Koch & Wal-Mart Family Money trying to Shut Down Public Education?

[merrill]

Why is this republican party trying to put PUBLIC EDUCATION out of business? Where did this particular type of republican come from? Who do they think they are?

Do WE want big state government and the secret republican organization ALEC to make this decision for WE taxpayers? NO

Public school funding has become an endangered species once the republican party began hacking away at school funding, This has been a battle for at least 15 years.

What is it these republicans have against Public Education?

Can private schools guarantee a better education than public schools? NO

Do private schools have to accept all students that need a high school diploma? No

If parents wanted to send their children to private schools are there plenty available? Yes

If parents wanted to send their children to a private parochial schools are they available? Yes

Isn’t the number of families enrolling their children in public schools an
indicator that public schools are the schools of choice? Yes

Why then is big state government starving OUR public schools of of the tax dollars necessary to keep teachers paid a respectable salary and provide all school supplies?

This question deserves an investigation comparable to say the Watergate hearings whereby republicans set up an operation to spy on the democrats when Nixon was in office. IF we want the truth.

I say quit stonewalling public education,fund OUR public schools and stop this insane foolishness forever.

 

[merrill]

Why does anyone concerned spend money at Wal-Mart? Why do we not find other products to buy instead of Koch affiliated products?

Walton Money Against Public Education
Walton money takes over Wisconsin | Arkansas Blog

Charter Schools Are No Better than Public Schools, and Don't Expect Them to Change | Common Dreams

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Why is this republican party trying to put PUBLIC EDUCATION out of business?

Walmart is Republican?

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Of course, nobody is trying to shut down public education so you're entire premise is complete bullshit, but it sure wouldn't bother me if they were. Public education is a complete failure and I can think of few things more anti-liberty than forcing everyone's children into a government education program learning only the version of events the state would like them to learn.

 

[merrill]

"Thanks to billions poured into the segregated charter effort over the years from the federal treasury and from corporate foundations ($312 million from the Walton Foundation, alone), those peer-reviewed findings in 2009 were summarily ignored, so that now in 2013, there are 6,000+ charters in 42 states. This may be referred to as the Fill-the-Hole-with-Money Strategy.

This new 2013 research from CREDO differs from the 2009 research piece by focusing primarily on charters that are part of charter management organizations (CMOs), which are corporate chains such as KIPP, Inc. or White Hat Management, Inc. This most recent study examined performance among 1,372 schools that belong to 167 CMOs. So independent charters were not a part of the most recent study.

There are a number of interesting takeaways from this CMO study, but the one that stands out is stated thusly in the Press Release:

In the aggregate, CMOs perform about the same as traditional public schools (TPS), but the aggregate masks the more interesting and important story of the distribution of performance around the average.
So with the exceptions of segregated chains like KIPP and Uncommon Schools, which can attribute their high scores to 1) creaming of top performers, 2) shoving out of low performers and discipline problems, 3) huge $$ advantages, 4) 10 hour school days, 5) laser focused test prep, etc., the rest of the CMOs can only say they are no better than the struggling public schools they were designed to replace. From the Executive Summary (all bolds in original):

Across the 25 states in the study, a sample of 167 operating CMOs were identified for the years 2007 - 2011. CMOs on average are not dramatically better than non-CMO schools in terms of their contributions to student learning. The difference in learning compared to the Traditional Public school alternatives for CMOs is -.005 standard deviations in Math and .005 in reading; both these values are statistically significant, but obviously not materially different from the comparison (p. 6)
But let’s look a little closer.

The real story of CMOs is found in their range of quality. The measures of aggregate performance, however, mask considerable variation across CMOs in terms of their overall quality and impact. Across the 167 CMOs, 43 percent outpace the learning gains of their local TPS in reading; 37 percent of CMOs do so in math. These proportions are more positive than was seen for charter schools as a whole, where 17 percent posted better results. However, about a third (37%) of CMOs have portfolio average learning gains that are significantly worse in reading, and half lag their TPS counterparts in math (pp. 5-6).
Translation: Over a third of segregated CMOs are doing worse in reading, and 43% are doing better; over a third of CMOs are doing better in math, but 50 percent are doing worse in math.

If these numbers reflected the results of trials for a new drug, would these trials lead to approval by the FDA? Is this the best we can expect from charters after billions poured into this new hole in the ground that is being mined by ideologues, tax-evaders, corporate welfare schemers, profiteers, sold-out politicians, and hedge fund operators?""

 

[merrill]

Why is this republican party trying to put PUBLIC EDUCATION out of business?

Walmart is Republican?

No Wal-Mart is not republican and neither are the family owners. I see them both as
Rt Wing Libertarian Neocon Fundamentalist Tea Party for Economic Terrorism.

They see a chance to make trillions from tax dollars if the public schools are shut down. One of the kings of tax dollar mooching is at it again.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Why is this republican party trying to put PUBLIC EDUCATION out of business? Where did this particular type of republican come from? Who do they think they are?

Do WE want big state government and the secret republican organization ALEC to make this decision for WE taxpayers? NO

Public school funding has become an endangered species once the republican party began hacking away at school funding, This has been a battle for at least 15 years.

What is it these republicans have against Public Education?

Can private schools guarantee a better education than public schools? NO

Do private schools have to accept all students that need a high school diploma? No

If parents wanted to send their children to private schools are there plenty available? Yes

If parents wanted to send their children to a private parochial schools are they available? Yes

Isn’t the number of families enrolling their children in public schools an
indicator that public schools are the schools of choice? Yes

Why then is big state government starving OUR public schools of of the tax dollars necessary to keep teachers paid a respectable salary and provide all school supplies?

This question deserves an investigation comparable to say the Watergate hearings whereby republicans set up an operation to spy on the democrats when Nixon was in office. IF we want the truth.

I say quit stonewalling public education,fund OUR public schools and stop this insane foolishness forever.

Can private schools guarantee a better education than public schools? NO

Your whole argument just went down the shitter. Nothing is guaranteed, but private educated children are get a better education than public school children. Have you seen the majority of schools?

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Why is this republican party trying to put PUBLIC EDUCATION out of business?

Walmart is Republican?

No Wal-Mart is not republican and neither are the family owners.

Then why did you go ranting on about Republicans? Now you just admitted you were dishonest so why should we even bother listening to you?

 

[merrill]

Republicans,ALEC,Wal-mart are working hand in hand to kill public education no matter what. This is not a secret.

Vouchers were promoted in the 1990s as a way to help poor black children escape failing schools. But that rhetoric has disappeared in Milwaukee. Voucher supporters have expanded vouchers to middle-income families and have made clear they want to make vouchers available to all, including millionaires.

Vouchers for poor children was just a first step.

For more than twenty years, I have listened to the voucher movement’s seductive rhetoric of “choice” and “parent power.” If I didn’t know better, I might proclaim, “Sign me up today!”

Milwaukee, however, has more than two decades of reality-based vouchers. The lesson from this heartland city?

Vouchers are a vehicle to funnel tax dollars into private schools. Using the false promise of “choice,” they are an unabashed abandonment of public education and of our hopes for a vibrant democracy.

Barbara Miner has been a reporter, writer, and editor for almost forty years, writing for publications ranging from the New York Times to the Milwaukee Journal. The former managing editor of Rethinking Schools, she has co-edited numerous books on education, including Selling out Our Schools: Vouchers, Markets, and the Future of Public Education.
Her book Lessons from the Heartland: A Turbulent Half-Century of Public Education in an Iconic American City will be published New Press in January 2013.


The False Promises of ?School Choice? | Common Dreams

 

[merrill]

Why is this republican party trying to put PUBLIC EDUCATION out of business? Where did this particular type of republican come from? Who do they think they are?

Do WE want big state government and the secret republican organization ALEC to make this decision for WE taxpayers? NO

Public school funding has become an endangered species once the republican party began hacking away at school funding, This has been a battle for at least 15 years.

What is it these republicans have against Public Education?

Can private schools guarantee a better education than public schools? NO

Do private schools have to accept all students that need a high school diploma? No

If parents wanted to send their children to private schools are there plenty available? Yes

If parents wanted to send their children to a private parochial schools are they available? Yes

Isn’t the number of families enrolling their children in public schools an
indicator that public schools are the schools of choice? Yes

Why then is big state government starving OUR public schools of of the tax dollars necessary to keep teachers paid a respectable salary and provide all school supplies?

This question deserves an investigation comparable to say the Watergate hearings whereby republicans set up an operation to spy on the democrats when Nixon was in office. IF we want the truth.

I say quit stonewalling public education,fund OUR public schools and stop this insane foolishness forever.

Can private schools guarantee a better education than public schools? NO

Your whole argument just went down the shitter. Nothing is guaranteed, but private educated children are get a better education than public school children. Have you seen the majority of schools?

The question have you seen the majority of schools? And from what vantage point?

 

[PaulS1950]

I have lived through three generations of public education. Mine (after the eighth grade), my childrens and my grandchildrens. I have seen the focus shift from individual acedemics to group civility and team productivity. They are teaching our kids today to go along with whatever group dynamic presented. education is secondary to being able to "get-along" with everyone. Even a bright student is no longer a welcome individual unless they can "dumb down" to coexist with the group. Individuality seems to be lost in an effort to make sure everyone is on the same page - regardless of the fact that they are light years ahead of the "norm". It is no wonder that home-schooling is gaining in popularity and that home-schooled children out-perform the children in public schools.

Having vented - I will say that it seems as paranoid to say that government is trying to shut down education as it is to say that government is trying to take away our second amendment rights - though both may be true.
I don't want the government involved in the education of children for more reasons than I will admit to but I will say that the government has NEVER done as good a job at ANYTHING as can be done by the private citizenry for less money and in less time.

I think I will leave it at that.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Why is this republican party trying to put PUBLIC EDUCATION out of business? Where did this particular type of republican come from? Who do they think they are?

Do WE want big state government and the secret republican organization ALEC to make this decision for WE taxpayers? NO

Public school funding has become an endangered species once the republican party began hacking away at school funding, This has been a battle for at least 15 years.

What is it these republicans have against Public Education?

Can private schools guarantee a better education than public schools? NO

Do private schools have to accept all students that need a high school diploma? No

If parents wanted to send their children to private schools are there plenty available? Yes

If parents wanted to send their children to a private parochial schools are they available? Yes

Isn’t the number of families enrolling their children in public schools an
indicator that public schools are the schools of choice? Yes

Why then is big state government starving OUR public schools of of the tax dollars necessary to keep teachers paid a respectable salary and provide all school supplies?

This question deserves an investigation comparable to say the Watergate hearings whereby republicans set up an operation to spy on the democrats when Nixon was in office. IF we want the truth.

I say quit stonewalling public education,fund OUR public schools and stop this insane foolishness forever.

Can private schools guarantee a better education than public schools? NO

Your whole argument just went down the shitter. Nothing is guaranteed, but private educated children are get a better education than public school children. Have you seen the majority of schools?

The question have you seen the majority of schools? And from what vantage point?

You are a funny one, how many wealthy people have children in public schools?
How many of the political elite have children in public schools? Did obama send his children to a public school or was it a private school before he became president?

 

[Missourian]

Are you proposing regulation to mandate to what purposes Walmart is permitted to spend their own money?

 

[merrill]

ALEC Private Schools

Corporate Education Reformers Plot Next Steps at Secretive Meeting

ALEC Education "Academy" Launches on Island Resort
by Dustin Beilke

Today, hundreds of state legislators from across the nation will head out to an "island" resort on the coast of Florida to a unique "education academy" sponsored by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). There will be no students or teachers. Instead, legislators, representatives from right-wing think tanks and for-profit education corporations will meet behind closed doors to channel their inner Milton Friedman and promote the radical transformation of the American education system into a private, for-profit enterprise.

What is ALEC Scoring on Its Education "Report Card?"
Little is known about the agenda of the ALEC education meeting taking place at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island. The meeting is not open to the public and recently even the press has been kicked out of meetings and barred from attendance. So to understand the ALEC agenda with regard to education, it is important to examine ALEC's education "scorecard."

Imagine getting a report card from your teacher and finding out that you were graded not on how well you understood the course material or scored on the tests and assignments, but rather on to what extent you agreed with your teacher's strange public policy positions. That is the best way to understand the American Legislative Exchange Council's 17th Report Card on American Education released last week.

The report card's authors are Matthew Lardner, formerly of the Goldwater Institute, and Dan Lips, currently of the Goldwater Institute and formerly of the Heritage Foundation. They give every state's public schools an overall grade based on how they rate in 14 categories. Homeschooling, alternative teacher certification, charter schools, private school choice, and virtual learning make up 7 of the 14 categories. Of the other seven categories, two rate the states' academic standards and the other five have mostly to do with the way states retain "effective" teachers and fire "ineffective" ones.

ALEC's education bills encompass more than 20 years of effort to privatize public education through an ever-expanding....

Corporate Education Reformers Plot Next Steps at Secretive Meeting | Common Dreams

PAA In Florida
Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee take a beating form PAA in Florida | Save Our Schools: March and National Call to Action | causes.com


Walton Money Against Public Education
Walton money takes over Wisconsin | Arkansas Blog

Charter Schools Are No Better than Public Schools, and Don't Expect Them to Change | Common Dreams


Milwaukee
The False Promises of ?School Choice? | Common Dreams


Thanks to billions poured into the segregated charter effort over the years from the federal treasury and from corporate foundations ($312 million from the Walton Foundation, alone), those peer-reviewed findings in 2009 were summarily ignored, so that now in 2013, there are 6,000+ charters in 42 states. This may be referred to as the Fill-the-Hole-with-Money Strategy.

 

[merrill]

Walton Money Against Public Education
Walton money takes over Wisconsin | Arkansas Blog


Walton money takes over Wisconsin
Posted by Max Brantley on Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 6:40 AM
A report from Wisconsin on the state of affairs in that Tea Party Republican-controlled state:

The Republican governor and legislator are cutting spending on public schools by $800 million, but increasing the amount sent to private schools by $17 million.

And, for that, these private schools can thank Alice Walton and her family.
Walton, the multi-billionaire heiress to father Sam Walton's Walmart empire, was the largest individual contributor to successful state legislative candidates in the 2009-10 election cycle that brought Republicans to power in Wisconsin, according to data from MapLight, a nonpartisan organization that tracks the relationship between money and politics.

Walton gave a total of $16,100 to these candidates, according to data. In fact, six of the top 15 individual contributors to last fall's successful state legislative candidates were Walton family members, including Alice's brother and sister-in-law Jim and Lynne Walton, sister-in-law Christy Walton, and niece Carrie Penner and her husband, Greg Penner.

Collectively, they gave at least $103,450 to Wisconsin candidates since mid-2008, state records show.

This is only the tip of the Walton iceberg, however. Walton money drives a lobby group working for vouchers and charter schools in Wisconsin. It also contributes millions to a "vast and interconnected array" of organizations working on the same goals. The Walton Family Foundation has devoted $157 million to pushing "school choice" — which generally means anything but conventional public schools, particularly those represented by teacher unions.

Wisconsin is a key battleground because it has the most advanced voucher programs. But it's only Arkansas written large. You can buy the Arkansas legislature for much less, as the Walton-financed lobby proved in the last session with its successful advocacy of a charter school expansion bill. A paltry few thousand got the job done in the Arkansas House and Senate. The Waltons, of course, purchased the University of Arkansas some years ago for this effort and, in addition to supporting their work in Arkansas, the Walton-financed "school reform" arm is also helping the cause in Wisconsin.

The Walton Family Foundation also gave at least $600,000 last year to the University of Arkansas' School Choice Demonstration Project, which is conducting a multi-year assessment of Milwaukee's school choice program.
In March the Arkansas project released a report of Milwaukee's parental choice program that others have criticized as overly rosy. But the report found there was no significant difference in the performance of select choice students and similar Milwaukee public school students in the 2009-10 school year. That finding was affirmed by a report released in August by Wisconsin's nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau.

I would say, watch out, this could happen to YOU. But it already has. One example: A Walton employee, Naccaman Williams, recently cycled off the state Board of Education to be replaced by a charter school advocate, Joe Black, whose salary is paid by a grant from the Walton Foundation.

ALSO: Just last week, the misleadingly named Arkansas Public School Resource Center and the Arkansans for Education Reform Foundation (both Walton-financed tools to divert students and resources away from the Little Rock School District) weighed in against the Little Rock District's fight for the state to stop promoting segregation with its poor supervision of the establishment of open enrollment charter schools in Pulaski County. (ASIDE TO LUKE GORDY'S SNEERING REMARK IN NEWS RELEASE: Charters will compete the same way public schools do when they are required to keep all students they receive no matter how poorly they perform or how resistant they and parents are to meeting charter school rules. Get back to me when a charter operation takes over a tough LR school and manages the students it's given, something charter operators all over the country have refused to do — for obvious reasons.)

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Public education in the USA has been a complete and total failure. The best thing is to close the Department of Education

 

[merrill]

It is an orchestrated effort to dump public education in an effort to create for profit private education supported by trillions of tax dollars.......YOUR TAX DOLLARS.

 

[merrill]

Public education in the USA has been a complete and total failure. The best thing is to close the Department of Education

This is what political rhetoric is putting out. The right wing believes public education is evil and gets in the way of the facist profit making endeavor.

Exactly how is public education it failing?

Isn't the millions upon millions upon millions upon millions of of families enrolling their children in public schools an indicator that public schools are the schools of choice? YES

 

[editec]

The voucher system is designed to exacerbate an already CLASSIST educational system.

It could be done fairly, but if you think education is expensive now?

Imagine how expensive it would be if those vouchers had to be large enough to pay for anybody who goes to schools like Choate or Andover.


And the ONLY way that the voucher system could be classism free is for every child to be given enough money to attent ANY SCHOOL (however expensive) in America.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

It is an orchestrated effort to dump public education in an effort to create for profit private education supported by trillions of tax dollars.......YOUR TAX DOLLARS.

The current system, fully supported by our tax dollars, is a complete and total failure for everyone except the Democrat Party