THE BILLIONAIRE OLIGARCHY EDUCATION PROPAGANDA MACHINE
HOW THE 74 CONVINCED AMERICA THAT OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE FAILING
A witty exposé of the slickest PR operation money can buy—and boy, did they buy a lot
The Birth of a Beautiful Lie
Once upon a time in 2015, a former CNN anchor named Campbell Brown had an epiphany. "You know what America needs?" she thought, staring out at the 74 million school-age children across this great nation. "A news outlet funded entirely by billionaires who want to turn public schools into profit centers!"
And lo, The 74 was born—not with a bang, but with a tax-deductible donation.
Co-founded with former Bloomberg advisor Romy Drucker (because if there's one thing Michael Bloomberg knows, it's how to make the little guy feel empowered), The 74 arrived on the scene with a mission: to convince you, dear parent, that the public school down the street is a flaming dumpster fire, your child's teacher is a greedy bureaucrat, and the only salvation is a charter school funded by... well, the same billionaires funding this news site.
Conflict of interest? Perish the thought! They prefer the term "philanthropic alignment."
The Donor Roll Call (AKA The Usual Suspects)
Let's meet the generous souls keeping The 74's lights on, shall we?
The Walton Family Foundation
Tagline: "Always Low Prices, Always Lower Teacher Salaries"
The Walmart dynasty has poured millions into charter schools nationwide. Why? Because nothing says "we care about underserved communities" like the family that pioneered paying workers so little they qualify for food stamps.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Tagline: "We Fixed Malaria, How Hard Can Schools Be?"
Bill Gates—tech genius, mosquito nemesis, and part-time education expert—has spent billions trying to "disrupt" public education. Remember the Small Schools initiative? The Common Core rollout? Yeah, those went great. But hey, third time's the charm with charter schools, right?
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Tagline: "I Bought a Mayorship, Why Not a School System?"
Michael Bloomberg, the man who brought you stop-and-frisk and Big Gulp bans, also brought you aggressive charter expansion in NYC. The 74 is basically his victory lap newsletter.
Dick & Betsy DeVos Family Foundation
Tagline: "Public Schools Are for the Poors"
Betsy DeVos—yacht collector, pyramid scheme heiress, and former Secretary of Education—has never met a public school she didn't want to defund. Her family foundation has bankrolled school choice initiatives with the zeal of a televangelist selling salvation.
Jonathan Sackler
Tagline: "OxyContin for Kids' Futures"
Yes, that Sackler. The family that brought you the opioid crisis is now investing in your child's education. If that doesn't fill you with confidence, what will?
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Tagline: "We Apologize for Facebook, Here's a Charter School"
Mark Zuckerberg famously donated $100 million to Newark schools in 2010. It disappeared faster than your aunt's Facebook account after she discovered QAnon. But sure, let's let him try again!
The Big Lie—A Two-Part Harmony
Since the 1990s, the education reform movement has sung the same song on repeat, like a broken Spotify playlist:
Lie #1: Public Schools Are Failing
The truth? American public schools are actually pretty good—especially when you account for poverty rates. Schools in wealthy suburbs consistently rank among the best in the world. But that doesn't fit the narrative, so The 74 focuses relentlessly on "failing" urban schools while ignoring the systemic poverty, housing instability, and underfunding that create those conditions.
The 74's Strategy: Cherry-pick the worst test scores, ignore context, and scream "CRISIS!" until someone hands you a charter school contract.
Lie #2: Teachers (and Their Unions) Are the Problem
Teachers' unions—those dastardly organizations that fight for livable wages, reasonable class sizes, and the radical notion that educators shouldn't have to buy their own pencils—are portrayed as the Death Star of public education.
The 74's Playbook:
- Strike coverage? Focus on "disruption" to parents, not on why teachers are striking (spoiler: it's usually because they're paid less than Costco managers).
- Contract negotiations? Highlight the "unsustainable" cost of giving teachers a raise, but never question the $8 million consulting contract the district just signed.
- Union demands? Frame them as "adult-centered" selfishness, because apparently wanting a living wage means you hate children.
The Narrative Toolkit—How to Spin a Story in 5 Easy Steps
The 74 has perfected the art of advocacy journalism—reporting that's technically accurate but editorially slanted like a funhouse mirror. Here's how they do it:
Step 1: The "Death Spiral" Narrative
The Setup: Enrollment is dropping in traditional public schools!
The Spin: This is a "vote of no confidence" by parents fleeing a broken system.
The Reality: Enrollment is dropping because of declining birth rates, housing costs, and gentrification—not because parents suddenly discovered charter schools are magic.
The 74's Move: Ignore demography, blame the district, and call for "rightsizing" (a fancy word for closing schools in poor neighborhoods).
Step 2: The "Ghost Student" Gambit
The Setup: During the pandemic, districts received funding for students who weren't physically attending.
The Spin: Districts are hoarding money for "ghost students" while teachers demand raises!
The Reality: That funding kept schools afloat during a once-in-a-century crisis. Now that it's gone, districts face massive deficits—not because of waste, but because the federal government pulled the rug out.
The 74's Move: Use the term "ghost students" to make it sound spooky and fraudulent, then argue for budget cuts and school closures.
Step 3: The "Same Street Contrast"
The Setup: A district school is half-empty while a charter school down the block is thriving.
The Spin: Parents are "choosing" the charter because it's better!
The Reality: Charter schools often have selective enrollment (formal or informal), expel students at higher rates, and aren't required to serve the most expensive special-needs populations. It's not a fair comparison—it's a rigged game.
The 74's Move: Ignore the structural advantages, celebrate the charter, and suggest the district school should be closed or "handed over" to charter management.
Step 4: The "Thin Contract" Praise
The Setup: Some charter schools (like Green Dot in LA) are unionized.
The Spin: These "professional" unions have short, flexible contracts—unlike those bloated, bureaucratic district contracts!
The Reality: Shorter contracts often mean fewer protections for teachers, which is why charter teachers burn out and leave the profession at much higher rates.
The 74's Move: Hold up unionized charters as the "good" unions, implying that traditional unions are the problem—not systemic underfunding or administrative bloat.
Step 5: The "Fiscal Watchdog" Pose
The Setup: A teachers' union demands an 18% raise.
The Spin: This is "mathematically impossible" given declining enrollment and budget deficits!
The Reality: Districts often have massive reserve funds (like LAUSD's $5 billion), and the "deficit" is often a political construct designed to justify austerity.
The 74's Move: Frame union demands as reckless and irresponsible, while never questioning the superintendent's $400,000 salary or the district's $10 million contract with a consulting firm.
The 2026 Playbook—AI, Immigration, and the New Frontier
In 2026, The 74 has found fresh meat for its narrative machine:
AI in Schools: The New "Digital Divide"
The Spin: Charter schools are "moving at the speed of light" to integrate AI, while traditional districts are "bogged down" by union negotiations over AI policies.
The Reality: Maybe—just maybe—teachers want to make sure AI tools don't replace human instruction, violate student privacy, or widen inequality. But sure, let's call that "resistance to innovation."
Immigration Raids and School Surveillance
The Spin: Federal agencies are using school security cameras to monitor immigration activity—a major civil liberties story!
The Reality: This is actually solid investigative journalism. Credit where it's due. But notice how the solution is never "fully fund public schools so they don't need to partner with ICE for security grants." Instead, the implication is that charters—being more "nimble"—can avoid these entanglements.
The LAUSD Strike: "Disruption" vs. "Desperation"
The Spin: UTLA's strike authorization threatens stability! Students are "shut out"! The union is ignoring fiscal reality!
The Reality: Teachers in LA can't afford to live in the city they serve. The district has billions in reserves. But sure, the problem is the teachers asking for a living wage.
The Regional Hubs—Hyper-Local Propaganda
The 74 doesn't just operate nationally—it has tentacles in key markets:
LA School Report
The crown jewel of The 74's regional empire. In 2026, it's been the go-to source for pro-reform board members like Tanya Ortiz Franklin and Nick Melvoin, who cite its "ghost school" data to justify closures.
The Strategy: Provide board members with "data-driven" cover for unpopular decisions, then report on those decisions as if they're inevitable fiscal realities rather than political choices.
LA School Report en Español
Because nothing says "we care about Latino families" like a Spanish-language site funded by the Walton family, whose business model depends on exploiting immigrant labor.
The 74 Vegas
Covering Clark County schools with a focus on—you guessed it—school choice and charter expansion. Because if there's one thing Las Vegas needs, it's more gambling with kids' futures.
The Collaboration Racket—Partnering with "Legitimate" Outlets
The 74 is smart. They know they have a credibility problem. So they partner with more "neutral" outlets to launder their narratives:
EdSource
A California education news nonprofit that frequently co-publishes with The 74. This gives The 74's stories a veneer of objectivity while spreading their talking points to a wider audience.
USC Annenberg Collaboration
The 74 partners with USC to train student journalists, many of whom contribute to LA School Report. This is brilliant: recruit young reporters, shape their understanding of education issues, and create a pipeline of future journalists who've internalized the "reform" narrative.
The Journalists—Talented People, Terrible Boss
Here's the thing: many of The 74's reporters are legitimately talented. Editor-in-Chief Steven Snyder came from TIME and People. Many staffers are alumni of major outlets.
The Problem: Even the best journalists can't escape the editorial framing set by their funders. When your paycheck comes from the Walton Foundation, you're not going to write a hard-hitting exposé on how charter schools drain resources from district schools.
The Result: High-quality reporting on narrow questions, but a systematic blind spot on the bigger picture.
The "Non-Partisan" Fig Leaf
The 74 insists it's "non-partisan." Campbell Brown even wrote an op-ed titled "Advocacy, Journalism, and Why Not Every Story Has Two Sides."
Translation: "We have an agenda, and we're not going to pretend we don't."
The Agenda: Expand charter schools, weaken teachers' unions, and normalize the privatization of public education.
The Fig Leaf: They'll occasionally cover a high-performing district school or a problematic charter closure—just enough to claim balance while overwhelmingly pushing the "reform" narrative.
The Critics Strike Back
Not everyone is buying what The 74 is selling.
Diane Ravitch
The education historian and former reform advocate turned critic has called The 74 a "PR wing for the charter industry." Her blog is a must-read counterpoint to The 74's spin.
Teachers' Unions
The AFT and NEA have repeatedly called out The 74 for biased coverage. They argue that the site's "fiscal watchdog" pose is a smokescreen for an anti-labor agenda.
Class Size Matters
Leonie Haimson's organization has documented how The 74 ignores research showing that smaller class sizes (which require more teachers and higher budgets) are one of the most effective interventions for student achievement.
Conclusion: The Oligarchy's Favorite Newspaper
The 74 is a masterclass in modern propaganda: slick, data-driven, and wrapped in the language of "equity" and "innovation." But strip away the polish, and you'll find the same old story—billionaires using their wealth to reshape public institutions in their image, all while claiming to speak for "the kids."
The Two Big Lies—that public schools are failing and teachers are the problem—have been repeated so often that they've become conventional wisdom. But they're still lies.
Public schools aren't failing—they're being starved. Teachers aren't the problem—they're being scapegoated. And The 74 isn't a news organization—it's a lobbying firm with a really good website.
So the next time you see a headline from The 74 about "ghost schools" or "unsustainable" teacher raises, ask yourself: Who benefits from this narrative?
Spoiler alert: It's not your kid. It's the billionaires who want to turn education into just another market—one where they control the supply, the demand, and the story.
The 74: All the News That's Fit to Privatize™
Brought to you by the fine folks who gave you the opioid crisis, Walmart wages, and Facebook's destruction of democracy. What could possibly go wrong?
