Sunday, September 27, 2009

About This Web site

In upcoming weeks, I will be refining this Web site and adding more and more information. I am currently researching the Broad Foundation's 990s, the Broad Residency in Urban Education, and a number of other related topics. Please be sure to check back periodically.

If you have any links or information to share, or live in a community which has been negatively impacted by the decisions made by people affiliated with the Broad Superintendents Academy, the Broad Residency in Urban Education, or other related Broad-supported organizations, please share your story in the comment sections of these posts.

Thank you for visiting THE BROAD REPORT.

13 comments:

  1. You're missing the damage being caused in Rochester NY. Brizard has lost all support save the editorial board and slash and burn business types.

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  2. Anonymous: Can you send me any links from local blogs or news accounts?

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  3. Thank you for taking on this important work.

    Your readers should also know that Eli Broad, through his initial corporate vehicle, Kaufman and Broad (now KB Homes), has been a major developer of white- flight suburbs and gated communities in Southern California and internationally. He is a major figure in what Mike Davis decribes in his magisterial book, City of Quartz, as "The New Octopus," which "operates across partisan boundaries at every level of government."

    He has also used his status as a major art investor to anchor his real estate investments, for example, by coming to the rescue of the LA Museum of Contemporary Art last year.

    Broad makes no effort to hide the fact that he has no interest whatsoever in teaching. Instead, the focus of his foundation is governance, in other words, power and control. He is a venture capitalist in the ever-expanding world of privatizing education, removing it from public oversight, and de-professionalizing teaching.

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  4. Broad is mentioned as possibly the next owner of the Los Angeles Times. That may explain the enthusiasm expressed for Broad's pet charter, Green Dot, on the editorial page and in the education news columns of the Times.

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  5. Thank God for this Blog!

    Good work, Sharon.

    This information is of vital importance
    to anyone who wants the unvarnished (but often depressing) TRUTH about the current Assault
    on Public Education.

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  6. so . . . you only want negative info about Broad?

    so . . . you don't want me to tell you that every time they identify award winning schools, they have excellent school libraries?

    Why is that?

    InfoSherpa

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  7. Anonymous/InfoSherpa: The Broad Foundation does a GREAT job with it's positive PR spin. I'm looking for the things they will fail to mention. It's not all rosy.

    As for libraries, now if Broad had decided to devote himself to funding school libraries in every urban K-12 public school -- rather than pouring millions into each and every on of the six elements of the charter school reform policy network (as described by Janelle Scott of UC Berkeley) -- why then we'd be cookin' and everyone would love him so.

    By the way, I know ALL about the deprived state of school libraries in my city, and I'm sure Oakland's state isn't alone. For years there have been inadequate resources for schools to be able to afford librarians, in all but a few cases. The schools have rooms which were built as libraries and can buy a few books, but they just can't afford to hire a person to look over it all.

    It's what the "venture" part of "venture philanthropy" means that seems to be causing the problem for people like me.

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  8. Sharon,
    Here is a link about Eli's interest in the LA Times.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1048893120090310

    -Ken

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  9. Folks, thanks for the heads up on all of this, but I'd really like some more details on what is going on.

    What is this Broad toad trying to do, exactly? Call me naive, but when I look at their web site it seems like they encourage some of the same reforms that Obama does. Are you saying Obama is trying to destroy public education?

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  10. In My possibly naive, blinkered, idealistic Opinion, Obama is poorly advised and doesnt actually have to think about education in terms of the rest of us - he thinks that if he could get a wonderful education, everyone can (doesnt realise that's a myth and the odds are stacked against you)and his kids dont have to go to public school.... think he's being sold a bill of goods that with charter schools, all kids will get the kind of schooling his girls are getting.... and maybe he believes all the right wing twaddle about why minority kids dont do well at school, again only being able to relate to his own experience with his own family.... At least, I hope that's what's going on in his head.... but seeing he's being such a wuss/wimp over health care reform, maybe not....

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  11. Eli Broad is one of the biggest culprits in the attempt to destroy public education in this country. He has now put in an "academy" to "teach" superintendents how to run school districts on business models, which of course school districts cannot be run as such. It doesn't matter, though, and this attempt to privatize public education is having disastrous consequences throughout the country.

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  12. • I’m Susannah, a teacher in Maryland. I have recently joined Save Our Schools and National Call to Action. You have been blogging about the recent attacks on teachers and public schools. Our national grassroots movement is asking the “real” ed reform bloggers to join with us so that we can all speak with ONE VOICE all across the country during the month of March. We are asking you to keep your readers informed by mentioning our July 30 march in D.C. and by providing a link to our website www.saveourschoolsmarch. THANKS!

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  13. I’m Susannah, a teacher in Maryland. I have recently joined Save Our Schools and National Call to Action. You have been blogging about the recent attacks on teachers and public schools. Our national grassroots movement is asking the “real” ed reform bloggers to join with us so that we can all speak with ONE VOICE all across the country during the month of March. We are asking you to keep your readers informed by mentioning our July 30 march in D.C. and by providing a link to our website www.saveourschoolsmarch. THANKS!

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