I was wracking my brain trying to remember an acronym that is a basic tactic of negative public relations.
I knew I had written about it but could not think of how ro find it. Finally I googled my name and “propaganda,” and this article popped up.
The acronym is FUD. It has been used in the public relations field to discredit a competitor. It is a central tactic in the game plan to undermine public education.
It is in the dictionary.
What you need to know about FUD:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/public-education_b_4941678.html
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Just used that acronym in a post I wrote about my trip to the NPE Conference in Indianapolis. I had not heard of it until our conversation. Such a common part of the privatization playbook, but it is always so much more powerful when a strategy can be called out and labelled. Thanks!
Now that is just not right, Diane. For those of us self-diagnosed with AIIDS*, who so mightily struggle with deciphering acronyms. Even 21 years of teaching couldn’t cure me of AIIDS.
*AIIDS = Acronym Identification Impairment Disorder Syndrome**
**To be included in the DSM-X
Acronyms are us. Or we.
Did the Washington charter school law have a ban on collective bargaining?
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/washingtons-supreme-court-rules-charter-schools-can-continue-to-receive-state-funding/?utm_content=buffer0ef85&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=owned_buffer_tw_m
Wow. Ed reform now puts anti-union laws inside charter expansion laws? Are they public education advocates or anti-labor union lobbyists? Maybe they should decide or at least tell the public.
More than 90% of charters are non-union.
The Waltons want that.
Presumably so does Bill Gates.
I don’t mind when Betsy DeVos promotes charter and private schools and bashes public schools- after all, that’s why she was hired.
I do mind when she demonizes public school students, however, portraying our kids as thugs and bullies and low performers. That’s not fair and it’s absolutely disgusting behavior from an adult, let alone such a high ranking public official.
Is there an adult in DC who can rein her in? Or are they all as captured and compromised as she is? Lay off public school students in your privatization campaigns. Our kids have nothing to do with your political goals.
As timely, accurate, insightful and fittingly onomatopoeic acronym as I’ve yet seen (or heard).
Agnotology is another useful term to know as marketeers and many politicians specialize in misinformation in our FUD world.
🙂
Are you allowed to republish that Huff Post piece on your Blog so some of us can Reblog it and share with our readers?