Banks eye changes to CEO gatherings
Banks eye changes to CEO gatherings
BANKS EYE CHANGES TO CEO GATHERINGS — When the Financial Services Forum holds its next meeting, a key item on the...
BANKS EYE CHANGES TO CEO GATHERINGS — When the Financial Services Forum holds its next meeting, a key item on the agenda may well be the fate of the organization representing CEOs of the nation's largest banks, insurers and asset managers.
Sources familiar with the matter told M.M. that some banks are ready to hash out whether it makes sense to keep investing in the group, wind it down or consider other options, including merging its functions with those of another trade organization. The CEOs are scheduled to meet next in October. Its members include the heads of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Washington's banking industry insiders have been chattering about the direction of the group since longtime president and chief executive Rob Nichols was named last year as head of the larger American Bankers Association. The ABA represents a broad range of small, regional and large banks.
"There's an ongoing debate among all the banks whether it's worth having all these different trade associations," one source familiar with discussions said.
Forum spokeswoman Laena Fallon did not comment on any CEO discussions about overhauling the organization.
“The Forum CEOs are looking forward to their annual fall meeting and are working together on a number of shared industry priorities including cybersecurity, strengthening the financial system, and helping provide credit to drive the economy forward," Fallon said.
JACKSON HOLE KICKOFF — The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's annual economic symposium starts today in Jackson Hole. The main event for the markets will be tomorrow morning's speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on the Fed's "monetary policy toolkit." Bloomberg's Steve Matthews and Jeff Black expect that "any description she offers of the U.S. economy will probably be crafted to keep an interest-rate rise on the table for the central bank’s policy meeting next month — without committing it to act." http://bloom.bg/2bOzoxt.
The Wall Street Journal's Greg Ip argues that central bankers are facing big questions about their relevance, because of the persistence of slow economic growth since the 2008 crisis and therefore low interest rates. He lays out what they may do next: http://on.wsj.com/2bWVnp2.
'FED UP' MEETING AHEAD OF THE FESTIVITIES — In a sign of the movement's growing clout, a coalition of labor and community groups banding together as "Fed Up" expect at least seven Fed presidents and one Fed governor to show up at a public meeting in Jackson Hole this afternoon. Among other things, they will talk about reforming the Fed's structure and how monetary policy affects working-class communities. Fed Up expects the attendee list to include Fed Governor (and potential Clinton Treasury Secretary) Lael Brainard, New York Fed President William Dudley, Kansas City Fed President Esther George and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari.
The meeting will be livestreamed here at 6:30 p.m. ET: http://bit.ly/2bAZAuy.
Fed Up director Ady Barkan told M.M. that a major topic of discussion will be a proposal to overhaul the structure of the Fed to minimize the influence of commercial banks. "We're going to be asking them whether they support that, and why not if they don't," Barkan said.
HAPPY THURSDAY — It's been a pleasure serving as your guest host the last couple of weeks. I'm handing it over to my colleagues tomorrow, so please keep sending tips to Pro Financial Services editor Mark McQuillan: mmcquillan@politico.com. Happy to keep in touch on Twitter @zachary.
THIS MORNING ON POLITICO PRO FINANCIAL SERVICES – VIctoria Guida on the GAO's opinion on community-based flood insurance -- and to get Morning Money every day before 6 a.m. -- please contact Pro Services at (703) 341-4600 or info@politicopro.com.
DRIVING THE DAY — Hillary Clinton will give a speech on the "disturbing 'alt-right' philosophy" of Donald Trump's campaign; 3 p.m. ET in Reno, Nev. ... Fed Up meets with Federal Reserve officials at 6:30 p.m. as the economic symposium begins in Jackson Hole. ...
FOR YOUR FALL CALENDAR — A federal appeals court has scheduled Oct. 24 oral arguments in the government's fight to keep MetLife under scrutiny of the Federal Reserve because of its potential systemic risks.
TIME TO MEASURE THE DRAPES, MAJORITY LEADER SCHUMER? — The New York Times gives Democrats a 60 percent chance of retaking the Senate. http://nyti.ms/2bOAPfg.
HOW DELAWARE DEFEATED CORPORATE SUNSHINE — A 3,000-word Reuters investigation on the state's fight against proposals that would reveal the owners of corporate shell companies: "[T]he proposed law continues to languish, thanks in part to [Delaware Secretary of State Jeffrey] Bullock. He was neither the first nor the only official to take up the fight, but became a leader in defending the status quo as worldwide support for change gained traction." http://reut.rs/2c8f8vb.
GOVERNMENT AT ODDS WITH ITSELF ON STUDENT LOANS — Bloomberg's Shahien Nasiripour on how the CFPB has become student loan borrowers' advocate against the Education Department: "Both the [CFPB] and the Obama administration share the same goal: improved customer service and fewer loan delinquencies. But industry observers see the administration as more accommodating to the industry's needs, while the consumer bureau has made clear that it's ready to sue. It's as if the Obama administration is using a carrot while the consumer bureau is brandishing a stick." http://bloom.bg/2bjb5uv.
EX-FED OFFICIAL WARNS AGAINST GOING EASY ON INFLATION — Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh argues in a WSJ opinion piece that central bankers should resist calls to accommodate higher inflation, which has yet to rear its head, despite low interest rates: "A new inflation target would undermine the Fed’s commitment to any policy framework. It would please the denizens of Wall Street who pine for still-looser Fed policy. And households would be understandably miffed to receive a new lecture on unconventional monetary policy — this one on the benefits of higher prices." http://on.wsj.com/2bhsAqQ.
U.S., EU DUKE IT OUT OVER APPLE, TAXES — The FT's Barney Jopson and Arthur Beesley on the intensifying feud: "The U.S. has launched a stinging attack on the European Commission in a last-ditch bid to dissuade Brussels from hitting Apple with a demand for billions of euros in underpaid taxes. In a sharp escalation of the transatlantic feud, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a rare warning on Wednesday that Brussels was becoming a 'supernational tax authority' that threatened international agreements on tax reform. The criticism comes as the European Commission is finalizing a probe into an alleged sweetheart tax deal that Ireland granted to Apple, the biggest single case in a crackdown on corporate tax avoidance across the EU. After prolonged delays, a definitive ruling is expected next month." http://on.ft.com/2bhuJT5.
FLOOD INSURANCE POLITICS IN LOUISIANA SENATE RACE — Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon endorsed Republican Rep. Charles Boustany in the race for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, arguing that he is "the only candidate I trust to fight for affordable flood insurance." Congress faces a September 2017 deadline to reauthorize the government-run National Flood Insurance Program. "I look forward to working with Commissioner Donelon to write common-sense flood insurance policy as Louisiana’s next United States Senator when Congress begins work on reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program in 2017," Boustany said in a statement.
NYT'S TAKE ON GOLDMAN CATERING TO THE 'COMMON MAN' — From William Cohan in DealBook: "As it has done many times in its past to survive and to thrive, Goldman is in the process of reinvention. This explains Marcus, its new online lending business named after the company’s founder, Marcus Goldman, along with GS Bank, its online savings account business with no minimum balance requirements. After all these years, Goldman Sachs has suddenly discovered retail banking. But it is not out of altruism or charity, nor is it nefarious. It is all about making money from money, which has always been Goldman’s specialty." http://nyti.ms/2bCDhcf.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-money/2016/08/banks-eye-change...
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By ZACHARY WARMBRODT
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The Empty Center: Challenge and Opportunity for Progressives
Huffington Post - January 15, 2015, by Robert Borsage - Legislators in the new Congress haven't even cut the curtains...
Huffington Post - January 15, 2015, by Robert Borsage - Legislators in the new Congress haven't even cut the curtains for their offices, but it is already clear that the right has no clue and the "center" offers no hope.
Republican Mitch McConnell, newly installed as Senate majority leader, announced that his goal is not to be "scary." House Republican leader John Boehner declared his troops had to prove Republicans can "govern."
But Republicans are already tripping over those low bars. They stuffed the legislative docket with "message" bills to repeal Obamacare, rollback immigration reforms, and cripple agencies that protect the environment (Environmental Protection Agency), consumers (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), workers (the Labor Department) and taxpayers (cutting the IRS ability to police tax dodgers). They've already proved adept at backroom maneuvers to tuck Wall Street favors in "must-pass" legislation.
The truly "scary" agenda, however, is the legislation that McConnell and Boehner have teed up for bipartisan approval: authorization of the Keystone Pipeline is already on the president's desk; next comes fast track trade authority to grease the skids for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, corporate tax "reform" that "simplifies" the tax code and lowers rates, and inevitably a budget that will posture on a budget deficit that should be larger while ignoring the debilitating deficits that must be smaller (the public investment and trade deficits). It will starve already inadequate programs for the vulnerable, while larding more on an already bloated Pentagon.
These "bipartisan" measures assume that the best thing to do in a hole is to keep digging. Progressives will have their hands full simply trying to stop the parade of horrors, which will require either Democratic unity in the Senate or firm presidential vetoes -- both less than certain trumpets. Obstructing the horrible, however, necessary, is not sufficient. Republicans already suffer from the absence of any positive agenda. Their pollsters have finally accepted that they must find a populist voice, but thus far that entails not much more than donning a hardhat atop their uptown garb.
Confront and Counter
Progressives must find ways not simply to confront the Republican idiocies, but to counter with a bold reform agenda that commensurate with the size of our problems.
We suffer an economy that does not work for most Americans even in the fifth year of "recovery." This can only happen because the rules have been systematically rigged to favor the few. Changing that reality requires far more than a few sensible reforms. It requires taking on fundamentals at the heart of our economy: transforming our global tax and trade policies, shackling Wall Street, progressive taxes to pay for vital public investment, empowering workers and curbing perverse CEO compensation policies, reviving anti-trust, curbing money in politics, cleaning up Washington, capturing a lead in the green industrial revolution.
In this effort, President Obama will be at best a sunshine general. Hopefully, he will continue to frame vital wage reforms -- calling for lifting the minimum wage and guaranteed sick days and family leave, enforcing overtime, procurement reforms that give preference to "good jobs" employers. He will continue to build his legacy on the environment. But on fundamentals -- trade, Wall Street, public investment, anti-trust and more -- he's more part of the problem than the solution.
At the national level, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders have begun to take the lead. A broader formal or informal populist caucus in the Senate, and the strengthened Congressional Progressive Caucus in the House can help define and drive big alternatives, with outside allies rallying support and taking the names of the Blue Dog or Wall Street Democrats who don't get it. Major debates -- on trade, on taxes, on budgets -- can be occasions for offering real alternative directions.
The danger here is that the debate turns quickly to framing "message" bills rather than debating fundamental reform. The recent rollout of the Democratic middle-class tax cut shows the perils. The proposal excels for partisan positioning. It offers working Americans real money -- a $2,000 tax cut, paid for by taxes on the banks and the rich. It puts Republicans in a box, since they won't raise taxes to pay for the equivalent. But a tax cut competition with Republicans is something of a mugs game. It accepts the conservative notion that tax breaks offer workers the only hope for a raise. And by devoting progressive taxes to tax cuts, it defaults on addressing our debilitating public investment deficit. If Democrats aren't making the case for rebuilding our starved public sphere -- including basic infrastructure like roads, rail and sewers, providing the basics for schools, investing in R&D -- then we will all suffer.
The debate about agenda should not be left to legislators. The January AFL-CIO convocation on raising wages -- which will be echoed in forums across the country -- provides one example of how progressive groups can help frame and drive the reform debate.
Local Action; National Megaphone
With Washington largely gridlocked, progressives have sensibly turned more attention to driving reform at the state and local level. Given Republican gains at the state level, many of those battles will be defensive, against their assault on unions and worker rights, and their efforts to rollback environmental protection while constricting the rights of women, voters, and the vulnerable.
But in blue states like California and in blue cities even in the midst of red states, progressives should be championing fundamental reforms. Already significant progress has been made in raising the floor under workers -- raising the minimum wage and extending basic worker guarantees. Procurement reforms can offer preference to good jobs employers, and enforce buy America provisions. As California Governor Jerry Brown has shown, states can drive the climate debate, extending state renewable energy standards and providing markets for renewable energy. State taxes could favor companies that maintain less obscene ratios of CEO to worker pay.
None of this will come easy, given the hold of corporate interests over state and local politics. Citizen groups like National People's Action, PICO, Jobs with Justice, LAANE, the Center for Popular Democracy along with labor unions like SEIU and AFSCME are already driving change. What is needed is a coherent strategy to provide a national megaphone that provides local reforms with national attention, demonstrating that progressives are not only on the case, but also on the march.
People in Motion
As the film Selma correctly makes clear about the transformation of civil rights in the 1960s, none of this will get done without people's movements -- people in motion protesting the rigged game and demanding a better deal.
Occupy Wall Street set the stage, awakening Americans and the mainstream media to the Gilded Age inequality that too many had come to accept as natural. The demonstrations of fast food workers and low wage government workers have begun to challenge the Wal-Mart low road in the economy. What progress has been made on immigration reform has come from aggressive popular mobilization. The environmental movement has begun to show its force in the streets. It would be useful to link with money in politics groups to expose and confront the entrenched interests and corrupted politicians that cling to climate denial. Students, graduates and parents should be rallying against the absurdity that getting a college education all say is necessary requires taking on debt burdens that all agree are ruinous.
What the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the gay rights movement, the Latino movements have shown over and over again is one simple truth: Those who benefit from a stacked deck won't call for a new deal. Fundamental change comes only when the oppressed make it impossible to sustain the old order.
2016: Who Is Prepared to Stand?
The mainstream media have already begun their saturation coverage of the 2016 presidential horserace. How will Hillary run? Will she be challenged by Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders or another candidate on the left? Will Bush or Romney consolidate the Republican establishment? Who will emerge on the right? Where is the big money going in both parties?
In this coverage, platforms and reform ideas are contrasted with those of rival candidates, measured only for their potential political effectiveness. Congressional showdowns are measured by their potential effect on "the race." In the lead up to 2016, this is likely to disintegrate into the competitive posturing of ersatz populists. Absent is any measure of the ideas against the scope of the challenges Americans must struggle with everyday.
Filling this vacuum is the imperative for progressives. The real question isn't who is prepared to run, but who is prepared to stand for fundamental reform? This is one reason why progressive challengers in the primaries are so important. Hard-pressed Americans pay little attention to politics or to congressional debates. Presidential primaries often surprise because they are one occasion where, if activists are engaged, a broader public begins to pay attention.
Progressive challengers -- a Bernie Sanders, Jim Webb, Elizabeth Warren or Sherrod Brown -- can force a debate on what it really takes to make this economy work for working people. They can expose the limits of the center reform agenda, and the scope of real alternatives. It would be a true tragedy if 2016 took place without a fundamental debate about the stark reality we face and the presidential contenders plan to do about it.
But again, no challenge in the Democratic Party will have legs unless people are in motion, mobilizing, challenging business as usual, and forcing politicians to get outside of their comfort zone. Dislodging the entrenched interests and big money that dominate our politics won't be easy. It won't happen in one election or with one movement. Democracy, as Bill Moyers has written, isn't easy. But it is our only hope.
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Groups Charge $30 Million in Charter School Fraud, Call for Tougher Oversight
WHYY - October 1, 2014, by Tom Macdonald - A new report is calling for holding charter schools in Pennsylvania more...
WHYY - October 1, 2014, by Tom Macdonald - A new report is calling for holding charter schools in Pennsylvania more accountable.Produced by the groups Center for Public Democracy, Integrity in Education and Action United, the report says the $30 million in charter school fraud already discovered in Pennsylvania could be the tip of the iceberg because there isn't enough oversight.Kia Hinton of Action United says they are calling for reforms such as targeted audits because $30 million could have been put to much better use."Do you know what that could get us? That could get us more teachers so our classrooms don't have 40 students, that could get us textbooks, so our students have textbooks and that could get us support staff to support our teachers and our students," Hinton said.The groups are also calling for a moratorium on any new charter schools until more controls are implemented.Chinara Bioaal has a child in Philly schools and says the report is just a first step to end fraud."We will be conducting information requests on all charter schools to review board minutes to determine the quality or existence of their fraud risk management programs, we will challenge charter schools to sign the fraud risk management pledge adopting fraud risk management programs," Bioaal said.The Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools responded to the report saying it supports prosecuting fraud and mismanagement. However "the report draws sweeping conclusions about the entire charter sector based on only 11 cited incidents in the course of almost 20 years, while ignoring numerous alleged and actual fraud and fiscal mismanagement in the districts."Source
The resistance is making opposition to the GOP health bill impossible to ignore
The resistance is making opposition to the GOP health bill impossible to ignore
Congress is back in town on Monday after a week-long July Fourth recess that was — at least for most Senate Republicans...
Congress is back in town on Monday after a week-long July Fourth recess that was — at least for most Senate Republicans — anything but a restful break from the health care debate roiling Capitol Hill. Senators ran into constituents at Independence Day parades who urged them to reject the GOP health bill.
At the few town halls GOP senators held, opponents to the health care bill yelled their objections. Not a single person spoke in favor of the bill at Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran’s town hall. If senators didn’t hold town halls, objectors made their voices heard anyway. On Thursday alone, about 50 protesters were arrested in acts of civil disobedience staged by more than 1,000 people in over 21 states.
Read the full article here.
Protesters Press Diversity Case as New York Fed Seeks New Chief
Protesters Press Diversity Case as New York Fed Seeks New Chief
“Fed up, we can’t take it no more!” chanted a group of about 50 green shirt-clad members of Fed Up, a grass-roots...
“Fed up, we can’t take it no more!” chanted a group of about 50 green shirt-clad members of Fed Up, a grass-roots advocacy campaign that has received backing from Facebook billionaire Dustin Moskovitz. Fed Up is pushing central bankers to keep focused on creating more jobs. America’s unemployment rate is at its lowest since late 2000. But when Fed Up’s members look at the labor market, they see the people that they say the central bank has overlooked. That’s why they and other progressives, including Democratic lawmakers, are pressing the New York Fed to consider a diverse slate of candidates as it weighs replacements for its president, William Dudley, who plans to step down this year.”
Read the full article here.
Activists from around the country to march, hold workshops in Pittsburgh
Activists from around the country to march, hold workshops in Pittsburgh
An estimated 1,500 demonstrators will hit the streets of Downtown Pittsburgh this afternoon — and both geographically...
An estimated 1,500 demonstrators will hit the streets of Downtown Pittsburgh this afternoon — and both geographically and politically, they expect to cover a lot of ground.
The “Still We Rise” March, which kicks off a two-day gathering of activists from around the country, begins at 2:30 and will feature stops including the Pittsburgh branch of the Federal Reserve, the headquarters of UPMC and the Station Square office of Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey.
Ana Maria Archila, co-director of the Center for Popular Democracy, which is organizing the gathering, said the activists are turning out to put the spotlight on issues communities face such as economic inequality, racism and xenophobia.
“… We will win our rights,” she said, adding that the event “is really the launch of a national grassroots community.”
In fact, the “People’s Convention” at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center expects to attract over 40 progressive groups from 30 states, focusing on issues ranging from immigrant rights and racial equity to environmental concerns and public schools advocacy. A parallel program will involve policy discussions among progressive elected officials: Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and City Councilor Daniel Lavelle are among those participating.
The event “reflects what we’re trying to do in Pittsburgh, on a national level,” said Erin Kramer, executive director of activist group One Pittsburgh.
Here as elsewhere, organizers have pressed fast-food employers to raise minimum wages to at least $15 an hour, and fought for a city ordinance requiring employers to grant paid sick leave to workers. Other cities are weighing “fair scheduling” ordinances that require giving workers earlier notice about, and input on, their work schedules.
Immigration issues, which have become a critical issue in this year’s presidential race, also will be a key topic. While Ms. Kramer said the convention is about more than electoral politics, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump “is really a threat for a lot of participants. He’s literally talking about building walls and sending people home. You may see a Trump puppet in the parade, more as a rodeo clown than anything else.”
The agenda may seem sprawling. “It is hard to weave these things together,” Ms. Archila admitted. One goal of the convention is for participants to craft a “statement of unity” outlining a vision to guide future activism.
But “all of our issues are interconnected,” said Pittsburgh education activist Pam Harbin, who will attend the convention to discuss tactics and lessons with organizers from elsewhere. “A $15 minimum wage is deeply connected to the fight for quality schools, because if you have parents working three jobs, you really can’t ask, ‘Why aren’t these parents more involved in their kids’ education?’”
Campaigns for higher wages or better worker protections often concentrate on the federal level. But with Washington in a partisan deadlock, activists are increasingly pressing for change locally.
“In some ways, people became more reliant on the federal government, and that took some of the wind out of the sails of local activism,” said Lisa Graves, executive director of the left-leaning Center for Media and Democracy. “But seeing the federal government crippled is an opportunity to reinvigorate local democracy.”
There are perils to the approach, as Pittsburgh has learned. Here as elsewhere, while progressives may control city hall, conservatives often rule state capitals.
State law has barred enforcing a Pittsburgh law to require the reporting of lost-and-stolen firearms, for example. And last December, an Allegheny County judge struck down ordinances requiring paid sick leave for employers, and special training for building security guards. A 2009 Supreme Court ruling barred municipalities for setting such rules for employers, Judge Joseph James ruled.
“It’s a growing trend to see these special interests using their access at the state level to preempt local democracy,” Ms. Graves said. This weekend will feature discussions of the challenge, but because states can limit local authority, “It’s extremely difficult to overcome.”
And a local ordinance may not help struggling families across the city line — at least not immediately.
Still, said Ms. Kramer, “If you lift the minimum wage in one place, people say, ‘Why not me?’ You have to start by painting an alternative picture.”
By Chris Potter
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Education Department Releases List of Federally Funded Charter Schools, though Incomplete
The U.S. Department of Education has released a list of the charter schools that have received federal funding since...
The U.S. Department of Education has released a list of the charter schools that have received federal funding since 2006.
The move comes in the wake of requests by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), dating back to 2014, for public disclosure of who had received federal taxpayer money. CMD had submitted requests for this and related information to the Department and several states.
In October 2015, CMD released its report "Charter School Black Hole: CMD Special Investigation Reveals Huge Info Gap on Charter School Spending," discussing the more than $3.7 billion dollars the federal government had spent on charters and the gaps in what the public could see about which charters received taxpayer money.
Two months later, the Department of Education issued a news release on the subject, titled "A Commitment to Transparency: Learning More about the Charter School Program." The data was released to the public on the eve of Christmas Eve.
According to the Department, "The dataset provides new and more detailed information on the over $1.5 billion that CSP [the Charter School Program] has provided, since 2006, to fund the start-up, replication, and expansion" of charters.
It includes information on which grant program funded each of the charter schools listed and how much. That is more information than the public has ever been given about the true reach of the CSP program into their communities, fueled by federal tax dollars.
It lists more 4,831 charter school with the amounts received in that period, but it does not indicate which of them closed. CMD has sought to assess the number of closed charters using other data as a proxy but ambiguities have impeded that effort.
In its December release, the agency noted that more than half of the charter schools in its list of nearly 5,000 were "operational" as of the last school year with complete data: "CSP planning and startup capital facilitated the creation of over 2,600 charter schools that were operational as of SY 2013-14; approximately 430 charter schools that served students but subsequently closed by SY 2013-14; and approximately 699 'prospective schools.'”
The fate of each of the more than 2,000 charter schools in the difference between 4,831 and 2,600 is not definitively known, although CMD's initial analysis indicates that far more than 430 charters have closed over the past two decades. The agency has not released a complete list of closed charters that received federal funds and how much.
The dataset also does not go back to the beginning of federal charter school funding in 1993, though it does cover the more recent period CMD sought information about. Accordingly, the dataset does not include all the charter schools that received federal tax monies but closed since the inception of the federal charter school program.
The list released in December also did not include the names of "prospective schools" that received federal funds but never opened, which CMD has called "ghost" schools--as with the 25 it found that never opened in Michigan in 2011 and 2012 but that received at least $1,7 million dollars, according to a state expenditure report.
So on January 13, 2016, CMD filed a new set of open records requests with the Department of Education asking that it fill in those gaps and also provide information about communications regarding closed charters and prospective charters.
This is part of a long-term investigation of charter schools that CMD started nearly five years ago.
In 2011, CMD began examining the close relationship between charter school businesses and legislators after a whistleblower provided it with all of the bills secretly voted on through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) where corporate lobbyists vote as equals with lawmakers on bills that are then pushed into law in statehouses across the country.
That award-winning investigation shed new light on an industry that had grown from an "experiment" in 1992 (in Minnesota) into an influential network with a league of federal and state lobbyists seeking increasing redistribution of funds from traditional public schools to other entities under the watchword of "choice."
Over the past nearly five years, CMD has documented the impact of the policies on American school children, despite the PR claims of the industry, which has an increasing number of allies within education agencies who are devoted to charter expansion at the expense of traditional public schools. CMD has written about numerous aspects of the charter school industry as well as corporations, non-profit groups, and policymakers involved in the effort to privatize public schools in numerous ways. CMD has also documented how budget difficulties following the Wall Street meltdown under George W. Bush have been seized on by some in the industry as opportunities to try to displace school boards and local democratic control of schools and spending. CMD has also documented how billionaire funders of ALEC, such as the Koch brothers, have pushed their hostility toward the idea of public schools under the guise of choice.
In 2014, CMD sought to determine how much money the federal government had spent on charters, through State Education Agencies (SEAs) or Charter Management Organizations (CMOs) or other vehicles and discovered that this information was not publicly available. Instead, key data about how Americans' tax dollars were being spent on the charter school experiment and its failures was largely hidden from public view.
When CMD sought the identities of the charter authorizers or CMOs that had been essentially designated via ALEC bills to determine which charters were eligible to receive federal funds, the feds suggested asking the CMOs, even though many of them are private entities not covered by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) rules or state open records laws.
CMD was told to ask NACSA, the National Association of Charter School Associations, a private group created as a result of this new industry, but NACSA also did not maintain a public list of all the charters that had received federal funding and how much each had received.
Additionally, the states through their SEAs--where pro-charter staffers work within state education departments--varied greatly in how much information was provided to the public about which charters had received funds and how that taxpayer money had been spent--despite mounting news accounts of fraud and waste by charters, including numerous criminal indictments, as tallied at more than $200 million by the Center for Popular Democracy.
Under ALEC-style charter bills, charters were exempted from most state regulations including key financial reporting and controls, and a number of charters refused requests by the press under open records laws for such information.
Although some charters were managed by school districts, many were not, and with this deregulation has emerged an array of questionable practices, such as "public" or non-profit charters that outsource their administration to for-profit firms--in addition to the advent of for-profit charters, like K12's "virtual schools," another conduit for redistributing taxpayer dollars through yet another ALEC bill.
When CMD sought information on how much money had even been spent on charters, no one knew. So CMD calculated the figure the federal government has spent fueling the charter school industry and the current tally stands at more than $3.7 billion.
But, that revealing figure did not provide the public with the information it has a right to know about where all that money actually went, as noted in CMD's report "Charter School Black Hole."
So CMD requested information about which charters received such funds and how much.
In releasing the new dataset, the Department of Education is providing new transparency about charter school grantees, although significant gaps remain.
Source: PR Watch
Proposed Legislation Could Grant State Citizenship to Undocumented Immigrants
SILive.com - June 16, 2014, by Ryan Lavis - With the legislative session in Albany scheduled to end this week, one New...
SILive.com - June 16, 2014, by Ryan Lavis - With the legislative session in Albany scheduled to end this week, one New York lawmaker is pushing legislation that would grant sweeping rights of citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants and non-citizens, including the right to vote and access to healthcare.
The New York Is Home Act, sponsored by Bronx state Senator Gustavo Rivera, would provide benefits to non-citizens who meet certain criteria.
Requirements include proof of residence in New York state for at least 3 years, pledges to abide by New York laws and uphold the state constitution, as well as a willingness to serve on New York juries. Additionally, non-citizens would also have had to pay state taxes for at least 3 years.
After meeting these criteria, non-citizens would receive a form of state citizenship that includes the right to vote in all state and local elections and hold certain public offices. Additionally, they would have access to college financial aid and health insurance programs, and the ability to apply for drivers and professional licenses, according to a summary of the bill.
Staten Island Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-East Shore/Brooklyn) opposed the bill.
"Extending the privilege of voting to those in our country illegally devalues United States citizenship and further erodes the incentive to enter the country through safe and proper channels," Ms. Malliotakis said in a statement. "While some of us are fighting to protect taxpaying citizens, others are looking to give rights and benefits to non-citizens. It is a shame that during these last days of session, this is the priority of some legislators."
State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) questioned the logistics of the bill, and noted the responsibility of such immigration reform should ultimately fall on Congress.
"These are issues that rightfully belong to the federal government, and we need a Congress more willing to develop comprehensive solutions to citizenship," Sen. Savino said.
According to the bill, this legislation would not interfere with the federal government's authority to regulate immigration.
The bills sponsor told the Daily News that he does not expect his legislation to pass anytime soon.
"Obviously this is not something that's going to pass immediately, but nothing as broad as this or as bold as this passes immediately," Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx), told the Daily News.
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Janet Yellen To Jobless African-Americans: You're On Your Own
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told members of the House of Representatives in a hearing on Wednesday that the Fed'...
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen told members of the House of Representatives in a hearing on Wednesday that the Fed's concerns about inflation limit its ability to address high African-American unemployment.
“So, there really isn’t anything directly the Federal Reserve can do to affect the structure of unemployment across groups,” Yellen said during the House Financial Services Committee’s semiannual hearing on Federal Reserve policy. “And unfortunately, it’s long been the case that African-American unemployment rates tend to be higher than those on average in the nation as a whole.”
The African-American unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in June, nearly twice the rate of 5.3 percent in the population overall.
But Yellen said that the Fed’s ability to address this problem was limited by its commitment to keeping inflation under 2 percent.
Yellen’s remarks were in response to a question posed by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) as to whether the Fed was taking the high rate of African-American unemployment into account when assessing the health of the labor market. Beatty was one of several African-American committee members, including ranking member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who enjoined Yellen to consider the disproportionately high rate of African-American unemployment in deciding when to raise interest rates.
At the hearing, Yellen reaffirmed the Fed’s previous indications that it would raise interest rates before the year’s end. "If the economy evolves as we expect, economic conditions likely would make it appropriate at some point this year to raise the federal funds rate," Yellen said in her prepared testimony.
Maintaining price stability is one-half of the Fed’s dual mandate, together with maximizing employment. If the Fed prints more money, it spurs higher employment, ultimately putting upward pressure on prices. If it tightens the monetary supply, by raising interest rates, it keeps prices low, but also depresses employment.
Many progressive economists and activists fault the Fed for continuing to prioritize the inflation part of its dual mandate at the expense of full employment. It is a tendency they say disproportionately affects African-Americans, who already suffer from high unemployment and discrimination in the job market.
Jordan Haedtler, deputy campaign manager of the Center for Popular Democracy’s Fed Up campaign, which mobilizes communities of color for pro-employment Fed policy, said that Yellen’s Wednesday remarks are a reflection of this approach.
“It is indicative of the Fed’s continued emphasis on inflation even in the face of nonexistent inflation,” Haedtler said. “They are myopically focused on one portion of their dual mandate while ignoring another. If the Fed is saying that the economy is on enough of a positive trajectory to raise rates, they are saying they are OK with 9.5 percent black unemployment.”
The Fed Up campaign wants the Federal Reserve to wait for more significant wage growth before raising rates.
It is also encouraging regional Federal Reserve banks, along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to sell homes with delinquent mortgages to nonprofit organizations that are more likely to refurbish them. Currently, Fed Up claims, the homes often go to for-profit buyers who leave them in disrepair, limiting the economic recovery in many urban communities of color.
Source: Huffington Post
At Least 32 Arrested During May Day Rally in New York City
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