Common Core Proponent & Foundation for Excellence Member Mitchell Chester: Let Them Eat Cake?

A nonprofit group released thousands of e-mails today and said they show how a foundation begun by Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and national education reform leader, is working with public officials in states to write education laws that could benefit some of its corporate funders.  from washingtonpost.com

Neal McCluskey writes a most revealing article on how Common Core proponents view growing citizen questioning of the legality of Common Core standards.  From Only the Little People Oppose Common Core:

With the Common Core – national curricular standards in English and math – having been adopted by 45 states, it seems Core supporters’ heads might be getting a bit big. Or, at least, they are starting to more openly express their feelings that Core opponents are very small. Like “little people” who pay taxes small.

The reputed Leona Helmsley quote is, actually, highly apropos for the view expressed by Mitchell Chester, education commissioner for the state of Massachusetts, at a recent AEI conference on implementation and governance of the Common Core. At the end of a session in which, alas, there was a fair amount of contempt expressed for supposedly conspiracy-theorizing Core opponents, Chester gratuitously threw in a small diatribe excoriating anyone who would object to the Core based on its cost. Keep in mind, reasonable estimates of the cost of fully bringing on Common Core hit as high as $16 billion.

Start at the 1:10:00 mark to hear Chester say, essentially, if it will help kids, people simply have no “right” to object to the Common Core based on costs.

See the video and read more here. 



Who is Mitchell Chester who doesn't think taxpayers have a right to object to Common Core, even as the same taxpayers are mandated to pay for it?  He's education commissioner for Massachusetts but his connections to the education reform community run deep.  He's also a member of the Foundation for Excellence.  From excelined.org:

Dr. Chester began his career as an elementary school teacher in Connecticut.  He was a middle school assistant principal and a district curriculum coordinator.  He has served in multiple leadership roles, including Chief of the Bureau of Curriculum and Instructional Programs for the Connecticut State Department of Education, Executive Director for Accountability and Assessment for the School District of Philadelphia and Senior Associate Superintendent for Policy and Accountability for the Ohio Department of Education.  Dr. Chester holds a doctorate in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard University, as well as advanced degrees from the University of Connecticut and the University of Hartford.

It's no wonder Dr. Chester would make such remarks to Neal McCluskey.  Foundation for Excellence is Jeb Bush's organization pushing various education reforms that take away state/local decisions for the educational development/delivery for students.  Think of it as one big elite think tank developing reforms for us little people.

The Washington Post uncovered emails between the Foundation for Excellence and education officials clearly showing a run around of legislative process for state educational reforms.  Now you know why Dr. Chester would show such disdain for the taxpayers who pay for these programs.  They are necessary for funding but for planning and implementation purposes they should be invisible:

The e-mails are between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) and a group Bush set up called Chiefs for Change, whose members are current and former state education commissioners who support Bush’s agenda of school reform, which includes school choice, online education, retention of third-graders who can’t read and school accountability systems based on standardized tests. That includes evaluating teachers based on student test scores and grading schools A-F based on test scores. John White of Louisiana is a current member, as is Tony Bennett, the new commissioner of Florida who got the job after Indiana voters rejected his Bush-style reforms last November and tossed him out of office.

Donald Cohen, chair of the nonprofit In the Public Interest, a resource center on privatization and responsible for contracting in the public sector, said the e-mails show how education companies that have been known to contribute to the foundation are using the organization “to move an education agenda that may or not be  in our interests but are in theirs.”

He said companies ask the foundation to help state officials pass laws and regulations that make it easier to expand charter schools, require students to take online education courses, and do other things that could result in business and profits for them. The e-mails show, Cohen said, that Bush’s foundation would often do this with the help of Chiefs for Change and other affiliated groups.

 
 

Convicted Missouri Democrat Politician Jeff Smith Supports Supposedly Conservative Republican Jeb Bush...

Former state Sen. Jeff Smith (center), D-St. Louis, exits the Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse on Tuesday after pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Smith faces up to 20 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine for each count. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

...so what's the problem?  Stop labeling all education reform as being proposed/directed by ALEC, conservatives and the right-wing.  Stop closing your eyes to the fact the educational blueprint being offered is supported and being implemented by a Democratic administration.  The old labels of "liberal" and "conservative" and Democrat and Republican are outdated and archaic terms.  The only term you need to understand is "global citizenship". Determine if your politicians/lobbyists/special interest companies and individuals fit into that reform mantra.

The post below details disgraced former Missouri Democrat politician Jeff Smith's (now a university professor) accolades for former Republican governor Jeb Bush (now an education reformer).  It seems as if this previously labeled "right-wing" former governor is embraced by a left leaning politician turned professor.  It's one big elitist party  of using taxpayer dollars and taxpayer children for their own version of what's best for local communities and children.

Questions.  Why are Republican Missouri legislators also supporting Jeb Bush's educational reform measures?  Do they want to support the same policies as former Democratic politician Jeff Smith?  Is there any difference in the Republican legislators and Jeff Smith when it comes to educational policy?  The Republicans tout "local control".  Are these reforms allowing decreased federal control and spending?

Why would a far left politician seemingly support a Jeb Bush presidency? 

From Grumpy Opinions:

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Overnight Sandra in Brevard sent me a link to a CNN Opinion Piece Can Jeb Bush sway the GOP on taxes, debt? By Jeff Smith. 


Smith was clearly lobbying for a Jeb Bush candidacy in 2016.  For the most part  the article was really complementary of the Bush family.  Smith went back as far as Prescott Bush, and pointing out that as a US Senator, back in the 1950s Prescott was somewhat of a social progressive and Eisenhower’s favorite golfing partner.

He was little bit harsh on George Bush for being too conservative, but pointed out he had to take conservative positions because at the time the Republican Party was moving in a conservative direction. Among other things Smith pointed out that:

• Jeff Smith: No American family embodies Republicanism more than the Bushes
• Smith: Jeb Bush, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, may be bucking the trend
• He says Jeb Bush advocates for fiscal responsibility and standing up to Grover Norquist
• Smith: If GOP can return to its more centrist roots, then it has a chance to win more voters

Read All of   Can Jeb Bush sway the GOP on taxes, debt?

There was something about the article and Jeff Smith’s promotion of liberal social agenda that made me wonder exactly who Jeff Smith is. According to his CNN profile:

Editor’s note: Jeff Smith, who represented Missouri’s 4th Senate District from 2006-09, is a professor in the urban policy graduate program at The New School. He is on Twitter: @jeffsmithMO.

Somehow it struck me odd that is CNN profile would mention that it been a Missouri State Senator, but did not mention any party affiliation, I was also curious about The New School, so I took a quick trip to Wikipedia and found Jeb Smith had been a Democrat when he served in the State Senate, I didn’t see anything to indicate he’s changed his party affiliation.  I also found:

In September 2004, Smith submitted a false affidavit to the Federal Election Commission relating to a conspiracy with a group called Voters for Truth in the summer of 2004, to run negative advertisements against Russ Carnahan, Smith’s opponent in a congressional race. In January 2009, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, acting upon newly discovered information, opened a criminal investigation to determine whether anyone had attempted to obstruct the Federal Election Commission proceeding. Smith was betrayed by his former associate Steve Brown after Brown was approached by the FBI to wear a wire. Brown escaped a jail sentence by betraying Smith, his longtime friend. Smith pleaded guilty to two felony counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Each conspiracy count is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. He resigned effective August 25, 2009 and was sentenced to one year and a day of prison. He also was fined $50,000. His lawyer requested Smith be sent to a prison camp in Marion, Illinois.^[7] However, Smith was sent to a federal prison in Manchester, Kentucky.^[8] In late August 2010 he was released to a halfway house in St. Louis.^[9] In November 2010, he was released early from the halfway house and is no longer in federal custody.^[10][11]

Current Life

In spring 2011, Smith was married and in September, he and his wife Teresa had their first child, Charlie Wallace Smith. Smith accepted a professorial position in urban policy at the New School’s Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy in New York City. At present he writes for The Recovering Politician ^[12]and contributes to Politico - The Arena.^[13] His writing has been published in Inc. magazine ^[14] and praised in New York Magazine’s Approval Matrix.^[15] Smith plans to publish a book, which details his time in politics and federal prison, in late 2011 to early 2012.^[16

Read More Jeff Smith (Missouri politician)
Yeah okay what kid of school hires an ex politician with a criminal conviction for conspiracy to obstruct justice– The line for Miracle On 34th Street comes to mind
It’s a Progressive School!!  Climate Change, Globalization, Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management  and all those other little catch phrases liberals love are very much on display

Again from Wikipedia

In 1964, the J. M. Kaplan Center for New York City Affairs was founded as the first teaching and research center in the United States devoted to the study of a single metropolitan area. In 1975, under the leadership of Dean Henry Cohen, the Kaplan Center evolved into the Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy (now the Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy), which was named in honor of the former New School trustee Robert J. Milano (1912–2000), who had also been a member of the advisory board of the J.M. Kaplan Center. Curriculum is structured to encourage creative thinking in aid of progressive social, economic, and political change in the public, private, and nonprofit arenas

In 2011, Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy came together with the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School to create the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy

More New School’s Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy in New York City 
So why would a leftist professor start lobbying Jeb Bush to be the Republican candidate almost 4 years ahead of the election. The answer’s simple, first of all with the political left considers a moderate Republican now Jack Kennedy (a democrat) we have considered a flaming liberal. Over the years progressives and their communist friends have managed to drag the Republican Party establishment so far to the left that they are more liberal now than the Democrats were 50 years ago.

The Bush Clan helped enable the party to be dragged towards the left.  Smith probably sees Jeb Bush as someone a progressive could beat an election. But Smith is also looking at the possibility that Joe Biden might run for president, get the democratic nomination and get clobbered in the general election. If that happens the left want someone in the White House they can depend on to help push their educational and globalization schemes. In other words they can live with another Bush, after all it was Jeb's Father that signed Agenda 21 for the United States.

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 You can check out Smith's writing at his site The Recovering Politician and also his recent talk at TED about what he learned in prison.

He talks about learning about "hustles" while in prison.  Is he now "hustling" education reform?