Deray mckesson folio literary management12/6/2023 ![]() Promotion From TFA, Shade From Local OrganizersĭeRay Mckesson is a prolific Twitter personality who first came to national prominence during the uprising of 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. His high-profile appearance at the TFA gala only days after filing his last-minute bid to enter the race was only the latest collaboration with the organization spearheading a sustained attack on teacher's unions and traditional public schools. With his candidacy for a city whose public schools are a key target of the education reform movement, the time seems right to scrutinize Mckesson’s relationship with Teach for America more closely. Headlines appeared across national media, from Slate to the Guardian to the Washington Post, with the progressive online magazine Truthdig proclaiming Mckesson " Truthdigger of the Week. Even without outlining a strategy to defeat better-known, more entrenched candidates, Mckesson received nearly $130,000 in online donations, met with President Barack Obama ( who said Mckesson and associates “were better organizers than I was”), and secured his status as one of the country’s most closely watched political outsiders. When Mckesson announced his campaign for mayor of Baltimore this month, his name topped the list of trending topics on Twitter for several hours. “Mckesson received nearly $130,000 in online donations and secured his status as one of the country’s most closely watched political outsiders.” The confab drew 15,000 corps members, alumni and supporters to Washington for three days of seminars on lofty issues like, “Allies, Co-Conspirators and Coalition Building: Showing Up for Justice Across Lines of Power.” But one of the biggest draws was the discussion on “The New Civil Rights Agenda and Education,” co-headlined by DeRay Mckesson, the TFA alum and 30-year-old Black Lives Matter activist who received a $10,000 award from TFA last year. Teach for America’s peculiar brand of social justice was on bold display at its 25th Anniversary Summit the weekend of February 5. TFA's funders, including the Waltons, Bill and Melinda Gates and top Fortune 500 corporations, all have plenty to gain from the commodification of public goods and the destruction of public service unions, and its 11,000 corps members provide a valuable service to that end. TFA is also a media juggernaut in its own right, known for deploying a sophisticated public relations arsenal to advance an agenda focused on crushing teachers’ unions and privatizing public school systems. Education policy experts today consider the nonprofit founded by Wendy Kopp in 1990 to be at the vanguard of the school privatization movement. ![]() The reality behind TFA’s sunny exterior is somewhat more sinister. ![]() TFA funders have plenty to gain from the commodification of public goods and the destruction of public service unions.”įor those who’ve never paid much attention, Teach For America sounds like a benevolent and benign idea: recruit bright college grads, give them some teacher-training and place them in some of the nation’s neediest schools for a two-year commitment to teach kids. This article previously appeared in Alternet. "Cultivating relationships with tech giants has become a ‘major tactic’ of Campaign Zero." Why DeRay Mckesson's Baltimore Campaign Looks Like It Comes Right Out of Teach for America's Playbook by Drew Franklin Twitterist and Campaign Zero honcho DeRay McKesson’s mayoral campaign platform for the Baltimore public schools “seems modeled in part on corporate education reforms under big-city mayors like Rahm Emanuel and Michael Bloomberg." Teach for America alums like McKesson typically oppose community-based school reforms, and favor "partnerships" with big business.
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