As Oakland teachers were striking, the rightwing propaganda machine hired a private plane to spread lies about Keith Brown, the union president. During the teachers’ demonstration, the plane flew over them trailing a banner saying that Brown is paid $350,000 a year. Lie. He makes a teacher’s salary. Maybe the Koch machine confused him with a charter school leader.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I would love to know who exactly paid for that stunt.
Diane It sounds like the Koch’s et al are becoming desperate.
It also shows how stupid they are to think teachers are stupid. They have mistakenly equated teachers’ focus-on and commitment-to their students, and their earlier apparently-misguided TRUST in their leaders to also want what’s best for children, for political stupidity.
I’d laugh if it weren’t so sad. CBK
Disgraceful, but not surprising, since disgrace seems to be at the center of Republicanism these days.
It certainly does.
That plane probably cost close to Brown’s actual salary.
I was curious where they got the number, so I looked at the union site. He makes 350/4 (it’s a 4 year term) which is 87.5.
Maybe they’re innumerate, but more likely just dishonest.
You really can’t overstate how nutty these people are:
“Larry Miller
If Indiana funded its virtual schools based on outcomes the incentive to enroll phantom students would be taken away. State leaders should take a closer look at VLACS funding model”
They have a completely unregulated sector that enrolls phantom students, ripping off the public in Indiana year after year. The “solution” is to fund it based on test scores.
Genuinely baffled. The “solution” is to…cut the funding until their test scores come up ? I don’t know- could they possibly come up with a less direct way to regulate these contractors? It’s nuttiness. It’s ideological belief taken to ludicrous extremes. It’s as if they all drop dead of a heart attack if they regulate these contractors they’re always promoting. They get banished forever from the echo chamber if they use the “r” word.
In Denver they threatened to turn in teachers on a visa, then they started a false front campaign to get the governor to intervene, and now an expensive airplane banner in Oakland.
Really?
The airplane stunt was paid for by the Freedom Foundation, a union-busting group funded by the Kochs, of course…more about that here. Apparently, they were dumb enough to Twitter about the stunt, and gave themselves away…https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-freedom-foundation-20180628-story.html
The Koch’s use “freedom and liberty” as their PR bait and switch to oligarchy.
Is there a libel suit here? It is meant to damage his credibility. Not that anyone could afford to pursue it.
I’d help with crowd sourcing a lawsuit, if there was confirmation of a link to the Koch’s.
They should be called the Lack of Freedom Foundation since they seem to fighting to bring back serfdom. Toadies…yeah, perfect word for ’em!
The only word that comes to mind is backfire.
The other word that comes to mind is idiotic…
The Kochs will do ANYTHING to anyone get what they want. If buying elected officials and the judiciary fails, they have no qualms spreading spurious smears, lies and intimidation.
When Jane Mayer was writing her book on the Koch family she learned they hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on her. When they didn’t find any they fed rumors that she had plagiarized to the right wing media. They even circulated a fake dossier as evidence of her supposed plagiarism.
“Ms. Mayer began to take the rumored investigation seriously when she heard from her New Yorker editor that she was going to be accused — falsely — of plagiarism, stealing the work of other writers. A dossier of her supposed plagiarism had been provided to reporters at The New York Post and The Daily Caller, but the smears collapsed when the writers who were the purported victims made statements saying that it was nonsense, and that there had been no plagiarism whatsoever.”
Lots of words come to mind, but Diane doesn’t like them used in her living room….
The name “Koch” brothers is a perfect description of who they are.
Sanders thanks Koch brothers for accidentally making argument for ‘Medicare for all’
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/399625-sanders-thanks-koch-brothers-for-accidentally-making-argument-for-medicare