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Talking about a Parent Revolution
Written by Nancy Mitchell on Mar 6th, 2010. | Copyright © EdNewsColorado.org
This article is problematic on many levels, but for brevity’s sake I will only address the two most glaring errors. When Mr. Austin responds to the Green Dot funding question, he is being totally disingenuous, particularly the SEIU red herring he throws out. LAPU/Parent Revolution was founded by Green Dot Public [sic] Schools and funded by them to the tune of 100% for its first few years [see the "Annenberg Document" bit.ly/8n1w4o]. In recent years that funding has been supplemented primarily by deep pocked voucher advocates and school privatization champions including the Walton Foundation, Broad Foundation, and Gates Foundation [See LAPU/Parent Revolution 990 forms from 2007-2009]. Austin got his start as a school privatization advocate while consulting for Green Dot [See their 990 forms] and then, because of extensive contacts network from his day job as a city employee, was offered the executive position at LAPU/Parent Revolution when Ryan Smith moved over to PLAS. With Green Dot funding his second six figure income [bit.ly/hjX2N] Ben Austin suddenly became a “fierce advocate for parents” — so long as that advocacy benefited his employer’s need to increase market share [bit.ly/9vWXfe]. Several journalists, including Caroline Grannan, Rachel Heller, and myself, have also questioned Austin’s seeming class and ethnic biases in picking the schools he considers “failing.” There are many articles available discussing this darker side of Austin and his organization’s questionable tactics, here are three [bit.ly/auB5U6 bit.ly/5Dndws bit.ly/4e78Sm].
Austin also lies when he discusses a “district where 50 percent of our kids aren’t graduating.” Mr. Austin knows that this figure is way off, [Los Angeles Times bit.ly/6w5dpZ] the real figure is 26.4% — which still clearly needs major improvement — but certainly isn’t 50%. While Austin is pandering fear tactics here, he is also providing cover for CMO corporate charters — which have fairly dismal results themselves. Let’s look at Green Dot, which founded LAPU/Parent Revolution as discussed above. Green Dot sports three schools in the lowest 100 APIs in Los Angeles County. They also feature five schools in the lowest 35 average SAT scores in Los Angeles County [Los Angeles Times bit.ly/cBH5VW]. What’s more, while corporate charters claim high graduation rates and college placement, it turns out they are passing students who aren’t ready. For example let’s look at Animo Venice Charter High School. Of the Green Dot students admitted to the CSU system in 2008 67% WERE NOT PROFICIENT IN MATHEMATICS. [CSU database bit.ly/b2WrvP] This is compared to just 49% of the much maligned LAUSD students. Moreover, only 33% of the children graduating the Green Dot corporate factory school were proficient, while children attending public schools comprised a much more respectable 51%. Suddenly all the smoke, mirrors, and snake oil voucher -charter advocates like Ben Austin are peddling are exposed for what they are.
Austin and his organization have never organized or worked for any reform in Los Angeles that wasn’t directly related to increasing corporate charter school market share. When he speaks about “pay[ed] signature-gatherers” that’s precisely what they did around Locke, and that’s what they will do elsewhere. LAPU/Parent Revolution is an astro-turf [bit.ly/9KolVk] group through and through with no board for actual parents to drive organization policy, little to no parent fundraising, and the embarrassing fact that most of their “parent members” are involved because Green Dot counts parent participation in their LAPU/PR front group as part of their “community service” requirement. Claims that the wealthy politician Ben Austin and his organization are anything but a vehicle for the voucher-charter billionaire/DLC/DFER school privatization agenda are specious at best. The only thing Austin was truthful about in the entire piece is where he says “all this would be is a trick.”