by Leo Casey
Michelle Rhee and others, on teacher
unions.
How does that compare to the
resources and spending of the leading education reform actors? In a matter of
days after she publicly announced the formation of StudentsFirst, an
explicitly anti-union political lobbying organization, Michelle Rhee had raised
pledges of more than $100 million, with a goal of raising $2 billion over five
years. Rhee’s donors list includes many high profile corporate leaders and
foundations with an anti-union bent, including Murdoch (NewsCorp), Walton Family
(Wal-Mart), Fisher (The Gap), Langone (Home Depot), Tepper (Appaloosa), Arnold
(Enron), New York City Mayor Bloomberg (Bloomberg Inc.), Fournier (Pennant),
Loeb (Third Point), Tudor Jones (Tudor Investment) and Broad (SunAmerica-AIG).
[8]
And StudentsFirst is only one of many such organizations.
Wealthy individuals and foundations are literally pouring billions of dollars
into various anti-union, privatization and corporate “education reform” efforts
on a scale that teacher unions could never hope to match. [9]…
As one examines the issues, the struggles over the future
of public education and teachers unions in America comes to resemble the
classic populist conflict of wealth and money on the one side and masses of
ordinary people on the other. One cannot understand the real power and role of
teacher unions, nor the balance of political power between unions and their
corporate-funded opponents, without coming to grips with this central premise.
And, in truth, when attacks on pubic education and teacher unions are cast as a
concerted campaign by the rich and powerful against ordinary working teachers,
they lose a considerable portion of their potency. [16]
By Leo Casey.
The Shanker Institute.
Read the entire essay. http://shankerblog.org/?p=8177
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