Imagine Schools meet Rachel Maddow

by David Safier

I have to say, I didn't expect this. Dennis Bakke, CEO of Imagine Schools, is a member of the much-in-the-news, should-be-more-in-the-news Christian group, The Family.

Any of you who are fans of Rachel Maddow's show, as I am, are well acquainted with The Family. It's an almost invisible but very powerful group made up mainly of very powerful people.

Here's my thumbnail description of The Family: its ideology is an unholy alliance between the teachings of Jesus and Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of the Superman. Very influential and powerful people — politicians and the super wealthy — are superior to the rest of us in the group's world view. They can lie, cheat and steal — and carry on affairs (think John Ensign, a member, and Mark Sanford, with close connections) — and be exempted from the kinds of judgment the rest of us would face, so long as they are extending the power of The Family. The Family is very secretive — it compares itself to The Mafia in that sense — and is drawn to the concept of absolute power — in that respect, it compares itself to some of the world's most notorious despots.

The Family has an anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-union agenda. Though there are some conservative Dems connected with it (Bart Stupak of the Stupak anti-abortion health care amendment lives in the C Street House, headquarters for The Family), its main members tend to be from the most conservative wing of the Republican party.

For more information, you can watch this video segment from Maddow's show (it's one of many) and link to a story on Fresh Air.

How does this connect with Imagine Schools' Dennis Bakke? He's a member of The Family, according to Jeff Sharlet, who wrote a book about the group titled The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. (Sharlet is the one Maddow goes to for information, and he's also the person Terry Gross interviewed on Fresh Air.)

Bakke isn't just some guy trying create a charter school empire. He's a player. He founded AES Energy, a Fortune 500 company and was one of the people who pushed hardest for energy deregulation, which almost ruined AES Energy when Enron went down. After Bakke left, he founded Imagine Schools.

Here is a passage about Bakke in his AES days from Sharlet's The Family.

Dennis Bakke, former CEO of AES, the largest independent power producer in the world, and a Family insider, took the occasion of the 1997 Prayer Breakfast to invite Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, the Family's “key man” in Africa, to a private dinner at a mansion, just up the block from the Family's Arlington headquarters. Bakke, the author of a popular business book titled Joy at Work, has long preached an ethic of social responsibility inspired by his evangelical faith and his free-market convictions: "I am trying to sell a way of life," he has said. "I am a cultural imperialist." That's a phrase he uses to be provocative; he believes that his Jesus is so universal that everyone wants Him. And, apparently, His business opportunities: Bakke was one of the pioneer thinkers of energy deregulation, the laissez-faire fever dream that culminated in the meltdown of Enron. But there was other, less-noticed fallout, such as a no-bid deal Bakke made with Museveni, the result of a relationship that began at the 1997 Prayer Breakfast, for a $500-million dam close to the source of the White N—e — in waters considered sacred by Uganda's 2.5-million–strong Busoga minority. AES announced that the Busoga had agreed to "relocate" the spirits of their dead. They weren't the only ones opposed; first environmentalists (Museveni had one American arrested and deported) and then even other foreign investors revolted against a project that seemed like it might actually increase the price of power for the poor. Bakke didn't worry. "We don’t go away," he declared. He dispatched a young man named Christian Wright, the son of one of the Prayer Breakfast's organizers, to be AES's in- country liaison to Museveni; Wright was later accused of authorizing at least $400,000 in bribes. He claimed his signature had been forged.

Bakke's line, "We don't go away" is eerily reminiscent of something he said about Imagine Schools. I can't put my hands on the exact quote — I know I have it somewhere — but paraphrased, it says, A community had better be sure it wants an Imagine School, because once we're here, we're not going away.

“It’s our school as much as anyone else’s school. We’ve made it very clear that if you don’t trust us, don’t start with us, because we are there forever. It’s very difficult to unwind this marriage, and it was meant to be that way.” [Hat tip to commenter Indiana for reminding me of the actual quote.]

I had always looked at Imagine Schools as a place where profits and growth take precedence over education. But with the connection to The Family, I have to wonder if Bakke's desire to create an Imagine Schools empire is a methodical attempt at an educational power grab of major proportions as well.

This is one of a series of posts, Peeking into Charter Schools. If you have information you wish to contribute, you can post comments or email me: safier@schooltales.net.