- Image courtesy of shutterstock.com
Wanna get your message out about where education should be heading? Well, if you’re part of the “education reform” movement, meaning the conservative/corporate “education reform/school choice” movement — you know, dismantling public education by cutting funding and demonizing teachers unions while pushing for ever more vouchers and charter schools — it’s easy. There’s lots of money belonging to a whole lot of very rich folks that’s yours for the asking. Case in point: the Walton family.
The Waltons own Walmart. Four of the descendants of founder Sam Walton have a combined worth of $140 billion. On the Forbes 400 richest people in America list, they’re numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9, with the Koch brothers just above them (numbers 3 and 4) and Michael Bloomberg just below (number 10). Their Walton Foundation gives away lots of money every year, close to $300 million in 2013. More than half of the money, $164 million, is listed under the category, “Systemic K-12 Education Reform Grants.”
I wrote two recent posts about the possibility of Teach for America coming to Sunnyside School District, here and here. TFA received the largest single Walton Foundation contribution, $20 million. Next highest is Charter Fund Inc.: $14.5 million. Then comes the KIPP Foundation, which runs a string of highly rated charter schools (their high rating is open to question, by the way): $8.8 million. Next is the Children’s Scholarship Fund, which spreads around vouchers: $8.6 million. Then comes the California Carter School Association: $5.6 million.
A mere $620,000 goes directly to Arizona institutions that I could find, $400,000 to the Arizona Charter Schools Association and $220,000 to the Arizona Autism Charter School.
Not surprisingly, with a total of $164 million, the list of grantees goes on and on. Here are some groups that get more than a million whose names I’m familiar enough with to know they’re pillars of the “education reform” community.
Excellent Education Development, Inc., $3.5 million
Students First, $3.4 million
Alliance for School Choice, Inc., $3.1 million
Education Reform Now, Inc., $2.8 million
Building Excellent Schools, Inc, $2.8 million
Pacific Charter School Development, Inc., $2 million
Parent Revolution, Inc., $2 million
Newark Charter School Fund, $1.9 million
NewSchools Venture Fund NSVF, $1.9 million
National Association of Charter School Authorizers. $1.8 million
Black Alliance for Educational Options, $1.3 million
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, $1.3 million
Charter Fund – d/b/a CSGF Tennessee, $1 million
You can see the whole list here.
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2014.
Teacher’s unions collectively are the single largest contributor to the Democratic Party. Why would Walmart cut their own throats by supporting the educational status quo? btw, the teacher unions do very little for Arizona public education teachers, anyway.
That’s because Republican contributors are afraid to let people know where their money really goes, so they donate giant chunks of cash to Super PACs in order to remain anonymous. Yes, it’s legal (thanks for nothing, SCOTUS), but it shows extreme cowardice.
ElleEsse asks, “Why would Walmart cut their own throats by supporting the educational status quo?”
Are you kidding? The Waltons love the status quo. They profit from it big-time. They love the decline of the middle class because it means more people forced to either work or shop in WalMarts. The Waltons donate all those hundreds of millions of dollars to destroy public education because quality public schools have been the great American equalizer. The vast majority of Americans who came from poor backgrounds to graduate from college and join the middle class did so through public schools. The more people who attain middle class status the worse it is for WalMart.
ElleEsse notes, “btw, the teacher unions do very little for Arizona public education teachers, anyway.”
I can’t argue with this statement. However, if unions are so ineffective then why do you and others scapegoat them as the cause of the poor performance of Arizona students?
Here’s a little test for you. Rank the states by how well their students perform…however you want to measure their performance…and compare it with a ranking of the states according to the power of their teacher unions. You will find that the states in the top half of the student performance ranking are mostly the same states that have powerful teacher unions. And the states in the bottom half based on student performance by and large have the weakest teacher unions. That is not an accident. Teachers try to find the best jobs for themselves. The states that offer the best salaries, the best benefits, and the best working conditions are…not surprisingly…the states with the strong teacher unions. By and large, the states with the best teachers are the states with the highest student performance. It is one of the many applications of the most basic rules of capitalism…the law of supply and demand.
Somehow, though, particularly to the “ed reform” crowd where individualism (“choice”) and self-interest are paramount, these virtues are not available to teachers–who are supposed to be standardized drones, clerks, really, who simply implement the curriculum and standards of others (who are mostly not from the teaching profession themselves). Pointing out anomalies to teacher/union bashing like the post about teachers unions just confuses the (ostensibly “data driven”) reformers with the facts!
Involvement. Arizona doesn’t have to be number one but number fifty-one after the District of Columbia in public funding for education, is that correct? Can that be, with all the talk of boosting the economy by attracting development and jobs? Employers want not only for themselves and employees forced to move to keep their jobs equal educational opportunities as they leave behind in other states.
We all grew into pride and attachment with our local schools. Drama, band and sports fired us up and came to identified us over a number of years. Too many of us left it all when we moved to Arizona. The many reasons we moved here are keeping us busy and out of touch with our local schools.
The lack of involvement and attachment to our schools means the basis for interest in the school system has become simply economic. Teachers naturally it is bottom-line their economic well being for themselves and their families. Administrators their ladder to enhanced career opportunities. Private schools, public alternative charter schools and
other for profit schools bottom-line their return on investment.
What about involvement of all of the rest, who came from other areas and have never stepped into one of our neighborhood public schools? A special good neighbor pass to a sports event, free admission to a music or drama presentation especially for them. If the sports club members went door to door in their neighbor giving something away not just to sell candy or magazines wouldn’t that create goodwill and surprise folks?
Ok, dumb ideas. People aren’t interested in seeing other people’s kids perform.
Then it’s their bottom-line, their economic interest!
The value of their home is directly related to the education system in their communities.
The better academic performance and yes, reputation of your local school the more value to your property. Given a choice, a home located in a better school district will sell faster and at a higher price than otherwise.
Want support for your district schools, involve everyone. The old saying, ‘money talks’, can be the answer for public support and interest in our education system. Put it on the line, a well maintained and viable public school system enhances property values. Want top dollar for your home? Get involved in your local district school.