Cathy Frye is a veteran journalist who joined the staff of the Arkansas Public Schools Resource Center as communications director for three years. She learned that APSRC was a shell organization funded by the billionaire Waltons to trick rural schools into joining the Walton crusade to eliminate public schools.
In this post, Frye names names.
She begins:
Tonight, I am sharing a Who’s Who in the Arkansas education “reform” movement.
First – a reminder: The end game is not charterization. It is privatization. Charter schools are merely a bridge. Look at them as place-holders.
The Arkansas Public School Resource Center, where I worked for three years as the communications director, purports to support both open-enrollment charter schools and rural traditional school districts. In actuality, APSRC is one of many Arkansas-based and Walton-funded lobbying entities. Some of these organizations specialize in charters. Others exist to promote private schools and vouchers. One seeks to convince teachers that they don’t need to belong to unions. A couple others promote the alleged glories of school “choice.”
Here’s a list of such organizations:
- Arkansas Public School Resource Center
- Arkansas Learns
- The Reform Alliance
- Arkansas State Teachers Association
- RootEd NWA
Remember, Arkansas is not the only state being targeted by American billionaires who seek to do away with public education and those pesky teachers’ unions. The Waltons are among those leading the charge. Curious, isn’t it, that the Waltons and other billionaires who are supposedly concerned about education haven’t donated a dime to public schools. Instead, they’re focused on supporting charters and private schools.
Arkansas State Teachers Association doesn’t appear to list its funders at the site. A listing is best practice for a non-profit. Neither does its “partner”, the Association of American Educators, have a tab for its funders. As always AAE’s photo array and bio’s are as anticipated. The top two positions….wait for it….white male. (Black people in the organization must be lonely.) The Executive Director was formerly with the Koch’s Heritage Foundation, which was Paul Weyrich’s brainchild (Weyrich founded ALEC and the religious right). The Executive Director’s been interviewed at the Fox propaganda machine. The number of state chapters in AAE is the unlucky number 13. Probably doesn’t help if people like me want to send an e-mail and find the link for e-mail at the ASTA site doesn’t work.
Are reported statistics wrong? Based on APSRC staff photos, there appear to be no black people in Arkansas despite reports of at least 15.4%.
And, apparently women of Arkansas aren’t equal enough to hold top positions. A review of APSRC staff- top position -male.
A review of 10 policy board members- all have male first names (one a Walton, Jim, one, a nephew of the governor and, one a president of Southern Arkansas University. Top two board positions- male.
So similar to a Koch organization.
Is the President of Southern Arkansas University aware that the university is public and that privatization forces are targeting universities as well? Does he know that his university has a 24% black student population and that, the NAACP, BLM, ACLU and the SPLC have all gone on record recognizing the the threat that privatization poses?
The President should seek community input to fulfill his role on the APSRC Policy Board. If the organization’s decisions undermine the university’s values, he should resign from the board.
excellent truth: based on staff photos…much the same can be found across GOP stronghold states. Fewer and fewer women, and almost no people of color allowed in the Koch/Walton manipulation game.
Projected in the 2020 U.S. House- 11 GOP women, 186 GOP men, no black people – just the way the tech tyrants and social Darwinists want.
Kenneth Fisher’s views about black people (and women) aren’t coincidental to his opposition to public schools any more than Carl Paladino’s are.
It has been obvious to me for years that the reason these “billionaires” are doing this is because they do not approve of our Constitutional Republic with its freedom of speech, due process rights, separation of church and state, et al. If “they” control the schools, they think they will control what our children are taught until all children are brain hacked to think as the billionaires want them to think.