CYNICAL SCHOOL CHOICE STUNTS RAMP UP IN OKLAHOMA
JANUARY 31, 2015 BRETT DICKERSON
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| Booker T. Washington School in Tulsa was one of the first magnet schools in the state. The main purpose was to entice Tulsa Schools parents and students to desegregate the schools there. It has been an outpost of racial inclusion and quality since. Photo by one of the early graduates of the Booker T magnet school. |
Once upon a time in Oklahoma, magnet public schools were the “choice” that allowed for much more creativity and freedom. They helped to break years of racial/economic segregation. But that’s not the point of a huge “school choice” push today.
Instead, “school choice” has become code for getting an unwitting public to allow private investor corporations to siphon tax money from the public and funnel it into accountability black boxes. And worse, they will do that while re-segregating American education and society.
Advocates don’t really want competition
Proponents of “school choice” – choicers – argue that when there is competition in an education marketplace, quality will just magically break out.
But it won’t. It won’t because participants in any market place actively attempt to eliminate the competition as I pointed out in an earlier post. Increasing profits for any business come from doing away with or absorbing their competition.
Anyone who argues for competition as a way to improve schools while keeping all of the choices in place simply doesn’t understand how competition works. Or, worse, they are consciously trying to deceive others.
And that deception is what I want to point out here.
Deception
There are some people for choice who are sincere. But the ones we are hearing from the loudest and the most right now are those who make a handsome living trying to destroy support for a common, publicly-controlled education.
Their donors want a small minority of the rich to control what is being taught, and that can’t happen unless publicly-controlled schools and professional teachers are destroyed in their current form.
I’m seeing a very real increase in cynical stunts by some organizations, mostly those that are associated with the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.
If you don’t already know, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, or OCPA, is tied in tightly with ALEC, the Koch Brothers, and many other donors who want to profit by forcing you to pay taxes that their buddies in the legislature will turn over to them without any accountability.
There are several cynical, deceptive practices that I have been observing over the last several weeks as we draw nearer to the Oklahoma Legislature convening.
Twitter Hashtag Flooding
Hashtag flooding is where a relatively small group of people flood a particular hashtag that is being used by their opponents to connect with each other. The subject matter of the tweets is intended to Cynical School Choice Stunts Ramp Up In Oklahoma: