Opinion

Opinion: Midlanders should beware of MISD’s move to ‘portfolio model’

Editor’s Note: Ms. Davenport contributed the following about Midland ISD’s transformation process. Anyone wanting to respond can contact Editor Stewart Doreen at 687-8856 or sdoreen@hearstnp.com



I live in Dallas and my kids are in Richardson ISD schools. So why am I writing this op-ed? Midland ISD is being privatized before your eyes.

I’m a conservative public school parent who believes in the free market, but not when it comes to educating our kids. The new “portfolio model” recently imposed on Midland ISD is also being pushed in other districts across Texas and other states. Business interests have infiltrated the public school systems. Through nonprofits, charter schools, edtech companies and local chambers, our schools are predatory ground for a whole new marketplace of opportunity where they were once immune. I ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Richardson ISD school board in 2017. My opponent was absent from our first candidate forum. She sent a sitting board member in her place while she was in Midland ISD. She works for the Gates-funded Educate Texas, a public-private partnership that promotes privatization. What was she doing in Midland that day while RISD's student achievement was in a multi-year downward spiral?

The new oil in Midland is student data. The Midland Collective Impact initiative under Educate Texas was launched in October 2015. I've written extensively on what "collective impact" really means and how there's no "public" in public-private partnerships. Although Educate Texas concluded its work with the initiative in April 2017, Educate Midland continues with the collective impact framework which is one giant data grab. Key Midland funders include the Abell-Hanger Foundation, Scharbauer Foundation and Henry Foundation. Scharbauer Foundation wrote a letter to the TEA endorsing the Transformation Zone grant and Abell-Hanger Foundation piloted an outcome measurement system.

What data did Educate Midland and MISD give to them? Do parents have to consent to the data being collected for use by foundations? As a charter operator governing partner does the Educate Midland board have access to academic and behavior data of children to be used for "educational research.”

The “portofolio model” allows appointed boards to govern public schools with taxpayer funds. Article VII of the Texas Constitution makes provision for public free education. If we replace elected trustees with appointed boards, that is taxation without representation. Once our voice is removed, we will likely never get it back.



In the Reporter-Telegram article, “The big IDEA: Foundations, business make $55 million investment to bring up to 14 IDEA public schools to Midland, Odessa,” IDEA Executive Director Bethany Solis said, "We hope that something similar happens here by introducing a new option for students and families and that it will help all boats rise. We are lucky to have a partnership with Midland ISD. Our very first school will be an in-district charter. For Orlando Riddick and the team at MISD to be such strong partners is a blessing.”

Charter proponents love to use the "lift all boats metaphor,” as if gracing our districts with their presence will somehow force the public schools to kick it into gear with a little competition. I'll be the first one to point out the shortcomings of the public schools, which I believe have been exacerbated by testing giants and corporate education reformers for decades. However, the idea that inserting lucrative charter models that siphon students and tax dollars away from traditional public schools will somehow lift our boats is propaganda and patently false.

The Reporter-Telegram also quoted one of the Educate Midland board members with, “I really want to commend the district on opening themselves up to being in-district partner with IDEA,” Scharbauer Foundation ED Grant Billingsley said. “It is extraordinary in Texas, extraordinary for IDEA. Both have stretched to make this happen. It didn’t fit either one of their models, but they came together." Extraordinary for IDEA, indeed.

In April, I realized the connection to Kitamba and how they were linked to the LA teacher strike and the MISD takeover. Launched in 2012, Kitamba is a "social impact" consulting and products firm based in NJ. LA billionaire Superintendent Austin Beutner’s plan to hire Kitamba was derailed by the strike.

MISD is working with Kitamba under the TEA’s System of Great Schools. Social impact firms rely on student data to justify the financial return for investors. Do parents really want a firm from NJ having access to our children’s data?

The Gates Foundation gave Kitamba more than $3 million in 2015 and 2017. Rajeev Bajaj, CEO of Kitamba has crisscrossed the country advising districts how to reform them into “portfolio models.”

As MISD community members reflect on the possible passage of the bond, it is important to examine the forces behind the aggressive campaign where a PAC used more than $200,000 were used to influence voters. Local pillars of the community who work for Midland Students First, Educate Midland, Priority Midland, Midland Development Corporation, and the Midland Education Foundation narrowly convinced voters to support more debt, more outside influences, and more potential for fraud, waste, and abuse. Whether you support public education or not, your tax dollars could potentially be funding a nationwide agenda to privatize neighborhood schools and replace locally elected boards. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. With this new “portfolio model” funded by billionaires, the devil is in the details.