Just when I thought that I had reached the limit of my cynicism...

Sarah Paline must be in there somewhere!

That's very strange. I'm sure there's a logical explanation.

See also "This lesson plan is brought to you by...," a link posted by Eric Lykins earlier today in another (related) thread.

...

Here.

Some of these trustees are with the oil and gas companies (previously linked) which themselves comprise YES Prep's major corporate donors, including:

--Alta Resources

--Marathon Oil

--Schlumberger

--Spectra Energy

--Whitespire Ventures, which matches energy entrepreneurs with early stage capital of $50,000 to $1 million. Whitespire's owner, trustee Mickey Barrett, is a major donor contributing as an individual rather than through his company .

Other trustees represent more oil and gas companies, but they're not major donors, including:

--ExxonMobil Chemical, a name we know and...trust?

--Andrews Kurth LLP, whose "energy (law) practice is one of the nation’s largest."

--El Paso Energy, "an industry leader in transporting natural gas."

--The Catalyst Group, consultants in "refining, chemicals, natural gas, polymers, specialty chemicals, and related industries."

--Centaurus Advisors, a hedge fund firm investing in "derivatives such as futures, options, and over-the-counter swaps for commodities including power, coal, natural gas, and crude oil."

Just one trustee, Boxer Property Management, is a major corporate donor not specifically involved in oil and gas (an oversight in my original blog post).

A few trustees represent companies not involved with oil and gas and not major donors, either, but they may nevertheless be handy to have around, including:

--Resevoir Research, corporate sneaks providing "in-depth intelligence on companies, managers and trends."

--First Southwest Company, bond underwriters--just in case.

There are also Red House Associates--"helping entrepreneurs accelerate the growth of early-stage information technology startups"--as well as Regions Bank and Ernst & Young. Meh...

Then there's the law firm of Liskow & Lewis, in which L & L shareholder and YES Prep Trustee Gary Rachlin has assisted these clients with these transactions:

--A Texas non-profit industrial development corporation in its issuance of bonds in connection with the acquisition by a third party of a major facility along the Houston ship channel. This transaction included the development corporation's leasing of the facility and assigning the lease to the eventual user.

--A Houston financial institution in its providing credit enhancement to support tax exempt bonds for the expansion of the facilities for a major Houston charitable institution.

Were either of these transactions for YES Prep or one of its affiliates, or is either transaction one of the sort in which YES Prep expects to engage in the future? Keep googling, I guess.

Oh...I suppose you noticed there are no educators among the trustees? The trustees running the schools?

Maybe citizen control is overrated. Privatization might rid us of the hassle and argument. Maybe they'll bring the price of gas down by teaching kids how to extract fossils from our backyards. Maybe if we turn over our public libraries to investment bankers they'll rapidly penetrate that market with sexier librarians, and we'll all read more.