taking that would be involved in PARCC assessments.

Barresi said their concerns, along with her own about the technology readiness of the state’s public schools and higher anticipated costs, were her three primary reasons for backing out.

She said the vast majority of technical problems that public schools experienced with online testing this spring are proof that Oklahoma just does not yet have the capacity for the volume of online testing required for PARCC tests.

And she added, many schools don’t have the expertise or funds to improve connectivity, increase bandwith, and add enough more more devices to get caught up by 2014-15.

“If we move ahead with this, we are going to be asking the state to drink a milkshake using a cocktail straw,” Barresi said.

“If you look at what happened with testing this year — kids getting screen frozen, knocked off the test — those were technical issues that were from the districts’ end of things. (The testing vendor) crashed for two days because of server problems, but almost every bit of the rest of it was due to district issues. I’m not pointing fingers, but it is the reality.” [emphasis mine]

That's OK, Superintendent, you don't have to point fingers - I'll do it for you. You are the one at fault here. When the system came crashing down on the last administration of the state tests, you're the one who said:

“I had zero involvement in the process from start to finish personally.”

Maybe if you had a little more involvement, you'd have realized early on you weren't ready for this pie-in-the-sky, untested, unproven, unvetted system of "accountability."

But, like all of Jeb!'s Chiefs For Change, nothing is ever your fault. After all, you've learned from a member of America's leading blame-dodging family!

There’s more associations.  Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education has designated 8 current state education bosses  as Chiefs for Change. Of the 22 states in PARCC, six are run by one of Bush’s Chiefs. The number of states  is actually 7 as Indiana is still part of PARCC. Of Bush’s 8 Chief’s states, only Maine is not part of PARCC. Past Florida commissioners, Eric Smith and Gerard Robinson have Chiefs emeritus status. Smith is on PARCC’s governing board

Pearson has been a corporate sponsor of Bush’s foundation for some time. The testing giant  bragged to potential investors in February this year that they had been awarded the contract for PARCC.

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), a consortium of 23 states, awarded Pearson and Educational Testing Service (ETS) the contract to develop test items that will be part of the new English and mathematics assessments to be administered from the 2014-2015 school year. The assessments will be based on what students need to be ready for college and careers, and will measure and track their progress along the way

There was likely considerable PARCC-Pearson panic when Bennett was defeated last November in Indiana. As it turns out, there was no need for panic. Bennett’s role as PARCC’s fiscal agent never left him. He was appointed state education commissioner  by Florida’s Board of Education in December 2012 and didn’t leave his Indiana post until the next month.

Hey, it's all about the kids, amiright...

Kevin P. Chavous is the board chair of Democrats For Education Reform and a staunch reformy-type, proudly working with politicians on both sides of the aisle to bring "choice" to public schools. Chavous has written before about how concerned he is with women's rights:

Every day in this country, scores of children persevere against incredibly negative odds. Their struggles are virtually unnoticed: their accomplishments are unheralded. But they survive and many succeed. In my new book,Voices of Determination I share the stories of ten young people who endured and overcame significant challenges in order to obtain their education. Each story is heart wrenching and inspiring. And each kid exemplifies that innate human quality found in all of us: the will to do better and to be better.

Among the kids I feature is Zina, an amazing young woman from Afghanistan, who migrated to the states with her mother and siblings once the Taliban took over the country in the late nineties. The Taliban killed her father and grandfather and took away her mother's college professorship. In fact, the Taliban instantly changed Afghanistan from a country with progressive views toward women to a country in which women were relegated to sexist policies found hundreds of years ago. All of the women in the country had to wear full body burkas and none could go to school or work outside of the home. [emphasis mine]

Good on Chavous for bringing us this story of courage in the face of rampant sexism. I think we can all agree that women should not be treated as objects, right, Kevin?

Room Service
She like that freaky stuff
Two and the O, 1 in the eye,
that kinky stuff, you nasty,
but I like your type
and like T.I. its whatever you like.
Bring your girls,
its whatever tonight,
your man just left,
I'm the plumber tonight,
I check your pipes,
oh, you're the healthy type.
Well, here goes some egg whites.
Now gimme that sweet, that nasty gushy stuff,

The Anthem 

She told me that her mama's Latin, her dad Asian
Abuela está loca, abuelo Hatian
Y yo soy Cubano and I'm impatient
So do me a favor, let's skip conversation
I just wanna taste ya ASAP
Take ya ASAP, to the room ASAP
Zoom zoom ASAP, boom boom take that
Ooh, I like that when you fight back

According to Kevin P. Chavous, board chair of DFER, the man who performed these lyrics is "incomparable."

That's one way of putting it...

As I detailed earlier, Pitbull is opening a new, taxpayer-funded charter school in Miami in partnership with Academica, the company owned by another man in this picture, Fernando Zulueta. The Miami Herald ran a terrific series on Academica and Zulueta, Cashing In On Kids, detailing how he and his brother have made millions through rental and management fees paid by ostensibly "non-profit" charters, all while working a variety of political connections.

I have not been able to determine Pitbull's financial relationship to this charter, although "Mr. Worldwide" is well-known for marketing himself and endorsing a variety of products. He has worked in the past with Walmart; no surprise there, because the Walton family is one of the largest supporters of the charter "movement" in the country. In fact, DFER's sugar daddy, Whitney Tilson, admits John Walton was an "inspiration" for Chavous's organization.

Together, Pitbull and Walmart worked a big marketing campaign for Energy Sheets, a caffeine-laden product that health professionals warn is unsafe for children, even though it's sweet and resembles candy:
 Given all this, I'll ask Mr. Chavous:

- Do you think the values that Pitbull espouses in his lyrics are values appropriate for a taxpayer-funded school?

- Do you think the taxpayers of South Florida are well-served by Academica and the Zuluetas?


- In the interests of transparency, will you call for Pitbull, Academica, Mater Charter Academies, and all other involved parties to fully disclose their financial dealings and release copies of all contracts as relates to the SLAM Charter School?

DFER says they are all about "choice." Fine - but a good "choice" requires information, does it not? Shouldn't parents and students have a full accounting of the dealings behind charter schools before they make their "choices"?

ADDING: Looks like Twitter has already answered my question:

I swear, I couldn't make this stuff up:

Today, the misogynist rapper Pitbull gave the opening speech at the 2013 National Charter Schools Conference. Pitbull is "founding" a charter in Miami that will be managed by the for-profit company Academica, which has already made gobs of cash by building school facilities and then renting them to the "non-profit" charters they manage. There is no reporting on what kind of deal Pitbull structured with Academica, although he is well-known for managing and licensing his "brand."

During the same conference, the Walton family was inducted into the National Charter Schools Hall of Fame (yes, there is such a thing - oy). The Waltons, of course, owe their vast fortunes to Walmart, one of the least labor-friendly corporations in the world (their less-than-admirable employee practices, it turns out, are costing them a boatload of money). They've used part of that funding to promote a pro-charter school agenda, which includes funding the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, who, of course, gave the Waltons the award (least they could do).

Well, guess what else Pitbull and Walmart have in common?

6/29/12 -- Pitbull met with residents at a Walmart in the small (population 6,130) Alaska town today—a stop Mr. Worldwide probably never thought he'd be making until a promotional campaign with the big-box store, in which he agreed to appear at the Walmart with the most "likes" on Facebook, became the target of a concerted effort to "exile" the rapper.

But it appeared to be a win-win situation as the "Give Me Everything" rapper performed at the local Coast Guard base and posed for photos, the fans being the unwitting winners after Boston Phoenix writer David Thorpe started a Twitter campaign to get Pitbull as far off the beaten path as possible.

Yes, that's right: Pitbull teamed up with Walmart to sell "Energy Sheets." You'll remember that Pitbull's mother gave him this advice:

I would learn during our conversation that his mother advised him to look like “old money,” meaning no gaudy bling blinding you from the sparkling glare. She told him that if he decked himself out in expensive clothes and ostentatious jewelry he would look like “new money,” and the sycophants would want to bleed him dry of cash. [emphasis mine]

In recent years, drinks that combine alcohol with caffeine, such as Four Loko, have been blamed for the deaths of teens and college students. But a new epidemic involves younger children: elementary school students are drinking highly caffeinated energy drinks to catch a buzz. Even without alcohol, these drinks are dangerous to kids' health. 

"Energy drinks are gateway for elementary school kids," said Mike Gimbel, a national substance abuse educator. "They drink it like it's water. Nurses have kids coming in with heart palpitations." 

Gimbel said he has also observed a growing fascination among elementary school students with caffeinated gel strips that you place on the tongue, such as ones made by the brand Sheets.  

"One strip is equal to a cup of coffee, but kids are putting five or six in their mouth at once," he said. "You can overdose on caffeine by taking three or four." 

Overconsumption of caffeine, especially in young children who have smaller bodies, can cause seizures, strokes or even sudden death, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. [emphasis mine]

And:

The power of sports heroes is powering a new kind of energy supplement. But pediatricians say parents should be careful their kids aren't using it.

The compact 2.5 ounce "quick energy" drinks have competition and some big name competitors are pushing them.

"Anytime you use an athlete who is well known, that's obviously going to catch the attention of kids," said Dr. Dan Kraft, Riley Children's Hospital.

But should kinds be paying attention to sheets of energy strips?

Eyewitness News found them at one store for $6 a box, along with an explanation from the store clerk.

"It has a lot of B12 in it. That's a good, healthy energy and also has some caffeine. Not a lot," the clerk said.

"Two of these things have twice the caffeine of Mountain Dew," Dr. Kraft said. "You can get some palpitations, where you feel your heart is racing and there can be some side effects to that."

Encouraged by sports role models, student athletes may take the caffeine strips, not realizing they make users lose body fluid. In a game, that could mean dehydration and cramping.

The size of the strips are of concern, as well.

"They can very easily take this product at halftime, if people are not watching," Dr. Kraft said.

"I don't even like my kids drinking energy drinks. I don't know what the long-term effects are. No clue," said parent Doug Holder.

"It's not good then, especially in the heat," said another parent.

Some of the products come with specific warnings, not to take it if you're under 12 and that the strips are not FDA approved. [emphasis mine]

And:

A new form of getting that caffeine boost is an energy strip that dissolves in your mouth.

But a local health expert says they're a risk.

Sheets brand Energy Strips can be found in gas stations across Champaign Urbana.

University of Illinois Food Science and Human Nutrition professor Dr. Margarita Teran says consuming too much caffeine is dangerous.

Consuming too many of these energy strips or energy drinks can cause harm to the body, affecting sleep, mood, anxiety, gastrointestinal issues and causing severe headaches.

Each energy strip contains 100 mg of caffeine.

The Academy of American Pediatrics recommends people under 21 years old should have no more than 100 mg of caffeine in one day.

Taking 4 of the energy strips in one day puts people at a toxic level of caffeine consumption. [emphasis mine]

So let's be clear: Pitbull and the Waltons have teamed up not only to sell charter schools to the American public, but to also sell a caffeine-laden product that doctors warn could be harmful to children.

It's worth noting that Pitbull is also a spokesman for Bud Light, which can also be purchased at Walmart. Of course, that's not what the rapper himself drinks:

The watery Anheuser-Busch product is nowhere to be found on the 31-year-old performer’s tour rider. Instead, Pitbull (real name: Armando Christian Perez) requires promoters to provide him with a case of Corona beer, a product of Crown Imports.

Click here for a rider excerpt detailing Pitbull’s backstage hospitality demands.

In addition to the 24 Coronas, the rapper’s booze requirements include three bottles of Ketel One vodka, and single bottles of Patron tequila, Hennessy cognac, and champagne (either Moët Rose Imperial or Moët Nectar Imperial).

Hey, he's an adult: he can drink whatever he wants. I'm sure he and Walmart join with me and educators across America in doing whatever we can to stop minors from drinking.

Because we wouldn't want to hurt kids, would we?


ADDING: Pitbull also endorsed Dr. Pepper, another drink laced with caffeine that you can purchase at your local Walmart.

Just wondering: is there anything these two sell together that's healthy for kids?

ADDING MORE: More on Sheets and children:

Teens already consume too many daily doses of caffeine, from the morning Joe to cokes and energy drinks that can cause palpitations, anxiety and sleep disturbances, just at the age when they need their sleep for growth, experts say. 

"It's a really bad idea," said Rosalind Cartwright, professor emeriti in neurological sciences in the Graduate College at Rush University Medical Center. "One hundred milligrams is not that much. But if used repeatedly, it can cause all kinds of trouble. 

"It will give them a jolt and somewhat better focus and attention for a short while, but it has a pretty steep dropoff, and if you keep taking it, you get enormously sleepy afterwards." 

[...] 

Purebrands CEO Warren Struhl was unavailable for an interview but told ABCNews.com in an email that, "Sheets has been very clear on their packaging in terms of discouraging usage by kids under 12." 

But caffeine can be hazardous for any age in teens who are sensitive or those with heart conditions or attention-deficit disorder. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a report this month recommending that teens and children avoid energy and sports drinks, which carry no benefit and some risk. That includes all caffeinated drinks, including colas and coffee. 

"Caffeine is very safe; it's used in newborns to increase arousal," said John Herman, professor in sleep medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. 

"But nothing should be packaged that could appeal to children," Herman said. "It should specify dosage and instructions on how to use it and what is the maximum. A high dose of anything -- sugar or salt -- becomes harmful. 

"If it's red-colored and it's sweet, kids might take three, four or five of them and go into an anxiety attack and palpitations," he said. "Kids get anxious when they take caffeine and it could put them over the top." [emphasis mine]

Just to reiterate: the people making money from selling this stuff are now directing our education policy.

Everyone OK with that?

This time of year affords me the luxury of taking a few days to just read, write, and think. And it's at times like this that I can pull a few threads together to make a larger tapestry (yeah, the summer seems to be straining my metaphors a bit...).

Yesterday, I detailed the rapper Pitbull's foray into the wacky world of for-profit charter schooling. One thing that struck me, as I watched him make his little pre-scripted appearances in the media, is how badly the corporatized media wants us to believe that the rich and famous are doing good through their "charitable" works. Katie Couric, for instance, gushed over "Mr. 305" for "giving back to the community" by opening a charter school.

Well, how exactly is he "giving back"? His charter school, SLAM, will receive taxpayers funds for its operation. A hefty portion of those funds will go to a company called Academica, which has a documented history of enriching itself at the public trough by controlling charter school real estate, which is exempt from property taxes, while collecting rental fees from the charters it manages.

Maybe Pitbull is actually donating some money for the start-up or operations; I wouldn't know, because it appears no one in the press has bothered to ask - that includes "journalists" like Katie Couric. But if SLAM follows the pattern of other Academica schools, someone is going to make money off of this thing.

Does this sound like "charity" to you?

Today, Pitbull gave a speech at the 2013 National Charter Schools Conference, extolling the virtues of "choice" in education. At the same conference, the Walton Family Foundation is scheduled to be inducted into the National Charter Schools Hall of Fame:

Walton Family Foundation

The Arkansas-based Walton Family Foundation has provided an unprecedented level of financial support to schools and education organizations across the country over the past decade. Founded and run by the family of billionaire businessman Sam Walton, the foundation supports a wide range of causes but education organizations are its top funding priority and received over $158 million in grants in 2012 alone.
The foundation’s core strategy is “to infuse competitive pressure into America’s K-12 education system by increasing the quantity and quality of school choices available to parents, especially in low-income communities.” To do so, it spreads its education funding across three distinct initiatives: shaping public policy, creating quality schools, and improving existing schools. Charter schools have especially benefitted from the second initiative: to date, the Walton Family Foundation has invested over $300 million in start-up schools and is now the largest single funder of new charters. Additionally, the foundation has funded state charter organizations, local charter networks, national advocacy groups, teacher training programs, and research initiatives.[emphasis mine]

OK, look: maybe you're for charter schools, and maybe you aren't. Personally, I'd feel a lot better about their proliferation if the charter cheerleaders were at least somewhat honest about how they get their "successes." Regardless, I've always felt that there could be a place for charters if they are tightly regulated and if the communities they serve agree to have them.

But that's my opinion. You can agree or disagree, and that's fine; let's have the debate. But when did we decide that spreading the Walton family's opinion about charters was a "charitable" act? 

If the Waltons want to fund credentialed scholars to engage in high-quality, peer-reviewed research in public policy, I can see that as charitable giving. But giving money to think tanks and advocacy groups - like NAPCS - isn't funding policy development; it's promoting an agenda. It's really no different from giving money to a political candidate because he or she will vote the way you want on issues - and, yes, that includes issues that may not affect you directly. It really doesn't matter much why the Waltons want more charters; it's enough that they do, and that they are willing to spend gobs of money to get them.

Does this sound like "charity" to you?

Bill Gates has been pouring millions of dollars into educational "research." One of the groups he funds is the National Council on Teacher Quality, which, amazingly, put out a report recently that shores up his belief that something is very wrong with the way we train teachers. It doesn't much matter that just about every prominent education policy scholar has ripped this piece of hack-junk to shreds, including:

• Jack Hassard*
• Bruce Baker
• Linda Darling-Hammond
• Richard Allington
• Aaron Pallas
• Jon Eckert
• Sherman Dorn
• Michael Feuer
• Diane Ravitch
• Ed Fuller

The prosecutor, who was a woman, made a statement during sentencing about me not doing any charity work for a number of years during my ‘exile.’ A) Charity work is not a requirement, but something done because someone wants to. I was clearly doing charitable works way before other people were even thinking about it. And B) Even the judge had to comment that she, meaning I, was both having and raising children during this period. As if that was not challenging enough to do. She sounded like the echo of the grotesque slave master, who expected women to give birth while in the field, scoop the Baby up, and then continue to work. Disgusting.

Yeah, OK, that last part's a bit over the top for me - your mileage may vary. But I think Hill's got a serious point here: since when did "charity" work become a "Get Out of Jail Free" card (either actual or metaphorical) for the rich and famous?

We see this all the time: athletes, pop stars, actors, business titans - all happily smiling in front of the camera as they go about their "charitable" works. Except we rarely, if ever, get a true look at what exactly those "works" are. Yes, we get some nice press releases and photo-ops that, as Hill points out, can be quite valuable when the star is in trouble with the law or building his brand. But is what they are doing properly defined as "charity"?

When Mark Zuckerberg fell victim to an embarrassing movie, he rushed on to Oprah Winfrey's show and declared that his new "charity" would be education "reform" in Newark.


Does this sound like "charity" to you?



* This is actually a critique of a 2012 report on teacher preparation put out by NCTQ. I regret the error.