The Walton Foundation likes vouchers and charters. It does not like public schools.
Last year, it spend $159 million to promote vouchers and charters.
In addition, members of the billionaire family have dumped a few million here and there into political campaigns, like the Georgia referendum to allow the governor to create charters despite the opposition of the local school board, or the Washington State referendum to allow charters in that state.
Now the Walton Foundation plans to expand. As a local Arkansas blogger puts it, “Wow, when the Walton family — which has put more than $1 billion into “education reform” through its foundation and spent untold millions more in separate political activties — indicates it’s going to increase its political effort it’s time for political opponents to build a bomb shelter.”
It is important that when the Walton Foundation says “education reform,” what they really mean is privatizing public education, getting rid of local school boards, and allowing for-profit corporations to run your neighborhood school.
Sort of like Walmart. When they come into your local region, the mom-and-pop stores go out of business, and the Waltons own everything. If they don’t make enough money, they leave, and your town has a lot of empty stores on Main Street.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Last week I posted in response to a post on Wallmart. I said that proudly I had never entered a Wallmart, and I haven’t! Some guy actually responded that since I live in Franklin, MI I must be a limousine-driving liberal from the far reaches of Oakland County. I responded to him by saying that his comments were outrageously absurd and that Freedom of Speech is alive and well. That being said, the Waltons want to destroy public educaiton just as they continue to destroy the middle class and the American Dream. Philanthropy in public education has become a 4-letter word. The Waltons, Gates, Kaufmans, Koch Bros and Mark Zuckerberg need to be kicked to the educational-curb and take Michelle Rhee and ALEC with them.
Oklahoma’s gift to the Walton Foundation: Damon Gardenhire
http://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/about/staff—special-initiatives
Have mercy on all of us!
Reading about the Waltons reminds me of Mr. Potter in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”
I don’t shop at Walmart because of their anti union and anti education policies.All union workers and teachers should do the same.Don’t suport those that are out to harm you.
Does that $159 million include what they spent on that really bad movie???
“In 2011 six members of the Walton family have the same net worth as the bottom 30% of American families combined.”
“Each week, about 100 million customers, nearly one-third of the U.S. population, visit Walmart’s U.S. stores.”
“When measured against other similar retailers in the U.S., frequent Walmart shoppers were rated the most politically conservative.”
That’s a pretty formidable opponent.
Isn’t that what some would call good capitalism? Only in capitalism you are supposed to stand on your own and their model does not stand on its own it used government subsidy to do business. How is it that Costco treats their employees well and pays them a wage you can live on? They also have $85 billion in their foundation to play with. Right now they are using the spare change. Watch out if the players get real serious which they might if they feel trapped by changing situations.
Maybe the Walton’s can use their fortune to help fund public schools instead of creating privatized mediocre versions of public schools. Better yet, keep their millions and use the millions being wasted in NYC to give away administrative licenses to unqualified people with little to no teaching experience and then give those failed principals a nice cushy double dipping network job that duplicates the DOE at the cost of resources for students at such a low quality of work. I’m so tired of this bull!
Boycotting Wal-Mart expresses my concern at their anti-union policies, however, I worry more and more that we are consumers first and citizens second. How we spend our money has become a more powerful vote than the ones that we submit at ballot boxes. This makes for a very unhealthy society.
Walmart’s policies of spending their huge profits to back privatizing schools are based on their desire to make more money from investing in the private school companies. Their anti-union policies are based on their continued policy to pay their employees at a level that is below a basic living wage and to not pay employee benefits to most of their employees (which puts a further drain on public health insurance funds). They are also big buyers of China’s goods without any concern for the slave-like working conditions of the workers and their lack of concern for putting Americans out of business. IN ADDITION–they are large scale polluters in some communities–they pretty much just throw chemical waste out the back door. They buy politicians at the federal, state, and local level to be able to continue to do all of this. Someone explain to me how Walmart’s low prices can therefore be a good thing for America?!! I do not shop at the Republic of Walmart!!!