We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom

by Bettina L. Love

One investment strategy used by corporate school reformers (akin to disaster capitalists) is the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000, which provides tax incentives for seven years to businesses that reside and hire residents in economically depressed communities. To increase profits, investors lobby federal and local governments to ease regulations and restrictions that limit the number of charter schools in a particular state or school district. Deregulating charter school growth allows corporate school reformers to open up public schools to the highest bidder. This scheme motivates investors such as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to donate half a million dollars of stock to organizations that distribute charter school funding.39 Zuckerberg also opened his own foundation, Startup:Education, to build more charter schools.40 The real estate industry receives massive tax cuts for buying inner-city schools, homes, and buildings. Many of the most über-rich hedge fund operators have close ties to charter schools. David Tepper ($3.5 billion in earnings in 2013) founded Appaloosa Management and Better Education for Kids; Steven A. Cohen ($2.4 billion in 2013) of SAC Capital Advisors donated $10 million to the Achievement First charter school network.41