Molly Knefel<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the <\/span>Los Angeles Times<\/strong>\u00a0(8\/18\/15<\/a>) announced an initiative called Education Matters, \u201can ongoing, wide-ranging report card on K-12 education in Los Angeles, California and the nation.\u201d The project will cover educational issues, including \u201cthe latest debate on curriculum or testing\u201d and \u201chow charter schools are changing public education.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>Times<\/strong>, owned by <\/span>Tribune Publishing<\/strong>, will fund Education Matters with donations and grants from philanthropic organizations like the Baxter Family Foundation and the Broad Foundation. \u201cThese institutions, like the <\/span>Times<\/strong>,\u201d publisher and CEO Austin Beutner writes, \u201care dedicated to independent journalism that engages and informs its readers.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n The problem with Education Matters\u2019 promise to create \u201cindependent journalism,\u201d however, is that several of the organizations funding it have a direct stake in a very specific education reform agenda<\/a>. Education reform, as a project, is far from value-neutral: Reformers promote specific policies, ranging from firing teachers based on their students\u2019 test scores to replacing public schools with privately run charter schools. Their rhetoric often directly attacks teachers unions and even public education as an institution, in favor of \u201cmarket-driven\u201d \u201cschool choice\u201d solutions. And the organizations funding the <\/span>LA Times<\/strong>\u2019 new project are no exception. <\/span><\/p>\n The Broad Foundation, in particular, has a prodigious record. According to its <\/span>website<\/span><\/a>, Broad currently invests in organizations that invest in charter-school expansion, including Aspire Public Schools (whose goal is to \u201cexpand its network of public charter schools in the Los Angeles area\u201d), the California Charter School Association, the Charter School Growth Fund, charter loan provider Excellent Education Development, Jeb Bush\u2019s Foundation for Excellence in Education, Green Dot Public Schools (a charter network), the KIPP Foundation, New Schools Venture Fund, Pacific Charter School Development, Silicon Valley-based charter management organization Rocketship Education, Success Charter Network and Uncommon Schools. It funded the popular pro-charter documentary <\/span>Waiting for Superman<\/span><\/em>. It also invests in the US Department of Education\u2019s \u201cRace to the Top\u201d grant program. <\/span><\/p>\n Two of the other three donors that the <\/span>Times <\/strong>lists have also invested in charter school expansion and an education reform agenda. The Wasserman Foundation, which <\/span>describes<\/span><\/a> its education-related giving as \u201cfocused on transforming our public schools,\u201d has <\/span>partnered<\/span><\/a> with Broad and the Gates Foundation to fund senior staffer positions in the LA school district. As reported by the <\/span>LA Times<\/strong> itself (<\/span>4\/7\/06<\/span><\/a>), it gave $6 million to a local charter network; it\u2019s also <\/span>given<\/span><\/a> to Teach for America. <\/span><\/p>\n And the Baxter Family foundation <\/span>says<\/span><\/a> its mission is to \u201crestructure the present system to create effective competition in the market for educational services.\u201d It promises to \u201csponsor and\/or undertake research that will analyze alternative solutions to the problems plaguing our public schools, including private and charter schools.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n The other foundation, the California Endowment, focuses<\/a> primarily on health initiatives in schools and communities. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While it won\u2019t be Broad or Wasserman themselves writing the new stories at the <\/span>LA Times<\/strong>, it\u2019s dubious that \u201cindependent journalism\u201d will be funded, in part, via foundations so powerful in the education reform movement. Just like all journalism, education coverage must be adversarial to those in power\u2014and right now, in education, reformers have a great deal of power. <\/span><\/p>\n The reform movement itself should be covered thoroughly and critically. In the past few years, news outlets like the <\/span>New York Times<\/strong> have begun to investigate disciplinary practices at the popular Success Academy network (<\/span>4\/6\/15<\/span><\/a>), charters\u2019 disproportionately low numbers of students with disabilities and English Language Learners (<\/span>3\/16\/15<\/span><\/a>), and their high suspension rates (<\/span>2\/11\/15<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n What will Education Matters\u2019 approach be to covering Los Angeles education stories that involve projects currently funded by those paying for the coverage? What will their approach be to adversarially covering education reform? How critical will they be of programs like Race to the Top and Teach for America, and of politicians like Arne Duncan<\/a>, who will be featured as a guest columnist? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As Rudy Crew, former New York City school chancellor and now a USC education professor, \u00a0<\/span>said<\/span><\/a> when the LA school chancellor took money from Broad and Wasserman to fund administrative positions:<\/span> \u201cHe\u2019s using their money; they get to set the agenda.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Devoting more resources to dedicated education coverage is crucial, especially in the midst of a nationwide battle over the future of public education. But getting one side in the battle to fund \u201cindependent journalism\u201d is not the way to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n Via FAIR<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Molly Knefel Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times\u00a0(8\/18\/15) announced an initiative called Education Matters, \u201can ongoing, wide-ranging report card on K-12 education in Los Angeles, California and the nation.\u201d The project will cover educational issues, including \u201cthe latest debate on curriculum or testing\u201d and \u201chow charter schools are changing public education.\u201d The Times, owned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":175651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-175630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}