I guess he is more than just an alum, he is the executive director of the local chapter, a chapter which despite getting millions of dollars from local philanthropists, money that will never see a classroom by the way, that is probably on the way out as DCPS has greatly scaled back their partnership with Teach for America.
I have met Mr. Willie several times and despite my fierce opposition of his last school board run, he has always been cordial to me, though his wife gives me "the Scott Shine" look. He seems like a pretty decent fellow and earnest people can disagree, even fiercely disagree. In another universe who knows maybe Mr. Willie and I could have been friends.
This is the thing though, during Willie's last campaign, he took thousands of dollars from people who would gleeful dismantle public education and replace it with a string of charter schools where an ever revolving door of teachers made cameo appearances only to be quickly replaced. I am talking about Gary Chartrand and his friends who are no friends to public education. They financed Mr. Willie in 2014 and are likely to do so again.
Then in my opinion he debased himself by allowing false and misleading campaign materials about his opponent Paula Wright to be distributed. He didn't try and win with better ideas, he tried to win by misleading and tricking people and tearing down a former teacher who has dedicated her life to our schools and children and sadly to many people like that have won races before.
I didn't support Willie in 14 and I couldn't imagine supporting him now. I just hope this go around he chooses to run a race based on ideas and he only accepts donations from people whose lives he wants to effect rather than from millionaires he would be beholden to.
The election is a year off but it not to early to be thinking about it because we know people who want to dismantle our schools already are.
I have met Mr. Willie several times and despite my fierce opposition of his last school board run, he has always been cordial to me, though his wife gives me "the Scott Shine" look. He seems like a pretty decent fellow and earnest people can disagree, even fiercely disagree. In another universe who knows maybe Mr. Willie and I could have been friends.
This is the thing though, during Willie's last campaign, he took thousands of dollars from people who would gleeful dismantle public education and replace it with a string of charter schools where an ever revolving door of teachers made cameo appearances only to be quickly replaced. I am talking about Gary Chartrand and his friends who are no friends to public education. They financed Mr. Willie in 2014 and are likely to do so again.
Then in my opinion he debased himself by allowing false and misleading campaign materials about his opponent Paula Wright to be distributed. He didn't try and win with better ideas, he tried to win by misleading and tricking people and tearing down a former teacher who has dedicated her life to our schools and children and sadly to many people like that have won races before.
I didn't support Willie in 14 and I couldn't imagine supporting him now. I just hope this go around he chooses to run a race based on ideas and he only accepts donations from people whose lives he wants to effect rather than from millionaires he would be beholden to.
The election is a year off but it not to early to be thinking about it because we know people who want to dismantle our schools already are.
Mr. Willie is not the only TFA alum with school board aspirations. In Albemarle County (VA) in this month's elections a former TFA teacher with the usual two years in a classroom won a seat on the school board, having out gained her opponent in campaign contributions two-to-one. A large portion, if not most, of this funding came from Leadership for Educational Equity, a branch of TFA they claim is not a PAC, but merely a group that helps develop educational leaders. The leaders they develop, which now seems to include seats on school boards, is all meant to perpetuate their existence by maintaining contracts with school systems throughout the country.
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