CYNICAL SCHOOL CHOICE STUNTS RAMP UP IN OKLAHOMA
28 FEB 2015 
POSTED BY AHAMILTON
Editor’s Note: This essay appeared in the February 2015 print edition of The Oklahoma Observer. We are publishing it on-line for all to see in light of the Senate Finance Committee’s decision last week to approve SB 609, Sen. Clark Jolley’s ill-conceived, unconstitutional voucher scheme that could steal millions from Oklahoma’s already under-funded public schools.
BY BRETT DICKERSON
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.
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. 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 discredit the position of their opponents.
The flooding happens when a small, well-organized group use a large number of Twitter accounts to RT one well-written attack tweet, which makes it harder for those in the hashtag to actually communicate with each other.
Hashtag flooding also gives occasional observers of the hashtag the impression that opinions have shifted when they have not.
This stunt was originally perfected by conservative organizations opposed to liberal TV commentators who were gaining a large nation-wide Twitter following like Rachel Maddow and Melissa Harris-Perry.
Followers of their show’s hashtag get to know one another and support each other in their agreement CYNICAL SCHOOL CHOICE STUNTS RAMP UP IN OKLAHOMA | Oklahoma Observer: