Category: Studentsfirst

Just for the record

3/22/2014

Just for the record:

Momma Bears would never ever ever ever ever,
not in a million years,
no way, no how,
buy a single "like" on Facebook for StudentsFirst.
We wouldn't spend a penny on that organization.

Not even if they gave us all new minivans.

Not even if they offered to clean our houses and do our laundry so we can spend more time blogging.

Not even if they gave our neighborhood schools thousands of dollars so we wouldn't have to do cookie dough & wrapping paper fundraisers to pay for art supplies, music instruments, and playgrounds for students.

StudentsFirst's "likes" on Facebook: Pathetic Popularity Contest

3/18/2014

Momma Bears has often wondered about the gullible people who fall for the StudentsFirst sales pitch. StudentsFirst is an underhanded, astroturf organization funded by corporate billionaires (HERE and HERE). This is Michelle Rhee's group. Yes, the same Michelle Rhee that legislators don't want to be associated with because she has such a bad reputation. How on earth do they have over 75,000 "likes" on Facebook? The people commenting on their posts obviously don't agree with them (read them when you need a laugh, it is pretty funny). They rarely get any "likes" at all on their posts despite having 75,000 "members" on their facebook page.

Well, we found the answer... those gullible people were really not people at all!!!

StudentsFirst's Facebook "likes" were bought from Bangladesh!!!

We aren't kidding! Look:

See the red circle around "Dhaka, Bangladesh"? It is listed as the "Most Popular City" for likes on this page.

Search on Facebook for "We Sell Likes in Bangladesh." You'll see that anyone can buy 1000 likes for about $15 bucks. (Click HERE to go buy likes or fake friends for yourself.) Click HERE to read an article that tells about the dishonest business of buying popularity on social media sites.

Check out this page from StudentsFirst in Alabama:

See that their most popular city is Istanbul, Turkey?
See that their most popular age group is 18-24 year olds?
See how the graph lines were pretty low until it spiked the week of March 9?

Yep, apparently, someone bought themselves some cheap, overseas popularity... because informed parents sure don't "like" what StudentsFirst is pushing on our kids and schools in America!

No, we don't "like" their corporate donors profiting from our kids and our public schools.
No, we don't "like" their stinking vouchers or manipulative parent trigger law.
No, we don't "like" our kids doing common core.
No, we don't "like" our public schools converted to charter schools for their profit at the expense of our children.

Smart parents want strong neighborhood public schools in their communities, which is the total opposite of what StudentsFirst spends its millions of dollars on in our state to lobby our elected officials and fund campaigns to sway our politicians.

StudentsFirst is, literally, buying votes in TN. Unfortunately, their money in TN makes them very popular. The TN legislators who received the most money from StudentsFirst (Senator Delores Gresham, Rep. John DeBerry, and the members of the Education committees) vote lock-step with what StudentsFirst wants. Every. Single. Time. (That's a big reason that the TN House just circumvented those bought & paid-for committee members by hijacking a bill and adding amendments on it to delay PARCC & common core.)

FAUX Parents
This is what we Momma Bears now like to affectionately call, "Faux Parents." See, when Commissioner Kevin Huffman told a group of rich Chamber of Commerce people that he couldn't possibly listen to parents because there are many "Faux Parent" groups in TN with ulterior motives, we thought he was talking about Momma Bears and groups like ours. Obviously, we were wrong. He was talking about his ex-wife's organization, StudentsFirst! (Okay, he really was probably talking about us and trying to discredit our voices, but still, you gotta note the irony of his claim and the truth of StudentsFirst's purchased popularity!) Check out the Twitter storm (#fauxparent) to see pictures of real parents holding signs about being a "faux parent." Parents, sure do have great senses of humor!

The sad part of this can be stated by a mom who said this:

"StudentsFirst has lobbyists galore up on the hill telling our legislators that they are speaking on behalf of parents. They are just neglecting to mention that the parents are living in Bangladesh not the US and certainly not Tennessee."

With tongue-in-cheek, she also says:

"Clearly Rhee (Michelle Rhee, CEO of StudentsFirst) is not on her "A" game because her home state of California only has 241 likes on it. Seems like someone needs to put a call in to the folks in Bangladesh and get that fixed."

Considering Michelle Rhee's cheating scandal and how her organization has paid big campaign bucks to gullible politicians, this Facebook debacle doesn't surprise Momma Bears one bit.

UPDATE: People have contacted us wanting to how to see for themselves that StudentsFirst's "likes" really are from Bangladesh. It is easy: Go to the Students First facebook page (Note: In the Facebook search bar, you have to put a space between Students and First for their national page, but some of their state pages don't have a space. For example, StudentsFirst Alabama. Weird.) Anyway, just click on the word, "Likes," (see red arrow below) and you'll get to the details page we posted images of above. See, easy, right?

For some reason, Facebook only shows "Most Popular City" for some pages and not others, so some of the smaller Students First (or StudentsFirst) State pages don't show the most popular city. We can't figure out why this is. Of course, Facebook changes more often than the weather, so don't be surprised if this, changes, too.

Here's our new Momma Bears facebook page. "Like" us because you really do, not because you're paid to. Thanks!

Silencing our voices

2/28/2014

A post from one of our smartest Momma Bears:

A bill has been introduced in the TN legislature that would allow city councils/commissions to remove funds for lobbying from school district budgets. (HB 2293/SB 2525). This would set a dangerous precedent because it would allow a municipal-level, elected body to dictate how another municipal-level, elected body uses its money. If some councils/commissions decide to exercise this veto authority, they would effectively silence our voices in the halls of the legislature because these lobbyists represent our elected school boards who, in turn, represent us--the voters. And once our voices have been silenced, the lobbyists from wealthy groups intent on destroying public education will have free reign in the halls of Legislative Plaza.

If you are wondering why a school district/board might need lobbyists, look no further than what is happening with StudentsFirst (SF), a group founded by Michelle Rhee who also happens to be the ex-wife of Tennessee’s Education Commissioner, Kevin Huffman. The Sacramento.-based organization backs charter schools and vouchers and is funded by donations from extremely wealthy individuals, corporations, and foundations—including the Gates and Waltons. SF currently has an office in Nashville, along with 8 lobbyists.

There are other similar lobbying groups in TN, (who don't have you or your children's best interests at heart) including the following:

Tennessee Federation for Children: Supports charter schools and vouchers. 5 lobbyists.
TN Charter Center: Supports proliferation of charter schools. Employs 8 lobbyists.
Stand for Children: Supports charter schools and vouchers. Employs 2 lobbyists.
Beacon Center of TN: Supports vouchers. Employs 2 lobbyists.
Pearson, Inc.: Publishes Common Core materials and tests. Employs 1 lobbyist.
K12 Inc.: Runs K12 for-profit virtual charter school. Employs 5 lobbyists.

(Go to this link https://apps.tn.gov/ilobbysearch-app/search.htm to find documentation of these lobbyists.)

Why do local school boards need lobbyists?
School board members in TN are part-time positions and these representatives do not have the time to follow all of the bills that are going through the legislature. They need the help of lobbyists to help them keep track of bills that directly affect their schools and constituents. And just in case you are keeping score, here are the lobbyists school boards/districts use in our state:

Coalition of Large School Systems: Represents Shelby, Nashville, Hamilton, and Knox County school systems. Employs 2 lobbyists
Tennessee School Board Association: Represents all school boards who pay dues to it. Employs 1 lobbyist.
Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents: Represents interests of school board directors who pay dues to it. Employs 3 lobbyists.

Final score:
StudentsFirst & Company = 31 lobbyists!!!
School boards/districts = 6 at the most.

As you might suspect, StudentsFirst, Stand for Children, TN Charter Center, and other groups reportedly support these bills. They apparently have no problem suppressing the voices of our elected officials and, subsequently, our voices in the legislative process—especially when the views expressed by these officials run counter to their agendas.

(Note: All Momma Bears are volunteers. We are concerned parents who do this solely because we care deeply about public education.)

Please email or call the members of the Local Government Committee ASAP.
(This bill is up for a vote at 12:00 on Tuesday, March 4th.)

You can cut and paste the text of this letter into your email:

Dear Local Government Committee,

We urge you to vote against HB 2293 that would allow city commissions and councils to veto lobbying expenditures in school district budgets. This would set a dangerous precedent because it would allow a municipal-level, elected body to dictate how another municipal-level, elected body uses its money. And, if some councils/commissions decide to exercise this veto authority, they would effectively silence our voices in the halls of the legislature because these lobbyists represent our elected school boards who, in turn, represent us--the voters. This seems to be an effort by a group of well-moneyed special interest groups to silence the voices of elected officials and voters. We believe passage of this bill would further remove our government and education system from the will of the people and place it almost solely in the hands of the wealthy and powerful elite. Please hear our voices and vote against HB 2293.

Sincerely,

And you can cut and paste the following emails into your email:
Rep.matthew.hill@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.richard.floyd@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.dale.carr@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.vince.dean@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.jeremy.durham@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.jimmy.eldridge@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.jeremy.faison@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.steve.hall@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.andy.holt@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.sherry.jones@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.larry.miller@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.bo.mitchell@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.antonio.parkinson@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.mike.sparks@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.mike.stewart@capitol.tn.gov

***UPDATE to this blog: Click HERE to see how many other lobbyists we forgot on this list!

Liar liar pants on fire: StudentsFirst

12/29/2013

This is a series of posts to educate people about non-profit organizations that disguise themselves as supporting children, but, in reality, do not.

FACTS about StudentsFirst:
Started in: 2010
Founder: Michelle Rhee
Michelle Rhee's salary: about $300,000 from StudentsFirst + profit from book sales + speaking fees of $50,000 per event
StudentsFirst budget: $??? (unknown because they funnel money through so many of their organizations)
Funding from: billionaire foundations, corporate investors, and hedge fund managers
Staff: 50+ people
Spent in TN to influence TN legislators: over $525,000
Headquarters: California (with offices in 16 states)

StudentsFirst does not put students, first.
They put PROFITS and POLITICIANS first.

Momma Bears aren't fooled. This is definitely NOT a grassroots organization. "Astroturf" is a better description. There are no healthy roots, only an expensive layer of fake green plastic that doesn't fool anyone. (Click HERE to read our Momma Bears blog about grassroots)

As StudentsFirst pretends to support children, StudentsFirst attacks the very teachers and school environments that nurture and educate children. Through millions of dollars from corporate interests, StudentsFirst influences campaigns and laws that benefit their wealthy supporters.

In Tennessee, StudentsFirst by far leads the pack of outside funding to influence elections and legislators. Why is an organization in California spending so much money in Tennessee? or any state? Because of the huuuuge profit to be reaped with public tax dollars by turning our public schools into profitable charter schools.

StudentsFirst has publicly celebrated budget cuts to school systems and announced its intent to do away with locally elected school boards, particularly those in urban areas. Why? School boards are the gatekeepers of taxpayer dollars, made up of locally elected individuals representing the people who pay those tax dollars. Without pesky school boards in place, StudentsFirst has far less accountability and can funnel all of its resources into the campaigns of just a few city and state leaders who agree with its agenda. That way, they can have more control no real checks in place. Why focus on urban school boards? Because urban school districts have more students (ie, more $), more per pupil spending (in general), and less-involved parents to protest (in general).

Here is what StudentsFirst supports with its money and paid lobbyists:

privatizing our public schools by turning them into profit-generating charter schools
getting rid of locally elected school boards
politicians
campaigns
decreasing teacher pay
testing kids with lots of expensive tests
common core standards
using test scores to fire teachers
using test scores to close neighborhood schools
hiring cheaper inexperienced teachers that don't have teaching licenses
eroding trust in teachers and public schools with manipulated test scores

Michelle Rhee is the founder of StudentsFirst. In Washington, DC, where she was appointed Chancellor of Education by the Mayor (who wasn't re-elected because of her), there still lingers a dark fog of suspicion over suspected wide-spread cheating in 103 schools during her time there. Though she denies knowing about the cheating, a memo has surfaced that proves otherwise. Liar liar pants on fire.

Here's what happened to schools who followed Rhee's advice:
(according to an article by John Merrow):
• "Six years after Michelle Rhee rode into town, the public schools seem to be worse off by almost every conceivable measure."
• With tight security after the cheating scandal, math and reading scores have plunged more than 40 percentile points.
• Half of all newly hired teachers leave within 2 years. "It has been a revolving door for principals as well."
• The per pupil expenditure has increased 27%, and the district has lost 13% of its students.
• "The most disturbing effect of Ms. Rhee’s reform effort is the widening gap in academic performance between low-income and upper-income students, a meaningful statistic in Washington, where race and income are highly correlated."

With all that money in their coffers, we can't help but wonder what would happen if StudentsFirst used the money on students, first? Use it for things that have been PROVEN to help students succeed, like:

smaller class sizes
teacher training
funding for art, music, PE, sports, enrichment, etc. (like private schools and nations with higher test scores have).
Heck, even basic supplies for our schools like copy paper, tissues, paper towels, and toilet paper would be better than what they're spending all that money on! (Yes, some schools in TN really have asked parents to send in toilet paper).

Momma Bears has dubbed the StudentsFirst motto to be:
"Students LAST, after we take care of our corporate investors."

Just for the record

StudentsFirst's "likes" on Facebook: Pathetic Popularity Contest

Silencing our voices

Liar liar pants on fire: StudentsFirst

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