https://hechingerreport.org/new-orleans-uphill-battle-black-homegrown-teachers/ Covering Innovation & Inequality in Education Wed, 21 Oct 2020 18:28:42 +0000 hourly 1 https://hechingerreport.org/new-orleans-uphill-battle-black-homegrown-teachers/comment-page-1/#comment-15967 Thu, 22 Jun 2017 14:28:47 +0000 http://hechingerreport.org/?p=29828#comment-15967 Mr. Felton’s article is insightful and suggests an opportunity for further exploration of the external forces targeting teachers. Minority teachers lost their anticipated pensions, after the Katrina firings. That loss will have devastating effects in the minority community for generations to come. The separation of the pension issue from the siege against teachers ignores one of the prime motivations of the self-anointed education reformers. Teachers’ pensions are among the largest funds available for financial management. Big Wall Street firms have been shut-out from fees for the management of those funds. They want direct access to individual retirement savings. If the profession of teaching and pensions are privatized, Wall Street billionaires can tap a new pile of cash.
IMO, it is incongruous for think tanks like the Urban Institute to have pension projects funded by the Arnold Foundation (Arnold’s position is similar to that of the Koch’s State Budget Solutions). And, we should all cringe when ed articles buy-in to pensions as the cause of tight education budgets. The economic multiplier effect of pensions spent in local communities has substantial beneficial effect. On the other hand, concentrated wealth and the Koch’s starvation of funds for common goods has lethal effect on education for the 90%.

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