Our political life is increasingly shaped by the Koch brothers, who are billionaires and own one of the most powerful mega-corporations in the world.
They are philanthropists, and you will see their name on public buildings. That is good. But their businesses are major polluters wherever they operate. And they contribute to campaigns of those who want to roll social policy back to 1900, when there were no unions, no social safety net for those in need. They want an America without unions, without a minim wage, without voting rights.
I hear they are opposed to the Common Core, and that’s awkward for people who share none of their other views. But I am guessing they don’t much care for public education or for teacher professionalism, I am hopeful that one of our nation’s investigative journalists will see which education causes these brothers support.
As supporters of ALEC, we can assume they support charters and vouchers and every kind of privatization. ALEC is a major opponent of teacher certification, unions, and other qualifications.
What they support is social Darwinism and survival of the fittest.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The rise of Koch Brother influence is signaling the death if the hope for the American Dream for all but a few. The idea that freedom and liberty are to be equated with unlimited opportunity to manipulate markets and political outcomes to serve the few while trampling the many does not gel with my idea of American patriotism. However, if and until Citizens United is overturned, there is little chance for happiness or security for most hard working Americans.
Deb, I’d like to share your comment on my fb post and will give you credit as Deb.
From Southern Studies.org:
“Across the South and indeed the nation, politicians have pointed an accusing finger at teachers in decrying poor performances by students in public schools. The billionaire Koch Brothers, virulently anti-union, have poured many millions into efforts to push charter schools to replace public schools, to impose a test-based teacher assessment, and bust teacher unions.” …
“The heart of the problem is poverty, and politicians of both parties often have a real hard time dealing with that problem. It’s much easier to schmooze with the big bucks types on Chicago’s Gold Coast and talk about running schools like a business and how that’s going to solve everything.”
http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/09/preaching-koch-brothers-gospel-on-public-education.html
From Salon.com, we have this:
“National School Choice Week, a pet project of big corporations and conservative billionaires like the Koch brothers, kicked off Monday with celebratory forums throughout the country. Billing itself as a social justice movement committed to “ensuring effective education options for every child,” “school choice” has actually become a deeply divisive wedge issue for the right. But the folks at School Choice Week would prefer that you didn’t know that.
“But there are a few serious problems with the school choice movement. Though it attracts mainstream conservatives like Cosby, as well as Democrats like President Barack Obama, it is not, at its core, a bipartisan endeavor. Its most important backers are rightwing organizations like the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity and other groups supported by billionaire rightwing ideologues like the Koch brothers. They want to dismantle public education altogether and run schools as businesses, judged as “successes” or “failures” based on abstract data taken from high-stakes standardized test scores.”
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/24/the_ugly_truth_about_school_choice/
From Politico.com:
Koch group, unions battle over Colorado schools race
“Americans for Prosperity is spending big in the wealthy suburbs south of Denver to influence voters in the Douglas County School District, which has gone further than any district in the nation to reshape public education into a competitive, free-market enterprise.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/koch-group-unions-battle-over-colorado-schools-race-99252.html#ixzz3EWpFchqs
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/koch-group-unions-battle-over-colorado-schools-race-99252.html
From Public Integrity.org
Inside the Koch brothers’ campus crusade
“Billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch may rank among the nation’s biggest bankrollers of conservative causes and Republican campaign vehicles. But Koch proselytizing of government deregulation and pro-business civics is increasingly targeted not just at creatures of Capitol Hill, or couch sitters in swing states, but at the hearts and minds of American college students, as well.”
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/03/27/14497/inside-koch-brothers-campus-crusade
From NEA.org
“The excerpt below is from a Mother Jones article by Andy Kroll and Daniel Schulman that offers a “fascinating glimpse” into billionaires Charles and David Koch’s “mighty political machine.” The global oil tycoons’ far-reaching agenda includes privatizing public education, defunding public schools in favor of for-profit education, dismantling worker rights, eliminating the minimum wage, and limiting the voting rights of the poor, young adults and minorities.”
http://educationvotes.nea.org/2014/02/06/koch-brothers-confidential-document-offers-glimpse-into-anti-worker-political-machine/
Their philantrophy is phony. It’s the same “phony” philantrophy as Bill Gates has. It’s the kind that gives back more to themselves than gives genuinly to others.
Your above comments are awesome and right on the mark. The American dream is already being threatened all over the United States. College tuition is way too high….Student loan debt is through the roof…..The middle class is shrinking every day…The middle class is struggling to give their children the standard of living they had as children. If the Koch Brothers have their way, the U.S. will be comprised of the rich and the poor. I’m afraid we are closer to that than we know.
We’ve written numerous articles about ALEC and the Koch brothers. The main reason they oppose common core is it’s coming from Obama and the federal department of education. They oppose all government – they support free market fundamentalism.
Democracies and government run education are to be eliminated at all cost.
Who is the We in your first sentence?
“Quelling Dissent”
Gates is to Koch
As Obama’s to Bush
A genius stroke
To quell the push