The DeVos Family: Super-Wealthy Right-Wingers Working With the Religious Right to Kill Public Education

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By now you've surely heard of the Kochs. Meanwhile, the powerful, wealthy DeVos family has remained largely under the radar, while leading a stealth assault on America's schools.

 

While there are numerous "technical matters" to be discussed among educators about best pedagogical practices and new developments in natural and cultural sciences of human development to bring into those discussions, there is a well-orchestrated movement of rightist ideologues who are gaining "legitimacy" in centers/institutes and universities fronting their political activism as educational reform. Those of you with various roles within existing school/university systems are likely to see political, not educational, gains made by rightist ideologues affecting your work in ways you have not contemplated as relevant to your work. My recommendation to you is that you inform yourselves of the "stealth assault" of corporatist big-money players in education so as to better self-organize more democratic alternatives to privatization and profit-centered control of what and how kids learn.  

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Did Kaplan Lobby to Deregulate For-Profit Colleges While One of Its Schools Defrauded Students?

Friday, 25 May 2012 00:00By Danny Weil, Truthout | News Analysis

http://truth-out.org/news/item/9317-did-kaplan-lobby-to-deregulate-...

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Published on May 4, 2012 by EvolutionDocumentary
Click Below For The NCSE Youtube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd

The NCSE Website:
http://ncse.com

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Thanks to Connie Weber for posting this link at Facebook. It seems to belong in this discussion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/24/don-mcleroy-former-texas-_... begins: "The Revisionaries," a documentary about textbook standard-setting in Texas, recently debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, and key subject Don McLeroy talked to Stephen Colbert Monday about the state's textbook debate.

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http://willrichardson.com/post/21322527839/wake-up-call?76e830d0

Here's an excerpt from Will Richardson's post on his blog:

I know I’m not the only one who has been suggesting for some time now that we’re at a critical moment in the education conversation in terms of the future of public schooling as we know it, but if you’re an educator and you’re not feeling a sense of foreboding for the near future, I’m not sure what it’s going to take.

The strategy has become really clear: villify unions and teachers through policy and public outcry in ways that effectively compromise our voices when we push back, continue to frame education accountability in terms of our ability to compete against the world (as opposed to collaborate with the world) and, finally, promote more and more objective tests as the way to measure everything from “student achievement” to teacher effectiveness to teacher education programs to, oh, I don’t know, maybe how well the plumbing works. That is the recipe now to a) gain political favor and b) make lots and lots of money.

And it’s working.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/tennessee-evolution-bill-h... A Tennessee bill meant to protect teachers who allow students to question and criticize "controversial" subjects such as evolution and climate change became law on Tuesday after Gov. Bill Haslam (R) declined to act.

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Executive director of the National Center for Science Education Genie Scott talks about the history of creationist legislation (especially in Florida), including bills that allow teachers to "critically analyze" evolution or present the "full range of scientific views of origins". Where: University of South Florida.

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http://www.alternet.org/story/154797/hired_guns_on_astroturf%3A_how...

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The secret weapon Conservatives are using to take down public universities in America. Conservatives are arming up for their war on public universities, trying to de-fund them, destroy them, and replace them with for-profit colleges. Think it's impossible? They did the same thing during the Reagan years with our national system of non-profit hospitals, which have nearly all now been replaced with for-profit hospitals, which is a large part of why our healthcare costs are soaring and hospital executives are suddenly multimillionaires. So the war is on to destroy our state colleges and promote more for-profit colleges. And their primary weapon of choice ISN'T budget cuts to education or tax breaks to for-profit universities. No - their primary weapon of choice is frames.

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http://www.alternet.org/story/154755/the_new_legal_theory_that_enab... A campaign funded by the religious right has effectively rewritten the constitutional separation of church and state in education. Also, more background on ALEC: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-29/how-ralph-nader-s-sins-set...