@TexasObserver @josephinelee

>So far, 48 charter operators—which are required to be nonprofits, governmental entities, or higher education institutions—have received at least $735 million in state and federal funds (passed through the school districts) under the program SB 1882 inaugurated, which came to be called “Texas Partnerships.” These operators largely control the budgets and operations of the public schools they helm.

The nonprofit distinction is pointless when those nonprofits are permitted to funnel the vast majority of their income to for-profit entities that do the actual education work.

>Under most Texas Partnership contracts, school districts retain the responsibility to maintain facilities, furniture, and equipment, offer transportation and meals to students, and provide special education services, but they give up control over administration, curriculum, and budgets.

Textbook case of privatize the profits and socialize the costs.

>In response to an Observer question about the Beaumont school’s academic performance, a spokesperson for Green Dot Public Schools noted via email that its related organization, Green Dot Public Schools Southeast Texas, ran the school and was dissolved in June 2024, adding: “We do not have additional background or context that we can provide.”

Its *shell company*. Call it what it is.

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An interesting thought experiment: what if teachers collectively chose to form these non-profits themselves? And ran the schools as they saw fit? Education co-ops, perhaps.

>Shelly Haney, a longtime educator, turned Midland ISD’s Goddard Junior High from an F-rated to a C-rated school as principal from 2013 to 2019. That’s why, in 2019, then-superintendent Orlando Riddick asked her, while she was still Goddard’s principal, to start a nonprofit and apply for a Texas Partnership contract to run the school in addition to Bunche Elementary School and later other elementaries, Haney said. The charter organization would be called the REACH Network.

Yay! So it's been tried at least.

>But Haney ran into the same obstacles that her predecessors at Bunche had faced: community poverty, low teacher retention, and then COVID-19. There were early signs of trouble when Bunche’s new principal quit in September 2019, four weeks after the school year started. Three more principals left during the four years REACH was in operation. Amid teacher shortages that got worse during the pandemic, Midland ISD waived certification requirements —as allowed under state law—and there were fewer experienced teachers available in the district’s hiring pool to help carry out reforms, Haney told the Observer.

So there is no Stand and Deliver magic formula to addressing poverty, I take it. For this approach to work, the co-op will need broader political and economic support.

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>There’s also no record that School Innovation Collaborative applied for federal tax-exempt status in the Internal Revenue Service database. San Antonio ISD terminated its contract early with the organization in 2023. CEO Doug Dawson did not respond to the Observer’s request for comment.
>
>Colbert described those kinds of paperwork issues as red flags. “These are public tax dollars that are going to pay these people, and there are requirements of the law that they’re not meeting,” he said.

What in the actual fuck? That's a red flag alright. But it's a red flag for the boards inking the contracts. We're talking absolutely basic, due diligence 101 shit here.

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>Regarding Texas Partnership operators in general, Quinzi, the teachers union legal counsel, said: “They’re going to put as much money into their pockets and the least amount of money in the classroom.”

At least the union rep knows how to tell it like it is. All of the trustees and politicians quoted in this article keep dancing around the core contradiction.

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Finally: this article was very heavy in data. It needed graphs. Badly. But seeing as we're going to be implementing similar bad ideas on a much larger scale going forward here in Texas, the author is at least not going to be lacking in data for the foreseeable future.

#Texas #txlege #vouchers #education #SchoolVouchers #SchoolChoice #txpol #CharterSchools #NPIC #501c3 #NonProfit #NonProfitIndustrialComplex

"It is important that we not collapse these differences even while recognizing a set of shared structural forces and logics. This is especially important as non-profits themselves are vulnerable to these structural forces. For example, non-profit organizations continue to feel impacts of the recession in both the increased demands for basic social services as well as the shrinking of government and foundation funding and individual donations. Many small organizations made up of poor and working-class members have dissolved or folded into larger non-profits. A lack of funding has led such groups to give up vital infrastructure and compensated staff positions, but the work continues through volunteer labor, in members' homes or donated space."

— Incite! Women of Color Against Violence: The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, pp. xviii-xix

If non-profits are to serve as a tool for liberation and reconstruction, then they need their own productive forces to call upon for fueling their efforts. Subjugation to capital, be it directly through philanthropic foundations, indirectly through (capitalist) government funding, or even tortuously through individual donors --themselves dependent upon exchanging their labor to capital for the money they donate-- necessarily clips the non-profit's wings. It is always contorting itself upon the whims of capital. Perhaps a partnership between non-profits and co-ops, both worker owned and operated, could serve to foster such a development of productive forces beyond --or at least less hindered by-- the antagonistic ruling capitalist class's reach. In this model, non-profits could serve as a stabilizing foundation upon which less certain co-operative proletarian endeavors could build.

#socialism #communism #marxism #coops #coop #NonProfit #npic

The Revolution Will Not Be Funded - BookWyrm

Author: INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence Subjects Gender and Sexuality > Feminism and Women’s Studies, American Studies, Activism A trillion-dollar industry, the US non-profit sector is one of the world's largest economies. From art museums and university hospitals to think tanks and church charities, over 1.5 million organizations of staggering diversity share the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) designation, if little else. Many social justice organizations have joined this world, often blunting political goals to satisfy government and foundation mandates. But even as funding shrinks, many activists often find it difficult to imagine movement-building outside the non-profit model. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded gathers essays by radical activists, educators, and non-profit staff from around the globe who critically rethink the long-term consequences of what they call the "non-profit industrial complex." Drawing on their own experiences, the contributors track the history of non-profits and provide strategies to transform and work outside them. Urgent and visionary, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded presents a biting critique of the quietly devastating role the non-profit industrial complex plays in managing dissent. Contributors. Christine E. Ahn, Robert L. Allen, Alisa Bierria, Nicole Burrowes, Communities Against Rape and Abuse (CARA), William Cordery, Morgan Cousins, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Stephanie Guilloud, Adjoa Florência Jones de Almeida, Tiffany Lethabo King, Paul Kivel, Soniya Munshi, Ewuare Osayande, Amara H. Pérez, Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide, Dylan Rodríguez, Paula X. Rojas, Ana Clarissa Rojas Durazo, Sisters in Action for Power, Andrea Smith, Eric Tang, Madonna Thunder Hawk, Ije Ude, Craig Willse View Less Praise "A stinging indictment of what the authors call the 'non-profit industrial complex.'" — Elisabeth Prügl, Signs "Fiery" — Utne Reader "Powerfully demonstrate[s] what we too often forget: our attempts at securing safety for ourselves and our communities are subject to much more powerful attempts by the state and society to make itself safe—including to make itself safe from us and our most radical, challenging, revolutionary, feminist ideas." — Ruthann Robson, Women's Studies Quarterly "Although The Revolution Will Not Be Funded presents no easy answers for those of us struggling both to make a living and to create social change, it exhorts us to put the consideration of our movements' missions, and the way we fulfill them, before considerations of organizational and job security—and to regularly revisit within our organizations the question of whether the form and the content of our work are essentially compatible." — Christy Thornton, NACLA Report on the Americas "A crucial intervention into mainstream ways of thinking about political organization and social change." — Ryne Clos, Spectrum Culture "The Revolution Will Not Be Funded gives us valuable insight into what these activists call 'the non-profit industrial complex,' an unseen web of money and power that tries to undermine people's struggles for racial, class, economic, gender, and environmental justice. It deserves the closest study." — Mumia Abu-Jamal "This collection presents a context for the questions that have been troubling us about non-profit structures. In years to come, we will mark it as the jump-start for our new thinking about ways to make collective social change." — Suzanne Pharr, author of In the Time of the Right: Reflections on Liberation "The Revolution Will Not Be Funded is a must-read for all of us who are living in the U.S., the crossroads of empire and global capitalism. Seriously addressing the questions and critiques raised by this collection will help today's U.S.-based justice movements make sense of our responsibilities—and envision creative opportunities—to help map a transformative future for liberation." — Joo-Hyun Kang, member, CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities "Are non-profit organizations sufficiently accountable and responsive to the larger aims of popular social movements, or is the 'non-profit industrial complex' thawing the potential for fundamental social change? The Revolution Will Not Be Funded provides a variety of critical perspectives that challenge the conventional foundation model and non-profit system approach to popular organizing in capitalist America. Sure to be a provocative book for activists working for social justice." — Daniel Faber, editor of Foundations for Social Change Via https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-revolution-will-not-be-funded

What we call ##NGO’s in the hashtag story. The Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC) entanglement of non-profits, big businesses, governments, and social activism can, leads to mess we need to compost. While nonprofits can fund crucial tech and activist work, their reliance on corporate-linked foundations dilutes this, to keep receiving money, the is STRONG presser to softening critiques to align with business interests, ultimately limiting transformative change. This power dynamic mirrors critiques of the Prison-Industrial and Military-Industrial Complexes, highlighting how funding sources shape the scope and direction of activism and the ##FOSS tech we build.

In the grassroots ##DIY world, it’s critical to remain aware, and work to mediate these influences, ensuring that the needed systemic challenges are not compromised by external funding interests.

Let’s focus here on planting seeds of real change, beyond the comfortable narratives of the ##NPIC that the ##SWF has to compromise with, this is what we are doing on ##socialhub

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-non-profit-industrial-complex-npic-a-double-edged-sword-in-foss-and-activism/

#diy #FOSS #NGO #NPIC #socialhub #SWF

NGO – Hamish Campbell

is there a support group for self-proclaimed socialists trapped in "golden handcuffs" who desperately want to to create meaningful change outside of their 50-60hr/wk #npic jobs? asking for so many ppl i know :(
Mutual aid is infinitely more ethical and pragmatic than the Non Profit Industrial Complex.
#NPIC #MutualAid #OpportunityForPraxis
Lets try that again since I messed up, lol, go me! Yay us, for the month of February for the #NPIC contract which is for passports we broke 600000 calls and the call center day isn't over yet.
 
"1- Abolitionist practice must support proletarian self-activity and foster the conditions for escalation and open revolt against the state and capital--and this happens on multiple scales
2- NPIC ‘movement organizations’ are structurally incapable of doing this, and indeed are compelled to act against self-activity by quelling or redirecting potentially conflictual energies
3- They achieve this in part by claiming to represent a whole ‘community’ or ‘identity,’ delegitimizing those who take approaches not compatible with theirs."
// "Shattering Abolition™: Against Reformist Counterinsurgency in the Streets of Oakland", by some abolitionists (haters.life)
#abolition #anarchy #reportback #NPIC
I’m just boosting my own #bookstodon post to say that in the section of Non Profits and NGOs Sara Jaffe brings all the receipts 🧾 #npic #ngos #listentothis #readthis #bipoc

"When we are motivated by fear of loss and act from a individual-centric lens, we try to control against death by eliminating things we deem to be a threat to our comfort. We kill or restrain things preemptively because they might be a threat, being unaware that those things deemed a threat are interwoven with us, our fates inseparable.  Often, though, we lose in the long run because those things were not threats at all - they were only short-term annoyances. This mindset is a projection of one's shadow self, our places of deep shame, the parts of ourselves that we know cause harm to others, onto the world."

The 2nd installment of my Capitalism through thr Tarot Pentacles (cards 4-6) is here, touching upon scarcity mindset, loss of commons, capitalist spectacle, the non-profit industrial complex, and more:
https://medium.com/@melodyfloyd/capitalism-through-the-pentacles-d763f9928be1

I previously posted Part 1 (cards 1-3) but put thw wrong link (yay adhd) so if ya wanna read that too: https://medium.com/@melodyfloyd/capitalism-through-the-pentacles-331e5699fcfe

Thanks for checking out my stuff!!

#tarot #capitalism #scarcitymindset #spectacle #capitalistrealism #npic #commons #enclosure #nonprofitindustrialcomplex #pentacles #anticapitalist #abolition

Capitalism Through the Pentacles - Melody Floyd - Medium

Structure, order, stability — the energy of Four in numerology, and the deep desires of this kingly figure. He sits, alone, on a severe, concrete rectangle, rather than any kind of royal throne. The…

Medium

https://archive.org/details/ente-opd

Entè/OPD: Kalfou Pwojè by Janil Lwijis; Janil Louis-Juste; Jean Anil Louis-Juste

Topics
#EntèOPD, #InterOPD, #RegroupementdesOrganisationsdePromotionduDevelopment, #RegroupementInterOPD, #lONGisation, #ONG, #CharitéÒganizasyon, #òganizasyonkipagouvèlman, #NPIC, #òganizasyonkipatagouvènman, #politik, #Ayiti, #HaitianCreole, #KreyòlAyisyen, #kreyòl, #devlopman

I. Koze Devan Pòt
II. Pwojè Devlopman an Ayiti
III. PEPPADEP AK ODVA: 2 Temwen nan Politik devlopman piblik an Ayiti
IV. Chapant Agrè ak Espas Sosyal nan milye riral ayisyen
V. Pratik Pwojè Devlopman prive yo nan milye riral la
VI. Entè/OPD: Kalfou pwojè!
VII. Devan baryè Kalfou!
VIII. Kèk Degi

Entè/OPD: Kalfou Pwojè : Janil Lwijis : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

I. Koze Devan PòtII. Pwojè Devlopman an AyitiIII. PEPPADEP AK ODVA: 2 Temwen nan Politik devlopman piblik an AyitiIV. Chapant Agrè ak Espas Sosyal nan milye...

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