No philanthropy has spent more money to undermine and privatize public schools than the Waltons. The Waltons are the richest family in the U.S., possibly in the world, with a net worth in excess of $200 billion.
The Walton Family Foundation claims credit for launching at least one of every four charter schools in the nation. The foundation aims to eliminate public education, crush teachers’ unions, and destroy the teaching profession. The foundation has given nearly $100 million to Teach for America to supply inexperienced, ill-trained teachers to public and charter schools.
It is hard to understand the Waltons’ animus towards public schools, since the patriarch Sam Walton, his wife Helen, and all of his children were graduates of small-town public schools.
Sam graduated from David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri. His wife Helen was the valedictorian of her public high school in Claremont, Oklahoma.
John Walton (who died in a plane crash in 2005) graduated from the Bentonville High School in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Alice Walton, the richest woman in the world, graduated from Bentonville High School in 1966.
Jim Walton, net worth exceeding $40 billion, graduated from Bentonville High School in 1965.
Rob Walton’s wikipedia entry does not say where he attended school, but very likely it was the Bentonville public schools, like his siblings.
Why do the Waltons hate public education? Why do they feel no gratitude towards the free and democratically controlled public schools that educated them? Why no gratitude towards the experienced public school teachers at Bentonville public schools?
When a Walton store moves into a small community, it destroys Main Street by undercutting the prices that mom-and-pop stores need to survive. Mom and pop may get hired to be Walmart greeters or stocking clerks. Main Street dies as Walmart thrives. If the Walmart doesn’t show a profit, it closes, leaving the region without commerce.
On the website of the Walton Family Foundation, this saying by the matriarch is posted:
“It’s not what you gather but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Waltons don’t hate public education. They hate that prayer was taken out of public education. They hate that the Bible isn’t taught in public schools. They hate that they have to respect other religions and points of view. If they own the schools, they are able to control the entire message. The Walton heirs grew up in very different public schools than we have today and they are trying to MAGA by trying to recreate what they had in their youth .
That argument makes a lot of sense. It reinforces Nancy MacLean’s arguments in “Democracy in Chains” that the old south segregationists want to return to the days when Evangelical Christianity legitimized white supremacy, Jim Crow, the KKK, and slavery. The Waltons want to recreate post-reconstruction days and have gotten undue amounts of cover from politicians, ed-reformers & think tanks who take their money.
Charter cheerleaders marketing charters as championing civil rights don’t want to hear the ugly history behind privatized education. https://southernspaces.org/2019/segregationists-libertarians-and-modern-school-choice-movement/?fbclid=IwAR2M4-XxDt9isuO5G388pwDbwvYk_bRuUbe9EIm1OBsTMgLhUUgR-HxCkQ8
And then there’s AMAZON …
https://truthout.org/articles/kindle-unlimited-should-stop-giving-subscribers-free-white-nationalist-content/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=177551ee-b430-44b8-afe2-cbe78a6a6b09
As a public school teacher of 28 years and a devout Christian, I will be glad to address the issue of prayer in schools and the Bible not being taught. I am a lifelong resident of a very conservative southern state. In the past, I have taught many students of different races, cultures, and religions. As Christians, we know that we need to treat others the way we want to be treated, so let’s imagine that the USA had a non-Christian religious majority. I know I would be very distressed if my child went to a school where she heard all Hindu prayers or was taught the Koran every day during her formative years. I wanted her raised in my religion, as is my right under the Constitution. There are certainly beliefs of other Christian groups that I would not want her to be taught as well! These parents are no different- they want their children raised in their own religion.
The Walton Foundation is fervently trying to replace all public schools with for-profit charters and private schools. Both of these have no government accountability for any of their practices, educational or otherwise. Public schools must follow very specific laws from federal and state governments. We must meet expected standardized test scores or be penalized. Charter schools, again, have NONE if this accountability. Any group or religion can be approved to operate a charter. They can have can have prayer and instruction in any religion. Without public schools, any child could have no option but to attend a charter or private school where they were trained in a religion or cult that wasn’t that of their parents.
Prayer is not gone from schools. In my current district, we have a moment of silence after we say the Pledge of Allegiance. Those who want to pray may do so in the manner in which they choose, just as the Founding Fathers of this nation made it possible for anyone to worship how they choose. We also have a student Christian group that has Bible study and prayer during lunch. They cannot legally be school-sponsored, but they can certainly meet on campus. Our school library has Bibles for checkout. Students can read them at school if they want to.
Respect for all of God’s children on this earth means respecting their beliefs, even when we do not agree with them. I have very close friends and family who do not share my politics or religion. But I don’t love them any less. Jesus said to love others as we love ourselves, even if we don’t share opinions.
I feel that as Christians, we should follow the Great Commission. This is not possible without respecting EVERYONE.
Thank you, Ann, for this wonderful statement on behalf of humility, tolerance, and respect for diversity.
The Waltons and other billionaires have so much money they should have to spend their own money to create schools that adhere to their own vision. It is unconscionable that reckless privatization policy gives them free rein to drain public money from public schools. The Waltons and other billionaires should not be allowed to target communities in various states and use their wealth to undermine school board elections. This practice allows them unlimited access to infiltrate communities where they do not live. Their deep pockets prime the privatization pump to gain access to a community, but it is the local tax payers that will be on the hook for schools of questionable value and little to no accountability when the transfer of public money flows into private pockets. This shift in public money devastates the public schools and the local community. This is weaponized wealth.
You are absolutely correct, but the laws are written so that the free market has unfettered access to public monies through various channels that the public cannot clearly see. The Waltons have chosen to exploit this. The blame lies with Bill Clinton when he was Gov of AK and friendly with the wealthy Walton family. Clinton carried the free market ideologies into the White House and also pushed for “Charter” schools. Funny how it all kind of fits together?
It is likely that the Waltons want to kill teachers unions. They hate them. Imagine teachers having a voice!
Absolutely. Walmart and its peer institutions (like XNA airport) run regular clinics for managers on how to avoid unionization.
excellent and succinct point: If they own the schools, they are able to control the entire message.
We need to read the constitution and recognize it reads freedom of religion. We need to respect each other and by not sheltering our children from the world as it is, we can do this by sending students to public school. My tax dollars should not go to vouchers to pay for private schools which may or may not teach believes that are not at the heart of my family values. Family values and religion should be taught at home for a solid foundation.
Indeed. And now, my daughter is in the same class where Jim Walton’s grandchild attends school. A private school, unburdened by the “mandatory high-stakes testing” that the Waltons have unleashed on everybody else’s kids & teachers. Outdoor recess three times a day. Lunch provided. And NONE of the staff (full-time or otherwise) get health insurance.
I can’t believe the arrogance of this multi billionaire family! Where does it come from? Public schools ,sare the basis for our country.
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“It is hard to understand the Waltons’ animus towards public schools, since the patriarch Sam Walton, his wife Helen, and all of his children were graduates of small-town public schools.”
There is a consistency in this line of thought. The strange consistency comes from the belief that my own school experience was fantastic but my political opponents have taken away what everybody had back then.
If I had a dime for every person that made that argument about education to me I would be rich beyond belief.
Those above who commented pointed out this strain of thought in the Waltonian philosophy. Along with anti-unionism, it forms the basis of a world view entirely consistent within itself. Not without contradictions, it nonetheless is a guiding philosophy to a group of Americans, especially those who can ignore the problems of the past.
Got it. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, the public schools attended by the Waltons were all-white, had no students with disabilities, and no English learners. And no unions! Those were the Waltons’ “good old days.”
Are you sure there were no unions?
No, I don’t know for sure that there were no unions in the 1960s and 1970s in Bentonville, Arkansas. It seems unlikely. But if anyone can correct me, I look forward to hearing from them.
I bet you would hear other things recalled by modern-day thinkers the same age as the Walton kids. They would say something about respect for authority, the lack of control, dedication to traditionalism in religion, and the lack of work ethic. These designations may or may not mask the real underlying reasons for the policies they support. Modern conservatism reminds me of Monarchy in the post-Napoleonic period in Europe. Traditionalists were required by reality to give some lip service to the expansion of enlightenment ideas even as they attempted to cement the family hold on political power.
Back in those good old days private schools paid their own way. Private schools were not given access the public school budgets. Private schools were separate, and they were not allowed to be parasites on the public system and use public money like a private ATM without oversight or accountability.
Here’s the Democrats for Education Reform analysis of Warren’s education plan:
https://www.the74million.org/article/jeffries-warrens-plan-to-end-charter-school-program-rejects-obamas-legacy-and-undercuts-opportunity-for-underserved-students/
Read it and see if you can spot what is missing- public school students.
It’s not just that charter and voucher students are a priority in ed reform- they certainly are that- it’s that public school students simply do not exist.
Warren has done a great thing and she isn’t even elected yet. She’s exposed how ed reform completely disregards public school students. They’ve been omitted. They operate as if they’ve already achieved their goal and public schools are gone.
Correlation isn’t causation, but I can’t help but notice that as the billionaire education lobbies have increased, and the number of paid ed reformers have multiplied, education funding and support has declined, from K-12 thru college.
Either these people are lousy advocates or they’re not actually working to “improve public education”.
Ask an 18 year old college student if this “education advocacy sector” has benefited them as they borrow 30k a year to attend a public college. The Walton money would have been better invested in paying college tuition for low income students directly instead of buying politicians and paying professional ed reformers.
They hate public schools because they can’t stand to see public tax dollars directly benefiting the public without first passing through their pockets.
The philosophy of the Waltons, the Broads, The Gateses, and the rest of the anti-union, anti-public services, villainthropist crowd can be summed up in one word:
Mine.
I know some wealthy folks who have the same attitude. They say they “worked hard” to get where they are, and they “deserve” the spoils. No one else deserves the same chance. They’re playing Monopoly in the real world and they are not going to stop until they win. It’s a long game. We have to team up or we lose.
”The foundation aims to eliminate public education, crush teachers’ unions, and destroy the teaching profession. The foundation has given nearly $100 million to Teach for America to supply inexperienced, ill-trained teachers to public and charter schools.”
I’m no fan of Walmart but why don’t you elaborate on this statement instead of saying such a baseless thing? Exactly how does Teach for America “supply inexperienced, ill-trained teachers to public and charter schools”?? I thought public school teachers went to college and then applied for a job as a teacher? Who knew they were “supplied” by some evil conspiratorial foundation run by greedy rich people.
You sound like you might be a disgruntled ex-Walmart employee. You were probably fired for poor attendance, or maybe acting unprofessional. This entire article makes you look childish and envious.
TFA teachers have five weeks of training in the summer after finishing college. They are inexperienced and unprepared, as compared to those who have spent a year or more, including student teaching.
A-holes does not even come close to describing the Waltons.