The far-right haters of public schools are descending on Arizona to push vouchers, and parents are rolling up their sleeves to stop them.
Mary Bottari of the Center for Media and Democracy describes the unequal fight ahead. The billionaires have bought a narrow majority of the legislature. But more than 90% of the children in the state attend public schools. And their parents are ready to fight for their schools.
She writes:
“A full year in advance of a historic showdown on school vouchers in Arizona, the Kochs are already ladling on the cash. Through their Latino front group, Libre Institute, they have launched a six figure ad campaign targeting Arizona moms on one of the Kochs’ favorite topics, school vouchers.
“The TV ads feature a variety of Latino and Anglo “moms” singing the praises of school choice; the mailings feature cookie cutter “happy families” still featuring the “Istock” watermark. The campaign is an early attempt to sway voters who will decide whether or not to expand vouchers statewide in November 2018 when Proposition 305 appears on the ballot.
“The ads encourage people to go to the website, Arizonaschoolfacts.com emblazoned with the motto “Stand with Arizona’s Children.” The website fails to mention that it is sponsored by David and Charles Koch, two of the richest men in the world, who believe that transforming the public school system into for-profit money making operations is the “choice” Arizona moms should be making.
“In the interest of transparency, shouldn’t the outreach begin with “Hola! Somos los hermanos Koch”?
The fact is that the Kochs and their allies are doing their best to block the referendum scheduled for next spring. They are afraid the voters will reject vouchers. They are right to be afraid. An alert public will kick them out of Arizona. They can buy the legislature, but they can’t buy the public.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We know it’s about money and control. That’s why so much GREEDY BACKERS of charters and vouchers.
The Far Right folks HATE public schools because public schools are about equality and democracy. The GREEDY don’t want this for other people’s children. They only can think about themselves and they call themselves christians … yes lower case c. They don’t get a capital C.
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Public school parents really need to start reading the stuff that comes out of ed reform, especially if they’re hiring or electing an ed reformer to run public schools.
They are anti-public schools. I think it’s such an echo chamber they don’t even realize that the whole “movement” is skewed against public schools
This is a well-respected “moderate” ed reform group opining on public schools:
“Choice advocates often delight in the idea that districts are not worth trying to change. We understand.Starting something new is often easier, and more fun, than changing an existing institution. Why not just disrupt the system as quickly as possible and replace it with charter schools and other forms of schoolchoice? But there’s a flaw in the plan for anyone serious about a definition of public education that meets
the needs of all students.
If the supply of charter schools were highly elastic, a good charter school could be put in place quickly every
time a district-run school fell below some quality minimum. In that case, no student need be in a bad school.
However, schools are not ordinary goods that can be easily produced to meet demand.”
They go on to explain that some portion of children will be “left behind” (they mean remain in public schools) so ed reformers have to vow not to ACTUALLY HARM those schools.
There is absolutely no effort or interest in supporting or improving public schools. None. Existing public schools (and public school families) are a burden that has to be borne for the short term-nothing more.
They consider public schools a stopgap measure until they are able to privatize the whole system- ed reformers have ALREADY abandoned public schools- they just haven’t told the public yet.
if you are hiring one of these people to run public schools you’re nuts – the GOAL is to eradicate existing public schools.
https://www.crpe.org/sites/default/files/crpe-for-portfolio-supporters-skeptics-adopters.pdf?platform=hootsuite
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this is a good piece on how DC’s “portfolio” model works:
https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/20984282/does-dc-charter-schools-autonomy-come-at-the-cost-of-public-accountability
Unsurprisingly it’s not as fabulous as promoted.
I think the key difference between this piece and ed reform pieces is PUBLIC school parents weigh in – ed reform marketing usually pretends public school families don’t exist.
None of these problems with “choice” in DC were mentioned at Jeb Bush’s cheerleading meeting yesterday.
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Do ordinary public school parents know that ed reform was operating under a “tipping point” strategy?
The idea was there would be so many great charters that public schools would just collapse.
It certainly explains why ed reformers have presided over nearly a decade of systematically cutting funding to public schools. The HOPE was our schools would collapse. That was the PLAN.
Presumably no one would notice, I guess? THAT’S how little regard they have for the school your child CURRENTLY attends. That’s how little they value public schools.
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Can we help in some way?
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Go to webpage for Save Our Schools Arizona. See what they need.
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Do Flake and McCain care about this stuff?
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simply click the next website page
502 Bad Gateway
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