Comments on: KIPP charter school funders are major Republican Party donors

By: Rafalski

Rafalski — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:20:12 +0000

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By: Norm

Norm — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:20:41 +0000

Hey Socrates. Good to see you are no longer pretending to be a NYC teacher as you did for so long. The AFT powerful? You have to be joking. How about all those right to work states where education has been ruined by not having unions? But I do agree that both parties – the Democrats and the Republicans – are as wrongheaded as you have consistently been about ed reform.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:27:03 +0000

Yes, I agree with Pogue. They’ve bankrupted the country…let’s let them ruin education as well.

By: Pogue

Pogue — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:45:49 +0000

Our country is in financial “ruins”. Thank you, Republican party.

By: Socrates

Socrates — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:10:59 +0000

This is hardly breaking news. I assume the reason you’re bringing up the Fishers’ well-known political affiliation now is that you’re trying to make a link between Republican ideology and KIPP’s refusal to be bullied by the much more powerful AFT? If so, then what do you make of KIPP’s many liberal/Democratic donors, supporters, and board members? Naturally, Democrats are more likely to side with the unions, but the fact that some of their donors (even if it’s their biggest donors) are Republican means nothing.

KIPP is fighting the unions because unionization would ruin KIPP like it has ruined districts across the country. It certainly doesn’t take a Republican to figure that out.

By: Ms. Miller

Ms. Miller — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:45:06 +0000

The Fishers are also major donors to Teach for America, and have been from very early on.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:53:00 +0000

I’m a San Francisco parent. The Fishers, of course, are very influential in San Francisco — ever since Don started the very first Gap store on humble Ocean Avenue (a couple of blocks from my kids’ San Francisco public middle school, though that store is long gone).

They were big funders of now-fizzled Edison Schools too. You’d think these funders would start learning to question the latest “it’s a miracle!” fad after the previous one fails to pan out — how did they get to be such successful businesspeople?

Reportedly the reason KIPP has its headquarters in San Francisco, even though its spirit and its founders are really in Texas, is to be close to the Fishers.