Consumer Finance Companies: July 2013

Joshua Hendrick’s new book on Gulen - Gulen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World - opens with an introduction with that title.

Teasers:

In a 2005 poll administered to determine “the world’s most influential public intellectual,” the U.S. political magazine Foreign Policy (FP), together with its British affiliate, Prospect, published an unranked list of one hundred people whom their editors believed to be the most impactful opinion makers, political leaders, policy advisers, activists, and scholars in the world…After four weeks and more than five hundred thousand votes, Fethullah Gülen was named “the world’s most influential public intellectual” by a wide margin (Nuttal 2008). The July 2008 edition of Prospect magazine subsequently published a series of articles asking the question—who is Fethullah Gülen?

More relevant to the charter school finance theme of this blog:

Indeed, access to public funding via the expanding “school choice” system in the United States has produced an environment whereby, with approximately 130 schools as of March 2012, the United States hosts more “Gulen-inspired schools” than does any country in the world outside Turkey.

This book is worth the money no matter the price.

I wrote the other day that “there is no conspiracy" when it comes to the school privatization forces in the United States.

In the English language only the word “conspiracy” applies to what Gulen’s adherents have - shockingly, shamefully, successfully - set up in their network of charter schools here.

The more important question is: what are we prepared to do to force the necessary public debate about this conspiracy?

This is a long post but bear with me…

There is no conspiracy: the privatization crowd meets openly and publishes much of its playbook. The moneyed advocates for privatization are secure in their world of beach houses, gated mansions, in-breeding and tax avoidance lawyers. They hire (“slummin’ til my real job prospects improve or daddy takes back his Cayenne”) white, black and brown strivers to carry out the privatization agenda in town after town after town. Sometimes an independent journalist (rarely one at the corporate newspapers or news stations) writes a piece stringing it together and following the money back to some foundation.

But where to start? Which foundation? What city?

I go back to the Philanthropy Roundtable. I would follow any group from your home town or state that donates any of its tax exempt money to this pro-privatization outfit. If a corporate, (traditional) community or family foundation gives to the Philanthropy Roundtable, they have been hooked/lined/sinkered into the deform agenda.

How bad is Philanthropy Roundtable?

In 2013, where would you expect the deformers to hold a group hive five and congratulatory road show?

In Philadelphia of course. To wit:

September 30 – October 1

Union League Club – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Co-hosted by Delaware Valley Grantmakers
and Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust (CEE-Trust)

How can a philanthropist increase the number of great K-12 options in their city? Join donors from across the country as we examine the most promising strategies to grow what works in all of a city’s schools—charter, district, and Catholic/private—and explore the challenges and benefits of a city-based, multi-school sector strategy. How can donors increase a city’s total number of high-quality K-12 seats, regardless of the school sector(s) they fund? We’ll discuss investments that hold the promise of improving multiple types of schools and learn how donors are uniquely positioned to accelerate city-wide student achievement.

Discussions Include:

Incubating and attracting top school providers

Can school choice benefit private and public schools?

Building teacher and leader pipelines that serve all schools

How can blended learning be used in a purposeful city-wide strategy?

What does each sector— charter, district, and Catholic/private—do best, and what can each learn from the other?

Speakers Include:

Katherine Bradley, president, CityBridge Foundation

Mark Gleason, executive director, Philadelphia School Partnership

Scott Gordon, CEO, Mastery Charter Schools

Ethan Gray, executive director, Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust (CEE-Trust)

H. Edward Hanway, chairman, Faith in the Future Foundation

Jeremy Nowak, president, J. Nowak and Associates

Don Shalvey, deputy director, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Andy Smarick, research fellow, Bellwether Education

Schedule:

Monday, September 30

12:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.: Site Visits*

Schools Include:

Mastery Charter Schools

Mercy Vocational High School

These school visits will feature an interactive, donor-led conversation of how philanthropists can grow and replicate high-quality schools to achieve major student performance gains in cities.

*Roundtrip transportation will be provided from the Union League Club

4:15 p.m. Special Session (optional):

Not Business As Usual: How Executives are leading Catholic School Reform
This special session will feature prominent business leaders who will explore the role of lay leadership in developing new and innovative Catholic school models.

6:00 p.m. Opening Reception

Tuesday, October 1

8:00 a.m. Breakfast Roundtable Discussions

9:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Conference

A significant portion of the conference will give attendees the opportunity to engage in intimate, topic-specific working sessions and discussions about different investment options for accelerating city-wide student achievement.

Meeting Location:

Union League Club of Philadelphia
140 S Broad St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 563-6500

<END>

So clear so far…

In 2009, Philanthropy Roundtable released a paper (here in large pdf) still on their web site titled, “Investing in Charter Schools: A Guide For Donors.” This doesn’t actually mean “invest” as in “earn a direct monetary return” but close enough to not be totally misinterpreted by the vulture capitalists.

This report had a subsection titled “Funders Referenced” that will tell you exactly for each city or state who is the primary ‘wellspring’ for deform activity in a locality. [New York excepted because that’s where all the smarmiest, richest investors are and they can “invest” anywhere.] You’ll recognize some of these names more than others. This coven of deformers has certainly spread since 2009.