Elite Capture in Indianapolis

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Schooling the world: The white man’s burden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENlvc19eXnM

How elites have captured IPS and the Indianapolis education complex, and the “non-profits” enabling them: Analysis with commentary

Summary  Elite capture happens when the advantaged few in a group steer the resources and political direction of organizations or movements or parts of the social structure, like our public education system, towards their narrower interests. American business elites find junior elites in the education non-profit sector and capture their allegiance with 6-figure contributions and salaries co-opting their social-political-cultural power, edupreneurial school reform philosophy, and hip lifestyles. These junior elites then find particular politicians lower in the caste system and try to buy them through campaign donations–this way the business elites capture both the public school system and the privatizing education industrial complex from the top down.

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“Elite Capture is after all about turning oppression and its cure into a neo-liberal commodity exchange where identities become the business community’s latest currency rather than the grounds for revolutionary transformation.”               ~ Dr. Táíwò, author of Elite Capture on Democracy Now

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • How elites captured IPS, the Indianapolis education complex, and the local non-profits enabling it
  • The Corporate Assault on Public Education 
  • The Elite Capture matrix and The 8 Black Hands: edupreneures extraordinaire!
  • Elite capture is a systems behavior
  • Charter schools and Black Americans
  • Rushing to justify school privatization, school reformers made 3 fundamental mistakes
• The start of the Elite Capture of the IPS Board of School Commissioners: 2012 and 2014
• The 2012/2014 IPS winning candidates: Their Elite Captors and their net worth, how candidates accepted
• Are Indiana legislators and IPS School Board owned by out-of-state billionaires?
• The Elite Capture of the main Indy corporate school reform groups
• Who they are, which elite captured them, for how much, and when
• The Elite Capture of Stand for Children, Indiana
• The Elite Capture of the Mind Trust
• The Elite Capture of Mind Trust leaders: Who was captured and what was the price?
• Putting public school privatization in perspective: Race, class, culture, politics, economics, and school choice through critical thinking
• This discussion question: Is competition typical of America’s white middle-class culture or Black culture?
• Historically the Black and Latino American cultures are less individualistic than the European-based American middle-class white culture
• “I think therefore I am” vs. “I am because we are”
• “I want a school that’s best for my child,” fits what white middle-class parents say
• School choice makes white people out of a Black people
• I want a school for my child that’s best for my community
• The fallacy of school choice: “I may pick Harvard, but Harvard may not pick me!”
• Charters put the privatization of public education on the wrong side of history
• Glen Ford The Corporate Assault on Public Education: Learn how the Republican Party and elites drove a wedge between Black families and teacher unions, making way for the Black families to accept privatization
• America’s Black Middle Class: Today’s corporate takeover of public education
• The Bourgeois Blues of Indy’s Black middle-class: IPS Supt. Aleesia Johnson and the employees of the Mind Trust and RISEIndy being susceptible to Elite Capture
• Racial Capitalism and Charters
• The Elite Capture of EmpowerED: BAEO Revived
• The Mind Trust practices a “deference politics” via EmpowerED: redistributing power to the relatively privileged within local marginalized groups
• Appendix I Hip and cool neo-liberal millennials spreading the word on pro-choice: Mr. Chris Stewart
• Appendix II Hip and cool neo-liberal Millennials and Education for Liberation: Mr. Sharif El-Mekki
• Appendix III Stand for Children
• Appendix IV Hoosiers for Great Public Schools
• Appendix V RISEIndy
• Appendix VI Transparency USA Reports
• Hoosiers for Great Public Schools
• Stand for Children
• Hoosiers for Quality Education
• RISEIndy PAC
• Great Public Schools for Indy

 

Astra Taylor:  What is identity politics and how has it been captured? Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò: I take identity politics to be an explicit way of connecting one’s politics to one’s social position: race, gender, class, nationality, religion, all those things. I also follow the Combahee River Collective in saying that your social identity should contribute to figuring out your agenda and your priorities. You can’t do everything, so we have to make decisions and identity politics is one way of working through decisions. What it takes to organize and sustain movements around anything are resources, tools, weapons, hours, and dollars. And among any group of people, including oppressed and marginalized groups of people, those resources are unequally distributed. The people who are most advantaged are in the best position to get other people to go along with their vision of politics, whether by persuasion or by literally paying people to do stuff. In this sense, identity politics is just the same as other kinds of politics, whether we’re talking about the labor movement, socialist politics, or capitalist politics. Astra Taylor: Who is an elite? Is it a relational category? Is it contingent on which example or situation we’re talking about? Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò: An elite is inherently a comparison. There are, of course, the kinds of people who are going to end up on the advantaged side of things regardless of who they are compared to — the Bill Gates and Elon Musks of the world. But for most every other person and every other category, it depends on who you’re comparing them to. An example I use a lot is myself in the context of Black politics, and then in the context of tenure-track politics at Georgetown. I’m a one percenter as far as Black people go worldwide, and even in the U.S. But there are plenty of people who outrank me at my particular institution. So being an elite is just being on the advantaged end of a particular hierarchy. From Lux Magazine: Elites Stole Identity Politics from the Left – Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò Wants Them Back

“Remember, it didn’t start with gas chambers. It started with one party controlling the media. One party controlling the message. One party deciding what is truth. One party censoring speech and silencing opposition. One party dividing citizens into ‘us’ and ‘them’ and calling on their supporters to harass ‘them.’ It started when good people turned a blind eye and let it happen.”                                  ~ Auschwitz Exhibition

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Introduction

Just after the November 2020 Indianapolis school board election, a deep concern about our IPS settled in and I soon composed, “Indy’s education ‘gangstas’ rule 2020 elections: The ‘Billionaire’s School Board’ now rules IPS.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was writing the prologue to this analysis with commentary exploring the “elite capture” phenomenon brought out by Dr. Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (>[o.lú.fɛ́.mi tá.í.wò]) in his 2021 book, Elite Capture: How the powerful took over identity politics (and everything else).

This essay critically explores K-12 education in Indianapolis, in particular; and, it scrutinizes related K-12 past and current national education events, groups, and actors–showing who got captured, which elite captured them, what the price was, and in some cases who did these now “junior elites” capture. What is behind all of this is the simple ethical and moral question: Why did Indianapolis and certain national-level organizations and individuals become political captives by accepting contributions from billionaires?  They had to know there were strings attached. Each could have said no; but, they did not. Why? This foundational question will not be directly answered here. It will be up to each reader’s conscience.

How elites captured IPS, the Indianapolis education complex, and non-profits enabling it

Around the year 2010, business giants and Wall Street people in particular, began co-opting the language of protest and justice as a sort of “reputational cover” for the corporate and political elites who were scheming to make big, big money, notably in/from the area of public education and its privatization.

Knowing that the size of our US education budget is in the hundreds of billions of dollars, business persons, marketers/hedge funds operators, and others who would soon be called “edupreneurs” (See more below) realized that big, big money could be made here; President Clinton’s neo-liberal turn in US politics (How the Democrats Traded the New Deal for Neo-Liberalism) had cast its shadow on the U. S. Department of Education.

“edupreneurs”

• The Edupreneur: Making the impact and the income
• The Rise of The Edupreneur

This culminated in the G.W. Bush 2002 No Child Left Behind movement of standards, high stakes testing, closing schools/”turnarounds” and opening charters—an education industrial complex in which ”standardized testing fuel[ed] neoliberal education reforms and vice versa”: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1314687.pdf.  The tragic seeds fostered by high-stakes testing and “no excuses” charters were soon planted for what would become the school-to-prison pipeline: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School-to-prison_pipeline.

The Corporate Assault on Public Education

In his lecture, “The Corporate Assault on Public Education” Black activist Glen Ford showed how corporations began plans to take over (privatize) public education by “buying off” significant people. In this case, it was certain Black American educators (Dr. Howard Fuller) and politicians (then mayor of Newark and now Sen. Corey Booker). Here, the public school privatization movement emerged from the narrow, right-wing fringes to dominate both major political parties. From vouchers to school choice to charters, the issue has divided even Black Americans, who were once public education’s most fervent supporters: Glen Ford: Corporate Assault on Public Education. See more on Glen Ford below.

Ford’s concerns were validated by Dr. Táíwò in Elite Capture (Elite Capture: the Right Book at the Right Time), who made educators like me look into how the corporate takeover of our public schools was enabled by billionaires who made themselves seen as “ever-reasonable, enlightened allies” to members of Indy’s privatization cartel.

The Mind Trust (established in 2006 by Indy Mayor Bart Peterson and sidekick David Harris*) brought in Teach for America (2008) and Stand for Children (2011). Here’s “A necessary history of Stand for Children 2010-2012” ( A necessary history of Stand for Children 2010-2012). This was followed in 2019 by none other than the home-grown RISEIndy (RI) hustlers who wanted to avoid any controversy A new Indianapolis education PAC wants to bypass controversy that could be hard. Yet, this Political Action Committee (PAC) found itself in the middle of controversy: The public is decided twice connecting the dots around the Indianapolis Shaheed sisters realm of the world education reform movement empire.

*Harris is now executive vice-president of Christel House International (CHI) where millionaire and Jr. Elite Bart Peterson is president and CEO: https://christelhouse.org/our-team/. Both experienced Elite Capture by the almost-billionaire Christel DeHaan. Peterson made $433,714.00 according to the CHI’s 2020 990 report: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/352051932.

In reality, Táíwò argues in Elite Capture, that mainly some of America’s wealthiest people captured/co-opted the language of ed reform by inter-mixing social justice and civil rights, all while adding the romance of the market to attract the neo-liberals. This strategy and language are used today by pro-charter, anti-teachers union, millennial educators at The Mind Trust, Stand for Children, and RISEIndy.

After their elite capture, these local “ed reformers” followed the commands of their elite captors and also co-opted the language of standardization, justice, choice, urban zip codes, equity, civil rights, diversity & inclusion…and the “survival of the fittest” market policies. Under pressure from their captures, and communities to succeed, we know charters became notorious for “counseling out” poor test takers, Special Ed students, trouble makers, as well as certain students and families who “…just didn’t fit in.” This “cherry picking” enables an unethical manipulation of the Indiana grad rate formula: http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Is-Charles-A.-Tindley-Accelerated-High-School-a-dropout-factory-An-analysis-and-commentary-on-graduation-rates-and-promoting-power.pdf.

These local “ed reformers” are like the edupreneurial hustlers and school choice advocates The 74 (https://www.the74million.org/) or The City Fund (https://city-fund.org/), another pro-school choice group influenced by big money multi-billionaire elites John Arnold and Netflix’s Reed Hasting. See the June 2019 990 filing where City Fund’s total revenue was $78,982.333: https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/the-city-fund/.

Remember Indy’s Kameelah Diallo, formerly of the Mind Trust and privatization co-conspirators Bart Peterson and David Harris, is now a part of the City Fund: https://city-fund.org/our-team/#kameelah-shaheed-diallo. So is RiseIndy board member and out-of-state resident, Gary Bordon https://city-fund.org/our-team/#gary-borden.

The Elite Capture matrix and The 8 Black Hands: Edupreneures extraordinaire!

Let’s look at The 8 Black Hands for example. Admittedly, these four men know how to “grind.” They take their traveling privatization of education sideshow around the US. Here members, dressed in a range of attire a la The Village People, try to both soothe and chastise the consciences of well-paid charter leaders to convince them they are on “the right road.” These events, which are a cross between pep talks and sermons, act as a salve for the consciences of Indy organizations like The Mind Trust and charter school leaders. Such rallies are also needed by charter teachers who have an inkling that they are simply gig workers in a neo-liberal business scheme, not educators of children. Please carefully unpack this essay with commentary on the 2021 Mind Trust-sponsored visit of the 8 Black Hands to Indianapolis: http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/The-6-Figure-brings-8-Black-Hands-to-Indianapolis-Analysis-with-commentary.pdf. Also see Appendix I and II.

Elite capture is a process through which the democratic project of making public education work for all students is hijacked in principle or in effect by the well positioned and resourced in the form of charters and ALEC’s Innovation schools scheme (https://alec.org/model-policy/the-innovation-schools-and-school-districts-act/) while the fundamental structure of public education (coloniality and assimilationism) and the social order via standardization—and its attendant inequalities—remains unchanged. See https://www.thenation.com/article/world/qa-olufemi-taiwo-elite-capture/ for more.

The school choice theory of politics takes the individual citizen as the primary unit of analysis and tends to relegate political action to the realm of individual choice. This inverts Black culture which is existentially collectivist (community oriented/think “ubuntu” [oo-boon-too]) in order to survive. Here, the school choice mantra of the white middle class of the competitive individual parents, “I want a school that’s best for my child” becomes the chant of Black parents, making white people out of such Black people. A more appropriate culturally sustainable assertion for Black families/parent/s would be, “I want a school for my child that’s best for my community.” See more on this concern later.

Elite capture is a systems behavior

Elite capture intensifies when the gap between non-elites and elites intensifies, or when the power of institutions that would or could constrain elites, erodes. Here in Indiana and Indianapolis, Republicans and corporate Democrats/neo-liberals run the power of the public education system and so, both maintain and widen the gap…thus, we have an IPS school board that’s all pro-privatization: https://in.chalkbeat.org/2023/1/11/23550367/indianapolis-public-schools-charter-school-groups-rise-stand-for-children-support. This enables a feeding frenzy around the many dollars floating down from the elites to both Republicans and Democrats. See the reports at the end of this analysis.

Parents are changed from citizens to consumers

Neo-liberalism can be portrayed as just another description of a social structure that 1) treats people as atomized individuals; and, 2) undermines community, political organizing, and meaningful political participation. View Knocking the Hustle: Neo-liberalism and Black politics by Lester Spence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5prifYxTsE&t=158s.

Charter schools and Black Americans

But the trouble, Dr. Táíwò deftly argues, is not with identity politics itself. Through a substantive engagement with the global Black radical tradition and a critical understanding of racial capitalism, Táíwò identifies the process by which a radical concept such as charters can be stripped of its political substance and libratory potential by becoming the victim of elite capture deployed by political, social and economic elites in the service of their own interests.

Rushing to justify school privatization, school reformers made 3 fundamental mistakes…

Charters were introduced by educators and politicians who were critical friends of our traditional K-12 public education system (think Democrats for Educational Reform [DfER]). The actions of these reformers brought the attention of business elites who intended to capture the movement and give control of public education over to the interests of the economy.

In accepting these large amounts of money for their campaigns, reformers had to not stand in the way when Elites funded charters and so enabled what became the charter school industrial complex and its enforcer, the testing industrial complex. To justify school choice reformers made 3 fundamental mistakes:

1) said the traditional public school system was broken. According to Dr. Duncan-Andrade, our education system was never designed to educate all children—to especially love and educate Black children. Tragically, our public schools are doing just that. Thus, we can’t call schools designed to fail broken.

• Urban schools don’t need fixing: http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Urban-schools-dont-need-fixing-We-cant-call-schools-designed-to-fail-broken.pdf.

2) believed in standardized testing which became used as the benchmark for closing traditional and charter schools and for replacing teachers and principals

• “Past and present: Eugenics, standardized tests, and politics of school reform: Hoosier connections and challenges”
  by John Harris Loflin: http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Past-present-Eugenics-standardized-tests-the-politics-of-school-reform-Hoosier-connections-challenges.pdf.

3) thought the “invisible hand” of the market would solve everything. Charters pushed the free market–which sounds good but does not produce equity.

• “Why people of color must reject market-based reforms: A compilation of the evidence”   from Mr. C. Smith: https://www.academia.edu/11992844/Why_People_of_Color_Must_Reject_Market_Based_Education_Reforms_A_Compilation_of_the_Evidence

(c) 2023  How elites have captured IPS and the Indianapolis education complex. and the “nonprofits” enabling them is composed by Indianapolis education researcher [email protected] 317.998.1339

 

The start of the elite capture of the IPS Board of School Commissioners: 2012 

In the spring of 2011, the Education-Community Action Team (E-CAT) of Indianapolis began analyzing the school board elections of the Denver Public Schools (DPS). For the first time in the long memory of E-CAT members Mike Sage and his son Alex, and education/community activist Nanci Lacey, the campaign chests of school board candidates were large with donations. Of special concern were contributions from out of town. It was as though candidates were being bought by special interest groups or individuals.

What had been local elections with candidates with minimal campaign chests of $500-$2,000 from local donors to buy yard signs, door hangers, or throw a picnic, now had become big business. Due to wealthy donors, some DPS candidates had funds of 6 figures influencing election outcomes: Democracy for $ale: What happened in Denver in 2011 will happen in Indy in 2012.

This was the beginning of not only the Elite Capture of candidates but of national “dark money” groups like Stand for Children (SfC). For more on SfC, go all the way back to 2010: Who runs our IPS?  or to 2014 and the Recorder: https://indianapolisrecorder.com/a70c6f3c-5ac4-11e4-876b-a7f89f4dbd8a/.

Well, the suspicions were valid. Bart Peterson was gathering lots of money for his new PAC. See: Political Action Committee led by former Indy mayor Bart Peterson gives big money to pro-charter school candidates.

2012/2014 IPS winning candidates:

Their Elite Captors and their net worth, and how much did candidates accept

IPS Election Year   Candidate      Donor

Donation

Donor’s net worth

2012	Sam Odle	Michael Bloomberg a	$10,000 1	$76.8B a
2014	Kelly Bentley	Mark E. Nunnelly b	$950	$5.57B b
		Reed Hoffman c	$1,000	$2.4B c
		Sheryl Sandberg d	$500	$1.6B d
		Stacy Schusterman e	$1,500	$3.5B e
2014	Lanier Echols	Emma Bloomberg f	$650	$200M f
		Arthur Rock g	$5,000	$1B g
		Stacy Schusterman	$1,000	$3.5B
		Reid Hoffman	$1,000	$2.4B
2014	Mary Ann Sullivan	Christel DeHaan h	$2,000	$950M h
		Reid Hoffman	$1,000	$2.4B
		Mark E. Nunnelly	$950	$5.57B
		Michael Bloomberg	$2,500	$76.8B>
		Jonathan Sackleri	$2,500	$??B i

• http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Samuel-Odle-2012-Campaign-Contributions-IPS-School-Board-Election.pdf
• http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Kelly-Bentley-2014-Campaign-Contributions-IPS-School-Board-Election-1.pdf
• http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Lanier-Echols-2014-Campaign-Contributions-IPS-School-Board-Election-1.pdf
• http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Mary-Ann-Sullivan-2014-Campaign-Contributions-IPS-School-Board-Election.pdf

a) M. Bloomberg, Past mayor of NYC https://clutchpoints.com/michael-bloombergs-net-worth-in-2022  $76.8B

b) M. Nunnely, Managing Director, Bain Capital, https://www.baincapital.com/ https://wallmine.com/people/8029/mark-e-nunnelly  $5.57B

c) R. Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn https://networthist.com/reid-hoffman $2.4B

d) S. Sandberg, businesswoman, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheryl_Sandberg, https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/business-executives/sheryl-sandberg-net-worth/$1.6B

e) S. Schusterman, Heiress to the Samson Oil fortune, https://original.newsbreak.com/@luay-rahil-1590405/2635306863048-the-richest-woman-in-tulsa-who-donated-2-3-billion-to-help-others, $3.5B

f) E. Bloomberg, Although Emma is not a billionaire, she’s the daughter of multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg, as well as past chair of Stand for Children board, and past KIPP board member, $200M

g) A. RockFounder of Intel Corporation, https://www.idolnetworth.com/arthur-rock-net-worth-268755 $1B

h) C. DeHann https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinstoller/2020/06/08/self-made-millionaire-and-philanthropist-christel-dehaan-dies-at-77/?sh=2b08ba4a4cae, $950M

i) J. Slacker https://nypost.com/2020/07/06/oxycontin-maker-purdues-jonathan-sackler-65-dies-of-cancer/, $??B

References

Corporate school boarding, Indy Style
http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Corporate-School-Boarding-Indy-Style.pdf

• Bart Peterson https://allfamousbirthday.com/bart-peterson/Net worth:$5M
• Al Hubbard https://wallmine.com/people/42254/allan-b-hubbard Net worth:$4.01M

IPS Election Year    Candidate    Total donations         Specific Donor PAC

Donation

2020	Diane Arnold	$85,114.40
			Stand for Children	$49,628.81
			RISEIndy	$15,293.13
2020	Kenneth Allen	$266, 062.10
			Hoosiers for Great Public Schools	$80,000
			RISEIndy	$20,000
			Stand for Children	$7,000
			Stand for Children	$77,108.28
2020	Liz Gore	$22,428.00
2020	Venita Moore	$95,239.97
			RISEIndy	$7,500
			Stand for Children	$3,000
			Stand for Children	$42,793.26
2020	Will Pritchard	$90,529.08
			Stand for Children	$72,545.88
			RISEIndy	$16,000
2022	Kristen Phair	$15,683.24
2022	Hope Hampton	$92,166.80
			RISEIndy	$19,400
				$15,300
			Stand for Children	$13,300
2022	Angelia Moore	?
			RISEIndy	$1,050.00
2022	Nicole Carey	$8,279.45
			RISEIndy	$4,612.50

 

Candidate/Year of election 

Diane Arnold 2020 IPS Board election

• 2020 Campaign Finance final filing January 2021 

Kenneth Allen 2020 IPS Board election

• 2020 Campaign Finance final filing January 2021

Liz Gore 2020 IPS Board Election

• 2020 Campaign Finance final filing January 2021

Venita Moore 2020 IPS Board Election

• 2020 Campaign Finance final filing January 2021

Will Pritchard 2020 IPS Board election

• 2020 Campaign Finance final filing January 2021

Hope Hampton 2022 IPS Board election

• 2022 Campaign Finance final filing January 2023 

Kristen Phair 2022 IPS Board election

• 2022 Campaign Finance final filing January 2023

Angelia Moore 2022 IPS Board election

• 2022 Campaign Finance final filing January 2023

Nicole Carey 2022 IPS Board election

• 2022 Campaign Finance final filing January 2023

Are Indiana Legislators and IPS School Board Owned by Out-of-State Billionaires?

https://www.icpe-monroecounty.org/blog/category/accountability

Venita Moore 2020 IPS Board Election

Summary Campaign Finance

RISEIndy $7,500 10/29/20

Stand for Children 10.08/20 $3K Direct, $42,793.26 In-Kind Mailers, text, ads

Will Pritchard 2020 IPS Board election

Summary Campaign Finance

Total $90,529.08

Jan 19, 2021

Stand for Children $72,545.88 11/24/2020

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Kenneth Allen 2020 IPS Board election

Contributions  $266,062.10

Al Hubbard $2K 10/28/20

L. Shannon (Williams) Shegog $300 10/14/20

Robert Shegog $200 10/31/20

Hoosiers for Great Public Schools, PAC $80,000 Direct 10/16/20

RISEIndy PAC $20,000 Direct 10/14/20

Stand for Children PAC $7,000 Direct 1/22/20

Stand for Children PAC $77,108.28 In-Kind No Date

Expenditures  $255,741.95

EZ Mailing, LLC $4,519 Yard signs

Indianapolis Recorder ads $6,373.11

Stand for Children $68,358.28 In-Kind

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Hope Hampton 2022 IPS Board election

Summary Campaign Finance

January 18, 2023

Total $92,166.80

RISEIndy PAC $19,400+$15,300

Stand for Children PAC $13,300

Indy Teachers for Public Schools $1,000

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Kristen Phair 2020 IPS Board election

Summary Campaign Finance

Total $15,683.24

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Angelia Moore 2020 IPS Board election

Summary Campaign Finance

RISEIndy, PAC

9/10/22 $468.75

9/30/22 112.50

10/8/20 468.75

Total $1,050.00

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Nicole Carey 2020 IPS Board election

Summary Campaign Finance

Jan. 17, 2023

Total $8279.45

 

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RISEIndy

10/19/22

$4,612.50

The Elite Capture of the main Indy corporate school reform groups

Who they are, which elite captured them, for how much, and when

Group Captured by Elite	Elite Captor	Amount	Date
Stand for Children	Michael Bloomberg1	$150,000a	08/10/2018
Stand for Children	Michael Bloomberg	$250,000b	08/26/2020
RISEIndy	Jim Walton2	$200,000c	08/03/2022
RISEIndy	Michael Bloomberg	$150,000d	08/24/2022
Hoosiers for Great Public Schools	John Arnold3	$200,000e	05/06/2020
	Reed Hastings4	$200,000f	05/19/2020
	Reed Hastings	$500,000g	10/13/2020
	Reed Hastings	$700,000h	02/15/2022
Hoosiers for Quality Education	Alice Walton5	$125,000 i	12/31/2019
	Alice Walton	$100,000 j	1/23/2020
	Jim Walton	$100,000k	10/14/2020
	Alice Walton	$100,000k	10/15/2020
	Jim Walton	$425,000l	04/05/2022
	Total	$3,200,000

 

The Elite Capture of Stand for Children, Indiana

Indiana Stand for Children–director Justin Ohlemiller’s salary

• $188,016 in 2020
• $169,833 in 2019
• $165,000 in 2017
• $146,057 in 2016

• https://stand.org/indiana/
• https://stand.org/indiana/indiana-staff/
• https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/name_search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=justin+ohlemiller

National Stand for Children 2020 Total Revenue $7,675,707

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/522146673

The Elite Capture of the Mind Trust

“When you control the schools you control the future.”   ~ Wilma Mankiller

“This is not about education at all, it’s about power.” ~ James Baldwin

In the early part of the 21^st Century, Mayor Peterson’s Office of Education Innovation authorized an increase in charter schools; and, the attention from the wealthy began.

Realizing the truth of the assertions that “When you control the schools you control the future,” donations poured into The Mind Trust. Here is a copy of “Tax reported giving to the Mind Trust” from national-level education commentator Tom Ultican covering the period from 2011-2021:

Organization donating	Dates	Amount donated
Lily Endowment6	2013-2020	$22,716,000
Gates Foundation7	2011-2012	$1,959,334
Walton Family Foundation2, 5	2013-2019	$9,615,473
Arnold Ventures3	2013-2017	$11,075,000
Richard M Fairbanks8	2013-2018	$5,998,000
The City Fund9	2018-2021	$18,000,000
Total	2011-2021	$69,363,807

“Indianapolis: Home of the 2nd most privatized district in America” by Tom Ultican

• https://www.badassteacher.org/bats-blog/indianapolis-home-of-americas-second-most-privatized-school-system-by-thomas-ultican

The Elite Capture of Mind Trust leaders: Who was captured and what was the price?

	Salaries
Brandon Brown CEO (Formerly Teach for America and with Mayor’s Office of Education Innovation)	$264,777
Leslie Shegog Vice President of Community (aka Shannon Williams former Indianapolis Recorder official)	$175,663
Lauren Rush Administration	$156,194
Joe White  Senior Vice-President of Schools	$145,037
Patrick Jones SVP of Leadership  (Former Tindley Middle School teacher and administrator)	$140,378
Kristin Grimme SVP of Strategy	$137,229
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/204560286

_________________

1 Michael Bloomberg Former mayor of New York City Individual net worth $94.5B

2 Jim Walton Part of Walmart empire Individual net worth $61B

3 John D. Arnold Individual net worth $3.3B

4 Reed Hastings Netflix CEO Individual net worth $3.2B

5 Alice Walton Part of Walmart empire Individual net worth $57B

6 Lilly Foundation

7 Bill Gates Individual net worth $106.2B

8 Richard M Fairbanks Individual net worth $3.3M

9 The City Fund https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/824938743/202001959349300800/full

 a https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/e1e325b2-bc0e-4e62-b394-24f987960263.pdf

 b https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/59bf1534-d98e-423b-9975-ffa98d509f61.pdf

 c https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/187f922d-c949-4782-b4c6-9b03224abfd3.pdf

 d https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/05aae003-21ce-4808-a667-4ddc53f3c0a4.pdf

 e https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/6d6c94f4-12b2-4062-b7c3-b538915e7b79.pdf

 f https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/faf727fb-1819-4d3b-9e15-01dabc78b1fa.pdf

 g https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/9ac8b3b9-b115-4213-836f-8fa22c837918.pdf

 h https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/73e01d0d-4c80-4ab9-a409-586ae574767a.pdf

 i https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/a4214fce-c384-4be9-83d7-f00e9b2785a0.pdf

j  https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/d35b1c4e-8076-40b9-b134-a2977b11ce6e.pdf

k https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/dc75c250-685e-4161-ad2f-3c59c117fd8e.pdf

l https://campaignfinance.in.gov/INCF/TempDocs/7fde46f9-3ccc-4447-9fef-e0bf463c2d2c.pdf

References

Bloomberg charter school politics

https://www.chalkbeat.org/2021/12/9/22826845/bloomberg-charter-schools-politics-750-million

The Mind Trust’s attack on public education is led by Democrats

https://tultican.com/2018/01/04/the-mind-trust-attack-of-public-education-is-led-by-democrats/

The City Fund uses oligarchy money to privatize public schools

• https://city-fund.org/indianapolis/
• https://www.chalkbeat.org/2020/2/21/21178789/a-major-new-player-in-education-giving-the-city-fund-uses-over-100-million-in-grants-to-grow-charter
• https://networkforpubliceducation.org/blog-content/thomas-ultican-the-city-fund-uses-oligarch-money-to-privatize-public-schools/
• https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/824938743/202001959349300800/full
• https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/the-city-fund/

Jan Resseger on David Harris, former Mind Trust and City Fund employee. Current Executive Vice-President of Christel House International (https://christelhouse.org/press-release/101/david-harris-joins-christel-house-international-as-executive-vice-president/). Christel DeHaan Net worth $950M

• https://janresseger.wordpress.com/tag/david-harris/

Indianapolis: Home of the second most privatized school district in America

• https://www.badassteacher.org/bats-blog/indianapolis-home-of-americas-second-most-privatized-school-system-by-thomas-ultican

Putting public school privatization in perspective

Race, class, culture, politics, economics, and school choice through critical thinking

Competition is the law of the jungle; cooperation is the law of civilization.”    ~ Peter Kropotkin

It is well known that the politics of EmpowerED is based on the market politics of the larger national and local corporate school reform movement organized to privatize, of all things, our public schools. This led to an “…emergence and promotion of a national-level discourse that positioned schools in the service to the economy.” For more, see http://emurillo.org/documents/MarketizationMurillo.pdf.

Here, the marketplace (supply & demand) determines the value of a charter or Innovation. For example, if a charter or Innovation is unable to attract enough students, the school closes. In market terms, it went out of business. This level of failure seems built into the privatization scheme and thus seen as a strength–Market completion will weed out the weak (poorly planned, poorly funded, poorly run) charter school…

Since by definition there are only so many children available in the “pot” of possible Indianapolis students, charter/Innovation proponents support competition among all schools, including traditional, yet mainly emphasizing the privatized schools since any student, whatever the zip code, may attend a charter or Innovation school.

It seems corporate school reformers want to run our traditional public schools out of business!

Yet, all citizens need to be concerned with the limitations of running our traditional public schools like a business. It’s not a good idea. Again see: “The Marketization of Education: Public Schools for Private Ends,” http://emurillo.org/documents/MarketizationMurillo.pdf.

Again, with charters, competition is not just encouraged, it’s rewarded! Initially envisioned as a laboratory for school improvement for all schools (https://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/articles/2017-05-08/how-charter-schools-improve-traditional-district-education), due to the amount of prestige and/or big big money that can be gained, the privatized schools, (charters) hide from any school (https://www.aft.org/ae/winter2014-2015/kahlenberg_potter) ideas that make their school a “winner!”

This discussion opens the door to the question:

Is competition typical of both America’s white middle-class culture and Black culture?

A deep and wide analysis of “Our Schools, Our Children, Our Choice: A Report on Public School Enrollment in Indianapolis April 2021” (https://empoweredfamiliesindy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/EmpowerEd-Families-Report-2021-04-22-hng-small-for-web.pdf) from The Mind Trust proxy EmpowerED, reveals basically a lengthy, professionally done advertisement campaign made up of expansive research and data all lined up to gain the support of Black and Latino families for Indianapolis charters and Innovation schools.

It has taken a while since the 2011 $700K Mind Trust 160-page “Opportunity Schools: The bold plan to transform the Indianapolis Public Schools”  (https://www.themindtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/opp-schools-full-report.pdf) report and the efforts of co-conspirator (the Indy Chamber, the Indiana legislature, ALEC, and local/national business elites like Eli Lilly and the Walton or Gates Foundations) to get to this point and be able to capture and control every angle and nuance of the privatization of the IPS district.

As expected, the Mind Trust’s panegyric mentions not a single limitation to this takeover of public education by the corporate/privatization “cabal” making the EmpowerED report border on commercial propaganda made to engineer the consent and metamorphosis of parent/s and families of color into those who believe/behave like middle-class whites.

Historically the Black and Latino American cultures are less individualistic than the American European-based middle-class white culture

Historically the culture of Black and Latino Americans is less individualistic and more group/social-oriented as opposed to the dominant European-based American individualistic middle-class white culture (http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/A-Comparison-of-Characteristics-of-Dominant-and-Non-dominant-Ameican-Cultures-1.pdf) which is the most individualistic culture on earth (https://clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/individualism/).  In this individuality of personal liberty and independence lies the DNA of the past liberal American society and its current neo-liberal market-based society. This individuation politics comes from the European Renaissance period and the “I think therefore I am” philosophy of Rene Descartes. This is juxtaposed by the African philosophy of ubuntu (oo-boon-too) based on, “I am because we are.” I only exist due to my relationships.

“I think therefore I am” vs. “I am because we are”   

European perspective: The Cartesian method “cogito ergo sum” is an attempt by 17th-century French philosopher Rene Descartes to understand his existence. He initially arrives at only a single principle: thought exists. Thinking is thus every activity of a person of which he/she is immediately conscious. Thought cannot be separated from the person, therefore, the person exists: I think, therefore I am. This opened the possibility that reason is the only reliable method of attaining knowledge. Descartes’ first-person perspective becomes the essence of the individualism of European thought and culture. Thus, learning concerns self-discovery, self-development and fulfillment, self-reliance, and personal autonomy.

African perspective: The Ubuntu principle is translated from the African as: “I am because we are.” In Ubuntu culture, if you meet someone, you say: “Sawu bona,” which means: “I see you.” The return greeting is: “Sikhona” or “Here I am.” Ubuntu comes from a Zulu proverb: “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” or “a human being only becomes a human being through other human beings.” We exist because we are seen because the people around us respect and acknowledge us as a person. See: http://vorcreatex.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Can-democratic-education-be-universalized.pdf.

“I want a school that’s best for my child,” fits what white middle-class parents say

Viewed through the lenses of these 2 orientations, the school choice parent mantra, “I want a school that’s best for my child,” fits what white middle-class parents say. This is how white people think and assert their individualism. The EmpowerED report also supports this attitude: “The families we spoke to all shared the same thing: They want a school that best meets the needs of their student.” See bottom, p.9 in 2021 “EmpowerED Report.”

School choice makes white people out of Black people

What one would expect from the non-dominate more collectivist Black American parent/s in light of its Ubuntu heritage is, “I want a school for my child that’s best for my community.”

Yet, this is not the case. EmpowerED has somehow bamboozled its parent members into denying their own culture and sense of community alliance–their centuries-old African identity–to competitively get a leg up over their neighbor’s child and get their child/ren into the best/top-ranked school in the white people’s education caste pyramid.

This is both tragic and heartbreaking that the Black (and Latino) bourgeoisie (see this report’s section on the Black bourgeoisie) is sacrificing the Ubuntu culture of Black and Latino families and children so corporations and individual investors can make money off the privatization (https://jacobin.com/2021/07/charter-schools-for-profit-nonprofit-taxpayer-public-money-oversight-education-salaries-real-estate-burris-interview#:~:text=The%20way%20that%20some%20charter,company%20to%20manage%20the%20school/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/09/14/charter-school-scams/) of, and, so, the control of our public schools. Also see:

• https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-hedge-funds-love-char_b_5357486.
• https://ecouncilinc.com/eb-5-investment-opportunities-spotlight-on-charter-schools/.

This idea EmpowerED is selling is fine for middle-class white parents who have the wherewithal and time to research, visit, and choose the school their child/ren attends even though it’s not in their neighborhood where families and schools have historically had a natural sense of partnership and community.

Based upon the human psychology of Ubuntu, community is not only the center of identity for Black Americans, but community is necessary for survival.  Survival is not an issue for the middle-class whites who thus can “afford” to choose a school that’s “best” for their child.

EmpowerED discourages this and Black and Latino parents begin to think like white parents, making white people out of them.

Under EmpowerED’s scheme, now a Black parent comes out on their porch and across the street is another Black parent/s whom they see as a competitor, not an ally or collaborator–not even a “neighbor” but one who’s vying for a special place in a special charter in a special neighborhood.

Again, Black people can’t afford to think like this since the free market has devastated Black communities (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDJ0rmxhmVI) anyway. Collaboration must be the guiding force of Black and Latino parents/guardians–-not competition among a free market of a zero-sum game ruled by combative unprincipled self-centered charters/Innovations programs.

I want a school for my child that’s best for my community

Middle-class white parents won’t say this because they don’t have a community.  Their need for individualism: “What I want,” prevents them from having any sense of community/the feeling they share a common good with others.

Black and Latino families have to have a community in order to survive.  This existential difference is ignored and downplayed by the neo-liberal  Mind Trust-controlled EmpowerED policies and the Elite Capture of EmpowerED’s Black and Latino leaders and staff who are paid very well to mislead Indianapolis Black and Latino parent/s and families–all in the name of corporate control of our public schools.

Thus, for African American families and their community, learning should always be in connection with that community, because nothing of what their child/ren learn is of value unless it is of significance to the community. Everyone’s learning should contribute to the perseverance and well-being of the community. This is “de Groot’s “ communal constructivism.” See page 6 of this paper Can Democratic Education be Universalized?

The fallacy of school choice: “I may pick Harvard, but Harvard may not pick me!”

The EmpowerED insinuation that a Black or Latino family chooses the school their child attends has no basis in reality. The actuality is a parent/s can pick a charter/Innovation school, but the school may not pick them. “Cherry picking” or “counseling out” certain students/families by charters is now quite common. Our traditional public schools take all students.

Charters put the privatization of public education on the wrong side of history

The jungle model of competition that is good in determining the best way to manufacture and sell widgets simply does not apply to children. Sharing what works and collaborating are the only ways to improve the schooling experience for all students.

Democracies do not privatize their public schools—the very institutions they created to support and sustain our democracy So-called “school choice” charter/Innovation EmpowerED scheme is simply on the wrong side of history. Indeed, our public schools were never created to educate all children especially to love and educate Black children.  From their inception by Horace Mann, our public schools have fed the great Melting Pot, confusing education with assimilation. The answer to this initial miseducation is not charters; the answer is to decolonize our public schools and make these public schools more democratic–not less democratic through privately selected school boards. See Transformational Community Schools: https://f2acc6.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/x-Transformational-Community-Schools-Advancing-the-Community-Schools-model-Increasing-its-democratization-while-enabling-its-decolonization.pdf. This is tragic because once again America’s Black, Latino, and poor white students/families do not have an Education for Liberation.  An Education for Liberation is not one that the Elite corporate business world that currently runs IPS wants: why would corporations promote an education that liberates students, families, and teachers from dependence on said corporations? See”  What is a high-quality education for urban students? This choice system was created by lots and lots and lots of money and corporate/political power. It only has substance because of the big money that created and supports it.

Glen Ford on the Corporate Assault on Public Education

Learn how the Republican Party and corporate elites drove a wedge between Black families and teacher unions, making way for the Black community to accept privatization.

Ten years ago journalist Glen Ford gave a talk he titled, The Corporate Assault on Public Education. Below is a synopsis of his insightful presentation where you will:

Learn how Democrats, especially Black Democrats,

• were able to trash teacher unions and bash public education
• make a common cause with the most conservative Republicans
• enable a fundamental collapse of the public education plank of the Democratic Party
• represented by President Barack Obama and his Sec. of Education Arnie Duncan embracing corporate school reform

Learn how the corporate right

• successfully bought its way deep into Black American politics
• successfully purchasing Black political cachet that was at the heart of the privatization of public education
• shattered the twin pillars of progressive politics–the most progressive constituency in American politics:
  1. unions, and
  2. Black Americans

It’s been a spectacular coup. The coup began in the mid-90s at the Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee… it begins in the corporate heart of the Republican Party…

In the mid-90s, the Republican party had a big problem which meant that corporate America had a big problem. Ever since the great upheavals of the 60s, Blacks were a major part of the Democratic Party… before the Kennedy/Nixon election, most Blacks were 25 to 30% Republican.

Again, Blacks were one of the pillars of progressivism in the United States… The other was unions…and legislatively Blacks were helped to stay in office by union support… In fact, they were more left [politically] than the unions. A breakdown of union supporters reveals this hierarchy of supporters: Black women, then Black men, Latino women then Latino men, white women then white men… White men were least likely to support unions.

Thus, big capital had a problem with all of the left-leaning support from the Black community. Big capital had to break up the relationship between Blacks and the unions… Michael Joyce of the Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee had a plan: destroy the political alliance between Blacks and unions.

This is a turning point in corporate history, and because they had the big money, a pivotal point in American political history was set into action…

The Republicans tried to get the Black vote… They tried to run Black Republicans who won by getting mostly white votes… No Black Republican has been elected from a majority Black district since 1935.

When this didn’t work they sponsored Black academics like Thomas Sowell and Glen Lowery to influence Black opinion, but that didn’t work either…

The only way to make an ideological dent in the Black/union relationship was to go where the Black people lived and that was within the Democratic Party…

To do that, Michael Joyce had to find an issue. He knew that Blacks held education in high esteem as the key to upward mobility. But, he also knew that Blacks were also mis-served by the public education system… It was not so much that he cared about this… He knew of the discontent and that Blacks had indeed been poorly served in their public schools… (Remember Carter G. Woodson’s The Miseducation of the Negro? [1933] and Jonathan Kozol’s Death at an early age [1967])?

And to drive that political wedge between Blacks and the teachers’ unions, the Bradley Foundation, and other right-wing groups had been working on vouchers…which became a pet ideological issue for them (an option to public schools). African-Americans had never been interested in private school vouchers because they were reminded of segregationist academies… (White flight and Black oppression: “The racist history of school choice” https://inthepublicinterest.org/the-racist-history-of-school-choice/.) https://jacobin.com/2022/07/democratic-party-neoliberalism-dlc-clinton

Michael Joyce had the money to create a demand or create the appearance of a demand… Michael Joyce (https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/the-power-and-the-money/) knew Blacks had never pushed/rallied for vouchers. He also knew he had 10’s of millions of dollars at his disposal. He knew that money changes things, or at least changes the appearance of things. So what if Blacks never advocated for vouchers? He had the money to create a demand or create the appearance of a demand…i.e. the wealthy had created Astroturf organizations of working people who said they were opposed to unions [when they weren’t]… So why not create an Astroturf Black organization, to demand vouchers…to create the illusion of demand?

Michael Joyce not only had money, but he also had a Black American partner in this He had none other than Howard Fuller who wanted to build independent Black institutions, but knew that required money… So Fuller goes back to Milwaukee and hooks up with the Bradley Foundation—ironically a die-hard foe of Black power. He hooks up with the right-wing money. In doing so, he becomes the superintendent of Milwaukee public schools in 1991… Along the way, he helped create 7 urban voucher-funded private schools…Fuller finds his sugar daddy and the Bradley Foundation finds a Black militant….Bradley gets legitimacy within the Black community…

In 1995, Fuller resigns because 4 of the newly elected school board members are backed by the teachers’ unions… The Bradley Foundation automatically sets him up with a position with Marquette University… where he establishes a nonprofit, funded by the Bradley Foundation at $900,000 a year, with the role of going into the Black community and create a cadre of Black people… to create this demand for private school vouchers.

By 1999, they launch BAEO (Black Alliance for Educational Options)… Fuller is the leader of this organization, which has a budget of $1.3M for a national conference [in Washington DC]… And who supports this, but Corey Booker? Mainly they were called, ”professional Republicans,” Black folks who want the shortest line to power and wealth. They don’t want to wait in the long Democratic line. They are just plain hustlers because they smell money. Corey Booker becomes one of the board of directors of BAEO.

Charters vs. Vouchers Charters are created in a very white environment which is different from today. The first legalized charter school was a Montessori school in 1991 in Minnesota. This new charter school business gets the attention of the business community… By definition, charter schools bring the corporate community into the discussion around Blacks, with unions… And the public school system has a gigantic budget [just under the national defense budget]…thus charters could bring corporations into the public schools–through a much bigger market than private school vouchers.

Michael Joyce now had an excuse to be in the public sphere where teachers’ unions are, where Black people are…where his effort to split the two could be the easiest & most effective.

In 1999/2000 starts the shift where BAEO makes charters and vouchers into a Black issue…BAEO was to legitimize the long-standing complaints of everyday Black folk about their public school… When all the conference dust has settled, the Walton Foundation/BAEO then went on a $2M advertisement campaign.

Corey Booker presented at the Manhattan Institute, which gives money from the Bradley Foundation. Now the organized political right had invaded Black politics at the “City Hall” level by supporting Corey Booker for mayor.

---

Learn more from Glen Ford at https://www.Blackagendareport.com/content/fruit-poisoned-tree-hard-rights-plan-capture-newark-nj

Learn more on BAEO at “BAEO and the Corporatists’ Indiana Voucher Defense”

https://shadowproof.com/2011/07/02/the-baeo-and-the-corporatists-indiana-voucher-defense/

Note in the Sun-Times, of Gary, IN, where Pastor Ray Dix regurgitated the same deceptive rhetoric BAEO had been shamefully pumping into low-income African American parents for over a decade, specifically that vouchers and charter schools are the answer to the failing/imprisonment of Black children. But, as every school choicer watchdog group knows, the BAEO is merely a mouthpiece for the super-wealthy who want to completely privatize education to their benefit.

“Unable to reinvent itself, BAEO shuts down after 20 years”

https://www.chalkbeat.org/2017/10/25/21103618/unable-to-reinvent-itself-black-alliance-for-educational-options-to-shut-down-after-nearly-20-years: The Washington, D.C.-based organization had pushed for parent choice and charter schools in AL, TN, PA, and other states.

America’s Black Middle Class: Today’s corporate takeover of public education

“The Black bourgeoisie has exploited the Negro masses as ruthlessly as have whites.” ~ Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò from “Identity Politics and Elite Capture” by Boston Review  https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/olufemi-o-taiwo-identity-politics-and-elite-capture/

One of Elite Capture’s issues is the place/role of the Black middle class before and during the advent of the current capture of Black professionals/millennials by current elites.

In his 1957 book, the well-education E. Franklin Frazier criticized his Black peers who saw themselves as middle class–which he called a “false consciousness.” He went on to say that this “…led to a cultural elitism and material existence based solely on acquisitiveness.”

Dr. Frazier follows Black Americans North via the 2^nd Great Migration (1940-1970) “…showing how…middle-class Blacks actually lost their roots to the traditional Black world while never achieving acknowledgment from the white sector.”

The result concluded Frazier, “…is a…bourgeois class with no identity, built on self-sustaining myths of Black business and society, silently undermined by a collective, debilitating inferiority complex.” This made some “Boomers” (1946-1964) and “Generation X” (1965-1980) adults and their Millennial (1981-1996) children easily susceptible to elite capture.

• Black Bourgeoisie: E. Franklin Frazier https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/483777.Black_Bourgeoisie

A fictionalized view of Black “welfare queens getting over” and driving a Cadillac is now replaced by celebrations around the “Black girl magic” of America’s Black bourgeoisie: https://therealnews.com/from-welfare-queen-to-black-girl-magic-neoliberalism-and-the-rise-of-the-black-bourgeoisie

Evidently, the millennials (Black, brown, and white) who went to college and on to grad school are now in possible positions of power and are either making good money or planning on it.

We see many of the jobs in the school privatization business are paying well–not teachers though, but the leaders and other key employees. Just look at the Mind Trust and RISEIndy leaders and staff of mainly 21^st Century bourgeoisie millennials aged 23-43 who made it through school and are ready to “get paid”—look nice, drive well, live well, with always hip glasses and expensive hairstyles, cool sneakers, imported coffee, craft beer/whisky, and specialty wines.

This has also manifested in a new class of mainly wealthy Black female millennials who are inspired to embrace the power of the “Black girl magic” phenomenon where “…the strength and beauty of Black women are celebrated and used to describe an accomplishment or feat that is above average.”

• https://www.sankofaedition.com/blogs/know-sankofa/what-does-black-girl-magic-mean

In the magazine IMPACT a 2023 story was basically titled. “Step into your rich girl lifestyle. This is your 6-figure year!” And here’s info on a $23 bottle of “Black Girl Magic” wine:

• https://www.totalwine.com/wine/red-wine/red-blend/mcbride-sisters-collection-black-girl-magic-red-blend/p/224180750.

Now there is nothing explicitly the matter with our American society encouraging the economic success of Black women, especially for those in the education world. It is just that their ambitions intersect with our materialistic, consumer, and racist society making these women particularly susceptible to “…capture by social, political, and economic elites in the services of their own interests. These very same elites turn oppression and its cure into a neo-liberal commodity exchange where identities become capitalism’s attest currency rather than grounds of transformative change.”      ~ quotes from Elite Capture

Black politics and the destructive triumph of neo-liberalism

On this rise of the Black bourgeoisie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHyHZPOrJgo), Dr. Joy James reveals “the destructive triumph of neo-liberalism in the US and about the different institutions, classes, ideological strands, and clashing factions that have developed within the sphere of Black politics in the neo-liberal era.” Some characteristics of the neo-liberal world are: there is no society, only individuals; the market and competition is the only reality; the “gig economy”; and, the privatization of government responsibilities: public schools, prisons, water, toll roads, parking meters…

• Neo-liberalism defined

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLtxUiwY6j8

• Neoliberalism and Black politics.Dr Lester Spence author of Knocking the Hustle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5prifYxTsE&t=158s

• Lecture: Neo-liberalism and Black Politics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APDejLtqQgc&t=426s

• Liberation or “Asylum for Neoliberal Values?” Competing Visions of Black Politics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeTrjplNZ0w

The Bourgeois Blues of Indy’s Black middle-class: On IPS Supt. Johnson, the employees of the Mind Trust and RISEIndy, and IPS board being susceptible to Elite Capture

The elites want results, and there’s always fear by captives that such big responsibilities will not be met.

Let’s jump to the present where we can study the Black middle class and their children as they struggle with a case of the Bourgeois Blues and the significance of the descriptive “bougie.”

Here we can begin to analyze some of the cultural landmarks of America’s Black middle class (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v_sVCNYbdM) such as “fancy-dress cotillions to Jack and Jill clubs to Ivy League mixers…”

This conversation will help many IPS and city citizens appreciate the professional limitations of the current IPS Supt. Aleesia Johnson whose $272,369.75 yearly salary reflects what she is used to. Her middle-class parents kept her clear of being educated in public schools, enrolling her in the private Evansville Day School from 3^rd to 12^th grade and the private elite women’s Agnes Scott College.

Now there is nothing inherently the matter with being well compensated for positions requiring high levels of education–and dedication to the job and its long hours.

Unfortunately, Supt. Johnson’s high salary and the 6-figured salaries of those of the Mind Trust and others listed below make them objects of the need of Elites to control our public schools.

How today’s pro-school-choice millennials get caught up in their own Elite Capture “Class positioning of course plays an enormous role in developing this ideological stance, as it is often people of the professional-managerial and middle classes–those with petit bourgeois aspirations–who are drawn towards possessing similar material interests as the elite.” “Yet, liberalism isn’t intrinsic to certain people, rather it is the sea that we swim in–as Táíwò seems similarly to suggest with reference to examples of colonial and mainstream miseducation systems. This isn’t to let people off the hook, but [shows how] individualist, egoist, opportunist, and capitalist behaviors can be present in spite of professed radicalism, regardless of your class background and other experiences of marginalization.”          ~ “The sea we swim in” https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/review/taiwo-elite-capture/

“The theme is the way the class stratification amongst Blacks facilitates a Black political class that works as a racial ventriloquist (“Welfare Queen’ to ‘Black girl magic’: Neo-liberalism and the rise of the Black bourgeoisie” https://therealnews.com/from-welfare-queen-to-black-girl-magic-neoliberalism-and-the-rise-of-the-black-bourgeoisie) for the majority of the working class and poor Blacks in exchange for their economic patronage and enrichment from the ruling class largely to the detriment of the Black masses.”

This leads to a critique of the Black professionals making up the middle-class demographic of the employees of the neo-liberal pro-corporate reform Mind Trust, RISEIndy, or Stand for Children.

A recent example of the Bourge Blues is the daily pressure faced by Supt. Johnson, Mind Trust’s Shannon Williams, RISEIndy’s Jasmin Shaheed-Young, and IPS board members Angelia Moore and Venita Moore to meet the demands of the Elites who have captured them. The elites want results. They want the complete privatization of IPS. That level of pressure would give most of the blues

To do so, these education leaders must convince voters that charters/Innovations are public schools–when they are not. Let’s make this simple: public schools have elected boards; charters select board members. Public schools accept all students. Charters do not. A student does not have to go where they fit in just to go to a public school.

This anti-democracy delegitimizes charters/Innovations, so these women must push a different narrative. The spin is so great, it borders on a mild form of propaganda. One does not know if the writer is trying to convince the readers or themselves.

“Casting a vision for public schools in Indianapolis?” Recorder, 03.24.2023, p. A3 https://indianapolisrecorder.com/casting-a-vision-for-public-schools-in-indianapolis/

The	Mind	Trust
Key Employees/Officers	Position	Yearly Compensation
Brandon Brown	CEO	$264,777
Leslie Shegog	SVP Community	$175,663
Lauren Rush	SVP Administration	$156,194
Joe White	SVP Schools	$145,037
Patrick Jones	SVP Leadership	$140,378
Kristin Grimme	SVP Strategy	$137,229

• https://www.themindtrust.org/
• https://www.themindtrust.org/staff/
• https://www.themindtrust.org/board/

RISEIndy

• https://riseindy.org/
• https://riseindy.org/rise-staff
• https://riseindy.org/board-of-directors
• https://riseindy.org/advisory-council

“The RISE Advisory Council is comprised of public, private, nonprofit, and faith community representatives in Indianapolis. The Council is an extension of RISE and serves as our community voice, representing diverse perspectives and experiences as they relate to Indianapolis schools.”

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v_sVCNYbdM

There is no current record of the 990 for RISEIndy.There is a record for Jasmin Shaheed-Young as president and CEO of Great Public Schools for Indy, Inc. In 2019 leader Shaheed-Young made $103,339.

• https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/great-public-schools-for-indy,834592277/
• https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/name_search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=shaheed-young

Racial Capitalism and Charters

The Primordial Substitute Teacher— Neoliberalism, Racial Capitalism, and the Ideology of Michelle Rhee’s Students First

12.17.2020

https://thenewpolis.com/2020/12/17/2469/

Part 1 Researcher Fraser reframed neo-liberalism from a conservative economic policy to a progressive social policy, which serves the interests of capital while using the language of emancipation. Philosopher Carl Raschke argued, “Neo-liberalism has captured the moral passions and sentimentality of educated cultural progressives in the developed world to advance the causes of the new planetary captains of industry. These neo-liberal values reinforce the dominance of capital,” while “demanding every good citizen commit to the higher values incarnated in the soft governance of the neo-liberal state.”

01.18.2021

https://thenewpolis.com/2021/01/18/the-primordial-substitute-teacher-neoliberalism-racial-capitalism-and-the-ideology-of-students-first-part-2-thomas-joyce/

Part 2 This creates the misrecognition of the symptom: educational inequality as resulting of not enough marketplace ideology rather than a function of marketization. The ideological fantasy of [S]tudents [F]irst structures the teacher’s reality, and allows that “minimum of consistency.” It re-orients the teacher away from structural inequalities and allows the teacher to focus on their personal “relentless pursuit” of educational equity through their classroom practices. What is antithetical to market ideology (tenure, unions, workplace protections), is labeled as not putting students first.

02.01.2021

https://thenewpolis.com/2021/02/01/the-primordial-substitute-teacher-neoliberalism-racial-capitalism-and-the-ideology-of-students-first-part-3-thomas-joyce/

Part 3 Neo-liberalism, racial capitalism, and the education reforms they produce fail to follow through on their claims of closing the opportunity gap. Students First embodies the ideology of neo-liberalism and racial capitalism. It allows for the segregation, exploitation, and dispossession of marginalized communities. It does so by constructing a teacher subject whose existence is predicated on sacrificing. Responsibilizing the individual teacher to overcome the impact of capitalism serves only to absolve and deflect blame from organizations with the power to close the opportunity gap. Segregation and poverty cannot be overcome by well-meaning teachers.

• Racial Capitalism American Medical Association

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity/what-racial-capitalism

• Education and racial capitalism

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13613324.2021.2001449?journalCode=cree20https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13613324.2021.2001449?journalCode=cree20

• STEM and racial capitalism in Chicago Schools

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13613324.2019.1592840?src=recsys

• Education and racial capitalism: Not an “achievement gap”, a racial capitalist chasm

https://lpeproject.org/blog/not-an-achievement-gap-a-racial-capitalist-chasm/

• Racial Capitalism: Using School Bonds To Digitally Enslave Black Children>

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/racial-capitalism-using-school-bonds-digitally-black-lynn-davenport/

The Elite Capture of EmpowerED: BAEO Revived

Formed in 2000 at the national level, Black Alliance for Education Options (BAEO) opened in Indiana in 2001 under the leadership of none other than corporate school reform proxies Jackie Cissell and Bratto Britt. Note her story by B-town Errant’s Douglas Storm: “Reverends for Corporate School Choice” (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=145617088867089&id=227398290635679). See the Indiana BAEO story yourself here at: https://heartland.org/opinion/black-alliance-is-on-the-move/

A review of the EmpowerED website (https://empoweredfamiliesindy.org/) reveals Mr. Britt has emerged from BAEO’s Indiana grave to be an EmpowerED board member. And, Dr. Howard Fuller is here! See: https://empoweredfamiliesindy.org/state-from-howard-fuller-regarding-the-proposed-ips-referendum/ 

     …to create the illusion of demand?.

As discussed above, Michael Joyce knew Blacks had never pushed or rallied for vouchers. He also knew he had millions of dollars at his disposal. He knew that money changes things, or at least changes the appearance of things… So what if Blacks never advocated for vouchers, he had the money to create a demand…or create the appearance of a demand…

EmpowerED as just another BAEO:  The Elite Capture of efforts to organize parents for Indy charters/Innovations

In a press release dated February 7, 2022, (https://www.themindtrust.org/blog/2022/02/07/the-mind-trust-receives-5-175-million-from-lilly-endowment-inc-and-lilly-foundation-to-grow-innovation-network-schools-support-diverse-teacher-talent-pipelines-and-empower-parents/) the elite Lilly Endowment Inc. and Lilly Foundation captured the Mind Trust with $5,175,000.00 to support the growth of Innovation Network Schools (https://in.chalkbeat.org/2020/2/13/21178704/what-s-an-ips-innovation-school-here-s-your-cheat-sheet), parent engagement and advocacy work led by Stand for Children–Indiana and EmpowerED Families, and the overall execution of The Mind Trust’s 5-year strategic plan.

The use of $5.1M to create a need, created a demand for an Indianapolis parent empowerment group which manifested out of thin air, just as was originally done with the million$ of dollar$ from the Bradley Foundation, and the help from Michael Joyce, Corey Booker, Dr. Howard Fuller, their BAEO group.

The Mind Trust practices a “deference politics” via EmpowerED: redistributing power to the relatively privileged within a marginalized group

Rather than build a Community Parent Union/Collective started and run by parents, Indy’s own Jr. Elite Captors, The Mind Trust, morphs into groups like EmpowerED (https://empoweredfamiliesindy.org/). Here, The Mind Trust uses what Elite Capture’s author, Dr. Táíwò, calls “difference politics” (https://thingofthings.substack.com/p/against-deference-politics-or-the) to decide who to “capture” from marginalized groups and make them spokespersons for the captor’s agenda. Parents of color like Kim Graham are made Director of Organizing/Partnerships; and, others such as Courtney Kendrick and Alma Estrada are parent advocates. Other persons of color are EmpowerED leaders: Executive Director Ontay Johnson, and Operations Director Tiera Hollanquest. View: https://empoweredfamiliesindy.org/about.

These particular members of Indy’s marginalized groups are chosen by The Mind Trust as though their experiences of oppression “…will be magically transformed into an unassailable political strategy” (https://lux-magazine.com/article/elite-capture-olufemi-taiwo/) by them and/or the EmpowerEd leaders who hired them. Unfortunately, there’s no direct correlation between being oppressed and carrying out savvy local politics of liberation.

The reality is these EmpowerEd staff members are given a high ranking within Indy society’s lower caste positions within the Black and/or Latino silos, redistributing power to the relatively privileged but within a marginalized group.

This info raises questions: how much do Kim Graham, Ontay Johnson, and Tiera Hollanquest make? How much do Courtney Kendrick and Alma Estrada make? Also, how many actual parent “members” does EmpowerED have?

Appendix I

Hip and cool neo-liberal Millennials spreading the word on pro-choice: Mr. Chris Stewart

Chris Stewart is a member of the 8 Black Hands traveling show. What’s particularly outstanding is his “brightbeam” initiative (https://brightbeamnetwork.org/about/) and its national-level platform Citizen Ed (https://citizen.education/about/). Each is quite an accomplishment, one that stands out in the crowded American school reform scene, and in the global education reform movement, or GERM:

• https://dianeravitch.net/category/global-education-reform-movement-germ/.

And we can’t forget Ed Post (Education Post), “the flagship platform of brightbeam” (https://www.edpost.com/). This spinoff group gets captured by the Elite so easily. Just look at their 2020 990 form:

• https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/view_990/470988089/e1f512a2c974c15ad84408a9a6a8ec34.

For more on Brightbeam and Education Post “finances” see Cause IQ:

• https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/results-in-education-foundation,470988089/

This all adds up to Chris Stewart’s online publishing efforts being a source of a constant barrage of news, ideas, and events that manifest in a sort of a “mild propaganda” for the charter world meant to “…influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of any group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly.” View: https://www.powerthesaurus.org/mild_propaganda/definitions.

But all of this, and more, is what the Elites who captured Chris Stewart expect.

Note on p. 6 Part VIII 99-PF: Chris Stewart makes $270,300/year + benefits $41,405 or a decent 6 figures of $311,705 USD. But, the Elite Capture of Mr. Stewart comes from the elites contributing to his 501(3). See the same 990/Schedule B, p. 2. Elite contributors are Michael Bloomberg Philanthropies=$1,000.000; Bill Gates Foundation=$866,733; The Walton’s=$75,000, and The City Fund =$400,000. For more on City Fund view https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/the-city-fund/ and https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/824938743/202001959349300800/full. City Fund is run by billionaires: Chair, John Arnold (Arnold Foundation) and Treasurer, Reed Hasting (Netflix).

See all Chris Stewart’s 990’s (2016-2020) here: https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/results-in-education-foundation,470988089/.