Share My Lessons, Brought to You By AFT's Innovation Fund (Gates Foundation)

As Bill Gates like to say, if you can't beat 'em, then buy 'em.  Which is what he has done with American education policy, from control of the Business Roundtable's education agenda all the way through the AFT and NEA. Since 2009, Weingarten has been adding to AFT's nine-digit bank balance by accepting corporate foundation cash to promote Common Core, VAM tests, teacher evaluations based on test scores, and other CorpEd initiatives.  From the AFT's website in 2010:

. . . ."Effective teachers are the single greatest school-based factor in raising student achievement," said Vicki L. Phillips, Director of Education, College-Ready at the Gates Foundation Gates Foundation. [What Ms. Phillips fails to acknowledge is that 80-90 percent of student achievement is determined by other factors.] "Through the AFT Innovation Fund, we hope to draw on the expertise and creativity of master teachers nationwide to develop new teacher and student supports, and improve teaching and learning in every classroom."

AFT Innovation Fund advisory board chair Barbara Byrd-Bennett [now CEO of Chicago Public Schools], who serves as the chief academic and accountability auditor for the Detroit Public Schools, said: "The work being done by the frontline educators who received the first set of Innovation Fund grants and their partners is nothing short of phenomenal. They have blazed a trail for educators across the country, showing that with creative thinking—and especially with collaboration—great things are possible." . . . 

This morning I received an ad on Twitter to join in the Share My Lessons Common Core promotional. When I clicked through, I was led to this page, where I found lessons prepared by the Boston Teachers' Union, with cash supplied by, yes, the AFT Innovation Fund.  By the way, the Boston Teachers' Union is a prominent member of TURN, the unapologetic corporate wing of AFT and NEA.