Obama, Ayers and the Leadership for Quality Education

^{Barack Obama, 2000}
Never more prophetic words have been written in recent months than those by Jennifer Rubin, who concluded in a September 13, 2008, Pajamas Media article

… the monies doled out through the Woods Fund to these groups, including [Bill] Ayers own Annenberg Challenge, helped cement Obama’s political relationships and bond with key players in Chicago.

To this list we must add the Joyce Foundation, another funnel for Ayers-related, Obama-facilitated funds to find their way to Ayers’ favorite — and we use this term loosely — “charities”.

The linkage comes via a February 1999 Northwestern University news release which announced that U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) and Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama were to serve March 1, 1999, as keynote speakers at Northwestern’s Law School Diversity Week kickoff.

A brief biographical sketch was cited for both speakers. In the one provided for Obama, we learn that he served on yet another board of directors — that of Leadership for Quality Education (LQE).¹

What is not known is how long Obama served on LQE’s board. What is certain is that while he did serve on the LQE board in 1999, he had it within his power to help direct funds from both the Joyce Foundation and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, upon whose boards he served simultaneously, to LQE.

Background

LQE is described thusly by one source:

The [now inactive] LQE site provides information on four main school reform topics: accountability, charter schools, small schools, and principal training. They have posted a number of different charter school related documents, including a contact directory for Chicago charter schools and a resource guide for charter school developers.

In February 1994, Education Week reported:

Changes in the leadership and mission of an organization founded by Chicago business leaders to support school decentralization have left some reformers worried that corporate support for grassroots improvement may be on the wane.

The board of directors of Leadership for Quality Education last month announced a new agenda for the group, which has been an influential force in the city’s reform movement since it was formed in 1989 by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, a business group.

The new plan scales back L.Q.E.’s monitoring of the school board budget, which had been one of the group’s primary activities, and curtails staff lobbying of the Illinois legislature in behalf.

The 1994 “Changes” in the leadership must have been John Ayers, Bill Ayers’ brother, whom the Wikipedia says served as LQE executive director 1994-2004.²

Another “change” came in June 1995, when Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley “essentially [took] over the city’s schools.” The New York Times reported:

Under the newly enacted law, the Mayor’s complete control will expire after four years. At that point, the [school] board will grow to seven members, all of whom will require City Council confirmation. In the meantime, said Fred Hess, executive director of the Chicago Panel on School Policy, a group whose particular interest is school finances, Mr. Daley has the power of an autocrat. …

“It concerns me that we’ve given that much power to a single political actor,” said John Ayers, executive director of Leadership for Quality Education, a business group that backed the legislation. “I think in my gut it’s going to work out, but it’s going to be a bit of a white-knuckle ride.”

The Chicago Tribune reported July 12, 2004, that John Ayers’ Leadership for Quality Education, “a Chicago school reform organization [was to] play a big role in the citywide school reform.”

Grant Funds to LQE

Today, October 11, 2008, blogger John at Verum Serum posted an update regarding grants issued by the Joyce Foundation, upon whose board Obama sat 1994-2002.

“The Joyce Foundation gave $50K to a group called Leadership for Quality Education run by Bill Ayers’ brother John Ayers. According to this May 1998 issue of Catalyst magazine (a periodical focused on Chicago school refrom) Leadership for Quality Education is ‘a corporate group that administers the umbrella Small Schools Coalition.’ The Small Schools Coalition website shows John and Bill Ayers are the lead members on the ‘Policy Committee.’ In short, the Ayers brothers were parners in the Small Schools initiatives in Chicago. A donation to LQE, for all intents and purposes, was support for Bill Ayers vision for Chicago schools.

John at Verum Serum also reports:

• In 1997, while Obama also served as Executive Director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, LQE received $95,000 from the Joyce Foundation “To continue assisting the recruitment, startup, and operation of charter schools in Chicago.”
• In 1999, the Joyce Foundation gave $125,000 to LQE “To organize, in cooperation with a network of grassroots and reform organizations, a citywide campaign to generate greater participation in Chicago’s local school council elections.”
• In 2000, the Joyce Foundation gave $187,000 to LQE.
• In 2001, the Joyce Foundation gave $600,000 “to found the Chicago Public Education Fund. This is the successor to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Archives for their website are mysteriously unavailable, but both John Ayers and Barack Obama are listed as members of their leadership council.” [Note: Thomas Ayers, Retired President & CEO, Commonwealth Edison, is also listed on the Leadership Council, as are Obama pals Penny Pritzker and John Rogers.]
• In 2002, LQE received another $75,000 from the Joyce Foundation.

John at Verum Serum also reports that, while Obama served on the board of the Woods Fund, 1999 to 2002, the Fund also gave grant money to John Ayers’ LQE — $50,000 in 1999.

All told, John at Verum Serum, concludes:

… boards on which Barack Obama sat delivered $1,087,556 to Bill Ayers’ Small Schools Workshop. These same boards granted another $582,100 to John Ayers’ Leadership for Quality Education group, which as I’ve noted already funded the Small Schools umbrella group he ran with Bill Ayers.

Additionally, there’s the $1.5 million to redesign five Chicago high schools along the lines Bill Ayers was promoting (He’s highlighted prominently in the grant writing appendices). All in all that’s a not insignificant contribution to the Ayers family and their causes, certainly enough to rebut claims by the NY Times that the two men merely “crossed paths.” Barack Obama, more than any other individual one could name, funded Bill Ayers’ goals in Chicago.

Digging a little deeper, RBO found:

In 1996, the Joyce Foundation gave:

• $210,000 to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge “For an independent evaluation conducted by the Consortium on Chicago School Research of the schools participating in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge to document progress in improving student achievement (3 yrs.)”
• $50,000 to Leadership for Quality Education “To promote the development of charter schools in Chicago.”

In 1998, the Joyce Foundation gave $149,050 to LQE “To assist in the recruitment, startup, and operation of charter schools in Chicago; to evaluate the need for a similar approach in the Chicago metropolitan region; and to assist charter school proponents in Cleveland.”

This adds at least another $199,050 given by the Joyce Foundation to LQE plus another $210,000 to the CAC.

Unfortunately, Joyce Foundation reports for grants given in 1994 and 1995 have not been located online.

Note — 1: Although LQE is listed on Obama’s WaPo 2008 presidential candidate profile, it does not identify Obama as an LQE board member. Additionally, no dates are given. Likewise for his Project Vote Smart bio.

The February 1999 Northwestern University press release at least establishes a point in time when Obama did serve on the LQE board.

Note — 2: See RBO’s October 8, 2008, Another Obama-Ayers-Klonsky-Lenz nexis for more.