Conservative groups are funding protests against “critical race theory.” Now we learn, thanks to investigative reporting by the Washington Post, that the rightwing libertarian Koch network is funding parent protests against mask mandates. Billionaire Charles Koch has blood on his hands by supporting and encouraging parent opposition to mask mandates in schools.
Isaac Stanley-Becker writes in the Post:
The letter sounds passionate and personal.
It is motivated, the author explains, by a desire to “speak up for what is best for my kids.” And it fervently conveys the author’s feelings to school leaders: “I do not believe little kids should be forced to wear masks, and I urge you to adopt a policy that allows parental choice on this matter for the upcoming school year.”
But the heartfelt appeal is not the product of a grass roots groundswell. Rather, it is a template drafted and circulated this week within a conservative network built on the scaffolding of the Koch fortune and the largesse of other GOP megadonors.
That makes the document, which was obtained by The Washington Post, the latest salvo in an inflamed debate over mask requirements in schools, which have become the epicenter of partisan battles over everything from gender identity to critical race theory. The political melee engulfing educators has complicated efforts to reopen schools safely during a new wave of the virus brought on by the highly transmissible delta variant.
The document offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a well-financed conservative campaign to undermine regulations that health authorities say are necessary to contain the coronavirus. The frustration of many parents who want a greater say is deeply felt, school superintendents say. But their anger is also being fueled by organized activists whose influence is ordinarily veiled.
Conservative groups are trying to throw public schools into turmoil and discredit them. We have yet to see them inveighing against vaccines for polio, smallpox, measles, etc. If children get COVID, are hospitalized, and worse, this is the result of their cynical effort to make Public schools unsafe and expose children to danger.
If only it were possible to hold them accountable for endangering other people’s children.
This is the letter that the conservative Independent Women’s Forum has circulated:
Dear _____: NAME is excited to be joining NAME OF SCHOOL this year. But I want to share my thoughts on a topic I feel strongly about: masks on kids. I do not believe little kids should be forced to wear masks, and I urge you to adopt a policy that allows parental choice on this matter for the upcoming school year. I know you have to make a lot of tough decisions and you can’t please everyone. I have a world of respect for you and I am aware that some in the community may not agree with my perspective. It’s my view that emotion and politics (from both sides!) have driven alot of policy choices during the pandemic at nearly every level of government… that’s too bad. I’ll try to be brief but here are a few points that summarize my reasons for not supporting mandatory masks for young children:
●It’s a great blessing that COVID doesn’t pose as serious a health risk to children as it does to adults. Critically, young kids do not significantly spread COVID either. Furthermore, now that the adults in our community (teachers, school staff, parents and family members) have had a chance to get vaccinated, the risk to adults of serious illness from COVID infection is even smaller.
A study out of the UK released last week proved—once again—what we’ve known for more than a year:Kids transmit the coronavirus at a much lower rate than do adults. Epidemiologist Shamez Ladhani, who led the study, found that children “aren’t taking [the virus] home and then transferring it to the community. These kids have very little capacity to infect household members.”
●We do not yet know enough about the potential downside of mask-wearing for young children. I think you could make a case for or against masking kids (which is why I support parents making the choice either way), but if masking is to be mandated, the onus is on those putting a mandate in place to show that masking passes a risk-benefit analysis. This area merits more study, but common sense tells us that covering the face can come with problems.
Masking kids is associated with: increases in anxiety and depression;decreases in communication and socialization skill development; increases in headaches, face rashes and redness, and impaired facial recognition; and increases in tooth decay.
I have seen some of the outbursts at school board meetings on the news. Irrational, screaming parents, some of whom are violent, are the result of this dark money campaign. Some school boards are asking for the police to attend their meetings. The Koch network would like nothing more than causing an avalanche of mistrust and hate against public school boards. Perhaps the National Schools Board Association should sue the Koch network for the cost of security at school board meetings or for inciting a riot. Should school boards have to install bullet proof glass at public meetings? We need to push back against the anti-democratic right wing plot to destroy public education.
Going into my second year of teaching masked children – (we were full time all year last year) – I have heard none of these complaints from any of my families or students…. nor have my colleagues. It could be a problem… I am not completely doubting it could happen…. but I have not heard first hand complaints. And I would like to see the data/ sources for the claims of tooth decay.
It is largely the conservative areas in which many people are erupting in outbursts at school boards as they are fed a steady diet of right wing lies. What is Koch network is doing is almost like yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. These people are already upset by the loss of their “fearless leader,” Covid, economic decline, inflation and the constant drumbeat of propaganda that whips them into a frenzy that they unleash on their local school boards.
Be grateful. In my school in Utah we heard complaints all last year about masking to the point that the state legislature passed a law forbidding mask mandates unless the county health department requests one AND the county leadership votes for it. Which has happened in one small county (Utah has 29 counties), and it can only last for 39 days. The vast majority of students and teachers are not wearing masks this year and a ton of kids are out sick. But since parents are the ones reporting, in most cases we don’t know if the kid has Covid or not
Off topic -in a visit to the National Park for Women’s Rights in Seneca Falls, New York, this fall, I learned that Idaho was among the first 3 states to allow women to vote. The state’s leaders thought that more Mormon voters would increase the state’s political influence.
I also learned that the Iroquois Confederacy’s culture including its governance inspired the women’s movement.
Children love wearing masks at school! I can’t even imagine how much better my formative years would have been if everyone had been wearing masks!
In many districts parents and children are rallying and being resilient. Children are enjoying school and being with friends – despite having to wear masks.
However, I don’t think I would agree with you that your formative years would have been much better if everyone were wearing masks during indoor classroom time in school. But it is something to ponder.
It’s something we already should be pondering, but those who haven’t yet will ponder it eventually.
Children love masks. Think Halloween. Lone Ranger. Spider-Man.
That’s exactly what it’s like!
It’s not children who object to wearing masks. It’s their parents, who are willing to expose them to the virus. It’s incomprehensible to me.
How do you know children don’t mind wearing masks?
I have lived in Brooklyn Heights for more than 30 years. Most of those years were spent on Garden Place, which is the Halloween block of the borough. Every year, we gave out more than 3,000 pieces of candy. I saw almost every child wearing a mask very happily. An informal and unscientific survey. As a parent and grandparent, I cant imagine how any adult could insist that their children must have no protection during a pandemic.
It’s possible that cloth and surgical face masks that you’re not allowed to take off all day are less fun than Halloween costumes.
Children love wearing seat belts in cars! And toddlers love being strapped into car seats every time they are in a car!
I can’t even imagine how much better my formative years would have been if young children were sitting in car seats!
What part of 700,000 DEATHS do these fools not understand.
Can you imagine an interview 5 years ago with a Governor, legislator, or presidential candidate in a wild-west debate being asked:
“Hypothetically, what if you were told there is going to be an event that will KILL 700,000 people or 100,000s deaths and hospitalizations in your state – WHAT WOULD YOU DO?”
Would they say, “Well, it depends what the liberal Democrats propose and we’ll do the opposite.” or “My voters hate government telling them what to do so we’ll do nothing.” or “It’s not my job, blame someone else.”
or “The Russians or North Korea or … has announced an attack that will kill 700,000 people- what will you do?” and the answer is “Not my fault, it’s up to each county, no I won’t put up a defensive strategy, no I won’t send a pre-emptive strike.”
C’mon. People are dying. They haven’t said a word for 18 months.
Hospitalizations and deaths are rising significantly faster and higher in RURAL counties than in suburban and urban. How do they not connect the dots to their do-nothing grandstanding ignorant representatives and officials?
The article also reveals this organization has been funded by the DeVos family, the Walton Family Foundation and Facebook.
Here’s all you need to see the connections mentioned in this post. As painful as it is to watch her spew her garbage, note how her rant goes from masks to CRT to every other menu item on the anti-American agenda. The way this ended for her is, as we say in German, Schadenfreude pur.
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/10/nurse-who-was-also-anti-mask-anti-vaxxer
Email from Dr. Shamez Ladhani to Just Facts, August 30, 2021:
“Masking is just one of many mitigations that can be implemented in institutional settings
such as schools and it may contribute to infection control as part of a more comprehensive package of infections control measures, but I have yet to see any convincing evidence that masking in and of itself significantly contributes to reducing infection and transmission in such settings. On the other hand, as a paediatrician and a parent, it is my opinion that firstly it is not fair on children to wear face masks all day and secondly masking is more than likely to interfere with learning, social, emotional and speech development of toddlers and young children because they are unable to see the faces of their peers and the adults looking after them. Therefore, I am of the opinion that we should opt for not masking young children until we have more robust evidence of its effectiveness, especially given that the virus usually causes mild, self-limiting illness in young children.”
More utter bullshit by a supposed “expert.” Notice the subtle twisting from “a more comprehensive package of infections control measures” to “masking in and of itself”.
And “It’s not fair. . .” booeffinhoo! Doubt that he can back his statement up as it’s all opinion. And yes, the robust evidence is there.
My grandson is in 6th grade in the suburbs of El Paso. This is not a wealthy area. The community has a history of voting for Democrats. While they were hard hit in the early wave of Covid, they have held infections at bay by following mitigation strategies in the schools and community. They also believe in science so they have a high vaccination rate. No schools have closed since school began in the third week of July. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/13/coronavirus-texas-el-paso/
It should be obvious to every educated person that there are absolutely no downsides to requiring children to wear masks at school. Let’s pray mask requirements continue forever—they may save lives from Covid, flu, and other respiratory diseases, and again, science has established there are no negative consequences to requiring young people (or any other people) to wear masks in school and everywhere else indoors.
FLERP!,
I don’t understand why it is impossible for you to distinguish between a PANDEMIC in which ICU beds are full and the medical staff is dangerously overworked and a typical flu season in which people who get sick don’t have to worry that they won’t be able to get medical treatment.
But, whatever.
Love your “booeffinhoo,” Duane. I am stealing it for future use, but will ALWAYS give you the creds! 😉
No need to credit me. I don’t have it copyrighted. LOL!
“Masking kids is associated with: increases in anxiety and depression;decreases in communication and socialization skill development; increases in headaches, face rashes and redness, and impaired facial recognition; and increases in tooth decay.”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ad infinitum.
Sorry, but my only response to these stupid covidiots is to laugh at them or cuss them out for being the assholes that they are for endangering innocent children.
“impaired facial recognition”
Why you should always wear a mask at any sort of protest, pandemic or no pandemic.
Bank robbers have known this forever.
There’s more to this production of the Koch Libertarian MAGA dystopian reality horror zombie show in the making.
I read on FiveThirtyEight this morning how Breitbart is falsely claiming that Democrats are responsible for why the dangerous mob of Libetarian MAGA-type extremist moron conservatives are not getting vaccinated.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/where-breitbarts-false-claim-that-democrats-want-republicans-to-stay-unvaccinated-came-from/
Walton Family Foundation is also funding the anti-mask protests:
https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/grants-database?grantee=00000169-91e6-d2a9-a7eb-bffe30d80000
Ed reform is an echo chamber. All the ed reform groups march in lockstep because they’re funded and employed by the same billionaires.
These are the people we’re supposed to hire to “improve public schools”?
No thanks.
“Jennifer Berkshire
BisforBerkshire
Here’s a training video from the Koch group Americans for Prosperity instructing activists to remind anti/mask parents that the real solution is school vouchers”
Here’s what you’re getting when you hire ed reformers- you’re paying people who lobby against public schools.
Public schools need to break free from this echo chamber. It’s a bad investment for public school students.
Right around the corner from me! Last Friday, a group of people were out by our local grocery store, Mariano’s (now owned by Kroger), carrying anti-mask signs. I guess this is going to be a weekly ritual, because my husband saw them (about 12) out again yesterday. Of course, indoor masking is mandated in IL.
Tuesday was National Voters Registration Day, & all sorts of orgs. we’re registering voters. An LWV was on-campus at our local high school at lunchtime, registering those who are/will be 17 by June Primary, & 18 by General Election. Someone called up & demanded the registrar’s leave: when the school administrator (NOT an adminimal, D.S.!) refused, the person called back, wanting to come into the school to “observe” the process. Again, admin. said no.
LOTS of students were successfully registered that day!
Scary stuff, & it isn’t even close to Halloween!
funded protest: “doughtest”
Well, that’s despicable.
I sometimes think….how does the U.S, midst COVID-19 compare to the spirit of Londoners during the Battle of Britain in 1940? (Of course, not all the English were heroic back then.)
In other words, how will our nation right now be remembered by future historians?
Despite many courageous Americans, what a freakin’ mess! What a national embarrassment. Have these people no shame?
And so many of the antieverything crowd fervently believe that “this is their finest hour.”
He is really good.
Wonder how many anti-masker politicians are getting Rubles from Russia?
They don’t need Russians. It’s homegrown insanity.
Liverpool FC coach Jürgen Klopp, one of the more enlightened sports figures today, summed it up well in an interview yesterday:
“I don’t understand why that is a limitation of freedom,” he said. “Because if it is, then not being allowed to drink and drive is a limitation of freedom as well – but we accept that.
“I got the vaccination because I was concerned about myself but even more so for everyone else around me.
“If I get it and suffer – my fault. If I get it and spread it around to everyone else – my fault and not their fault.”
Yvonne-
Koch’s promotion of conservative religion in support of authoritarianism is on the same page as Putin’s
use of his orthodox Christian religion to solidify his rule.
The support of American religious conservatives for Orban in Hungary
plays to Putin’s interests.
Steve Bannon’s recent speech to a group who want government political appointments, focuses on the GOP plan which has already had inordinate success in judicial appointments. From an article by L. Greenhouse in New York Review (July 1, 2021), “What accounts for the paradox of religious ascendance over an ever more secular Am. society…Trump handed the federal government policymaking apparatus over to the religious right.”
Many influential liberals protect the “religion” i.e. the politicking, of one-half of the religious right. The unwitting protectors fall for the bogus “religious persecution and religious freedom” propaganda. Meanwhile, the goal of the witting is to inextricably link religion with conservative politics. Forty percent of Americans get provoked into a tribal response that benefits the GOP. The unwitting protectors are used to vitiate opposition.
Good morning Diane and everyone,
I had a student tell me he couldn’t wear a mask because he gets headaches from it and can’t concentrate. To which I replied, “Baloney. Surgeons can wear masks while they perform surgery – sometimes for hours on end. So you can surely wear a mask and sit in class and do your schoolwork. I’m not putting up with this stuff.” So, this is what we’re struggling with every day. But, like I said before, don’t worry about the kids. They take their masks off all the time.
Good for you!
Now that’s a comeback!
“Why vaccination hesitancy runs deep among the religious- and what we can do to reach them. (LA Times Op-Ed, Aug. 11, 2021)… as moderate Protestants began to stress the human capacity for progress with or without God’s help…. (The article follows with a quote from evangelical) U.S. Rep. Boebart, ‘The wisdom of the world is foolishness in God’s sight.’ “
The Pandora Papers which identify South Dakota as a haven for trusts that evade taxes may shed light on the process by which state laws are written for the benefit of the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and poor.
It will be interesting to learn which political party and which prominent law-drafting organizations turned American states into tax dodging havens…New Hampshire and S.D.,etc.