Archives for category: Billionaires
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Emily Talmage: Beware The Philanthrocapitalists’ Big New Plan

By dianeravitch
November 20, 2017 //
33

Bill Gates has a big new idea. He has gotten together with a few other big-time philanthropists and created a pool of $500 Million, with which they plan to solve the really big problems in health, education, and economic opportunity. They call their collaboration “Co-Impact.” One of the collaborators is Jeff Skoll, who was one of the producers of the public school-bashing hitjob “Waiting for Superman.”

Emily Talmage is not happy about what’s coming from this group. She sees it as yet another attempt by the super-elites to impose their will on the rest of us, who lack their money and power.

Let us stipulate: no one elected a Bill Gates and his friends to remake social policy. Sure, Trump is busy dismantling and shredding social policy, but who put Bill in charge? One thing we can say about the richest man in America: Every one of his interventions into American education has failed. There is no reason to believe he has learned anything from the slow collapse of VAM and the catastrophe of Common Core. To the contrary, he is still propping CCSS up with new millions, although it’s very name is mud.

Emily writes:

“Gates is one giant, gnarly tree in an dark, overgrown forest of private “givers” who are dead-set on remaking our nation into something reminiscent of a feudalistic society.

“I say it’s time to investigate the whole rotten system that’s allowing this to happen.

“Seriously, folks. This just can’t be okay.”

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Common Core, Data, Education Industry, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

Sarah Darer Littman: How the Billionaire Sacklers Finance Privatization of Public Schools

By dianeravitch
November 17, 2017 //
4

If you read the previous post, you know that the Sackler family became fabulously wealthy by developing, manufacturing, and marketing a painkiller called OxyContin, an opioid. You also know that there is an opioid crisis in the nation that kills 50,000 people a year.

Sarah Darer Littman here explains how Jonathan Sackler has used his wealth to destroy and privatize public schools, replacing them with privately managed charter schools.

Littman, a journalist in Connecticut, write that Sackler:

“founded the charter school advocacy group ConnCan, progenitor of the nationwide group 50CAN, of which he is a director. He is on the Board of Directors of the Achievement First charter school network. Until recently, Sackler served on the board of the New Schools Venture Fund, which invests in charter schools and advocates for their expansion. He was also on the board of the pro-charter advocacy group Students for Education Reform.

“Through his personal charity, the Bouncer Foundation, Sackler donates to the abovementioned organizations, and an ecosystem of other charter school promoting entities, such as Families for Excellent Schools ($1,083,333 in 2014, $300,000 in 2015 according to the Foundation’s Form 990s) Northeast Charter School Network ($150,000 per year in 2013, 2014 and 2015) and $275,000 to Education Reform Now (2015) and $200,000 (2015) to the Partnership for Educational Justice, the group founded by Campbell Brown which uses “impact litigation” to go after teacher tenure laws. Earlier this year, the Partnership for Educational Justice joined 50CAN, which Sackler also funds ($300,000 in 2014 and 2015), giving him a leadership role in the controversial—and so far failing cause—of weakening worker protections for teachers via the courts.

“Just as Arthur Sackler founded the weekly Medical Tribune, to promote Purdue products to the medical professional who would prescribe them, Jon Sackler helps to fund the74million.org, the “nonpartisan” education news website founded by Campbell Brown. The site, which received startup funding from Betsy DeVos, decries the fact that “the education debate is dominated by misinformation and political spin,” yet is uniformly upbeat about charter schools while remarkably devoid of anything positive to say about district schools or teachers unions.”

Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of OxyContin, was masterful at marketing OxyContin. According to a critical GAO REPORT, IT handed out “lavish swag” for health care professionals.

The charter movement has adopted some of the same techniques.

“The description of “lavish swag” will sound familiar to anyone who has witnessed one of the no-expenses-spared charter school rallies that are a specialty of Sackler-funded organizations like Families for Excellent schools. Then there is the dizzying array of astroturf front groups all created for the purpose of demanding more charter schools. Just in Connecticut, we’ve had the Coalition for Every Child, A Better Connecticut, Fight for Fairness CT, Excel Bridgeport, and the Real Reform Now Network. All of these groups ostensibly claim to be fighting for better public schools for all children. In reality, they have been lobbying to promote charter schools, often running afoul of ethics laws in the process.

“Take Families for Excellent Schools, a “grassroots” group that claims to be about parent engagement, yet was founded by major Wall Street players. In Connecticut, the group failed to register its Coalition for Every Child as a lobbying entity and report a multimillion-dollar ad buy expenditure and the costs of a rally in New Haven.

“In Massachusetts, Families for Excellent Schools-Advocacy (FESA) recently had to cough up more than $425,000 to the Massachusetts general fund as part of a legal settlement with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, the largest civil forfeiture in the agency’s 44-year history. Massachusetts officials concluded that FESA violated the campaign finance law by receiving contributions from individuals and then contributing those funds to the Great Schools Massachusetts Ballot Question Committee, which sought to lift the cap on the number of charter schools in the state, in a manner intended to disguise the true source of the money. As part of the settlement, the group was ordered to reveal the names of its secret donors. Jonathan Sackler was one of them.”

Why does Jonathan Sackler hate public schools?

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Dark Money, Education Industry, Privatization

Dark Money Billionaires Lick Their Wounds after Defeat in Massachusetts and Look for New Targets

By dianeravitch
November 16, 2017 //
7

I was tempted to give an entire day to this post about the Dark Money group deceptively called Families for Excellent Schools.

The “families” are financiers, billionaires, and garden-variety multimillionaires. They enjoyed great success in New York, where they made an alliance with Governor Cuomo and launched a $6 Million TV buy to promote charter schools. Under pressure from Cuomo, the state legislature compelled the City of New York to provide free space to charter schools and to give Eva Moskowitz whatever she wanted.

Then, Families for Excellent Schools opened shop in Massachusetts, where they launched a multimillion dollar campaign to increase the number of charter schools.

Parents, teachers, the teachers unions, Rural and suburban communities turned against charter schools. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren joined the opponents of charter schools. Before the vote, the backers of Question 2 were revealed in the media (though not all of their names), and the referendum to expand the charter sector went down to a crashing defeat.

After the election, things went bad for FES.

“This September, the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance fined Families for Excellent Schools a comparatively nominal $426,500. But it also forced the charter group to reveal its donors — a who’s who of Massachusetts’ top financiers, many of whom are allies of Gov. Charlie Baker — after it had promised them anonymity.”

In addition to the fine, FES was banned from the Bay State for four years.

One of the big donors to FES was the rightwing, anti-union Walton Family, which gave FES more than $13 Million between 2014 and 2026. The chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education gave FES nearly $500,000.

Now FES is trying to redefine itself.

Here is a suggestion: support the public schools that enroll nearly 90% of children. Open health clinics in and near schools. Invest in prenatal care for poor women. Lobby for higher taxes for the 1%.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Corporate Reformers, Dark Money, Democracy, Education Industry, Hoax, Massachusetts, New York City, Privatization

Steven Singer: The Corporate Reformers Are Goliath, But Pretend to Be David

By dianeravitch
November 13, 2017 //
40

Steven Singer has noticed that the hired hands of the billionaire “reformers” like to play the role of victim.

They are bravely standing up to those teachers’ unions on behalf of “the kids.” All they have on their side are the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Waltons and a long list of other billionaires who want to privatize public schools and get rid of those unions.

Who is Goliath? Who is David?

Who are the real grassroots activists?

Don’t be fooled.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, Broad Foundation, Corporate Reform, Dark Money, Hoax, Koch Brothers

Howard Fuller Reflects on the Years He Spent Working for Conservatives Billionaires to Promote Privatization

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2017 //
20

Howard Fuller recently decided to close down the organization Black Alliance for Educational Options, which received funding from billionaires to promote charters and vouchers to African Americans. BAEO was funded initially by the rar-right Bradley Foundation, then added millions from the Walton Family Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and others, all to sell privatization to people who need good public schools, good healthcare, and good jobs, not free markets.

Now, Fuller tells ace education journalist Alan Borsuk that a $15-an-hour minimum wage would mean more to kids in central cities than better curriculum (or, may we assume, School Choice).

The billionaires got good return on investment. BAEO lined up support among key blacks to pass charter legislation in Alabama, Mississippi, and D.C.

But Fuller has second thoughts. The damage is done. Will he now repudiate the conservatives who pumped millions into BAEO to perpetuate the hoax that privatization is “the civil rights issue of our time”?

“One force behind his changing views: A deeper understanding of the life circumstances of young people and the difficulties a school has in changing the trajectory of their lives.”

Nice.

Will he reach out to the Walton Family, whose Walmart stores employ more than one million people, and persuade them about the importance of paying $15 an hour and giving them enough hours of employment to support their families?

Will he tell the powerful Bradley Foundation? The Gates Foundation, whose idea of fighting poverty is to promote the Common Core Standards?

Fuller was a bitter critic of trachers’ unions. Has he figured out that union jobs are a godsend for Black and Hispanic workers, providing better pay than non-union jobs and a measure of job security. Fuller appeared in “Waiting for Superman” harshly criticizing public schools, teachers, and unions.

Has he figured out that he helped to shred the route to the middle-class for many of the families and children he claims to care about? Has he noticed how many of the thriving charter chains are run by wealthy white men?

Was he cynically used? Was he duped? Was he a willing collaborator? On reflection, does he think that children and parents of color benefitted or were harmed when their local schools were taken over by corporate charter chains?

Howard Fuller is a smart man. I hope he speaks out and explains more about his decision to close BAEO. I welcome a submission to this blog.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Black Alliance for Educational Options, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization

The Billionaire Who Destroyed His Newsroom When the Employees Voted to Join a Union

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2017 //
43

This is a sad but instructive story of a billionaire, Joe Ricketts, who closed down his two popular news websites out of spite. He was angry because his workers voted to unionize.

Maybe it meant that his staff would be paid more. But the owner could afford it. He was angry because he didn’t want a union. Period.

Hamilton Nolan explains what happened:

“Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade whose family owns the Chicago Cubs, is worth more than $2 billion. He is the owner of DNAinfo, a local news site that covered New York City and Chicago with unparalleled skill, as well as Gothamist, a network of city-oriented websites that DNAinfo bought this year. He is also a major right-wing political donor of rather flexible morality. During the last presidential primaries, Mr. Ricketts spent millions of dollars funding ads that portrayed Donald Trump as an untrustworthy, dangerous misogynist. Once Mr. Trump secured the nomination, Mr. Ricketts spent a million dollars to support him.

“One might think that such flexibility would allow Mr. Ricketts to bend but not break when faced with every plutocrat’s worst nightmare: a few dozen modestly paid employees who collectively bargain for better working conditions.

“Alas, no.

“Six months ago, reporters and editors at DNAinfo-Gothamist announced their intent to join the Writers Guild of America, East. This is the union that my colleagues and I at Gawker Media joined in 2015, and the union that has organized major online media companies like HuffPost, Vice Media, Slate and Thrillist in the past two years. In that short amount of time, unionized “new media” workers have won substantial raises, editorial protections and other improvements that writers at more mature companies take for granted. In defiance of the conventional wisdom that unions are outdated, this young, high-tech industry has been one of the most visible recent successes for organized labor in America.

“The DNAinfo-Gothamist announcement sparked a zealous anti-union campaign: Management threatened employees by saying that Joe Ricketts might shut the whole place down if it unionized. Nevertheless, employees last week voted 25-2 in favor of unionization. And on Thursday, Mr. Ricketts abruptly shut the whole place down…”

Ricketts did not try to sell his news sites.

“Instead of bargaining with 27 unionized employees in New York City, he chose to lay off 115 people across America. And, as a final thumb in the eye, he initially pulled the entire site’s archives down (they are now back up), so his newly unemployed workers lost access to their published work. Then, presumably, he went to bed in his $29 million apartment…

“Labor unions have done more for the average American than all the rich industrialists put together. Unions are a legal right and the single most powerful tool that regular working people have to improve their lot. DNAinfo and Gothamist employees, who did the fundamentally important work of telling us all what is happening in our cities, were punished for exercising their rights.

“The business of journalism has always been fickle and grim. It is an industry full of idealist workers scrambling to cobble together a living at publications owned by a shifting group of cutthroat capitalists and incompetent rich dilettantes. The careers of most journalists feature constant uncertainty and heartbreak, interspersed with periods of life-affirming work that you hope make it all worthwhile. That uncertainty is why The Los Angeles Times, whose owners have been famously anti-union for more than 100 years, is now in the midst of its own union organizing campaign.

“The union movement in media is incredibly important beyond what it means to hundreds of employees at more than a dozen sites. Digital media workers have unionized because they understand how they are being exploited at work, and how to fix it. The visibility of their union campaigns can serve as an example to workers in other job sectors, where organized labor has grown nearly invisible, to the detriment of all.

“Just as the newspaper industry unionized in the 1930s to balance out the outlandish power of the publishers, so too will the online news industry unionize whether the bosses like it or not. Mr. Ricketts and other publishers will continue to fight back, framing their opposition to unions as an informed business decision. But it is an ideological one.“

Categories Billionaires, Media, Unions

Peter Greene: What You Need to Know About Betsy DeVos

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2017 //
16

Peter Greene says that people are mistaken to think that Betsy DeVos is a dope. She is not. She knows what she wants, and she is single-minded in pursuing her goals.

Just today, Peter posted an analysis of a long article in Politico about DeVos, in which the writer fails to mention her religious zealotry, and in which she blames her handlers for not preparing her for her confirmation hearings. What we learn from the Politico article is that Jeb Bush promoted her for Education Secretary. Bush, as events show, is a choice zealot, who like every kind of school except public schools. Actually, Bush recommended her to his friend Mike Pence, who ran the transgression. Both are anti-public school me. The article is more sympathetic to Betsy than most, and claims that she can’t do much damage and is constantly frustrated by the bureaucracy. We are reminded that this billionaire heiress never before worked in a large organization and is accustomed to unquestioning obedience.

Public opinion seems to have formed two impressions of DeVos: one, she is the most unpopular member of the Trump cabinet (I attribute that to the “billionaire smirk”). The other is that she is a dope.

Peter writes about the second impression:

“From the grizzly bear jokes of her confirmation hearing, to late night television lampoons, to satire from the Onion and Borowitz, DeVos has become an easy mark. Everyone’s in on the joke. Do the budget numbers not add up? It’s that wacky Betsy DeVos having trouble with math.

“I’ve said this before– it’s a huge mistake to think Betsy DeVos is a dope. She is something else ay more dangerous. I’ve been reading her word and a ton of words about her for a year (and you can, too– I’ve included an exhaustive reading list at the end of this piece), and while any game of armchair psycho-analysis has to come with huge caveats (like “I could be completely full of bovine fecal matter”), DeVos seems very much of a type that I’ve known my whole life, and it makes her both familiar and scary.”

He explains why, and he concludes his post with a valuable list of articles about her. She is a dangerous person, not a dope. She uses her wealth to buy politicians. She doesn’t trust democracy. She has the most important education job in government, yet she despises public schools.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Billionaires

The Koch Brothers Are Targeting Hispanic Families with School Choice Message

By dianeravitch
October 31, 2017 //
18

Politico reports that the Koch Brothers are promoting School Choice to Hispanic families in 11 states with an organization called the Libre Initiative.

The Kochs and their political action group Americans for Prosperity are relentless in trying to replace public schools with charters and vouchers and eliminate unions.

“While the Koch network has long been involved in school choice battles, the push by Libre represents a new front in the fight by targeting Hispanic families — and a recognition that with Congress gridlocked, it’s on the ground at the state level where the network can disrupt the educational status quo. The Koch message on schools is shared by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a longtime ally.

“Across the [Koch] network, there’s a greater commitment to advancing this because we do see it as critical to advancing a free and open society,” Libre’s Executive Director Jorge Lima told POLITICO.

“The group has had some initial success — for instance, helping to thwart a moratorium on charter school expansion in New Mexico. But it’s also created bitter divisions in the Latino community and led to accusations the Kochs are trying to undermine public education — and even in some cases, to subvert the Democratic process.

“Don’t let so-called Hispanic organizations such as the Libre Initiative deceive you …” Geoconda Arguello-Kline, secretary-treasurer of the Culinary Union, wrote last year in a guest column published in the Las Vegas Sun. “Libre is not looking out for Nevadans’ best interest; it is working to benefit its billionaire Koch funders.”

“Despite such criticism, the group is hunkering down for the long haul in states it views as ripe for change even as it eyes new states for expansion. Lima says it’s on track to make contact with more than 100,000 Hispanic households this year on school choice.

“Besides Nevada and New Mexico, Libre is organizing in Arizona, Colorado, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. Its recent efforts, with other Koch-backed groups, include:

— A planned “six-figure” spend in Nevada on “deep canvassing” in Hispanic neighborhoods to build support for educational savings accounts, which enable families to use state tax dollars to pay for private school. Although such a program was passed by the Nevada Legislature in 2015, it never took effect after the funding mechanism was ruled unconstitutional.

— A lawsuit brought by Americans for Prosperity, among others, aimed at stopping a 2018 Arizona referendum asking voters whether they want to keep a school choice law passed earlier this year. The law would expand the availability of education savings accounts to more than 30,000 families — a move that public school supporters fear would divert millions of dollars from financially stretched public schools.

— A “six-figure” Libre and Americans for Prosperity campaign in Colorado this summer to promote charter schools and education savings accounts and another ahead of a Nov. 7 school board race by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation to push choice-friendly issues.

— A seven-figure investment In Virginia’s gubernatorial race by Americans for Prosperity that includes a video criticizing Virginia Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, for his opposition to education savings accounts.”

Americans for Prosperity opposes all government programs. Its primary purpose is to protect the Koch billions from taxation to pay for any programs that benefit others. If it was up to the Koch Brothers, they would eliminate Social Security, Medicare, and every other social programs. They are rabid libertarians who oppose taxation and government. Their interest is protecting the Koch billions, not anyone else.

Why they suing to block a referendum in Arizona? They know they will lose. Their strategy is to block democracy.

Will they fool Hispanic families into supporting the billionaires’ self-interest?

Categories Billionaires, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Koch Brothers, Privatization, Propaganda

David Safier: Koch Brothers Push Libertarian Doctrine into Arizona High Schools

By dianeravitch
October 30, 2017 //
48

David Safier writes in the Tucson Weekly about well-funded efforts by the billionaire Koch Brothers to promote their anti-government, free-market libertarian views into local high schools.

“The course was created by the University of Arizona’s Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, which designed the curriculum, wrote the textbook and offers workshops for high school teachers instructing them on how to teach the class. The Freedom Center, which has been at UA since 2011, gets a majority of its funding from the Koch Brothers and a wealthy Arizona donor couple who are big contributors to and play an influential part in the Koch network.

“The course is also being offered in the Amphitheater, Vail and Sahuarita school districts and at least seven private and charter schools in Pima and Maricopa counties.

“The Center for the Philosophy of Freedom at the UA and similar centers at ASU are the latest in a continuing effort by the Koch Brothers to infuse institutions of higher education with their libertarian-fueled philosophy. The Koch’s long term goal is for their economic and political views to filter down from the university into mainstream public opinion, and to use their influence with politicians to create legislation favorable to their ideological and economic interests.

“A part of that effort is to create curriculum, class materials and entire courses to be used in high schools around the country.

“In the 1980s, the Koch Brothers began buying their way into universities by setting up departments and think tanks. The Koch-funded centers lend scholarly credibility to the brothers’ libertarian philosophy by teaching courses, writing papers for academic journals and conducting seminars for like-minded academics. The first serious funding venture began in the mid-1980s at Virginia’s George Mason University. At the time the university wasn’t known for the quantity or quality of its scholarship. Since then, it has grown, due to the Koch’s money and influence, into the largest research university in the state.

“Ground zero for the Koch’s efforts at George Mason University is the Mercatus Center. The Washington Post described it as a “staunchly anti-regulatory center funded largely by Koch Industries Inc.” A fellow at the Cato Institute, which was founded and funded by the Koch Brothers, referred to it as a “libertarian mecca.”

“Over the years, the Koch Brothers expanded their academic reach until they were subsidizing programs at more than 300 institutes of learning. From 2005 to 2015 alone, the Koch Foundation gave $145 million to universities, including $95 million to George Mason University and the Mercatus Center. Unlike most major university donors, the Kochs often maintain direct or indirect control over the departments their money creates and the professors they hire.

“Scholarly work tends to be too detailed and complex for public consumption, so the Koch Brothers also fund institutes and organizations outside of universities to shape the academic material into more easily digestible form (the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation are two well known examples). Members of their staff generate position papers, write articles for magazines and newspapers, and appear on television news programs. They also work with sympathetic politicians to formulate and draft legislation.

“University of Arizona’s Center for the Philosophy of Freedom began in 2011. The Koch Brothers put in a million dollars to help start the center, though the largest portion of the funding came from Ken and Randy Kendrick, as well as another donor who remains anonymous. Ken Kendrick is the owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Randy Kendrick is a lawyer who is deeply involved in right wing causes. Because of their million-dollar-plus donations to the Koch’s donor network, including support for the Mercatus Center, the Kendricks are charter members and influential players in the Koch network.

“From its inception in 2011, UA’s Freedom Center had its eye on Arizona’s high schools. That year David Schmidtz, the founding director of the Center, spoke of his plans with Tim Vanderpool of the Tucson Weekly: “Schmidtz says the center plans to offer a degree program in economic instruction for high school teachers, and to generate texts for K-12 education. ‘We aim not only to produce the teachers, but the materials that are getting taught.'”

“Schmidtz is one of the three co-authors of ‘Ethics, Economy, and Entrepreneurship’, the textbook used in the high school course.

“The Koch Brothers began their efforts to make inroads into high school education with Youth Entrepreneurs, which was founded by Charles Koch and his wife Elizabeth in 1991 as a program to teach basic business skills to young people. It expanded its mission in 2009 when it created what the organization referred to as “a high school free market and liberty-based course,” complete with course materials and training for teachers. By 2014, more than 1,000 students were taking the course in Kansas and Missouri. YE has expanded into other states as well. It has a regional office in Phoenix.”

The goal of the Koch brothers is to install their free-market ideology in high schools across the country.

Categories Arizona, Billionaires, Economics, Propaganda

Nonprofit Quarterly: Will Amazon Buy the Seattle Mayor’s Race?

By dianeravitch
October 28, 2017 //
3

Nonprofit Quarterly is concerned about a sudden surge of corporate spending in the Seattle Mayor’s race, wit Amazon leading the big funders, presumably in a bid to keep taxes and wages low.

“With nonprofits promoting increased civic engagement among their members and the public, the prospect of Amazon’s civic engagement in the Seattle mayoral race must raise some eyebrows.

“This week, it was revealed that the marketing behemoth was a contributor to a political action committee (PAC) supporting Jenny Durkan against Cary Moon in the race for the Seattle mayor’s office. The article, “Seattle mayor’s race picks up $590K in late-money surge,” reveals how ten big name corporations, including Comcast, the Washington Association of Realtors, AT&T, Expedia, Starbucks, and Boeing donated at least $10,000 each to the Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy (CASE), which is the political action arm of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. The Seattle Times calls out Amazon in particular for “adding $100,000 on October 12th to the $250,000 it gave in July.”

“In the Times article, a spokesperson for the Moon campaign suggests that some of the companies supporting the CASE PAC have in the past opposed taxes on the incomes of wealthy households, increasing minimum wages for workers, and the creation of a publicly owned broadband service for Seattle. In response to the CASE PAC, Moon has vowed to use her inherited resources to maintain her campaign.

“What can a nonprofit with a mission of civic engagement to do in the face of massive campaign spending in a local election by national corporations? For years, community-based organizations have followed Saul Alinsky’s first rule: “Power is derived from two main sources—money and people. ‘Have-Nots’ must build power from flesh and blood.” In many cities, business interests have figured out that huge amounts of money in a local election can scare off the best opponents, co-opt the grassroots, and dominate the messaging. The result is a crisis of civic engagement that looks like voter apathy, but is actually voter disengagement.“

That last paragraph caught my eye. We face the same issues in our struggle to prevent the privatization of public education.

Big corporations that use their money to cut wages and services sacrifice civic duty and community. Those who undermine workers and public institutions are bad citizens.

We must build power from “flesh and blood.”

Join the Network for Public Education. Donate whatever you can.

Categories Billionaires, Citizenship
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