enrique baloyra: Pro charter billionaires astroturfing Democratic primaries - YouTube

Pro charter billionaires astroturfing Democratic primaries - YouTube

Pro charter billionaires astroturfing Democratic primaries

enrique baloyra


Protesters interrupted Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s rally in Atlanta on Thursday, chanting, “Our children, our choice!” The Democratic presidential hopeful was speaking at an historically Black college when the group demanded, “We want to be heard!”
Conservative outlets claim Warren’s primarily white crowd shouted down the Black protesters, but it was Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley who came back on stage and replied, “No one is here to quiet you, at least not this Black woman.”
The whole thing smacks of a setup, and you can expect more desperate antics like this as the primaries continue to heat up.
The Intercept’s Ryan Grim was at the rally and happened to recognize the protesters were funded by the Walton family. You know, the multibillionaires who’ve poured hundreds of $millions into privatizing our schools.
In fact, the pro-charter group run by the woman who bussed the protesters to the event is entirely funded by the Waltons.
Part of Warren’s campaign includes a proposal to hold the charter school industry “to the same transparency and accountability requirements as traditional public schools” and ban federal funding for any new for-profits.
The protesters claimed this would “limit parental choice.”
But, as Rachel Cohen points out, none of the senator’s proposals would actually affect the schools where the protesters currently send their children, unless, of course, the schools are fraudulent.
“protestors and activists deserve the respect to heard, and it was good Warren met with them. But what activists say is not inherently unimpeachable — and raising thoughts or objections is not silencing them” https://twitter.com/rmc031/status/119...
To be clear, pro-charter billionaires were pivotal in shaping President Obama’s test-and-punish education policies that continue to this day to blame teachers for low test scores in the nation’s poorest schools. And they still have a few horses in the race.
Like Mayor Pete, whose major contributors include the California Charter Association.
And Michael Bloomberg, who just announced a $30 million ad buy using his vast personal wealth.
But progressives like Warren and Bernie Sanders are pushing the party to embrace education policy that actually benefits “students, not the financial or ideological interests of wealthy patrons like the DeVos and Walton families.”
Democrats would be wise to distance themselves from policies supported by the president’s most unpopular member of the president’s cabinet and the union-busting robber barons — like the Walton family — who make $4 million an hour while holding their workers down to $11.

Pro charter billionaires astroturfing Democratic primaries - YouTube