School districts in Missouri customarily have nonpartisan school board elections. No more. Tomorrow voters will go to the polls in the Parkway District (a suburb of St. Louis) to select two new school board members. Five candidates are running for two open positions on the school board.
It has endorsed two of the five who are running.
Who is paying for this group’s campaign activities?
No one knows.
The group calls itself Advocates for Educating Taxpayer Accountability.
How ironic that a group that hides the names of its contributors says it favors “accountability” when it refuses to be either transparent or accountable.
Why are they hiding? Why don’t they announce their names?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am pleased that you are amplifying attention to this really dangerous precedent for a school board race. The group is imposing an ideological test on candidates for the school board, and it is really blatant.
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This is concerning but a clarification is in order. This is not happening in the St. Louis school district. It’s happening in Parkway School District in St. Louis County. The St. Louis SD is currently in the process of getting local control of its schools back from years of state takeover and is in a fight to ensure the new governing authority will be an elected board.
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What communities are in the Parkway district? I have some friends in the area and want to let them know.
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Mainly central West County. The municipalities vary as school district boundaries do not follow other governmental (city, county, town, etc. . .) lines. Not to mention there are pockets of unincorporated St. Louis County. It’s best to call it the Parkway district and leave it at that. Roughly encompassing West of 270, North of 44 and South of 70. It’s a rather large geographical area.
Tell me the municipality and I’ll let you know if it a part of PSD.
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St. Peter’s and St. Charles?
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covers the political spectrum – ultra liberal to ultra conservative and most in the middle – and covers the socio-economic spectrum – it’s a second “outer-ring” district from the city – stereotypical progressive academically suburban district –
has always had a conservative presence but weathered the storms including St. Louis based Eagle Forum (Phylis Schlafley)
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St. Peters and St. Charles are not part of the Parkway District.
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GregB,
My reply to your question of whether St. Pete and St. Chas are in the Parkway district is still in moderation for some completely unknown, except for WP, reason: No, they are not.
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I think it is a safe bet that the trail back to that dark money leads to ALEC or someone that belongs to ALEC.
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Also high on the list of possible sources is Rex Sinquefield. He is the biggest spender in Missouri politics and has a strong interest in pushing conservative doctrine onto public school policy. More here: https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/04/12459/show-me-money-meet-multimillionaire-squeezing-missouris-schools
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My first thought was the Rexster.
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Jeff,
Rex was my first thought.
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posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/St-Louis-Dark-Money-Ente-in-General_News-Dark-Money_Diane-Ravitch_Education_Money-And-Power-180402-467.html#comment695545
With this comment ( all of these have embedded links atet eOpED adressabove…to posts her at Diane’s blog!
It is important to know who is behind this ‘anonymous group’.”America’s public education system is being deliberately destroyed. If you graduated from high school in the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s or 80’s, it is such an unthinkable concept that it is difficult to even imagine. Not only is it possible, it is happening and a lot of damage has already occurred.
Here is an update on but a few of the states.
:
Stephen Dyer, a former legislator and currently a fellow at think tank Innovation Ohio, wonders why the state of OHIO is considering legislation to have the state dissolve the state board of education. He wonders if the move is payback for meddling with the fraudulent practices of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, which rewarded legislators for favoring ECOT and ignoring its inflated enrollments. Is it mere coincidence that five of the eight sponsors of the legislation received generous gifts from the owner of ECOT?
NEWARK NJ is on track to have more than 40% of its students in charter schools. Ten years ago, less than 10% were in charter schools. The state has signed off on nearly 7,000 more charter seats to be available by the 2022-23 school year,If all those seats are filled and district enrollment stays flat at about 34,200 students, then the share of students who go to school in Newark and attend charters could climb as high as 44 %.
Linda Lyon, president of the ARIZONA School Boards Association, describes the legal battle to preserve dedicated funding for the state’s schools. and BTW
PHONIX Starshine Academy charter school under fraud investigation
Almost all the schools in NEW ORLEANS were privatized after hurricane Katrina.
Half the schools in Washington DC and a quarter of the schools in Los Angeles are privatized.
Recently, a Republican legislator has proposed privatizing all the schools in MUNCIE INDIANA
However, ninety percent of America’s K-12 students attend public schools. (Note: Charter schools are not public schools, they are schools run by private businesses that have government contracts.
Levi Cavener, a teacher in IDAHO, describes a money laundering scheme meant to undermine and subvert the plain language of the State Constitution.
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And then it gets real ugly…..
“Disturbingly, the extremists of Missouri MassResistance aren’t the only group St. Louis residents need to be concerned about. Another organization, “Advocates for Educating Taxpayer Accountability (AETA),” has close links with the hate group, and is working to promote many of the same ideas – just with a more respectable façade.”
Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/templeofthefuture/2017/11/massresistance-hate-group-targeting-st-louis-children/
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Thanks for the link SpewingTruth!
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