If you're a teacher, or know one, you need to see this so you get a handle on what's being planned for every state.

There was a sudden influx of cash into Stand for Children in Illinois while this little scenario was going on.

Stand for Children also supported Senate Bill 1 in Indiana and raised out-of-state money to support candidates in Denver-area elections. The right-wing Walton Foundation made grants in 2010 of $200,000 to Stand for Children in Colorado and $1.38 million to the Stand for Children Leadership Center. The Walton Foundation's total for "Education Reform Grants" was $157 million in 2010 alone.

These corporate right-wing and allegedly-liberal hedge fund education hobbyists (Bloomberg's daughter and Steve Jobs' wife, in addition to all the Wall St. types) are all over the place, like kudzu. Their actions are sneaky, undemocratic and harmful to children, because parents and teachers get no real say and there's no research that supports what they do. Oh, and they want to break the seniority protections of every last teachers union. So pay attention! Fortunately, they were nowhere as successful* in Illinois as Edelman brags.

Note: Since this video went viral, Jonah Edelman has apologized:

As Lisa Guisbond said, "this is an amazing video [Ed. note: Video is originally from Fred Klonsky's blog] from the Aspen Ideas Festival in which Stand For Children’s Jonah Edelman (yes, son of Marian Wright Edelman) explains how he, with the support of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Arne Duncan’s senior advisor Jo Anderson (former Executive Director of the IEA) outfoxed the CTU, the IFT and the IEA’s Ken Swanson and Audrey Soglin into agreeing to Senate Bill 7." For those who still believe that there is any way to trust, negotiate with, compromise with, or have any dealings with Ed Deform in any way that does not demand complete capitulation to the ed deformers, watch this video. Play it at your next union meeting, share it with the world. We do know some of what goes on at the Aspen Ideas Festival besides getting a chance to smell and touch sewer rats like Rupert Murdoch. Here is a great example of massive ego mixed with manipulative glee that was posted and quickly pulled from the Aspen site, but not before Fred Klonsky captured a copy for the world to see and hear. In this Machiavellian masterpiece, we see Jonah Edelman of Stand for Children infamy (list of donors here) describe in great detail how great wads of hedge-fund and other corporate cash came to bear on the last legislative election in Illinois, how all the best lobbyists were bought up by Deform (including minority ones), how unions were outspent and how politicians followed the money, how teacher unions were lured to the table and how they were totally manhandled by the best lawyers and negotiators that money can buy, how union leaders became complicit, scared, weak, groveling. Hear how Karen Lewis, head of Chicago Teachers Union was made a fool of, how she gave up the right to strike with less than a 75% strike vote (something that has never happened, as Jonah notes). Hear how Lewis gave the Deformer lawyers free rein to work out the details on a terrible agreement. As Jonah swaggers, "We got to decide all the fine print." In those details is the insurance needed to impose the same IMPACT teacher eval plan that DC has.

Jersey Jazzman offers his take.

*Edelman completely exaggerates the changes in the new pension program. It's nothing like what Wisconsin, Ohio, or New Jersey have done. In fact, most of what he claims credit for has been in the works for several years. Guess he needs to convince those donors to keep on giving -- and keep those lobbyists employed!