Voucher propaganda
As the debate over vouchers escalates in the run-up to the Nov. 6 referendum, the stupidity of the rhetoric may have already red lined. (Yeah, right.)
In his lengthy essay on Utah education values, voucher-lovin' Paul Mero of the Sutherland Institute tenuously linked the American public school movement to the Ku Klux Klan. here
A little over the top, you say?
The Utah Democratic Party, which opposes vouchers, has launched on its blog a series of "facts" attacking vouchers.
"Fact #2" connects education vouchers with "white-flight academies" that emerged in Virginia in the 1950s. Below a photograph of voucher supporters holding a sign at the Capitol is an archive photo of some bozos waving a Confederate flag. here
It doesn't take an Imperial Wizard to recognize propaganda when he sees it. Somebody out there apparently thinks Utah voters are knuckleheads.
-- Glen Warchol
In his lengthy essay on Utah education values, voucher-lovin' Paul Mero of the Sutherland Institute tenuously linked the American public school movement to the Ku Klux Klan. here
A little over the top, you say?
The Utah Democratic Party, which opposes vouchers, has launched on its blog a series of "facts" attacking vouchers.
"Fact #2" connects education vouchers with "white-flight academies" that emerged in Virginia in the 1950s. Below a photograph of voucher supporters holding a sign at the Capitol is an archive photo of some bozos waving a Confederate flag. here
It doesn't take an Imperial Wizard to recognize propaganda when he sees it. Somebody out there apparently thinks Utah voters are knuckleheads.
-- Glen Warchol
10:43 AM
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9 Comments:
A lot of someones think we're too stupid to decide the issue on more than emotionally-charged rhetoric. It's been hard to find facts in the entire mess since everyone has chosen to pick only what's favorable to them or just make up their own.
I looked at Mero's report and the Democrats blog series and then did some reserch.
Mero's stuff was mush.
The Democrats never actually said that todays advocates are related to the "white flight" groups, but their piece is actuially easy to research and it seems that this history is fact.
How is it propaganda if it is true?
It's propaganda because the implication is there. Why even bother bringing up the fact unless you're trying to assert that all voucher supporters are the same?
First off ... I admit I have "Mero-envy." He has the ability to slickly produce 50 pages of hogwash called "Vouchers, Vows, and Vexations" and somebody actually pays attention.
Now, Mr. Warchol, my good friend, it was a tough call. Definitely politically incorrect.
But it’s probably best to get the full story out, as most serious journalists would agree.
Vouchers were, in fact, a tool used by segregationists – just as today vouchers are a tool used by ideologues who fervently believe in the free-market philosophies of Milton Friedman to privatize the K-12 education system.
The Friedmanites may be as dangerous to American society as the segregationists.
As you pointed out, the vignette is but one in a series that attempts to highlight questions that so far Utah media have not answered. Such as?
Who are these people? They seem to be on a mission? Why must it take legal action to find out what they’re up to and who pays the bills? Will Utahns find out only after the election that Parents for Choice in Education, like similar organizations across the country, amounts to a “Trojan horse” organization strategically created to mask the ultimate goal of secretive, wealthy, uber privatizers?
I cannot answer that. And, of course, the PCE voucher crowd would simply dismiss the notion as outrageous and conspiratorial, if not paranoiac.
However, a vaguely similar, high visibility, ostensibly progressive, national pro-voucher advocacy group called The Black Alliance for Educational Options may be the model. It received over $2 million in grants from the Olin, Walton, Hume, and Bradley foundations between 2001 and 2003. These groups are not friends of progressive causes.
The Waltons’ generosity was funneled via All Children Matter (ACM) into PCE coffers the past few years (Currently, ACM appears to be MIA), and The Bradley Foundation was quite generous ($1 million) to Charles Murray, author of the controversial 1994 book “The Bell Curve.” The book suggested that African-Americans are intellectually inferior to whites.
The voucher crowd has consistently lost ballot initiatives across the country over the last few years. Will their new tactic – enlisting Legislatures dominated by ideological Republicans – be more effective? It seems to have been effective in Utah. (Seven Utah lawmakers sit on the “Policy Advisory Board” of the pro-voucher, uber-conservative Heartland Institute out of Chicago. Writing in a 2002 edition of The Monthly Heartlander, The Heartland Institute newsletter, Joseph Bast, the organization’s president, wrote that voucher programs such as the one in Cleveland were springboards for universal voucher plans that will eventually cause public schools to be “converted into private schools or simply close their doors.”)
What will it take for Utah media to point out that HB 148 will not help disadvantaged kids, not even a little! In fact, parents of disadvantaged kids waive their rights to receive certain types of specialized education when signing up for private schools.
Mush, Darrell the blogger? I find this whole exercise entirely fascinating...that is, all of the critics who say lots of things about me, personally, my work on the essay, specifically, and Sutherland's motives and operations, generally.
Point: NO ONE has found one thing incorrect or not factual in the essay.
My friend, Glen, has in his posesseion an article from the American Historical Review journal from a Harvard history professor who wrote at length about the invovlement of the KKK in the "common identity movement" that led to such "progressive" ideas as the Oregon law in the early 1920's (cited in my essay) to coerce ALL children into its public schools and prohibiting the operations of parochial schools.
I would be pleased to email the PDF of that article (for educational purposes only, of course)if anyone out there who can read might request it.
I also find it fascinating that the "two extremes"...the propagandists, if you will, are the only ones who understand that the voucher fight is between those of us who see it as a civil rights issue (me) versus the other side who see it as a fundamental matter of democractic values (UEA).
Everyone else seems to think it is all about money or failed public schools or dishonest private schools or simply politics.
All rubbish.
While reporter Rebecca Walsh's last article was about as mean-spiritied as you can get (and a little weird as to how personal it sounded, quite frankly)she did write one truth: this is a moral issue for this generation here in Utah.
So, keep talkin' trash on these blogs and let the rest of us who actually think work to make sound public policy that really does help low-income, minority public school students.
Best to all, PTM
Hey, has anyone seen the amazing similarities between Paul Mero and SLC Mayor Rocky Anderson?
I mean, in terms of pure persecution complexes, they're a total match!
Both are deeply mistreated and misrepresented by the media. Both have an unerring ability to find and tell the absolute truth. People who make a living writing about their actions are just a lower-life form.
You be the judge...I'm just sayin'
Oh my gosh...you're right!
I take it all back. :)
PTM
"It's All About the Union Stupid"
As we draw closer to a vote in November of school vouchers here in Utah, it's becoming increasingly clear that this fight has nothing to do with the education of our children, but rather the desperate concern of the teachers Union to maintain a monopoly over education dollars.
http://www.neamb.com/
Here is another report on how teachers are treating parents who question the Teachers Union’s position on Referendum 1.
Vanocur from ABC news has a woman on camera claiming she went in for Parent-Teacher Conference and was asked to donate to Utahns for Public Schools. When she refused and said she supports vouchers, the teacher became hostile. The responses from Utahns for Public Schools, the UEA and SL School District are hilarious.
http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=fa5084ec-90ce-4ee9-908e-9bd0e7a0221a
(ABC 4 News)
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Is the political battle over school vouchers in Utah starting to interfere with your child's education? Well, that's what one Utah parent is wondering after - according to her - she was asked for an anti-voucher contribution during a recent parent teacher conference. On November 6th, Utah voters will be asked to vote for or against a new voucher plan. That plan would provide up to 3 thousand dollars of state money for parents who want to send children to private school. But now one parent claims those against Referendum One may be crossing a line. Here's what she says happened when she went to a parent teacher conference last week. The parent claims, "We went through about ten minutes of the conference and then she handed me an envelope and asked me if I was interested in donating money to the fund against the voucher system." The parent also says she was stunned when asked to contribute money during the parent teacher conference and then when she refused, says a heated exchange took place. "When I said no I'm not interested, I support the vouchers, she continued to go on and tell me why I was wrong," says the parent.
The State Board of Education has made it clear that fund-raising while on duty is not allowed.
And the anti-voucher group, Utahns for Public Schools, emailed ABC 4 this response: "Our campaign does not comment on anonymous reports. However, it is interesting to note that the claims of this anonymous source would never see the light of day in an unaccountable private voucher school because they aren't held to the same high standards as public schools."
As for the Salt Lake School district and the UEA, they say a teacher at the school was fanning herself with the anti-voucher materials during a parent teacher conference, and when a parent asked what they were, the district and the UEA claim the teacher then jokingly asked for a contribution.
And after we learned of their comments, ABC 4 checked back with the parent who made the original claim.
We have a failing public school system
We have a failing public school system which continues to suck down more and more money while delivering less in terms of well educated graduates.
We continue to fall behind the rest of the world in both the quality of our educational output and the quantity.
Tanya Clay House of the ultra-liberal People for the American Way recently declared, "We've never seen a shred of credible evidence that shows school vouchers actually help students learn. While all public schools must demonstrate success under No Child Left Behind, private schools are not held to the same level of accountability for their performance."
But lets ask the question another way, speaking of those same shreds of evidence, we've not seen many that point to those now in charge of that public school system having the ability to turn that around. In fact, there seems to be more evidence than not that they're incapable of doing so.
So the question becomes how competition could be any worse than monopoly? How could allowing the consumer of the education product to choose that which they find to best fill their own childrens needs be any worse than the arbitrary standards and needs of the monopoly?
From the side of the political spectrum which claims to be for "choice" this should be an issue for which they are fighting for the choice vouchers bring, not against.
Jason Bourne
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