K-12 News Network | United Way’s Corporate NPIC Astroturf was thick in front of LAUSD last Tuesday

K-12 News Network | United Way’s Corporate NPIC Astroturf was thick in front of LAUSD last Tuesday:

United Way’s Corporate NPIC Astroturf was thick in front of LAUSD last Tuesday

California * Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene April 11, 2014 Los Angeles, School Boards 0

“By what logic does United Way engage in an activity that is shunned by all the other charities?” — Professor Ralph E. Shaffer

Amid all the misleading and mendacious reports in the corporate media about Tuesday’s desk charade, there is one revealing Los Angeles Times photo of so-called “students” setting up desks on Beaudry Boulevard in front of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). A photo featuring United Way Greater Los Angeles’ (UWGLA) executive staff members Ryan Smith and Jason Mandell, two poverty pimps pulling down six figure salaries, who are running the whole show. Astroturf like no other. For people needing a background on how the UWGLA operates as an both an extension of its plutocrat donors’ agenda, and as a propaganda megaphone for right-wing think-tanks, see this essay.

UWGLA’s “CLASS” coalition of reactionary Nonprofit Industrial Complex (NPIC) staged this event in support of their Broad Foundation informed priorities for Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) dollars. As one prominent Silver Lake activist, Ken Sitz, astutely pointed out: “you know it’s not a grassroots protest when there’s not a cohort of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) present to menace the demonstrators.” This publicity stunt was pulled off by these well paid professionals with the full knowledge and complicity of John Deasy, whose LCFF priorities are identical to that of the NPIC. After all, Deasy works for the same people. One of the more astute observations the fund-to-advocate paradigm comes from K12NN’s founder, Dr. Cynthia Liu:

The United Way of LA is chief enforcer of Eli Broad’s corporate takeover of public Ed agenda. He’s the reason why I created the term “weaponized philanthropy” to describe how lefty-liberal groups in this city are under his sway. There’s NO good reason on earth the ACLU or LGBT Youth groups would support John Deasy except for the fact that they get money from UWGLA and much of that money comes from Broad.

It is somewhat ironic that the well funded NPIC staffers claim they set up all the desks to represent “all the students that drop out each month”, without discussing their own complicity in policies that push students out of school. Namely, a narrowing of curricula because of the costly drains of the K-12 News Network | United Way’s Corporate NPIC Astroturf was thick in front of LAUSD last Tuesday: