The fabulously wealthy Koch brothers have developed a plan to teach their libertarian ideas to high school students. It is sort of like tobacco companies teaching students that smoking is good for you.
They have used their vast resources to identify like-minded teachers, to train them and to supply course materials. Their program, called Young Entrepreneurs, is growing in Kansas, Missouri, and other states.
What do they teach? “Lesson plans and class materials obtained by The Huffington Post make the course’s message clear: The minimum wage hurts workers and slows economic growth. Low taxes and less regulation allow people to prosper. Public assistance harms the poor. Government, in short, is the enemy of liberty.”
The course didn’t take hold at an elite private school but public schools seem eager for the support and resources.
Another way to sum it up: Greed is good. Look out only for yourself.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have the dubious “pleasure” of seeing Bill Koch around Cape Cod, especially during the summer. He has a terrible reputation. He’s bratty, entitled, obnoxious. His affairs with women are notorious: http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-08-24/news/william-bill-koch-the-other-koch-brother-tea-party/full/
He is just gross, IMHO.
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To quote the movie Sabrina – he is a living heart donor.
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Or to quote M*A*S*H, an example of walking fertilizer.
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I wrote a blog post about this very same article: WHY ISNT THIS INDOCTRINATION CRIMINAL?
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Libertarianism is a sociopathic ideology, born out of convenience and nurtured by privilege.
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Or by reading Ayn Rand…
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Ayn Rand and Ron Paul signed on for Social Security. I forgot to mention hypocrisy.
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I have not seen these Kohn-sponored materials, but I imagine they do not include the following chart.. on failure rates of entrepeneural ventures, by industry, and reasons for failures http://www.statisticbrain.com/startup-failure-by-industry/
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Statisticbrain left out the primary reason for failure, no middle class to buy products and services.
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sorry – Koch is the name
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Back in the 60s we WV students had constant lessons in the propaganda in the form of films praising coal: Consolidated Coal, Bituminous Coal, King Coal because the companies wanted to seal our “state identity” as the leading provider of energy” for the nation. State pride, you know. Never mind how the people were treated. Never mind the lack ofvsafery. Never mind the prevalence of Black Lung disease and deaths. Never mind the mine collapses. Never mind the environment. Just sell that pride to students from early years on. Corporations have been lying to us for a very long time
I also lived in “Chemical Valley” – another source of “WV pride”. My dad worked for Union Carbide. They gave him a decent life. But the unregulated chemical production and pollution that was in the air and water are responsible for so many deaths due to cancer. My dad worked there 39 years. Retired at 58. Diagnosed with lymphoma. Died at 72. People needed jobs. They took their chances.
Fast forward to 2014. Freedom Industries has a chemical leak into the water supply of 300,000 people. Residents had to purchase bottled water. They couldn’t bathe in ithe tap water. Some had allergic reactions to it. This went on for several weeks. The company was fined only $11,000. O believe it will be a tax write-off.
Well, propaganda works on a substantial number of people. They don’t like regulation. They don’t like taxes. They like their “rugged individualism” and are proud to die accepting what businesses have done to them as a necessary outcome because God blessed them to live in the beautiful state. All I can say is … WHAT?
But, see, propaganda such s offered by the Kich Brothers works well with people who are convinced that God is blessing them with jibs of any kind. They couple this indoctrination with fundamentalist belief and the love of country. The people are full of the emotion of Lee Greenwood’s song, “God Bless the USA”. And, anyone who doesn’t agree with them is considered a socialist.
I know these things. Many if my relatives stand by their indoctrination.
It continues elsewhere with more sophisticated indoctrination. They wrap it up in thev flag. People are afraid to believe anything else.
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Deb’s post is an excellent summary of what we are up against. This really is the model they want to replicate wherever possible. A Koch Curriculum is only the beginning. We have seen unregulated charter schools reap financial profits as Stage I and then Stage II begins with the subtle or not so subtle indoctrination of anti-democratic ideas concerning females, people of color, sexual preferences, rabid consumerism, immigration, global warming and the list goes on and on. The plan is to get good teachers out of the way so the brainwashing can proliferate.
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The seeds are planted. The absolute proclamation of what is “American” and what it means to be an American becomes imprinted in the hearts and minds of people, especially when they are isolated and insulated in small communities that really are little Peyton Place mini societies.
In WV the protests and book burnings were symbolic to the reactions to changes taking place in American society and education. If people were paying attention, they would have seen the insidious creep of ALEC and the Koch Brothers as they continue to push the John Birch Society’s ideas along with the teachings of Ayn Rand. By attaching their ideas onto fundamentalist beliefs in only one specific means of finding God and salvation, they lick in followers.
Read “The Help” or see the movie. Put that era into context. Examine who we are as individuals and as a society. Look at the schools, the politics, the corporate insertion into local elections nationwide, and the gradual interference wirh even school board elections and you will see the tentacles that are meant to oppress any kind of thinking other than free market capitalism. They disguise it via freedom of religion, but their motives are to control the flow of money into private pockets.
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My grandfather died at 65 after working years with chromium and steel. He was sick at 60 with all the signs of slow poisoning. His last years were painful. My other grandfather died at 69, with bizarre cancers after a career in the rail yard. He was often covered in chemicals (he called it “sludge”) from the yard. Fortunately, both were strong Democrats, back when Dems actually had a backbone and advocated for workers and the middle class. It took years to improve these working conditions. It is sad to see all the progress their generation fought for so quickly lost.
What you say, Krugman mentions as movement conservativism. Basically, lure in a scared and gullible public by appealing to emotions, then switch to a pro-big business, anti-middle class agenda inside the Beltway. When you try to carry on a decent conversation, all you get are Fox News talking points, glazed eyes on counter arguments, and occasional name calling. Very frustrating.
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Yes. It is interesting to step back from it all. Like spotting the localized fires of an arsonist, you can see how these ALEC inspired “fires” have taken hold in politics and education. They get support by finding the hotspots in each locality, nurture that local viewpoint, and switch gears to big business interests when legislative action is needed. So many distortions have created a quilt that is used to cover the truth.
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They don’t believe in publicly funded schools. Meaning, the responsibility of education is on the parents? Sounds like a recipe for mass illiteracy to me.
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The Koches are roaches. Spray them with Raid.
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Koch is pronounced coke, in case that’s not known by folk.
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“The course didn’t take hold at an elite private school but public schools seem eager for the support and resources. ”
Because the children of the élite don’t need the course; they are its living embodiments.
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Complete with snuggly trust funds.
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I’m disappointed that a history teacher didn’t see through this more clearly. Did he not study the Great Depression?
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The Koch brothers and their billions demonstrates how dangerous it is when corporations are considered people. This trend silences our voices.
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The name of the Kochs’ program is very similar to another entrepreneurship program aimed at middle- and high-school students called Young Entrepreneurs Academy (website: http://www.yeausa.org). I will wager that name similarity of the Koch initiative is deliberate and intended to deceive.
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In the same vein a Florida state senator is saying he will introduce a bill that requires all Florida high school students to view a pro-conservative propaganda film by convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/25/fl-republican-wants-to-force-states-students-to-watch-dinesh-dsouzas-america/
These people actually believe they can force their ideology on children without challenge. That’s some major psychological pathology there.
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I agree. However, there is an undercurrent since the Civil Rights era that there is a “liberal” agenda… Therefore, it is, to them, a “godless” agenda that doesn’t actively promote their definition of traditional (fundamentalist Christian) values. This has caught for with those who objected from the very beginning the changes to schooling to “indoctrinate” kids with Civil Rights and to prevent kids from being exposed to free thinking of any sort. I had a kid whose parent wrote on a homework reading assignment that there is no such thing as global warming or climate change. I said, “ok.” I wasn’t indoctrinating them. The past just had to do with environmental damage.
My point is…both sides view the other as speeders of indoctrination and propaganda. This happens locally all the time. But when we have billionaires buying school board elections in other states, we have a different type if problem. When ALEC is writing the script, local decisions are obliterated.
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FL State Senator Alan Hays is an ALEC politician, according to ALEC’s website. Yes, the Koch Bros. have a bigger game going but don’t underestimate the importance of indoctrination in the fourth largest school district in the US. If you think the purpose isn’t about manipulating elections then you are very wrong.
It’s not a ‘both sides do it’ piece of neoliberal child-splitting. Teaching children racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia while justifying slavery, Japanese interment camps, wars of aggression, spying on the populace, etc. is not morally equivalent to teaching about the Civil Rights movement, the War on Poverty, and women’s liberation by any stretch of the imagination. I reject the ‘both sides do it’ nonsense utterly and completely.
It’s part and parcel of a gerrymandered state government imposing fascist policies on innocent children and that’s very dangerous. Also, many states follow Florida’s lead on these crackpot laws — we led the way on school grades, VAM, merit pay, charter schools, vouchers, open carry, stand your ground, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if this kind of idiocy will become part of the ALEC templates, much like teaching the Christian bible in schools.
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I agree with you. I am simply saying that their justification for this attack on public education is that they felt like it was hijacked by ideas that they found abhorrent. I don’t want them to get away with this. I was trying to state that this has happened frequently. However, technology has enabled “change” to be overturned more quickly. These John Birch descendants have been energized by their ability to embrace the attack more quickly. They have been building their platform for over 50 years.
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Oh deb I agree with you! I was talking to the inevitable trolls who show up here regularly and drop little rhetorical bombs.
I’m from WV originally and remember well the textbook wars in Kanawha County.
I was so sorry to see that the WV legislature adopted Bush’s school grading system and the other crappy things we’ve been living with down here. ALEC is like a cancerous growth doing its damage in the hidden recesses of governments everywhere. It must be excised and eradicated.
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Pure free market capitalism in every aspect of life is just as absurd as total socialism. Germany provides educationa and health care to their citizens and seem to have a vibrant economy. What’s wrong with that?
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At Daily Kos, in an article, yesterday, titled. “Busted! Heritage Foundation Chief Economist Can Only Defend Kansas Tax Cuts by Fabricating Data”, a commenter provides a link to a list of universities that broadcast sports games on radio stations that are right-wing propaganda machines. The commenter asks us to contact the colleges or, to start an on-line petition, asking them to stop fueling radio stations that undermine equal opportunity, the climate, etc.
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Cross-posted at
with this comment at the end
The takeover of the media by four companies made it easy to hide the reality, that a conspiracy to create a dumbed-down citizenry
50 states and 15,880 districts meant that only LOCAL news would tell the tale of devastation, as schools that served everybody were labeled ‘failing’ so they could replaced with private and charter schools.
Now, the billionaires who own the media are blatantly setting the information that teachers may cover, and you will be shocked when you read what the Koch brothers are pushing as ‘truth’ in the school they propose:” The fabulously wealthy Koch brothers have developed a plan to teach their libertarian ideas to high school students. It is sort of like tobacco companies teaching students that smoking is good for you.”
If you follow my posts at Oped News on the morass which is education today, then you know that the only way that the INSTITUTION of EDUCATION could be demolished is if few people knew what was happening as the schools were emptied of the professional veterans, and staffed with novices while the media sang a song of ‘dead-wood’ and evaluation inefficient teachers.
If the mergers continue, in effect there will be an Orwellian Ministry of Truth that dictates what children kern in school, and what citizens hear in the media… and the control of the speeds on the internet, will end net neutrality, too.
THIS is the end of democracy.
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We haven’t lived in a true democracy for many, many years. I think the term is “Oligarchy” now, so quit pretending.
If you think about it, the elite and all their friends send their kids to private schools, so they don’t give a damn what happens to the bottom 90% +. They definitely do not want to pay taxes anymore for other people’s kids to learn. (or pretend to learn) They are just done pretending that they want to educate all Americans, etc. They are forming a new aristocracy, and you aren’t in it! Unless you are rich now, there is little chance that you will join them. Of course there is that one out of a thousand who makes it big, etc… That keeps the dream alive, so to speak. The elite must remember to highlight these examples to keep the masses believing.
The bottom 90% of our society can continue watching idiotic sports and reality shows, update their Facebook accounts, and get fatter. I don’t think many of the bottom 90% of Americans have much interest in education. Their actions certainly don’t indicate this to me. I think education will move back to the elite where it was pre WW2.
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Of course with the help of people like Baker Mitchell with his classical education schtick and his Boy Scouts of America mission statement. The new America no longer wants to “take care of its own” because too many have become all-consumed with “taking care of themselves.”
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Right on, Diane. Government is so good. Why do we need corporations at all? Why do we need any private businesses or privacy? If we just let government distribute everything, we will be in a much better situation. Liberty? Not so much.
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Right, madhammer, corporations are our friends! People should just let the 1% rule without regulations or transparency and just say “screw you” to the rest of the world –those lousy, stinking undeserving leeches who have the nerve to want government to help them survive the greedy, self-serving practices of elite billionaires whose businesses pillage the planet. And don’t forget to completely ignore what other robber barons in history did to exploit workers before government had the gall to rein them in.
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