Did you get a robo-call yesterday from schoolchoiceweek.com?
I did; and as innocuous as the approach was, the underlying dog whistle was ear-splitting.
So I took a little stroll around the web, first visiting the touted website which offered little more than honey-covered affirmations of how concerned we all are that our kids should have the best possible opportunities to learn.
I didn’t choose to immediately jump down one of the rabbit holes that capture data from the innocent, but instead returned to my Google search where I learned that the site was directly linked to another site belonging to “Students for Liberty” which was seeking student bloggers to write about School Choice Week.
That site was considerably more revealing, as it included video clips of Dr. Eward Hughes of “The Atlas Society for Objectivism” and Michael Strong of “FLOW,” both devoted to themes of libertarianism and capitalism; and it made the following call to college students:
The philosophy of liberty is in jeopardy today. The older generations have let us down, and there seem to be few short-term solutions. Our hope for a free society lies in the future. The best investment one can make to promote liberty today is in the youth, particularly in students…The problem is significant, but the solution is clear: There is a need for an organization to counter the climate of authoritarianism on campus by directly supporting students dedicated to liberty.
A little more digging and I came up with the usual suspects: the Koch Brothers, of course. It seems that promotion of the second annual School Choice Week is being funded by the now familiar Americans for Prosperity.
The Arkansas Times blog reports that
Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-financed lobby group, is pushing a national school choice week and the opening event will be simulcast in Arkansas, with the devoted gathering tonight at Lt. Gov. Mark Darr’s pizza joint in Rogers…
There will be much railing about the nasty unions – though only three of the 200 or so Arkansas districts have negotiating agreements with unions. It’s all about “choice” – the focus-group tested phrase by which the Kochs are pushing for school vouchers in the United States.
“School choice,” “neighborhood schools,” both are stealth messages that encode an agenda of segregation and defunding for public education.
And gutting public education would also effectively hamstring th teacher’s unions, a major source of support for the Democratic Pary and progressive policy in general.
What do the Koch Brothers have in mind for education in America? The voucher system they favor would quickly move a privileged segment of the population out of public schools, further eroding the quality of public education by undermining its funding strategy.
With educational failure thus ensured for most poorer Americans who, even with vouchers, would be unable to afford private education in an environment of rising prices, an ample low-wage workforce and captive consumer-class would be ensured to the the Koch Brothers constituents.
Public school failure would further curtail the number of poorer Americans who could access higher education; and an uneducated majority is extremely pliant when it comes to the political agendas of the right.
Through donations with strings attached, the Koch’s have already made some inroads toward control of higher education:
Last May, the St. Petersburg Times reported that the Koch Foundation had pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University’s economics department. “In return,” wrote Times reporter Kris Hundley, Koch representatives “get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting ‘political economy and free enterprise.'” In total, FSU received a pledge of $6.5 million over the course of six years from the Koch Foundation.
Shapes of things to come?
…is too darned smart. But, they can be of use to Capitalism. Bastards!
Data Entry For Wall Street
I have been called upon
to catalogue what’s behind
the eyes of time
what memory can
be used for
the necessities
just to carry on
love and joy
hate and fear
the past more valuable
than the future
scratched in sand
for centuries
its secrets of what
is to come
or never be
why the eyes of time
are so sad
why I love this job
so much
Peter Buknatski
Montpelier, Vt.
Here’s another interesting piece on School Choice Week, from Salon.com.
Last October, Wake County had its latest school board elections. During that election, the democrats took back a 5 – 4 majority of the school board seats. The October election featured 21.4% turnout (versus the 11% when the “Tea Party” candidates took over). The following runoff to decide the last seat had 29.1% turnout. The most heartening result was the defeat of the incumbent chair of the board, who was from what was considered the “most republican” of the school board districts.
Sadly, one way this was accomplished was fighting fire with fire — with the dems bringing lots of outside money and rhetoric. My brother, who lives in Apex, Wake County, and has children in the system, mostly just doesn’t want to talk about it, since it is such a flashpoint.
I was down during October, and the ads that were running were really sad, with all the code words.
Note: most of the local references were to “tea party candidates” or “tea party control” — I didn’t see any reference to the Kochs’ influence while I was down.
The good news is that this shows that if people mobilize, good things can happen. The bad news is that it is hard to get people out working for the good of their community.