Latest News and Comment from Education

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Beware! Powerful Koch Network Starts New Group to Fight Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Beware! Powerful Koch Network Starts New Group to Fight Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Beware! Powerful Koch Network Starts New Group to Fight Public Schools

Charles Koch and his network of wealthy donors have created a new Astroturf organization called “Yes Every Kid” to promote school choice and take public money away from public schools.
Yes, they are targeting “every kid” as a prime prospect for a charter school or a voucher.
Yes, they want to shrink public schools so that they are no longer the “choice” of 90% of American families.
Koch in June announced the Yes Every Kid initiative as the latest addition to his sprawling network of wealthy donors, political groups and tax-exempt advocacy organizations best known for pushing anti-regulation, small-government policies. Its political arm, Americans for Prosperity, has made waves supporting the tea party and fighting former President Barack Obama’s health care law.
The Yes Every Kid group is tasked with monitoring statehouses where it can be influential on school choice, said Stacy Hock, a Texas philanthropist who is among hundreds of donors each contributing at least $100,000 annually to the Koch network’s wide-ranging agenda.
Hock and officials with the Koch network said it’s too early to provide specifics about what policies the group is pushing.
“The priority is to go where there is a political appetite to CONTINUE READING: Beware! Powerful Koch Network Starts New Group to Fight Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog