This press release from the Neighborhood Schools Alliance hammers home the murky connection between the Portland School Board and the deep-pocketed and privately endowed Broad Foundation, an organization with strong links to the Bush Administration and a staunch proponent of charter schools.
The most troubling revelation in the press release is the role played by the Portland Schools Foundation in reshaping a "weak" school board, with the help of Broad, Stand for Children, and former school board members -a who's who of Portland's "movers and shakers"- into its vision of a strong and "reform-minded" board. Beginning in 2003, and again in 2005, PSF pretty much hand-picked the seven board members who currently run the Portland district.
Are they reform minded? If you believe in school choice, yes. If you like charter schools, yes. If you like No Child Left Behind and testing for accountability, definitely yes. And if you like an increasingly top-down management style with little input from school patrons, including teachers, students, parents, and average citizens, then you have to congratulate PSF on what they've managed to pull off.
If, on the other hand, you're concerned about the preservation of strong neighborhood schools and a semblance of democracy in the running of the district, then you have to conclude that the Portland Schools Foundation is little more than a local version of the Broad Institute, using it's money and clout to run roughshod over local educational politics and policy.
The board "created" by PSF has done nothing to "improve the atmosphere of the school district and change the tone of the conversation about PPS in the broader community." Enrollment continues to plummet, neighborhood schools are being closed, the district faces a $57 million budget shortfall, and a there is zero probability of finding local tax revenue to plug the holes. If anything, the "tone of the conversation" has worsened over the past two and half years.
When I ran for the school board in 2003, none of the "reform" slate -and it was a slate- recruited by PSF and backed by Stand for Children campaigned for neighborhood schools, or even for adequate public funding. It was all about "accountability" and "efficiency". And what did we get? Fewer neighborhood schools, the decline of many others, and ultimately far less funding. That's not a record of accomplishment.
One last note. The weak leadership decried by the Portland Schools Foundation includes former board chair Ron Saxton. Saxton, a founding member of PSF, used his school board experience as a springboard to gubernatorial politics. He was crushed last time around. I expect the same in this election.
The way to collect the votes and -- more important -- the money of these coveted constituencies, "New Democrats" think, is to stand rock-solid on
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