Beware of Astroturf!
The following piece comes to us from Illinois teacher, writer, and musician Glen Brown. He writes in response to the recent increase in groups, funded largely by corporate interests, that are springing up to “organize” communities around their agenda. Like the Parent Trigger and Students First, these are groups and initiatives that capitalize on public outrage over schools– and a small group of parents’ legitimate grievances with underfunded and unsupported school systems– to mobilize under-informed communities to promote an agenda that often undermines the best interests of the whole community. Instead of offering tools to really empower parents and communities to create original solutions for their school communities, they incite people to support