Corporate Party Continues Propaganda Campaign Against Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago's real public school teachers... Who is Rebecca Nieves-Huffman, Chicago's latest teacher bashing pundit?
Back in the old days of the Bush Administration, the Bushies paid hacks like Kate Walsh, who were receiving federal discretionary grants from the Education Department, to seed the op-ed pages of America's newspapers with pro-NCLB propaganda. After an Inspector General report called out NCTQ and Walsh for their illegal actions, corporate ed deformers shifted their strategy to take advantage of the era of unrestricted spending by PACs and Super PACs.
By the time Rebecca Nieves-Huffman got her Op Ed bashing Chicago teachers and the CTU into the May 4, 2012 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times, she had a career spanning nearly ten years serving the most powerful conservative and reactionary corporate interests, parlaying her narrative about growing up in Chicago into a lucrative career rewarded by The Friedman Foundation and the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, among other anti-public education and anti-union groups.Take the work of Rebeca Nieves Huffman, for instance, whose accounts include the Chicago Sun-Times, where she spreads the gospel for the Corporate Party's neoliberal wing, the Democrats for Education Reform (DFER).
Who is Rebeca Nieves Huffman? Well, here is her ad posted at the Friedman Foundation — as in Milton Friedman — whose philosophy best represents the conservative wing of the Corporate Party that she represents:
"Vice President at the National Association of Charter School Authorizers
"Schedule a Speaking Engagement With Rebeca Nieves Huffman
"Huffman, a native of Chicago, currently serves as Vice President at the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) where she manages the grant making work of the organization through its Fund for Authorizing Excellence.
"Before joining NACSA, Huffman served for 5 years as President and CEO of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (Hispanic CREO), an organization that is the national voice for the right of Latino parents to access all educational options and is an agent of change and equity in education.
"Prior to serving as Hispanic CREO’s President and CEO, Huffman was the Associate Director of Recruitment and Selection for the KIPP Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing historically underserved students with the knowledge, skills, and character needed to succeed in top-quality high schools, colleges, and the competitive world beyond.
"Huffman serves on the boards of Education Sector and City Year Chicago. She is also a proud alum of the Aspen Institute’s Entrepreneurial Leadership for Public Education fellowship program which identifies and strengthens the next generation of leaders within the K-12 education sector. Huffman resides in the city of Chicago with her husband, Craig, and children Sofia (3) and Solomon (21 months)."
Rebeca's specialty: Parent and Astroturf Grassroots Organizing.
Here is a link to Rebeca's tirade today, with all the trademark fear-mongering and hyperbole that is sure to satisfy her plutocratic bosses of the corporate foundations, who are lined up, waiting to turn Chicago Schools into another corporate revenue stream like Philadelphia, while leaving children behind in testing chain gangs with no public oversight and no alternative to the kind of punishing pedagogy that the corporate non-educators have perfected for the poor.
[Jim Horn's blog schools matter is a constant source of current commentary about all of these topics. You can go there from the following URL: http://www.schoolsmatter.info/].
