Edward F. Berger is a champion for children and public schools in Arizona. He writes in this essay that the state is controlled by a tiny claque of very wealthy people who want to starve the public sector. This small minority is well-organized and well-funded. Berger compares them to the Robber Barons of the 19th century whose goals were money and power.
Berger writes:
Arizona is run by a well-organized minority. They work to undermine and control representative democracy, elected boards and officials, public schools, environmental regulations, any law that limits the powers of corporations, and interference in their affairs by The People. They believe in the right to rape, rip and run for personal gain while demanding free and unregulated access to natural and national resources. They attack workers’ organizations, associations and unions, taxes on individual wealth, and laws that hold individuals responsible for activities that damage others, the planet, and a sustainable future….
Fred Koch, father of the infamous Koch brothers, created a powerful empire. He had an ideology of freedom from government intervention that his sons inherited.
Berger writes:
Fred was a founder of the John Birch Society, a movement based on:The destruction of public education, the privatization (control) of prisons, racial inequality, and denial of workers’ rights to organize. He was able to inculcate two of his sons (Charles and David Koch) to believe that they are the rightful heirs of his mission and will determine the future of America.
When the John Birch Society gained disrepute, they dropped that name and formed dozens of subversive* organizations. The largest in the US and Arizona is the American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC). If your elected representative is a member of ALEC, be afraid and get them gone! Another is the Goldwater Institute. The corporate leadership of Arizona Public Service (APS) and its holding company, Pinnacle West Capital corporation, is deeply involved with the Koch-ALEC-Goldwater Institute politicians. One can not underestimate the subversive work of the Goldwater Institute (a false 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization) with a purely political agenda. Through its minions, the legislators and governors placed in office by the power of this minority, they were recently able to place a Goldwater Institute lawyer on the Supreme Court of Arizona. As an example of their reach, in 2015 the Goldwater Institute filed suit in far off Massachusetts to challenge that state’s ban on corporate contributions to political candidates. A stated goal of the Goldwater Institute is to support charter schools and vouchers. They lead the pack of active and disruptive organizations working in the state sowing, cultural division, anti-teacher, anti-education, anti-unions, and pro-corporations movements….
Most of the members of the state legislature are in the Koch-ALEC-Goldwater Institute pocket , or they are forced to cooperate with the extreme right to keep from being ostracized and rendered ineffective for their constituents. Voters are discouraged from voting. It looks like Governor Doug Ducey is being groomed to take on the work of Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who followed the Koch dictates to his ruin. The governors and legislators in many states are being placed by the Koch-ALEC machine. They have used gerrymandering and control of the primaries to ensure that key members of the republican right do not have to fear re-election. The Koch-ALEC machine has made inroads into the US Chamber Of Commerce, and the United States Supreme Court, forcing rulings like Citizens United….
Public education in the state of Arizona is being systematically dis-mantled.The budget is being used to starve and destroy public schools, and to privatize every aspect of government to gain access to, and profit from, our tax dollars. Public school financing, and thus education programs, have been arbitrarily cut and then reinstated at a fraction of what they need to operate. Governor Ducey plays a game of ‘cut deep and then give a little back,’ so he can brag about his support, while starving and destroying the state’s public schools, universities, and service sectors. His agenda is not for the children and families of Arizona, it is for a small, well-organized minority. He is trying to prove to his masters that he can be the new Scott Walker or Rick Snyder and he can make Arizona go the way of Wisconsin and Michigan.
This is not what the people of Arizona want, writes Berger, but the grip of the plutocracy is so tight that people have given up the power of democracy. Less than 40% turn out to vote.
Berger remains hopeful. He thinks the time is approaching when the people of Arizona elect a government that serves them, not the Robber Barons.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
ALEC-o-holics • Drunk with Power
“In the fourth quarter of 2015, Michigan Republicans received a whopping 50% of their campaign contributions from members of the DeVos family. ”
Ten individuals bought most of a state legislature.
One the laws they bought actually deregulates campaign finance further. They’re donating to change laws specifically so they can buy more politicians next cycle.
http://www.eclectablog.com/2016/02/devos-family-responsible-for-half-of-campaign-contributions-to-michigan-house-republicans-in-last-quarter-of-2015.html
The problem with these robber barons is they reflect our gross income inequality. If they had been taxed more equitably, they would still very wealthy and have vast resources. Since money equals power, they would have had a lot less money to suppress democracy and destroy entities like public schools that provide benefits to all members of society. We would not be subjected to the bias and bigotry of fortunate billionaires. Our society would have benefited from the additional funds in the common coffer that could have been used to rebuild roads, bridges, other infrastructure and shore up the social safety net.
Uh, oh. Another ed reform belief comes crashing down:
“Students who took the 2014-15 PARCC exams via computer tended to score lower than those who took the exams with paper and pencil—a revelation that prompts questions about the validity of the test results and poses potentially big problems for state and district leaders.
Officials from the multistate Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers acknowledged the discrepancies in scores across different formats of its exams in response to questions from Education Week.”
Maybe they’ll drop that idiotic “digital native” theory, as if children became completely different beings when we all got a smart phone. My son sits with his online math program and a piece of paper and does the work on the paper, because it takes him twice as long to use the clunky, cheap online platform that no adult would accept as a work tool.
The equation editor for PARCC online math responses was itself a learning hurdle. If students cannot express their thoughts, how can the scores be valid?
And I’ll add that equation editor (and more practice tests) should have been open source, public domain so teachers and schools could embed it in assignments. But PARCC is copyrighted, so profits before learning.
Don’t you understand? Who cares if they know math? PARCC/SBAC see if they are adept at using computers! Schools’ primary purpose now is to teach technology. These tests measure how well we’re doing that.
Key issue is only 40% vote. I grow tired of listening to low information voters complain about Bernie’s socialism as they collect Social Security.
I was fascinated by the PBS examination of President Garfield and his vision for America. Seems the Senator Conklin types that tried to pull strings of government are nothing new. So sad Garfield could not make an impact. But it was a revelation of just how new and fragile this democracy experiment really is and how easy voter apathy can lose it all.
Yes, this is why we ought to commit to teaching history robustly. Common Core and the fixation on skills over content militates against this project. Common Core doesn’t give a fig about history knowledge; it’s all about “complex text reading skills”.
It was one of the better American Experience I’ve seen. Acting was impressive, primary sources read, and brought Garfield to life. We think America is this unshakable monument to democracy, but the episode really revealed how tenuous our country stands and the circling forces trying to undermine it. Garfield sounded like an intelligent, savvy, compassionate healer of a torn nation – fault lines from the late 1800’s we still see today. Who knows what could have been. We need history in the schools now more than ever.
I wish the people there the very best in electing a governor that works for the people in improving and bettering the educational system for children families and communities
cross-posted the article by Berger at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Arizona-Strangled-By-An-O-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Corporations_Democracy_Limits_Money-160204-875.html#comment582031
I am a retired Superintendent from NH who worked in two Charter Schools here in AZ. This essay sums it up well. I am in the process of a deep dig into the financial end of Charters here in AZ. The result will be a book. Thanks for this blog.