From Guest Blogger Rachel Tabachnick, Talk to Action: Voucher Advocate Betsy DeVos, Right-Wing Think Tanks Behind Koch-Style Attack on PA Public Schools (Section 2)
Continued from Section 1. Re-posted with permission from Talk to Action in three sections. Read section 3.
Students First?
Students First PAC, a 527 created to promote vouchers in Pennsylvania, was established on March 10, 2010 by Joe Watkins. On the Students First website Watkins describes himself “as an aide to a president of the United States and as a pastor of a church,” but he doesn’t mention that the president was George W. Bush. Nor does the bio mention Watkins’ lobbying and investment fund resume, his appearances on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox as a Republican strategists, or being featured in a Citizens United advertisement attacking Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. The website does nothing to give away it’s right-wing backing or their extreme agendas, unless you happen to be familiar with the generic-sounding foundations listed as supporting the bills.
Students First shares the name of the network founded by Michelle Rhee, former D.C. school superintendent and a star in the documentary Waiting for Superman, who has been described by some as the Sarah Palin of education because of the unusual media attention. She has now shocked some of her more progressive fans by joining forces with Florida Governor Rick Scott who is promoting a Vouchers-for- All bill. The Pennsylvania Students First organization is actually an affiliate of American Federation for Children(AFC), chaired by Betsy DeVos, as it states on the website. A donation to Students First PAC was received from Joel Greenberg, a board member of AFC, on the date the PAC was formed.
Approximately 5 million dollars from Greenberg, a co-founder of Susquehanna
From Guest Blogger Rachel Tabachnick, Talk to Action: Voucher Advocate Betsy DeVos, Right-Wing Think Tanks Behind Koch-Style Attack on PA Public Schools (Section 3)
Continued from Section 1 and Section 2. Re-posted with permission from Talk to Action in three sections. This is section 3.
Targeting Pennsylvania Public Schools
The Family Research Council website features a speech given in 1999 by Hubert Morken, a Pat Robertson biographer and Regent University professor. Titled “The Naked Public School: Religion, Education and Character in the Aftermath of Columbine,” Morken describes the alliances and outreach efforts to African Americans in Pennsylvania,
“The leadership dimension of education reform is the most exciting of all today. For example, for decades, school choice went nowhere as long as it was perceived as a Catholic issue. Evangelical Protestants who prevented this reform now join with Catholics to promote it, and these religious
From Guest Blogger Rachel Tabachnick, Talk to Action: Voucher Advocate Betsy DeVos, Right-Wing Think Tanks Behind Koch-Style Attack on PA Public Schools (Section 1)