When you read the apology it sure sounded like Jonah Edelman of Stand for Children got taken to the woodshed.
By whom?
Maybe by his esteemed parents who might have been embarrassed by the tone of his prideful and boasting presentation, “If It Can Happen in Illnois, It Can Happen Anywhere,” at the corporate funded Aspen Ideas Festival.
Maybe by some of the billionaire boys club funders of Stand for Children who didn’t want their tactics for public school and teacher union destruction so blatantly exposed, becoming a warning to other states.
Maybe by the leaders of the IEA who come off as either incompetent or worse in their rush to be willing partners in Senate Bill 7, a bill which constituted a major setback for teacher union rights in Illinois.
But I think that no apology is needed.
It is not unusual for an immature young man, brought up in a world of privilege and means, to behave this way. It happens.
After all, once you strip away all the self-important nonsense in his Aspen presentation, everything Edelman says in the tape is repeated in the apology. It was all true.
Thanks, Jonah.
Fred Klonsky 
Maybe Jonah never had to REALLY work for a living so he just doesn’t quite “get” why unions exist to protect workers. Maybe his esteemed parents messed up THAT part of raising him.
I’m still writing his parents. The backlash most likely came from those who fund Stand With Children. They really don’t want the truth about what they’re doing to get out there. Chicago is the real center of the full scale charter school movement. Just the city. You don’t hear parents from the suburbs considering charter alternatives. The hedge fund managers/venture capitalists who have moved into the education field care only for the cash cow that is funding for public edeucation in this country. They’re swooping in for the kill like a gang of ravenous hawks. Edelman is a well paid mouthpiece equipped with the instant credibility that his parents life missions have bestowed upon him. He had his “epiphany moment” like all these education foundation phonies have, and now proclaims his life’s mission is to “help children”. Blah, if he gave a crap he’d be in the classroom somehwere trying to get students the education they need. BTW, I had a fairly heated email exchange with Jonathan Alter after reading your blog a few weeks ago. He actually responded to me from his Blackberry. I could forward the exchange to you if you’d like. He’s a little punk.
Maybe you addressed it to just Fred, but I too would love to see the exchange. Hope Fred posts it for the public good.
Love to read it.
-Fred
Agreed — what Jonah Edelman should really apologize for is believing that he has any idea of what goes on in a classroom, and what a REAL teacher does to prepare for his/her students.