Albertson Fingerprints

What do the following have in common?

• Schoolnet,
• IdahoLEADS,
• Idaho Education News,
• The Institute for Evidence Based Change (IEBC),
• Go-On Idaho,
• Don’t Fail Idaho,
• Rural Opportunities Consortium of Idaho (ROCI),
• Khan Academy in Idaho,
• Idaho Education Resource Guide,
• Roger Quarles,
• Ed SESSIONS Forums,
• Idaho Education Network (IEN)

If you said the J.A. & Kathryn Albertson Foundation, you’d be right! Just a quick glance at this list tells you that the Albertson Foundation has its fingerprints all over education policy here in Idaho, (and this is the short list; we haven’t even touched on the connection with K12 inc., the corporation behind Idaho Virtual Academy. )  This should be alarming to anyone who knows the national alliances and associations the Albertson Foundation belongs to and with whom they fraternize.

Looking at Albertson Foundation’s 2012 990, you find that they pay dues to the Philanthropy Roundtable.  A quick look at their website and it’s easily apparent they are a part of the national ed reform movement.  They support Common Core.  In 2009 they invited David Coleman, one of the lead writers of Common Core, to speak at an education roundtable to discuss the 10 best ideas in education.

(As you read through the brochure you will find the term “human capital.”  This is used frequently in the education reform world. We aren’t people to be valued as individuals.  We’re merely livestock to be invested in to help further someone else’s agenda or pocketbook.)

Further connecting the dots, The Gates Foundation has given the Philanthropy Roundtable over $1.8million. No agenda there, just look the other way folks.

Click to enlarge.

The Albertson Foundation also pays dues to an organization called Grantmakers for Education.  Their members are called “Edfunders.” This organization (surprise, surprise) has received over $1.7million from Gates.  

In a paper called,  “Common Core State Standards A Funder’s Guide to Understanding Their Development and Impact in K-12 Schools” 

edfunders are encouraged to use their influence to help their states take the steps necessary for a smooth transition into Common Core.

However, imple­menting common assessments will be equally challenging due to the cost of new technology and other expenses related to transitioning to and admin­istering new tests. Funders should look for ways to encourage states and local school systems to make the invest­ments necessary to successfully enable the shift to online assessments and consider how to address the challenges that will arise.

And

These days, many vendors are marketing materials, including lesson plans and textbooks, as “Common Core aligned.” Funders who are interested in K-12 education reform should press local school systems and educators to be sure that old materials are retired from the classroom and closely examine the quality of new materials in order to ensure that they are, in fact, aligned to the new standards.

You can go to the last page of this document to see more. Grantmakers for Education_Common_Core_1_06.13.13_final

What this brochure is saying is, “If you have a lot of money, you should use your clout to influence education policy in your state.” 

So every time you hear a, “Go On” ad (or see your children come home with a t-shirt from school with the “Go On” logo,)  or see an article in Idaho Education News, just remember whose sandbox Albertson plays in- and it’s not Idaho’s.