Notes from the Field

Submitted by Frank Murphy, April 26, 2011

In Philadelphia the heads of local citizens are spinning from a whirlwind of events that are keeping their school district in constant turmoil.  A massive budget shortfall, charter school corruption, anticipated school closings and scandal, are but a few of the problems that are plaguing the district.

Chaos seems to be the new normal in Philadelphia Schools.  In the view of Eli Broad this is a good thing. Broad is a billionaire philanthropist. He along with Bill Gates is one of the most influential advocates of the educational entrepreneur reform movement that is currently shaping the future of America’s public school systems.

Broad believes that public schools should be run as though they are businesses.  He advocates for the continual reorganizations of schools, staff firings, and experimentation in order to create chaos or churn.  The Broad view sees this as a productive strategy in that it weakens the ability of communities to resist change.  In order to advance his educational agenda he has created the Broad Foundations.

It is essential to understand the objectives of these foundations and the scope of their work in order to make sense of recent school reform efforts.  Parents Across America a grassroots advocacy group has prepared an excellent guide for parents that examines the educational policies of the Broad Foundations. It also describes the training programs that the Broad Center provides to prospective school leaders.  The members of this organization do not embrace Broad’s vision of school reform.

“Parents Across America considers Broad’s influence to be inherently undemocratic, as it disenfranchises parents and other stakeholders in an effort to privatize our public schools and imposes corporate-style policies without our consent. We strongly oppose allowing our nation’s education policy to be driven by billionaires who have no education expertise, who do not send their own children to public schools, and whose particular biases and policy preferences are damaging our children’s ability to receive a quality education.”

Another must read article concerning Broad and his foundations appears in the Seattle Education 2010 blog.  The title “How to tell if you’re School District is infected by the Broad Virus” says it all.  I have listed three of my favorite quotes from this piece below.

• “You start to feel you are trapped in the nightmarish Book Five of the Harry Potter series and the evilly vindictive Dolores Umbridge is running your school district. “

• “The superintendent receives the highest salary ever paid to a superintendent in your town’s history (plus benefits and car allowance) – possibly more than your mayor or governor — and the community is told that is the national, competitive rate for a city of this size.”

• “The district hires a number of ‘Broad Residents’ at about $90,000 apiece, also trained by the Broad Foundation, who are placed in strategically important positions like overseeing the test that is used to evaluate teachers or school report cards. They in turn provide — or fabricate — data that support the superintendent’s ed reform agenda (factual accuracy not required).”

Broad’s ideas have been influential in shaping school reform efforts in the Philadelphia School District.   During the Vallas administration, Broad residents and graduates started to occupy important positions within the central administration.  LaVonne Sheffield and Tom Brady were two notable trainees of the Broad Center who worked in Philadelphia.

The Broad influence grew even more powerful in Philadelphia with the arrival of superintendent Arlene Ackerman.  She enthusiastically embraced Broad’s primary prescription for “fixing” urban school districts.  Ackerman mandated a uniform curriculum in Philadelphia Schools (i.e. scripted instruction).  She instituted a zero tolerance disciplinary code.   Longer blocks of time for reading and math instruction were scheduled into the school day by her administration.  Most importantly, she has aggressively handed over public schools to charter operators.

Ackerman has mentored Broad Residents including Jean-Claude Brizard, the newly appointed CEO of Chicago Public Schools’.  She is also a board member of the Broad Center.

In view of these facts, Philadelphia is clearly a Broad- infected school district.

Interestingly, the title of the Philadelphia School District’s blog is “A Broad View”.

One might wonder if this title refers to the street on which the School District headquarters is located.  Or is it a homage to Eli Broad?