Chapter 2: The Oligarchy of the EdIlluminati

The people who control the direction of this secretive, national coalition aiming to transform public education

In Chapter 1, I briefly touched on who’s in the EdIlluminati, which is the tongue-in-cheek name I’ve given to this coalition calling themselves the Partnership for the Future of Learning. In a coalition as massive and complex as this one is, with over 800 people across 400+ organizations, you could imagine the many challenges they face when making decisions, both big and small.

Surprisingly, they appear to have little trouble with this at all. While the EdIlluminati regularly claim to be defenders of democracy, it is quite ironic to see their own coalition being run the most undemocratic way - by an oligarchy.

Oligarchy: a government [or organization] in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes

This image below was taken from a 59-page report the EdIlluminati paid ORS Impact and Equal Measure to produce, and I highlighted the most interesting part.

From page 34 of the “Partnership for the Future of Learning: Partnership Progress and Lessons from the First Five Years” evaluation findings, September 2020

For context, earlier in that report the authors explain how funders have historically been over-represented in the Steering Committee, which is the oligarhy in control of their coalition. This is the primary topic for this chapter in the ongoing story of the EdIlluminati.

The EdIlluminati hierarchy

I created this graphic to help visualize the governance framework of the EdIlluminati. This was adapted their “Governance, Decisions, & Membership Summary” document that was shared at their 2019 annual assembly in Chicago, IL.

Here’s the easiest way to think of this. Off to the right you have the staff and consultants who run and support the EdIlluminati. They run the meetings, manage projects, handle communications, and so on. Everyone else in the partnership is in the “Network Partners” circle. A subset of those 800+ “Network Partners” are in the “Strategy Council”. These are generally people who are part of their public-facing “Ambassador Program”. Finally, the smallest subset of the “Network Partners” is the “Steering Committee”.

The Steering Committee periodically gets feedback from the wider coalition, but this appears to happen only every few years. They hire organizations to survey the partnership and interview select members (i.e. from existing Strategy Council or Steering Committee) to then produce a report. Below are the three most recent reports they’ve produced:

• July 2017 report by Shoreline Consulting and Center for Popular Democracy

• September 2020 report by ORS Impact and Equal Measure

• October 2023 report by Kavitha Mediratta (Partnership Consultant)

You could try to argue this is a form of democracy as the decisions are being made with input from the wider coalition. However, you’d be wrong. There’s no election of Steering Commitee members, nor is there any trace of information on how they have been selected.

Democracy: a government [or organization] in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

Who’s on their Steering Committee?

Below are images taken from their 2020 Steering Committee and 2023 Steering Committee rosters. In the 2020 roster, people with an asterisk (*) next to their name were new that year, while the rest were in the Steering Committee prior.

2020 and 2023 Steering Committee Rosters (click to view full image)

2020 Steering Committee (sorted by organization & name)

• Shaun Adamec, Adamec Communications, Inc

• Jaime Koppel, Communities for Just Schools Fund (New Venture Fund)

• *Vivian Chang, Democratizing Philanthropy Project

• Kwesi Rollins, Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL)

• Linda Darling-Hammond, Learning Policy Institute (LPI)

• Daaiyah Bilal-Threats, National Education Association (NEA)

• *Kyle Serrette, National Education Association (NEA)

• Nick Donohue, Nellie Mae Education Foundation

• Warren Simmons, Nellie Mae Education Foundation

• *Keron Blair, New Georgia Project

• Cyrus Driver, Partnership for the Future of Learning

• Evelyn Aissa, Partnership for the Future of Learning

• *Saa'un Bell, Power California

• Gloria Totten, Public Leadership Institute (PLI)

• *Khalif Williams, Soul Ground Leadership Coaching

• Roberta Furger, Stuart Foundation

• *Frank Gettridge, The Philanthropic Collaborative for Education (formerly National Public Education Support Fund)

• David Rattray, UNITE-LA

• Renee Blahuta, W.K. Kellogg Foundation

2023 Steering Committee (sorted by organization & name)

• Shaun Adamec, Adamec Communications, Inc

• Jasmine Oke, American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

• Janet Soto Rodriguez, Foundations for a Better Oregon

• Kwesi Rollins, Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL)

• Ashley Harris, Jumping Hoops Consulting

• Tiffany Miller, Learning Policy Institute (LPI)

• Daaiyah Bilal-Threats, National Education Association (NEA)

• Kyle Serrette, National Education Association (NEA)

• Delia Arellano-Weddleton, Nellie Mae Education Foundation

• Warren Simmons, Nellie Mae Education Foundation

• Angelica Jongco, Public Advocates

• Gloria Totten, Public Leadership Institute (PLI)

• Christina Pretorius, Reaching Higher New Hampshire

• Catalina Perez, Roger Williams University, Center for Youth & Community Leadership in Education (CYCLE)

• Roberta Furger, Stuart Foundation

• Doannie Tran, University of Kentucky

At the very least, I’m sure you recognized a few of the organizations with good representation over the years, like the top two national teachers unions, NEA and AFT. For those more familiar with education, the name Linda Darling-Hammond may have stood out to you. She’s had a long, active, and influential career in the field of education. Like every other EdIlluminati member though, her bio makes no mention of her leadership role in this secret coalition called the Partnership for the Future of Learning.

From the Learning Policy Institute website

Why is any of this relevant?

I’ll admit something to you. This is likely going to be the dullest chapter in the overall story of the EdIlluminati, so thank you for making it this far. I say that because “governance frameworks” are rarely newsworthy. However, I felt this was important context for people to understand how this massive network of people and organizations operates.

They are able to attract partners to join them as they have 1) money, 2) power, 3) connections, 4) and some of the most recognizable people and organizations from around the country. I’ll get into more details in a future story about what’s in it for partners who want to join.

I do want to share one example of why I believe people need to take this secret coalition seriously. The image below is from their April 2021 partnership memo, “Network Successes and Areas of Improvement” (page 4), which was sent to the Board of Directors of their fiscal sponsor, the National Public Education Support Fund (now named The Philanthropic Collaborative for Education).

This powerful, influential, unelected, and secretive group of people seized the opportunity provided by the pandemic to accelerate and expand their transformation of our public education system based on their vision and values. Did you vote for them to do this? Do you even know what their vision and values are?

“…it is vital that we rethink how the Partnership capitalizes on this painful yet real opportunity to renovate these local public education systems in ways that are consistent with our vision and values.”

Wrap-up

As I wrote in Chapter 1: The Education Illuminati, there’s much to cover about this secret coalition that’s been in operation for the past 10 years. These first chapters are meant to introduce you to the Partnership for the Future of Learning and offer a window into who they are, what they have done and plan to do going forward, and more.

With that in mind, I do want to offer a “sneak peak” into future stories coming over the next few weeks. So please subscribe to get them delivered right to your inbox as soon as they are published:

• EdIlluminati inside the U.S. Department of Education

• Weaponization of children

• Critical Race Theory cover-up

• Using AI to squash parent pushback

• How the EdIlluminati show up in your neighborhood (and make you pay for it)

Appendix: Access to EdIlluminati files

As a reminder, the data obtained has been posted for everyone to view and download at EdIlluminati.com. Here’s what you will find on that website:

• EdIlluminati People Database: View, search, sort, print, and even download their entire of people and organizations along with other useful info (current & past roles, location, when they joined the partnership, relevant links, etc.)

• EdIlluminati Document Library: Hundreds of their internal documents, presentations, emails, and message board posts

• EdIlluminati Videos: Recordings of their internal virtual meetings and webinars