Archives for category: Propaganda
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Tom Ultican: Why Charter Schools are NOT Public Schools

By dianeravitch
May 29, 2018 //
6

Over the past 25 years of experience with charter schools, we have learned that they claim to be public when it is time to get the money, but in all other respects, they are private. Their management is private. They are exempt from many of the laws and regulations that govern public schools. They do not report to an elected board, or to a board that is in any sense accountable to the public or transparent. At least 90% are non-union.

Tom Ultican, a retired teacher in San Diego, saw that the director of communications for the California Charter Schools Association, the most powerful lobby in the state, wrote a letter to the San Diego Free Press, saying that they had been unfair to charter schools and that their stories contained many inaccuracies, although he did not identify any.

Ultican took him to task for his failure to document any inaccuracies and wrote:

Unfortunately, charter schools have become profit centers for real estate developers and charter management organizations. Instead of fulfilling their original mission to be education innovators, they have too often become fraud infested enterprises lusting after tax dollars. It did not have to be this way…

Calling charter-schools public-schools is false. It is political spin. That is too nice. It is a lie.

When the city of San Diego contracts with a construction company to repair roads, that company is still a private company. When the state of California approves a contract, known as a charter, with a private company to educate students, the company gets paid with tax dollars. It is still a private company and is not required to comply with open meeting laws, elected school boards, much of the state education code and budget transparency like a public school. They are private businesses.

This lie is very profitable to charter school owners:

Whether they are for-profit or non-profit they are private companies and the distinction between for-profit and non-profit is quite obscure. For example, Mary Bixby, San Diego’s pioneer in the strip mall charter school business, puts children at computers running education software. Very little personal teacher-student interaction takes place but teenagers who don’t like to get up in the morning can go to the strip mall and earn credits toward graduation. In 2015, the non-profit Mary founded paid her a “salary” of $340,810 and her daughter Tiffany Yandell received $135,947.

It is easy to take offense at the truth. But, ignoring the daily lies from the highest levels of our government, honesty is always the best policy. When you tell the truth you don’t need a “communications director” to spin bad stories.

Categories California, Charter Schools, For-Profit, Fraud, Lies, Propaganda

Gary Rubinstein: The Truth About YES Prep’s 100% Rate of Acceptance into Four-Year Universities

By dianeravitch
May 14, 2018 //
28

Gary Rubinstein has followed the progress of the schools that claim that 100% of their graduates were accepted into four-year universities. What he usually finds is very high rates of attrition. But in the case of YES Prep, he found something more. Students are not allowed to graduate high school unless they have already been accepted into a four-year university. Voila! Success!

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, Privatization, Propaganda

Anya Kamenetz: “A Nation at Risk” Cooked the Books

By dianeravitch
April 30, 2018 //
96

 

In this report by NPR journalist Anya Kamenetz, we learn that the famous 1983 report “A Nation at Risk,” we learn that the Reagan-era Commission “cooked the books.” Kamenetz interviewed two of the original commission members and learned that the commission knew its conclusion in advance, then cherry-picked facts to prove its claim that the schools were ”mired in mediocrity.”

She writes:

“In the context of declining resources and rising child poverty, maintaining steady or slightly improving test scores over decades could be described with other words besides “flat” and “disappointing” — perhaps “surprising” or “heroic.”

“But the narrative established by “A Nation At Risk” still seems to be the one that dominates how we think of the data.

“[Professor James] Guthrie, for one, thinks that’s been, on balance, a good thing, because it brought education to the front and center of the U.S. agenda.

“My view of it in retrospect,” he says, “is seldom, maybe never, has a public report been so wrong and done so much good.”

My view: The militaristic tone of the report created a false sense of panic, based on distorted facts. The report promoted a wrong-headed narrative that encouraged politicians to engage in grandstanding and in frankly destructive forays into education policy. It shifted control of education policy from educators to uninformed politicians. It created a political demand for standards and testing, while pointedly ignoring the growing proportion of children living in poverty. Since poverty is the root cause of low test scores, this was a strategy guaranteed to fail.

Nothing good came of this foray into policy making by propaganda.

 

Categories Education Reform, Hoax, Propaganda

“Evil Unions,” School Choice, and Strikes

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2018 //
29

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We always knew that Campbell Brown’s anti-union, anti-teacher news site (The 74) would find a way to blame the growing wave of teachers’ strikes on those”evil unions.”

Peter Greene finds the quintessential non sequitur article on The 74, written by a choice zealot.

Teachers are walking out in “right to work” states, it seems, because they are robots who do what their unions order them to do. Teachers never think for themselves.

Lest we forget, the 74 is funded in part by Betsy DeVos.

Critical thinking is not the selling point of The 74. Propaganda is.

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Privatization, Propaganda, Teachers and Teaching

Mercedes Schneider: Sandy Hook Parents Sue Alex Jones for Defamation

By dianeravitch
April 21, 2018 //
8

 

After the Sandy Hook massacre, Alex Jones made his unsavory reputation insisting that the massacre of children and staff in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax, elaborately staged by professional actors.

Two of the parents whose children were killed have sued Alex Jones for defamation.

Mercedes Schneider has the story here.

It’s about time that this malicious propagandist was brought to justice.

Categories Fraud, Hoax, Lies, Propaganda

The Guardian: Secret Rightwing Strategy Guide to Discredit Teacher Strikes

By dianeravitch
April 13, 2018 //
14

 

The Guardian published a document prepared by a rightwing group that offers messaging advice to states about how to undercut teacher strikes. 

Peter Greene reviewed the “messaging guide” here. He writes: “The ‘messaging guide’ is only three pages long, but it includes specific ideas about how to fight back against these crazy teachers and their desire to be paid a decent wage and also work in decent facilities.”

The Guardian writes:

“The “messaging guide” is the brainchild of the State Policy Network (SPN), an alliance of 66 rightwing “ideas factories” that span every state in the nation. SPN uses its $80m war chest – funded by billionaire super-donors such as the Koch brothers and the Walton Family Foundation that flows from the Walmart fortune – to coordinate conservative strategy across the country.

“Another financial backer of SPN is the billionaire DeVos family of the Amway empire. Betsy DeVos is the current education secretary in the Trump administration.

LSPN’s previous campaigns have included a plan to “defund and defang” public sector unions. Now it is turning its firepower on the striking teachers.”

It doesn’t suggest an attack on collective bargaining because all the affected states are already “right to work.”

It doesn’t suggest attacking unions because not only are these states “right to work,” but the leadership of the strikes is grassroots.

It does say that state leaders should emphasize that children were being hurt, especially poor children. (So touching to hear this from rightwingers who fight the minimum wage and the expansion of Medicaid, which hurts the families of poor kids as well as the poor kids, ).

 

Categories Betsy DeVos, Dark Money, Education Reform, Koch Brothers, Propaganda, Resistance

Tulsa: Watch Out for the Well-Funded Know-Nothing Reformers (LINK ADDED)

By dianeravitch
March 4, 2018 //
30

 

Betty Casey is an award-winning journalist and blogger in Tulsa.

In this post, she summarizes the multiple failures of the Billionaire reformers, who do not include a single educator in their ranks. The GatesFoundation, the Broad Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation are seeking to transform America’s public schools, yet every one of their big ideas has failed. People line up to take their money because they have so much money.

Casey details the numerous failed Superintendents endorsed by the Btoad Superintendents Academy, and she only scratches the surface. Many communities know by now that hiring a Broadie spells trouble and strife.

She gives a valuable overview of the Lies That Reformers Tell to gain control of entire districts. She warns her fellow Tulsans against taking Gates money.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Broad Foundation, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Propaganda, Tulsa, Walton Foundation

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

Facebook is Failing to Identify and Exclude Fake News, Conspiracy Theories

By dianeravitch
October 9, 2017 //
86

Jon Christian, writing in The Atlantic, reports that Facebook has not been successful in identifying and screening out fake news (Campbell Brown–a close friend of Betsy DeVos– was hired by Facebook to lead this effort earlier this year). No matter how outlandish the story or the headline, people will read it and believe it if it confirms their own views.

Facebook’s fact-checking efforts are on the rocks. Five months after the social-media giant debuted a third-party tool to stop the spread of dubious news stories on its platform, some of its fact-checker partners have begun expressing frustration that the company won’t share data on whether or not the program has been effective.

In the absence of that official data, a study by Yale researchers made waves last week by suggesting that flagging a post as “disputed” makes readers just a slim 3.7 percent less likely to believe its claim. Among Trump supporters and young people, the fact-checking program could even backfire: Those respondents were more likely to believe unflagged posts after they saw flags on others.* That concern was echoed earlier this year by the actor James Woods, who tweeted that a disputed tag on Facebook was the “best endorsement a story could have.”

The study—as well as ongoing revelations about how Russian troll farms might have used Facebook ads to meddle with the U.S. presidential election—has been stirring up the debate about whether and how social-media companies ought to police misinformation and propaganda on their platforms. Facebook claims that its efforts are working, and criticized the Yale researchers’ methodology, but a growing body of scholarship shows how difficult fact-checking has become online. With roots in old-fashioned cognitive biases that are amplified by social-media echo chambers, the problem is revealing itself to be extraordinarily difficult to fight at an institutional level.

Open the link to read the full article and the embedded links.

Facebook is no doubt the most powerful media platform in the world. If it spreads lies and conspiracy theories, this poses a huge problem for everyone. It is an especially big problem for a democracy, which relies on having an informed public. If the public is fed a steady diet of lies, the liars win.

The Founding Fathers believed that the great enemy of sound government was ignorance. They could not have imagined a world in which lies and propaganda are even worse than ignorance. And travel faster.

Categories Fraud, Ignorance, Lies, Media, Propaganda
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