Beware of Educators 4 Excellence

Many members have reported being invited to attend events with Educators 4 Excellence (E4E), a corporate reformer-funded organization purporting to act in the best interests of our members. See below for facts about E4E, or download the fact sheet.

E4E has taken no position on Ballot Question 2, but their funders sure have. According to their website, E4E is funded by many of the same donors driving the campaign to privatize education and Question 2 on the November ballot including the Walton family (who has given $2 million to YesOn2), New Profit, the Boston Foundation, Strategic Grant Partners, and of course the most prominent funder of the YesOn2 campaign: “those who wish to remain anonymous.”

Just in the past month, E4E joined a coalition including Democrats for Education Reform, one of the driving forces behind privatization and union busting (as well as Success Academy Charter Schools, TFA, Stand for Children and many others) in a push to rate educator prep programs based on student test scores.

Educators for Excellence claims to want to help teachers make impacts on education policy. In fact, the best vehicle for accomplishing this goal in our union. If you have an issue where you want to make a difference for your school and your students, please join one of our BTU Organizing Committees, or contact Farah Assiraj at fassiraj@btu.org if you have a new idea that you’d like to lead.

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Get the Facts about Educators for Excellence

Founded in 2010 by Teach for America teachers, Educators for Excellence (E4E) advocates for merit-based pay, teacher evaluations that incorporate value-added student achievement data, and eliminating seniority in decisions about teacher layoffs.

Though E4E touts itself as a grassroots organization, it receives millions of dollars from corporate reform foundations and is an offshoot of the hedge fund-backed organization Education Reform Now. E4E also has ties to anti-public education groups like Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst. The fact is, Educators for Excellence promotes the kind of top-down education reform that undermines public education, teachers and students.

Educators for Excellence is backed by anti-public education, right-wing corporate reformers who value profit over what is best for children. E4E’s funders include:

• The Walton Foundation, a major financier of anti-union, conservative and anti-environmental causes.
• The William E. Simon Foundation, which provided $40,000 in grants to E4E in 2011 and 2012, also finances hard-line conservative groups like the Federalist Society, The Manhattan Institute and the Alliance for School Choice.
• The Bodman Foundation, which has backed an anti-union teacher association (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), the Federalist Society, and the anti-gay Institute for Family Studies.
• The Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which gave $500,000 to E4E in 2012, is known for using its wealth to destroy retirement security for teachers.

Educators for Excellence touts itself as a “teacher” organization, but remains silent about attacks on the teaching profession.
The teaching profession and teachers’ rights to have a voice to advocate for schools and students have been under attack in recent years. E4E stands by without challenging legislative or public attacks on teachers and their right to have a voice in the workplace.

Educators for Excellence works to undermine teachers and their unions.
In many cities, E4E tries to influence and interfere in union affairs, despite its ties to various state and local departments of education. Their actions—which can be described as management-linked interference with union affairs—is called yellow unionism.

Educators for Excellence leadership have been deceptive about the qualifications as educators.
Neither of E4E’s founders—Evan Stone and Sydney Morris—hold teaching certifications.