I just got an email from STUDENTS FIRST. The email said, "We will host you at the Capitol!" and "Most importantly, we'll save a spot for you at the committee hearings!"

EXCUSE ME???

Students First employees - fighting in favor of Common Core and Charter Schools - are:
(1) PAID to show up, and
(2) Given PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT over REAL Tennesseans,
who are NOT paid to be there, 
who have traveled long distances, and
some have even taken vacation time from their jobs in order to attend these very important hearings.

I keep showing up with my kids HOURS early, to make sure we can get in only to find no available seats!  THIS IS WHY!!!  Sorry, I am not exaggerating one bit when I say your children's education is for sale!

(shared with permission from a Mom in Williamson County)

Email from StudentsFirst to their mailing list:

Paige Donaldson, Field Coordinator for StudentsFirst, is probably a very nice girl.  Her LinkedIn profile shows that she recently graduated from college and that during college, she worked weekends at a Sportsbar to supplement her college expenses.  We know Paige Donaldson was just doing her job, and we wish her luck someday if she has kids of her own.  We doubt she will appreciate out-of-state parties (who send their own kids to private schools exempt from these issues) meddling with her own children's education or her community's public schools.

Unless you have a Mom or Dad - a real TN parent - in that coordinator spot, there is no credibility.  StudentsFirst is a heavily-funded, out-of-state organization who saves seats in OUR state committee meetings and gives money to OUR elected officials to influence them.  Not nice.

 

Tennessee Momma Bears uncovered a dirty little secret about a corporately-funded out-of-state organization in TN that claims to advocate for students.  All politicians should be aware of this, especially since many Senators, Representatives, and School Board members have accepted significant campaign contributions from this organization believing that it represented real people.  Read what the Momma Bears found:

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 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.

Michelle Rhee seems to have her hands firmly around Tennessee Education policy as this legislative session begins. Rhee’s group, StudentsFirst, contributed more than $200,000 (or was it more?) in state legislative races in 2012 and they’re getting what they paid for. In short, Rhee’s top policy priorities are now the top priorities of the legislature and Governor Haslam. Here’s a rundown of these policies — all very much en vogue among the education reform elite. None particularly useful in moving Tennessee schools forward.

Vouchers
Or, as some like to call them, “Opportunity Scholarships.” After the Governor’s Task Force on Vouchers came up short of clear recommendations for a voucher scheme, Governor Haslam appeared to cool to the idea. He noted instead that legislators may bring forth a plan and he’d work with that. Then, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush came to town in early January and immediately following the Governor’s public event with Bush, Haslam announced he’d be introducing his own version of a voucher scheme. Never mind that the four largest school districts — the ones most likely to be impacted by a voucher plan — have all expressed opposition. And never mind that many private schools have indicated that they won’t accept the vouchers. Haslam has seen the light as shown to him by Bush and Rhee and he’ll now be moving to divert state education dollars to private schools. This in a state that ranks near the bottom in per pupil spending on public education.

Charters
Tennessee already has among the most liberal charter school laws in the country. Any student in any district that has charter schools may attend a charter school. The local school boards do, however, have control over authorizing a charter to operate in their district and control over closing charters if they are failing. All seemed to be going well with charters opening and growing in Memphis and Nashville. And then there was Great Hearts vs. Metro Nashville. While the Metro Nashville School Board approved several new charters in 2012 and has been fairly aggressive about recruiting charter operators to town, the Board rejected the charter application of Arizona-based Great Hearts Academy. They did so over concerns about diversity and legitimate questions over whether the school would truly meet the community’s needs. The State Board of Education over-ruled the Metro Board and directed them to reconsider. A new school board was elected. And the new board ALSO rejected Great Hearts. So, the state department of education, headed-up by Rhee’s ex-husband, Kevin Huffman, hit Metro with a $3.4 million penalty — withholding BEP funds the district was counting on. Now, Great Hearts is lobbying for a state charter authorizer — a state board that would be unelected and unaccountable — to be created. This charter authorizer would allow charter operators to bypass local school boards and be authorized to operate a charter in a district whether or not the locally elected school board wanted it.

Parent Trigger
The “parent trigger” concept is the idea that if a school is failing and 50% +1 of the parents in that school vote to do so, the parents can convert the school to a charter. Those parents may then “run” the school and hire/fire faculty and obtain other budgetary controls. This may sound like a reasonable proposition. However, in practice, it is a disaster. A school in Indiana recently “pulled the trigger” and the parents were stunned to discover the lack of available resources. The parents presented a list of demands including iPads for all students. The Board replied that in order for that demand to be met, a number of faculty would have to be let go. Parent trigger can also be used by sketchy charter operators to gain a foothold into a school. Rhee is of course behind this measure as well.

Each of these efforts appeals to policymakers because none require any new investment in Tennessee schools. The idea is that we already have money out there, and that if we just did these “new, cool things” we’d have better schools. They allow politicians to claim to be pro-education without making the hard decisions that would lead to meaningful new investments in our schools. Moreover, each of these policies has potentially disastrous effects on an already struggling school system. Stay tuned as the 2013 legislative session advances and these policies gain traction.

This was originally printed last year by Andy Spears in the online Tennessee Education Report. (VOUCHERS, CHARTERS, AND TRIGGERS — OH MY! A PREVIEW OF EDUCATION LEGISLATION IN THE 2013 TENNESSEE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, January 28, 2013) Click HERE to read other informative articles by this knowledgeable Tennessean.

Great... Another "report card" to trick our elected officials into passing laws.  Will they fall for it?  This report card is from StudentsFirst (that California organization that we've warned you about several times already).  Of course, they gave TN a low grade.  

Before you panic, thinking that our state is a failure and the sky is falling so we must do whatever they say to get our grade up...  Remember that it is only their incredibly biased opinion.  

This is not a report card on how well schools are doing, it is a report card on how well our elected officials are following StudentFirst's agenda.

It isn't a REAL report card.  It is the opinions from a corporately-funded organization that wants us to fail so their donors can profit.  

Why did a Governor return a campaign contribution from StudentsFirst, an out-of-state group who seeks to privatize and profitize schools?  Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said, "We felt like there were some people that could misinterpret that donation, and we wanted to be clear."  That is why Governor Bentley returned the $5,000 donation to StudentsFirst. (Click HERE to read the full article)

NOTE:  For his last election, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam received twice as much as Alabama's Governor did.  (Tennessee parents do not yet know how much Gov. Haslam may or may not have received for his upcoming election this year).


StudentsFirst spent more than $100,000 to help Rep. John DeBerry, D-Memphis defeat a Democratic primary opponent (the most money StudentsFirst spent on any campaign nation-wide!).  Hmmm... DeBerry now has a critical role in the legislature.  He was appointed to the committee that will first act on the legislation StudentsFirst is pushing by House Speaker Beth Harwell, whose PAC received $5,000 from StudentsFirst.  Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey's PAC also got $5,000 from StudentsFirst.

"Tennessee Ethics Commission records show the group had nine lobbyists registered to lobby the General Assembly in 2012 -- including Rhee -- with payments to lobbyists of between $50,000 and $100,000 and related lobbying expenses of $300,000 to $350,000."  (click HERE to read that recent article)

NINE lobbyists?!? Who are paid DOUBLE what most TN teachers earn!  Volunteer parents are organizing across the state and will be present at the capital to lobby as volunteers for free.  We are doing it for our children.


*Tennessee parents commend Alabama's Governor for his very wise decision to return the money to StudentsFirst.  That shows integrity and leadership!  We urge our Tennessee elected officials to do the same.

*If you are a legislator who refuses or returns money from StudentsFirst, please reply and let us know so we can tell our followers.  Thank you!

That is a fair and valid question raised by a group of concerned parents called, "Momma Bears."  They researched and found out some really suspicious info about StudentsFirst and the way it operates.  Here is an excerpt from their article about StudentsFirst:

"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."

"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 the entire article about StudentsFirst.  Warning:

... you may be surprised at some of the facts they uncovered.
 
...you might be angry that this organization seeks to take control away from our locally elected school boards.  

...you will be sad to see what has become of schools that followed Michelle Rhee & StudentsFirst's agenda.  

Tennessee parents most certainly do NOT want the same fate for our schools.
 

NOTE:  We see that many TN legislators, and even some local school board members, have received large campaign contributions from StudentsFirst.  In fact 9 of the top 15 campaign contributions last year from StudentsFirst went to Tennessee politicians.  According to the news media, StudentsFirst plans to give and spend even more this year in TN.  

While we can't fault politicians for turning down free campaign funding, we wonder HOW MUCH INFLUENCE does StudentsFirst have over the people that WE cast our votes to elect to represent US?  How much weight do StudentsFirst lobbyists carry when they hand legislators their professional, expensive pamphlets containing beautiful graphs of manipulated data?  Are our legislators and school board members misled hearing their "buzz-words" and empty promises?  Are our legislators gullible or flattered enough to vote against OUR children in favor of corporate profits? 

Are we wasting our time sending these TNparent emails to those we elected?  It takes quite a bit of time to collect, collaborate, edit, and send these emails and post them on our website.  We do this because we believe in public education, and we believe in TN.  We intend to make a difference.  Tennessee parents are awake, and we will be closely watching how our legislators vote.   Tennessee parents will remember at election time, and wise leaders would do well to remember that.  Our voices are strong, but our votes are stronger.   
Please hear OUR voices, not their dollars.

Sincerely,
TN parents 

PS - We see that some TN Board of Education members unsubscribed from our emails...  Clearly Richard Rhoda and Dr. Jean Anne Rogers do not want to hear what Tennessee parents have to say.  Rest assured, we get their message loud and clear.