Williams is the executive director of the affiliatedgroups named Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) and Education Reform Now(ERN), based in New York City.ERN has a nine-month-old chapter in Wisconsin,and DFER has branches in Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri and New Jersey.%uFFFD
The Wisconsin statedirector of both groups, Katy Venskus, has been lobbying in support of thepro-mayoral takeover Senate Bill 405, authored by state Sen. Lena Taylor andstate Rep. Pedro Colon.
Venskus also has organized a group of Milwaukee businessleadersincluding Julia Taylor of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, Tim Sheehyof the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and Tim Sullivan ofBucyrus Internationalto push for a mayor-appointed superintendent of MPS withenhanced executive powers.
But behind the public lobbying is a national networkof pro-privatization elites working to radically changesome would saydestroypublic education as we know it. While the pro-privatizers traditionallyhave been conservative Republicans and religious school supporters who backtaxpayer-funded voucher schools, this group of pro-privatizers is made up mainlyof conservative Democrats who see an enhanced role for the free market inpublic education in the form of vouchers, charter schools and mayor-leddistricts.
Teacher Bob Peterson, an editor of Rethinking Schools and a leader in the28-member Coalition to Stop the MPS Takeover, said it’s “really frightening”that the pro-privatization forces have gained power within the DemocraticParty.
“Democrats for Education Reform obviously have linedup with what I would call a market approach to solving social problems,”Peterson said. “As a teacher, I know that the marketplace hasn’t treated mykids very well in terms of their parents’ jobs and housing and health care. Forme to think that the marketplace is going to have these solutions foreducationI’m extremely skeptical.”
Milwaukeestate Rep. Tamara Grigsby, who with state Sen. Spencer Coggs has authored analternative MPS reform bill, said she is concerned that groups such as DFER andERN are putting private interests ahead of the public good.
“Unfortunately, these so-called education reformgroups are simply a veiled attempt at continuing the privatization of publiceducation in Milwaukee,”Grigsby said. “In truth, these groups have spent more time talking about the‘corporate role in education,’ rather than ways to improve public educationitself.”
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Wall Street’s Link to Education Reforms
While Wisconsinites may not be aware of the WallStreet link to a local issue like mayoral control of MPS, the New York press has begun to examine thelinks between hedge fund managers and Williams’ groups.
The boards of directors of both DFER and ERN areflush with Wall Street hedge fund managers who are affiliated with the New York charter schoolmovement.
The four-person Education Reform Now board is madeup of businessmen from the hedge funds Hawkshaw Capital, Gotham Capital, SACCapital and Maverick Capital.
The board of Democrats for Education Reform alsoshows links between the charter school movement and “hedge fund heavies,” as TheNewYork Times put it. Five of the seven board members are investors who serveon the boards of charter schools in New York. One of the charter schools, KIPP Academy,is a national network of 82 public schools in 19 states. The majority of DFER’sPAC donors are private investors.
As Williams gushed about charter schools to TheNewYork Times, “If you’re at a hedge fund, this is definitely the hot cause.”
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Lobbying for Mayoral Takeover and Voucher Schools
But Williams’ hedge-fund-friendly groups aren’t justfocused on New Yorkcharter schools and the Mayor Michael Bloomberg-led public schools. The groupsalso are involved in the push to change the governance of MPS and the survivalof the taxpayer-backed school voucher program.
Lobbyist Venskus, the Wisconsin state director of Education ReformNow Advocacy and the Democrats for Education Reform Wisconsin, is a formerstaffer to pro-voucher state Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee). Venskus isbased in Oconomowoc and says she splits her time between Milwaukeeand Madison.
“We don’t actually have an office,” Venskus said.“It’s just me right now.”
Indeedits Dec. 16, 2009, letter to legislatorsbacking the pro-takeover bill authored by state Sen. Lena Taylor and state Rep.Pedro Colon, features no address or phone number, just the ERN logo. Venskusherself signed the letter, identifying herself as “Democrats for EducationReform Wisconsin” without disclosing that she is a paid lobbyist for ERN, whichsent the letter.
But ERN has also gotten involved in voucher schoolreforms. Prior to its efforts to build support for the takeover, ERN lobbied onthe portions of the state budget that deal with voucher and charter schools.ERN spent $30,600 on those efforts, according to the GAB’s Web site,representing 222 hours of work on the matter. Venskus was also employed bySusan Mitchell’s pro-voucher organization, School Choice Wisconsin, to work onvoucher and charter issues in the budget.
Venskus said that ERN “worked closely” with Marquette University’s Howard Fuller on the budgetitems. (Voucher champion Fuller has donated to the Democrats for EducationReform PAC, and serves on the board of the Education Equality Project withex-Milwaukeean Williams.)
Stop the MPS Takeover’s Peterson said he hadexpected the voucher supporters to back the mayoral takeover.
“It’s clear that the voucher people are notinterested in a democratically elected school board,” Peterson said. “They knowthat the majority sentiment in the city is for supporting the public schools.People are critical of public schools, but they know that it’s an establishedinstitution that can serve kids and there’s some public accountability.”
Rep. Grigsby was skeptical of ERN’s truemotivations.
“The same special interests lobbying for EducationReform Now are those with strong ties to School Choice Wisconsin and MMAC,” shesaid. “I do not mean to paint all voucher advocates with the same brush, but ifimproving Milwaukee Public Schools was such a priority, then they should haveworked with those of us committed to doing just that in the state budget.Instead, these groups were completely silent on MPS until the potential mayoraltakeover became an issue.”
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More Charters In the City?
Venskus said that the ERN Milwaukee coalition that signed the Decemberletter to legislators has not taken a stand on issues such as charters andvouchers, although the national organization supports them.
“I do think there is a possibility to increase thenumber of high-quality charters in the city of Milwaukee with the governance change,”Venskus said. “One of the things we hope will happen is that the city will getmore aggressive about seeking top-notch charter operators, finding themlocally, but also recruiting from the national operators who do a good job.There are lots of folks who have looked at coming to Wisconsin, but our charter climate,particularly for independent charters, is not terribly welcoming.”
When asked if the charter allies on the board ofDFER would have a financial stake in a mayoral takeover of MPS, Venskusresponded, “It’s sort of an extrapolation to get there…That’s not why we’repursuing it.”
Venskus said she can’t predict how the competingreform measures will fare in the state Legislature.
“If we can get everyone to get off of theirpolitical soapboxes and get in a room and figure out how to do this, I think wecan get something done,” Venskus said.
And is Venskus herself on a soapbox?
“Umm… I’d rather not try to answer that,” she said.
