Following the Money - Part One

Call me crazy, but when rich white guys start throwing millions of dollars at (supposedly failing) urban schools, I don't always assume they have our children's best interests at heart.  Remember, even dear Daddy Warbucks reluctantly adopted Annie, and only because his PR people wanted to improve his image.  There's a world of difference between generosity and an investment.

Today we'll take a look at two of the men behind the curtain.  Please forgive me for rambling, and ignore errors in spelling or syntax for the time being.  I'll clean this up after I've had some sleep, but this has to be online before we visit with the Board of Regents in a few hours.

Meet Art Reimers:  He retired from Goldman Sachs in 2001.  Mr. Reimers served in various capacities at Goldman Sachs, including as a Partner and Managing Director in the Investment Banking Division, Co-Head and Founder of the Investment Banking Division’s Healthcare Department, and co-head of the Financial Advisory Group (London). Mr. Reimers also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rotech Healthcare, Inc., and serves on the Board of FBR Capital Markets Corporation.  Mr. Reimers is also a member of the management advisory board of New Mountain Capital, L.L.C., and a senior advisor to the New Mountain Vantage Fund. 
And, most importantly for us, Art Reimers sits on the Board of Directors of ConnCAN.


Next, we'll take a look at Brian Olsen.  He's in his mid-forties, and serves as the chairman of ConnCAN's Board of Directors.  Mr. Olsen, after cutting his teeth at Morgan Stanley and Tiger Management, LLC,  was one of the young co-founders of the multi-billion dollar hedge fund, Viking Global Investors.  He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Civic Builders, a non-profit "facilities director" for urban charter schools. 


Okay, so we've established connection #1 for these two guys: ConnCAN.


And here's the nutshell explanation of how ConnCAN relates to Providence:
The national Campaign for Achievement Now - 50-CAN - is presided over by its founder, Marc Porter-Magee.  50-CAN is the parent organization for ConnCAN, MinnCAN, RI-CAN, and the newly-established NYCAN and MarylandCAN.  Oh, speaking of parents, Marc Porter-Magee and Mike Magee (president of the Rhode Island Mayoral Academies) share theirs.  Their parents, that is.  Get it?  So that's how we make the RIMA-RI-CAN-ConnCAN-50-CAN connection.  But how does Achievement First work its way into this little family business?  Easy.  Meet the Missus, Kathleen Porter-Magee (wife of Marc, Sister in Law of Mike).  She's the curriculum and assessment developer for Achievement First.  She's also a research director at the Fordham Institute.


But that doesn't matter right now, because we're focusing on a couple of puppet masters.  This is how it all works out:


Goldman Sachs created the Urban Investment Group to take advantage of New Markets Tax Credits.  


Basically, investments that qualify for the NMTC receive 39% of their original value in federal tax credits over the course of seven years.  In addition, because these investments are loans, the investment group gets its original dollar amount back - plus interest.  Essentially, you wait seven years and double your money.
So the for-profit Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group works with the Low Income Investment Fund, whose Board of Directors is led by the manager of the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, Daniel Nissenbaum, to finance the development of facilities for urban Charter Management Organizations like Achievement First and Democracy Prep (remember them?).  
Luckily, we know where to go for charter school facilities.  Civic Builders, of course!


This is my favorite part.


If we were to use a skeletal analogy to describe this money trail (as I choose to), the head bone's connected to the head bone.  The other 205 are just for show.
And, while the convoluted skeleton image is great, these images are better.  This is where you can see the handiwork of a few well-placed venture capitalists.  


Now, before you look, take a moment to reflect on what we've been told about Achievement First.  They're a non-profit organization.  True.  But certain members of the organization will profit - hand over fist profit.  It's a "public" charter school.  Politifact wouldn't even give this a half-true.  Sure, they're going to take money from the public, but they're not accountable to the public.  Why would they be?  Their sole purpose is to last seven years, so their investors can cash in.  They'll "share best practices" with sending districts.  I'm sure all the children of Providence will do very well if Achievement First will share its lobbyists, public relations staff, advertising budget, and ability to lure billionaire investors - because those are the only practices they can prove are working.


So, without further ado, I give you Civic Builders' portfolio.  These are the schools they're building or renovating - and managing.  The Chairman of their Board of Directors holds the same position at ConnCAN (I fear I can't place enough emphasis on this).  


And that's that.
There's a lot more.  Pages and pages more.  But try not to think about it too much.  The last thing this city needs is a bunch of people walking around with their brains all scrambled.


Good night.