Patricia Levesque is a proponent of online learning schools and is a Florida associate of Jeb Bush. She is definitely not a friend of public education and is a supporter of Indiana's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett.
The Nation has an article titled
Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools, as well as an
interactive national map,
The Privatization of Education, showing how charters and online schools are making inroads against regular public schools.
Levesque has been a strong player in the privatization movement in Florida. The Nation wrote,
Patricia Levesque, a top adviser to former Governor Jeb Bush, spoke to fellow reformers at a retreat in October 2010. Levesque noted that reform efforts had failed because the opposition had time to organize. Next year, Levesque advised, reformers should “spread” the unions thin “by playing offense” with decoy legislation. Levesque said she planned to sponsor a series of statewide reforms, like allowing taxpayer dollars to go to religious schools by overturning the so-called Blaine Amendment, “even if it doesn’t pass…to keep them busy on that front.” She also advised paycheck protection, a unionbusting scheme, as well as a state-provided insurance program to encourage teachers to leave the union and a transparency law to force teachers unions to show additional information to the public. Needling the labor unions with all these bills, Levesque said, allows certain charter bills to fly “under the radar.”
Levesque runs a lobbying firm in Tallahassee which lobbies on behalf of ed-tech companies. The advice above, however, was given to
a group of education philanthropists at a conference sponsored by notable charities like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. Indeed, Levesque serves at the helm of two education charities, the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a national organization, and the Foundation for Florida’s Future, a state-specific nonprofit, both of which are chaired by Jeb Bush. A press release from her national group says that it fights to “advance policies that will create a high quality digital learning environment.”
Despite the clear conflict of interest between her lobbying clients and her philanthropic goals, Levesque and her team have led a quiet but astonishing national transformation.
A "national transformation" which encourages privatization.
Levesque sent the following mass e-mail, trying to raise out of state support for Bennett. We need to respond. Following the letter from Levesque is a list of talking points which explains why our legislators should
not support Tony Bennett. Below the talking points are the names and emails of the members of the Select Commission on Education.
Letter From LevesqueFriends,
We need your help. I know you all are very busy, but if you could spare 15 minutes to write a few emails, we would be extremely grateful.
Tony Bennett, Indiana’s incredible reform-minded leader in education is getting a lot of “friendly fire” pushback on Indiana’s education reforms.
The Legislature has formed a Select Commission on Education which will have its first meeting on Tuesday and will meet for several weeks. While the public message is that this Select Commission is to get an update on the state of the reform policies and the implementation process, behind the scenes we have learned that the legislature will likely rake Tony over the coals. A lot of this is the normal tension between the legislative vs. executive branch. However, some of this hostility is due to legislative allies of charter schools who are concerned with the strong accountability Tony is putting in place to ensure all public schools, including charter schools are effectively educating their students.
Legislative leaders do not realize that thanks largely to Tony’s leadership and vision, Indiana is a national leader for reform. States across the nation are watching what Indiana is doing and trying to replicate or, to use Louisiana as an example, supersede them. If they force Tony to turn back the clock on the reforms – including school accountability, reading, school choice and teacher reforms – there will be national consequences.
Would you take a moment to email the commission members (attached is a list of the email addresses for the commission members)? The message should be focused on policy, not the person of Tony Bennett. But it would be good for these members to hear from folks outside of Indiana that what Indiana is doing is important. They must stay the course. Indiana’s students need them to; other states who want to follow Indiana’s lead need them to.
Even if you can’t support Tony/Indiana’s reforms as an organization, if you would write a personal email stating that as a citizen watching education reform across the country that you hope they stay strong, that would be greatly appreciated.
Please join us in supporting Tony and Indiana’s education reforms.
Let us know if you have any questions. Please feel free to email the members directly, but if we can be helpful in getting the letters to them, we are happy to do so. If you would like to copy us when you send your emails that would be great. We want to let Tony’s team know the volume of support that these legislative members will be receiving.
Thanks,
Patricia
Ps. Here is a link to the official committee page and meeting notice http://in.gov/legislative/interim/committee/sedu.html
Also, here is a really short summary of the work Tony has done with the Legislature as a partner in the past 3 years. Feel free to pick out issues to include in your emails.
- Modernizing the teaching profession – including alternative routes to certification for teachers, tying student data to teacher evaluations, eliminating LIFO and ending tenure as they know it
- Complete overhaul of the state funding formula
- Statewide scholarships for low-income students to go to the private school of their choice
- Charter school expansion and accountability
- A-F school grade accountability
- Reading for learning – a focus on early literacy and end to social promotion in the third grade
Talking PointsHere are some talking points you may use in your email to legislators regarding the Indiana Department of Education's policies. Feel free to leave comments adding additional ideas.
- There is no evidence to show that data driven teacher evaluations have any bearing on teacher quality. If one teacher has all AP classes with highly motivated students and another teacher has special needs students who are struggling to keep their heads above water, how exactly is that an adequate method to evaluate a teacher?
- "Tenure" is another issue which Dr. Bennett thinks is important. Tenure in Indiana is simply due process. Removing a teacher's job security just eliminates the teacher's ability to voice an objection to policies that he/she may think are unsound educationally. Teachers in Indiana can be removed from their positions if they are not doing their job. Administrators must, however, give teachers due process.
- Dr. Bennett's statewide "scholarships" are just another word for vouchers, which is an additional drain on already financially troubled public schools. The Superintendent of Public Instruction should be an advocate for public schools; however, it seems as though Dr. Bennett's goal is to undermine regular public schools in favor of charter and private schools.
- The IDOE states that they are expanding charter schools and making them more accountable. Only the first part of that sentence has been accomplished. Charter schools are expanding at an exponential rate, but since they don't have to accept all students and can pick and choose who may attend, they are hardly accountable. The playing field is definitely uneven.
- I-Read 3 is an example of the IDOE's lack of consideration given to the educational value of programs and the unintended consequences of poor planning. There seems to be no clarity about whether students who do not pass are to be retained in 3rd grade, a practice not supported by research, or whether they will be socially promoted and moved on to 4th grade while doing 3rd grade lessons.
- During your interim session, I hope that you will address some of these issues, and I hope that you will hold Dr. Tony Bennett and the IDOE accountable for the consequences of the policies they have instituted without thoughtful deliberation or the input of public school teachers, parents and concerned citizens.
Select Commission on Education- Indiana200 West Washington Street, Suite 301Indianapolis, Indiana 46204-2789
Tel: (317) 233-0696 Fax: (317) 232-2554
Members:
Rep. Robert Behning, Co-Chairperson
h91@IN.govRep. Rhonda Rhoads, Rep. Timothy Brown
h70@IN.govRep. Edward Clere
h72@IN.govRep. David Frizzell
h93@IN.govRep. Kathleen Heuer
h83@IN.govRep. Cindy Noe
h87@IN.govRep. Jeffrey Thompson
h28@IN.govRep. Greg Porter
h96@IN.govRep. David Cheatham
h69@IN.govRep. Clyde Kersey
h43@IN.govRep. Vernon Smith
h14@IN.govRep. Shelli Vandenburgh
h19@IN.govSen. Dennis Kruse, Co-Chairperson
Senator.Kruse@iga.in.govSen. Carlin Yoder
Senator.Yoder@iga.in.govSen. James Banks
Senator.Banks@iga.in.govSen. James Buck
Senator.Buck@iga.in.govSen. Luke Kenley
Senator.Kenley@iga.in.govSen. Jean Leising
Senator.Leising@iga.in.govSen. Scott Schneider
Senator.Schneider@iga.in.govSen. Earline Rogers
S3@iga.in.govSen. Frank Mrvan
s1@iga.in.govSen. Timothy Skinner
s38@iga.in.gov
