Papering Over Public K-12 School
Reform By Seth Sandronsky
According to him, what
we know about Sen. Ron Calderon, a pro-business Democrat representing
Montebello, and snared in an FBI sting operation recently, is just the tip of
the dollars-and-politics iceberg.
The good senator has
ample company, Morain continues. He mentions other actors and forces in the
fetid pay-to-play of California state politics.
Yet his column omits
the donor role of a leading public K-12 school reform group under the state
Capitol dome. What is going on?
Al Jazeera America’s
Oct. 31 unveiling of an FBI affidavit that alleges Sen. Calderon’s multiple
alleged wrongdoings includes his brother Thomas Calderon’s meeting with star
education reformer Michelle Rhee’s lobbyists. Her StudentsFirst group operates
from a national headquarters in Sacramento.
The affidavit alleges
that StudentsFirst lobbyists met with Sen. Calderon’s brother on Feb. 20. On
Feb. 21, Sen. Calderon introduced a teacher-reform measure, Senate Bill 441
that Rhee’s group supports: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/sen/sb_0401-0450/sb_441_cfa_20130423_084911_sen_comm.html
Sacramento Mayor Kevin
Johnson, Rhee’s husband and never a classroom teacher, backed Sen. Calderon’s
SB 441, which failed to pass out of committee. The mayor’s education
non-profit, Stand Up for Great Schools, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that accepts
hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Walton Family Foundation, the
philanthropic arm of the big-box retailer, also supported SB 441, which teacher
unions opposed.
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