Allen Ruff has been blogging about Kaleem Caire and in pointing out the facts, he has drawn criticism for attacking Caire. However, I think he is raising some points that are important and Ben Manski and Patrick Barrett helped to articulate some of those concerns in a way that I think is worth paying attention to and way better articulated than I could do, so I think this listserve conversation is worth sharing with a broader audience. And then, we need to get to work!
LISTSERVE CONVERSATION
First, Allen Ruff’s first and second post on Kaleem Caire’s conservative and money connections. He’s definitely making people squirm with his postings, as I have heard about it from many folks.
Here’s Ben Manski’s first post on this, I bolded the area that really spoke to me.
I worked on Kaleem Caire’s campaign for school board in the late 1990s; I designed campaign literature for him. I know and knew of him because he graduated from the same high school just a few years ahead of me.
I was dismayed when I learned, several years after Caire left Madison, that he had gone to D.C. to run BAEO, an organization created with Bradley Foundation money to achieve the Bradley Foundation’s agenda.
I have had a recent conversation with Caire, when he approached me at a public event and discussed these issues, as well as his views on the agenda he was pursuing then, as well as now. More recently, I have emailed him to offer support for efforts intended to close the achievement gap.
I believe that Caire believes that the agenda he is pursuing is in the interest of Black youth in our community. I can’t understand why he thinks throwing in with the publishers of the Bell Curve and the promoters of corporatization is a better strategy than working with unions, parents groups, education advocates, and students to fight for full funding for the schools, or than holding the district’s feet to the fire on its failure to attract and retain teachers of color.
The idea that there has been a “whispering campaign” against the corporate school proposal, or about Caire’s work with Bradley, is just wrong. No one whispered anything. Others have raised these questions directly in the past. I raised these concerns with at least four reporters. Two of them saw fit to include these facts –they are facts– only to have their editor remove that part of the story as “too sensitive.”
Caire is pushing an anti-public education agenda in Madison that Madison has been at the forefront of resisting for years. He is doing that after having worked for the very organizations behind that fund that anti-public education agenda. Is it fair to ask that the community know that? Of course it is.
Caire will say he doesn’t owe me anything, and he’s certainly right about that. But for me, I have to make my own judgments about how to read his actions. And until I see evidence of advocacy for funding and support for the underachieving kids who are enrolled in our public schools, and will continue to be enrolled in our schools for years to come, not just for this corporate school scheme, I can only conclude that the corporate school is his top priority.
We just went through a budget cycle in which a governor who (is beloved by the same people who funded BAEO) cut 100s of millions of dollars out of our public education system. That was, and is, a five-alarm fire, for kids in our public schools and colleges.
– Ben Manski
Caire’s repsonse? Blame Progressive Dane?! The root of all evil, of course. He asks some great questions, but I got stuck on, how is this PD’s fault? Why the Dems never get called out. But I’ll let that go and move on.
Ben, what did the liberal left/Progressive Dane and others in their company do to expose and eliminate the achievement gap in our public schools? I have been dismayed by the lack of attention my liberal friends have paid to the hardcore issues my people have faced while I was gone. A 48% graduation rate for Black youth and 56% graduation rate for Latino youth, and not one big push to change this. What’s up with that?
Why, in liberal Madison, are black people some of the most disempowered people in America? Why do they find it hard to get a job in this town, even when they are more than qualified for the position? Why are there still no real cultural outlets for Black people in Madison? Why do Black people still own just .8 percent of the businesses in Dane County (and even most of these are one-man or one-woman businesses)? Why can I walk in a nonprofit or business in Madison and feel like I am back in the Jim Crow South, where the colored folk are doing all the hard and grunt work but rarely, if ever, rise to the level of CEO, VP, etc? Where are you and the other progressives at in advocating hard against this? Where are you in holding companies accountable for their hiring practices?
Why, in 2012, are white people still afraid to address the issue of race and why can White men be “passionate” but Black men have to be “angry”?
Onward.
kaleem
They discuss more, and then Patrick Barrett jumps in. I bolded the point I thought was important here but agree with everything he said.
This has been a revealing debate, but one that, for me at least, could be a bit more focused on the central question at issue. As someone who has lived in Madison for nearly 25 years, and sent my three children through MMSD, here’s how I see it.
Madison, like the US as a whole, suffers from an alarming racial achievement gap. This is reflective of a deep and centuries-long history of structural and institutionalized racism that is at the core of this country’s very essence and that manifests itself in many other ways, including, to mention just one, the wildly disproportionate incarceration of African Americans (indeed, Wisconsin ranks near the top in this shameful category, and Dane county ranks highest in this entire state). Moreover, despite its reputation for progressivism, Madison has failed to address these problems, making it guilty of hypocrisy as well. To me, these things are so clear as to leave little or no room for debate.
The question is what to do about it. And in this regard, it is equally clear to me that charter schools are not the solution to closing the racial achievement gap. Quite the contrary, they are virtually guaranteed to widen that gap by serving only a very small number of already high achieving students, while further aggravating the crisis of the public schools, and in particular the plight of the great majority of already disadvantaged students. This is no accident. Indeed, it is the central goal of powerful right-wing corporate-backed organizations that are seeking to take advantage of the education crisis, and in particular the plight of the most disadvantaged communities, in order to advance an agenda aimed at destroying public education. In my opinion, supporting charter schools is therefore akin to attempting to put out a fire by throwing gasoline on it, with the gasoline having been generously supplied by a pyromaniac, or more likely, the person who holds the insurance policy on the house.
Most white Madison liberals are without a doubt guilty of hypocrisy on the question of the racial achievement gap, as they are on most any question of race. However, I also believe that the vast majority of conservatives rarely even think about it – EXCEPT when they see an opportunity to exploit it in service of a broader agenda aimed at deepening social and economic inequality – of all kinds. At those moments, their focus is laser-like, and unfortunately for the rest of us, they’ve been all too successful in pursuing this strategy. In my opinion, we would do well to oppose it, looking for solutions to social and economic inequality that do not play into their hands, thereby deepening the very inequality we seek to defeat and diminishing our power to achieve social justice even further.
LET’S GET TO WORK
Ironically, I’ve become the co-chair of Progressive Dane again and was in a planned strategic planning meeting last night instead of being at the Fitchburg Library, so I missed all this. I’m sure you can find several news sources that covered the meeting, but here are some of the information that is available on the internet and some thoughts.
Here’s Nehrad’s plan from last night.
Here’s the meeting schedule and you can sign up to get notices.
West High School, Feb. 21
Urban League of Greater Madison, Feb. 28
La Follette High School Feb. 29
Memorial High School March 1
East High School, March 6
Bridge Lakepoint Waunona Neighborhood Center March 7
Lussier Education Center March 8
Community Conversation at CUNA March 14
East Madison Community Center March 27
All I can say at this point is I’m glad this discussion is happening, its great that there is all this public input process. But it will only work if people participate. I look forward to learning more details of the plans. I’m curious how this public input will play out and if each session is the same or different. Also, $100M in 5 years is a chunk of change! But will there be the political will to spend that kind of money in tight budget times? Perhaps, if people believe these are the best investments to be making and they will be effective.
So, participate! This is a great community conversation to have, and I hope that it works. I’m no expert in school issues, don’t have kids in the schools, didn’t go to Madison schools (except maybe part of one year in kindergarden?), so I don’t have a direct stake in this, but I do live in this community, and I see the impacts of the achievement gap every day at work and feel this is very important and will try to participate as I can – I totally support this effort (hopefully it is well done) and addressing the achievement gap. Lets do this! It could be the most important thing we can do for the future.
