[Peace-discuss] Black Agenda Report - "Teach For America" Trojan Horse Among Ferguson Activists?

Thu Dec 11 12:53:45 EST 2014

"Teach For America" Trojan Horse Among Ferguson Activists?

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

It's hard to imagine a more ruthless, murderous and insanely wealthy
corporation than the
<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-em
pire-20140924> Koch Bros. What if one of their executive vice presidents was
black and came from Florissant MO, only a few minutes from the spot where
Michael Brown was murdered? What if the Koch VP had kicked it with some of
the demonstrators and activists early on, maybe even taken an arrest or
three, run around some corners and huffed some tear gas with them? 

Now suppose that black Koch VP from Florissant got picked as one of the
young black leaders who
<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/05/obama-ferguson-movemen
t-oval-office-meeting> met with President Obama at the White House last
week. The black Koch VP does not offer to resign her position or denounce
her employer, and the Koch Bros empire certainly will not stop doing any of
the reprehensible things it does in
<http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/17/purchase-election-chevron-shows
-we-have-oligarchy-not-democracy-sanders> Richmond CA, in
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/02/08/the-koch-brothers
-group-is-getting-involved-in-louisianas-obamacare-fight/> Louisiana, and
everywhere else in the world. 

1.   Is this OK? Should the activists in motion over police murder of black
people be good with this? Should they just look away and say well, the other
stuff she's involved in, that her employer's involved in IS a concern but
this here is about the police. Should they say that concern ain't THIS
concern, that concern ain't OUR concern???? Is this the way a broad new
social movement against injustice and oppression is supposed to act? 

2.   Can they really doubt that the Koch PR team will NOT use the black VP's
participation in their movement to confuse and disadvantage oppressed people
somewhere else? 

3.   And would it be right for those with misgivings and questions about
whether the Koch VP really belongs at the table, numbered among movement
activists, to keep their reservations private, restricted to personal and
conference phone calls, private emails and the like? Or is this everybody's
movement and therefor everybody's business, not just that of the designated
"leaders".

Something much like this is actually occurring around Ferguson. One of the
young black activists who
<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/05/obama-ferguson-movemen
t-oval-office-meeting> met with President Obama last week was Brittney
Packnett, a Florissant native who happens to be executive director for the
St. Louis office of Teach For America.

TFA is a nonprofit organization backed to the tune of hundreds of millions
per year by
<http://www.commondreams.org/%E2%80%A6/walmart-writes-checks-critics%E2%80%A
6> Wal-Mart, the Broad Foundation, Monsanto and a long list of corporate
villains and hedge fund predators intent upon dismantling, destroying and
privatizing public education in black and brown neighborhoods, turning
public education into a private profit center. Privatizing public education
is also the bipartisan aim of top Republicans and Democrats across the
country, so the Obama Department of Education has also provided tens of
millions per year in federal funding for Teach For America.

Teach For America recruits young, mostly white grads from elite colleges to
undergo a 5 week training program which supposedly enables them
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-dixon/when-reforming-education_b_530799
.html> to replace experienced, mostly black teachers in inner city schools.
Although TFA used to claim it sends its recruits to underserved schools
where experienced teachers don't want to go, the facts are that
underprepared TFA temps have replaced tens of thousands of experienced
teachers in Newark, Chicago, St. Louis, and dozens of other cities around
the country. 

For those not up on what TFA does, here are a few links....

*	The Daily Dot did an extensive report on Teach For America you can
find at
<http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/inside-real-world-teach-for-america/>
http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/inside-real-world-teach-for-america/
*
<http://atthechalkface.com/%E2%80%A6/why-teach-for-america-cannot-c%E2%80%A6
/> http://atthechalkface.com/
/why-teach-for-america-cannot-c
/
*
<http://dianeravitch.net/%E2%80%A6/mark-naison-how-tfa-is-destructi%E2%80%A6
/> http://dianeravitch.net/
/mark-naison-how-tfa-is-destructi
/
*	 <https://www.jacobinmag.com/2011/12/teach-for-america/>
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2011/12/teach-for-america/
*
<http://www.thenation.com/%E2%80%A6/what-happens-when-you-criticize-%E2%80%A
6> http://www.thenation.com/
/what-happens-when-you-criticize-

*	 <http://www.publicschoolshakedown.org/teach-for-america>
http://www.publicschoolshakedown.org/teach-for-america

In this context, the Teach For America rep sitting among the young black
activists is a Trojan Horse. 

No, it won't do any good to take Ms. Packnett aside and talk to her about
this. That's naïve. She has a longstanding career she's spent her entire
professional life building, and will not be turned aside any more than our
imaginary Koch Bros VP. And not only will TFA keep doing what it's doing,
it's sizeable PR machine will certainly use Ms. Pucknett's presence among
Ferguson activists to confuse the unwary elsewhere.

Teach For America maintains that inner-city public schools are NOT
underfunded, that chronic poverty, joblessness, homelessness and short
staffing are merely excuses used to protect the "bad teachers" which its
mostly white temps are replacing. This is precisely the opposite of what
knowledgeable young activists like the Dream Defenders Phillip Agnew will
tell you.

Chicago just shut down
<http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/news/teach-for-america-gets-big-bo
ost-from-cps-substance-news/> 50 public schools, and
<http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/why-isnt-closing-40-philadelphia-p
ublic-schools-national-news-where-black-political-class> Philly 40 public
schools, nearly all in black neighborhoods. Many thousands of black people
are in the streets in these and other cities fighting for the right to a
quality public education, and the very survival of the communities around
them. Often they are the same people in motion over police murders like that
of Michael Brown. This is a terrible contradiction, but one with an easy
solution. Ferguson activists ought to make it clear that Brittney Packnett
is NOT one of them, that Ms. Packnett represents the people who fund her,
not any definition of young black activists. 

Young activists are quite right to reject the old civil rights zombies like
Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. But a key element of their old style
leadership is keeping every real decision behind closed doors. That's one
more reason why they are not leaders of real movements, and it's a style
young activists would do well not to replicate. This isn't anything that can
be handled behind closed doors.

Black woman or no, Florissant resident or not, Packnett does not belong at
the table, except as a representative of the forces that fund her career and
Teach For America. She is a Trojan Horse, and should be shunned.

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report. He lives and works
in Marietta GA where he serves on the state committee of the GA Green Party.
Reach him via this site's  <http://www.blackagendareport.com> contact page,
or via email at bruce.dixon at blackagendareport.com.

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