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Schools PR effort includes GOP lobbyist funded by William Penn. Schools chair calls City Paper exposé a "fantasy."
Public School Notebook: William Penn Foundation spent $160,000 on a PR campaign for the School Reform Commission, which was under fire over Boston Consulting Group proposal to dismantle, privatize schools. SRC chair Ramos calls City Paper exposé a "fantasy."
Schools PR effort includes GOP lobbyist funded by William Penn. Schools chair calls City Paper exposé a “fantasy.”
The Philadelphia Public School Notebook has discovered that the William Penn Foundation has spent more than $160,000 on a public-relations campaign for the School Reform Commission, which faces mounting criticism over a proposal developed by the Boston Consulting Group that would dismantle the central office, close more than 60 schools, and potentially put those that remain open under private management.
The Notebook reported that William Penn is paying the Bravo Group, controlled by Mitt Romney fundraiser and long-time state Republican leader Chris Bravacos. The money is being passed through the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.
News of the Chamber of Commerce payment confirms and expands upon City Paper's July 5 cover story on president Jeremy Nowak's leadership of William Penn, where we reported that SRC Chairman Pedro “Ramos had asked the Chamber of Commerce to bankroll a lobbying campaign.”
Ramos, however, told The Notebook that City Paper's description of “Nowak as the driving force in a coordinated effort to dismantle the District, citing a May meeting involving Nowak, Ramos [and Sharon] Gallagher of Sage Communications,” was a “fantasy.”
“Nowak, Ramos and Gallagher,” however, “all confirmed their participation in a meeting like the one described in City Paper.”
Indeed, the wide-ranging pushback against City Paper's exposé of Jeremy Nowak's William Penn Foundation has involved lots of indignation — but no actual rebuttals.
Bravacos, who City Paper earlier this month discovered was awarded a contract to run a public-relations campaign on the state's new voter-ID law for the Corbett Administration, is a key leader in the corporate-school-reform movement.
Bravacos operates the Bravo Foundation, which funnels donations to private schools in a voucher-like program for corporations looking for a legalized taxpayer kickback (see this New York Times report).
And he sits on the board of the pro-voucher Philadelphia School Partnership, a pro-charter-school organization that is receiving a $15 million William Penn grant and that, CP discovered, has “become a chief William Penn lieutenant in a pro-school-privatization network that reaches across, and channels money through, the city, state and nation.”
The Bravo funding gets even muddier. “In a separate effort,” The Notebook reports, “the Bravo Group also worked under a direct contract with the Chamber to lobby state officials on issues of concern to the SRC.” But a “spokesman for William Penn stressed that the foundation is not supporting any lobbying efforts, which are specifically forbidden in its grants.”
Hmm.
William Penn's second PR contract is with Sage Communications which, like the millions in funding for Boston Consulting Group (BCG), is being passed through the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Sage's work has been previously reported, but interestingly, Sage partner Sharon Gallagher told The Notebook that they were paid “pretty much to try to explain the role of BCG.”
“Each grant,” The Notebook reports, “was for $82,500, the maximum allowable without the approval of William Penn’s board, which meets three times a year.”
City Paper had also uncovered that Nowak had called in Tierney Communications chief executive Mary Stengel Austen, a “crisis specialist.”
Finally, The Notebook discovered that William Penn directly paid United Way $82,500 to “help staff a previously undisclosed 'ethics task force' that is preparing recommendations for the SRC that are expected to be made public this fall.”
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