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Response to CP's William Penn investigation: Lots of indignation, no actual rebuttals
Philly Mag blogger Paul Davies doesn't like my cover story on Jeremy Nowak's leadership of the William Penn Foundation. But instead of writing a thoughtful rebuttal with any sort of factual detail, he just lazily insults my reporting.
Response to CP's William Penn investigation: Lots of indignation, no actual rebuttals
Paul Davies, former Inquirer deputy editorial page editor and current Philadelphia Magazine blogger, doesn't know what he's talking about. Or at least if he does, he's not letting on.
You see, Davies doesn't like my cover story on Jeremy Nowak's leadership of the William Penn Foundation. The story detailed a well-funded effort to bolster pro-charter-school organizations and defund education advocacy groups that have traditionally been critical of privatization. But instead of writing a thoughtful rebuttal with any sort of factual detail, Davies just lazily insults my reporting:
“City Paper,” Davies wrote, “wrote a breathless story last week that essentially inferred there was some secret right-wing conspiracy to overthrow public education and turn it into a bunch of privately run charter schools. Never mind, the story was lacking in details to support the thesis, and few critics would speak on the record."
Davies' column exemplifies a common establishment response to William Penn: A "breathless" gratitude to a moneyed foundation for bothering to care that Philadelphia exists — so infatuated as to lose sight of all critical consideration.
Indeed, though my article has angered some in Philadelphia's power-elite, no one, as of yet, has published an actual rebuttal. The Inquirer did run two stories the day after the City Paper story hit the streets in a transparent PR pushback from William Penn. And now Davies, who wrote that the “school district is lucky to have the William Penn Foundation’s support” and mocked criticism as “conspiracy theories,” demonstrates that he simply does not know how to write a rebuttal.
If Davies would like to write one, I would like to be of some assistance: The following is a primer on my article's central factual allegations. If he wants to write a rebuttal, please do rebut any of the following:
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William Penn was expected to donate $15 million to the Philadelphia School Partnership (PSP), a pro-charter-school organization that is a close ally of conservative pro-voucher activists and organizations. William Penn announced the grant the day my article was published.
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Jeremy Nowak and William Penn not only funded but coordinated the Boston Consulting Group's proposal to dismantle and potentially privatize management of Philadelphia public schools. The Public School Notebook (which Davies incorrectly identities as an "online publication") later reaffirmed and expanded upon this reporting relying on documents obtained through Right To Know requests.
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Nowak's William Penn is poised to cut funding to or has already cut funding from public education advocacy groups critical of privatization, like Philadelphia Student Union, Youth United for Change, Action United and the Education Law Center's Cross City Campaign.
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The Philadelphia “Great Schools Compact,” managed by PSP and backed by William Penn, requested a $7 million grant from the Gates Foundation that would, among other things, give charter schools greater control over School District decision-making. Significantly, the grant says that the Boston restructuring Blueprint “calls for,” and not simply proposes, the expansion of charter schools to 40 percent of District students.
If Paul Davies or anyone else would like to write a rebuttal, I suggest that you rebut. I certainly welcome a debate over my reporting if Davies, or anyone, chooses to actually have one.
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