Schools Matter: Charter Industry Demands Access to TN Student Data...

Schools Matter: Charter Industry Demands Access to TN Student Data...: Under the misdirection of Commissioner Candice McQueen, the TN state legislature recently passed a sweeping new charter law that is aimed t...

Schools Matter: KIPP Memphis: Negative Growth and Lots of "flight ...

Schools Matter: KIPP Memphis: Negative Growth and Lots of "flight ...: Based on a new study of the segregated KIPP schools and their effects on test scores, KIPP Memphis is in the basement.  One of KIPP's M...

Cash Is Figural for Gestalt Charter $chools

Schools Matter: Cash Is Figural for Gestalt Charter $chools: The Gestalt Community Schools operate a half-dozen segregated corporate reform schools in Memphis.  Their stated vision at their website i...

Schools Matter: Corporate Ed Candidate Loses in Memphis School Boa...

Schools Matter: Corporate Ed Candidate Loses in Memphis School Boa...: In the only contested school board race in Memphis this year, the corporate charter behemoth lost. Stephanie Love, an incumbent who has adv...

School Board Proposes Closure of 2 KIPPs

Schools Matter: School Board Proposes Closure of 2 KIPPs: Shelby County Superintendent, Dorsey Hopson, has proposed closing a number of charter schools in Memphis.  Among them are two KIPP schools....

Schools Matter: Memphis Smells the Coffee After the Pot Boils Over...

Schools Matter: Memphis Smells the Coffee After the Pot Boils Over...: With 45 cash-sucking corporate charters in operation, and with tens of thousands of children placed into penal school environments with no ...

Memphis Lift, Sift, and Grift

Ever since Bush's corrupt bag man at ED, Rod Paige, paid out millions in federal grants to the Black Alliance for Education Options to promote vouchers, both governments and corporations have leaned on black astroturf groups to push the corporate reform school catalog of bad ideas.  

One such group of black mercenaries is the corporate-funded Memphis Lift, which uses white charter empire cash to pay locals in Memphis to go door to door among residents of the poorest communities to recruit for the corporate charters, which are lined up for their piece of the ASD action as public schools are shut down.  

Since early 2015, Memphis Lift has been been lubricated with stipends funneled by John Little through his Strategies Redefined, LLC, which was formed in December 2014.  Little receives cash to disperse to his bad news crews in Memphis from the Tennessee Charter School Association, which is kept flush with tax-sheltered dollars from the nation's richest venture philanthropists.

A few weeks back the Shelby County Schools decided to stop sharing student demographic data with ASD, which had been sharing Memphis student addresses and phone numbers with Memphis Lift.  At first the ASD appeared ready to accept this decision, since the information could be obtained through the TN Dept. of Education.  

In the past few days, however, it has become clear that the ASD will now use Governor Haslam's muscle to try to force Shelby County to give up the information so that Memphis Lift can continue  the anti-public school campaign in Memphis.