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Who's funding the voucher battle? Part II posted October 29th
The money & special interests behind the voucher battle in Utah.
<< part I the Utah House Floor debate
Following the money indeed sheds light on the voucher debate. Its obvious from the barrage of commercials, signs and radio ads, that this is indeed a heavily financed issue and most of the money funding the fight against vouchers is coming from outside of Utah.
Neither Utahns For Public Schools nor Parents for Choice can honestly claim to be "grass-roots." In their funding and support. Neither group is publicly condoning their underlying beliefs, especially Utahns for Public Education. There are greater forces at work and this article seeks to inform readers why huge money is flowing into Utah to stop vouchers and wy Patrick Byrne CEO of Overstock.com has contributed over $2 million dollars to vouchers realized in Utah.
Patrick Byrne is a self-described Libertarian. Libertarians are a political group who members included the famous author Ayne Rand and today include some of the most well-respected economic minds of our day, including syndicated columnist Walter Williams and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Libertarians wish for liberty, and they define liberty as freedom from the power of the Federal and State Government. Libertarians are very strong advocates of the free-market. The former philosophical leader of the Libertarians is the Late Economist Milton Freedman. Parents For Choice is heavily endorsed by the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation.
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Milton Friedman's support of school choice Milton Friedman was a monetary advisor under the Ronald Reagan Administration. Friedman is known to many Conservatives and the "father of modern economic policy." and "trickle down economics."Friedman is famous for suggesting Reagan lower taxes to increase revenue and spur economic growth. This is relevant in the voucher debate because Freedman is something of a demiGod when it comes to Conservative economic policy. Freedman, was actually a Libertarian, not a Conservative. However, he believed strongly in school choice. And his foundation promotes his vision of using free-markets to reform public education in the United States. |
Friedman was a strong believer in the private sector and the triumph of personal freedom and liberty over Government entitlements to achieve greatness in the United States. The Friedman ideals provide the heart behind the voucher initiative. So who is providing the money? Fodder for those who believe Walmart wants to take over the world, it turns out the super-store heirs provided the initial funding under their PAC Political Action Committee called All Children Matter. All children Mattter funneled over $300 thousand dollars to Parents for Choice in 2006, most of this money was given to candidates running for reelection in the Utah House of Representatives. According to the Deseret News, those candidates who recieved funding from Parents for Choice all voted in favor of vouchers. Conversely, all candidates running who recieved funding from the N.E.A. voted to oppose vouchers. (see Deseret News article)
All Children Matter, is a very wealthy foundation that has received contributions from the Wal-Mart heirs Jim, John and Sam Walton, who each donated over $3 million dollars. Other contibutors include heirs of Amway. No doubt without the funding from Parents for Choice and the money from the N.E.A. Utah vouchers would not be the contested battle we are witnessing today.
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Parents for Choice in Education funding pyramid |
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Another strong financial proponent, not of vouchers, but school reform is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda Gates recently wrote a nationally syndicated piece that appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune. The Gates do not take an official stance on the voucher issue. However, recently The Gates donated $60 million dollars to promote education reform in the 2008 presidential election. As Melinda Gates points out:
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"That a million students drop out each year is terrible. But even worse, many of those who do graduate aren't learning what they need to be successful. Students are sitting in classrooms, bored and unchallenged, and are being left unprepared for the future. " -Melinda French Gates |
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The Gates foundation initiative called "Strong American Schools", believes the American public education system is outdated and needs an overhaul for the 21st century. As of today the N.E.A and P.T.A unions have opposed every idea the Gates have publicly proposed; such as linking teacher salaries to student achievement. This innovative approach would directly link teachers pay to classroom success. This could be a huge incentive for innovative minded college graduates to consider the teaching profession. Despite the fact that vouchers would reduce class sizes and put more money into public education, Teacher Unions however, are not in favor of reform.
The heart of the battle
So what is the real fight over? Lets begin by first commenting on what the voucher fight is not about. Anti-voucher ads say vouchers will take money away from public schools. No they wont (see right-hand side-line) opponents say vouchers will "divide the money," which is again inaccurate at best. Public school money wont be touched or affected in any way by vouchers. With these untrue arguments out of the mix; then why are the teacher unions so vehemently opposed to vouchers?
This was indeed the most difficult question to answer. Teachers are always the first to cry out for more money for public schools and smaller class sizes. Vouchers accomplish these two goals. So now the truth is revealed why would teachers oppose vouchers.
The answer to this question is found by examining the greater forces at work in our Utah voucher battle. Part of the motive behind the greater powers is revealed from watching a 20/20 investigation conducted by John Stossel, called "Stupid in America."
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John Stossel investigates why so many kids are stupid in America |
Stossel discovers that School Board and teacher union power is stifling public school innovation in America. Stossel's piece vilifies teacher unions because they are opposed to any idea or organization that might undermine their authority.
The U.E.A. has opposed any innovative change that might remove or undermine their power base. Unions are strongly opposed to the charter school initiative. Some of this sentiment seemed to be confirmed in my interview with Larry Tollman. He drove up from Saint George to attend the voucher debate.
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click to watch interview Larry Tolman opposes charter schools and vouchers because teachers aren't required to be board certified |
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National Unions and other state unions, including the California Education Association, who contributed $50,000 to fight vouchers in Utah in 2006, are combining their efforts to kill school vouchers from passing in Utah. These Unions are indeed ultimately fighting to save their relevancy, power and possibly their union. According the the Deseret News, as of November 1st, teacher unions from twenty different states have funded the anti-voucher campaign to the tune of 3.2 million dollars, ninety-four percent of the total budget for the anti-voucher campaign. And as KSL reported their funding has primarily been towards commerical advertisements that blatently proclaim flase statements. Such as there most common statement that vouchers will take money away from public schools. (see article) Despite KSL's conclusions, their editorial board has come out against vouchers.
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Utahns for public schools funding pyramid
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| from CNN: The NEA and its political action committee donated $3.1 million to federal candidates and the two political parties in the last presidential election cycle, the AP reported. About 90 percent of those donations went to Democrats. |
Why are unions so appealing to teachers?
The teacher unions (The N.E.A. and P.T.A.) provide public school teachers with a powerful lobbying arm that ensures their job security, wages, insurance and even discounts on car rentals and vacations. Teachers support union practices and beliefs so these benefits will remain secure and intact. Former first education secretary under George Bush, Rod Page set off a firestorm when he released his book: The War Against Hope: How Teachers' Unions Hurt Children, Hinder Teachers, and Endanger Public Education. Page exposes how teacher unions shackle students to a failing education system while exposing the bullying techniques of the N.E.A.
According to Page, teacher unions dictate what teachers must support or oppose. For teachers to venture outside of Union beliefs might result in bullying tactics by the union and/or other teachers who are strongly entrenched. This bullying practice continues because opposing the union is seen equivalent to fighting against job security, pensions and a reliable salary for the two-thirds of teachers who belong to the unions in Utah.
In other words , the teacher unions use fear mongering and bullying tactics to dictate teacher's opinion and support. Despite the potential of becoming a faculty outcast, there have been teachers who have defected against the union and spoken out in favor of vouchers. Gordon Jones and his wife are two public outspoken public school supporters of vouchers. (read their opinion here)
<< the house debate (part I following the motives & money) |
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comments on this video on YouTube
see comments on Vouchers for Dummies on UtahPolitics.org
see utahStories on MySpace
Send me your comments rmarkosian@gmail.com (I'll post them below my article)
comment from: Ronald Davidson (retired teacher from Oregon)
When my principal called me into his office to warn me that he did not want to see my name or the names of my family on the voters' list, I knew that our education system had gained too much power over the ballot box. I believe that a tax-supported competition or voucher can help to balance that power.
When I received a call to oppose the Utah voucher, I told the caller of my concern about the tactics being used against teachers and encouraged her to support vouchers. She said she could not because she was an Ohio resident/teacher. She was doing only what she had been told to do from Ohio. That call led me to believe that our National Education Association has too much more power than our local citizens to determine our local state education issues. We must unite locally through a voucher system to try to oppose strong national educational forces.
Ron Davison
Voucher Links
voucher supporters:
Walter Williams column on vouchers & school choice
voucher opponents:
NSBA (national school board association)
I've included this final link because they are clearly making false claims. Money would not actually go from public schools to fund religious schools, as they claim. The truth is that public schools would receive more money per student if vouchers were enacted. Currently it costs approximately $7,000 to educate each student per year in Utah. The most students could receive from a voucher is $3,000. This would leave and extra $4,000 in the public school coffers for every student enrolled in the voucher program. This money would go towards increasing the per pupil spending in Utah public schools.
