it was not only founded by a Republican as Vicki mentions, but Ayers was one of a diverse group of people involved in the project.
I did not say that the Chicago Annenberg Challenge was founded by a Republican; I said the philanthropic Annenberg
Foundation (which funded the CAC) was founded by a Republican. Obama's campaign describes him as: "Nixon Ambassador and Reagan friend Walter Annenberg."
There is little evidence to indicate the CAC was proposing education reform that purports anything that is not to improve public schools in Chicago
I would beg to differ. Programs accepted for grants include
The South Shore African Village Collaborative for their “Celebrate African-American Holiday of Juneteenth”, and Ayers's own small private school,
"The Peace School". Compare these with projects which were
rejected, such as
The Chicago Algebra Project: goal to increase student achievement and
The District 5 Math Initiative: goal to aid Hispanic students in the process of learning English, to further learn math and science. Sounds very much to me like Ayers's definition of an education which is "never neutral" but always has "a value, a position, a politics."
Obama was recruited by Deborah Leff, who had worked with Obama before in another foundation. There is no evidence to indicate that his appointment there had anything to do with Ayers.
According to the NY Times, no. According to Stanley Kurtz, who spent days meticulously digging through the original documentation of the project, this was Ayers's pet project and his baby from the start. He was very hands-on, especially in the beginning. (Ayers distanced himself after the first year to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, as he was applying for funds himself, such as for the aforementioned "Peace School".) I believe there is no way Obama would have have gotten his position without Ayers's direct approval.
People interested in learning more can watch the latest
CNN report. [edited 3:05 pm, to clarify and modify run-on sentence.- V]
