Devos funded false front ed reform group head says Pre-K, K teachers indoctrinate about unions.

[madfloridian]

Run time: 03:23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6eioNQ5SNE   Posted on YouTube: November 29, 2011 By YouTube Member: eagfoundation Views on YouTube: 181   Posted on DU: December 04, 2011 By DU Member: madfloridian Views on DU: 2351

 
Hat tip to an education blogger for coming across this interview.

The latest right-wing loony accusation is delivered by Kyle Olson of the Michigan-based grouplet, the Education Action Group.

Olson parades around as a concerned parent of a kindergartener. But we have pointed out that the EAG is secretly funded, has close ties to the Koch brothers, Andrew Breitbart and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The Mackinac Center has recently been exposed for secretly sending emails and lobbying Michigan legislators in violation of their non-partisan tax status.

...This week, Kyle went on Fox (surprise) to denounce the use of Click Clack Moo. Cows that Type to indoctrinate kindergarten students in pro-union ideology. He accused a Chicago teacher of sneaking the word, “negotiate,” into a vocabulary lesson."

This Fox interview of Kyle Olson by Gretchen Carlson is really showing the anti-union agenda of the education reform movement.

Olson is attacking the use of a book called Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type...a delightful book about how some cows typed out a demand for electric blankets. The cows said they would give no milk that day, that it was getting cold in the barn. Here is a video of the book, and I will post it separately as well. They got their blankets, but then the ducks took up demands.

Click, Clack, Moo. Cows That Type

I was stunned at Gretchen Carlson. I never watch Fox, so I was surprised at how she sounds. Unbelievable.

Olson's group, EAG...Education Action Group..is truly a false front group. Here is more about it.

EAG isn’t really a group. It’s two very partisan men with ties to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Dick DeVos of Amway Corp. fame. Olson’s brother is director of education policy at the Mackinac Center, another anti-union, pro-privatization group. The man who incorporated EAG, Eric Doster, is a Michigan Republican Party lawyer who has served on the board of the Great Lakes Education Project, a political action committee linked to DeVos. DeVos, of course, helped finance the failed 2000 vouchers initiative.

EAG bashes the collective bargaining process and school employees’ rights to inform the community and to work to elect leaders who value students and the employees who teach and help them at school.

[madfloridian]

1. Olson disapproves of students being taught to be "environmentally literate."

In the video he says that is pushing an agenda. What is wrong with these guys? Have they no shame at all?

[certainot]

2. after reinforcement on 1000 radio stations and many that depend on college sports

for community credibility and ad revenue, the message will be well spread and established.

those universities really need to start taking their mission statements more seriously and get off RW radio.

[MichiganVote]

3. Ok.First that's BS. Second,what kind of moron really thinks that Kin. kids understand unions?

[spedtr90]

4. Wasn't Moses a union organizer?

Point being, you can always find what you're looking for.

The same story could be considered to have an anti-union point of view, with the greedy animals driving the farmer out of business. So what if they're cold - they should thank the farmer they are not starving! But I guess the "bad" words are so scary Mr. Olson didn't consider that option. In that case the story would be just fine, wouldn't it?

I feel I should read the book to know how to counter what it says, but I'll be damned if I'll buy it.

[spedtr90]

5. Olson has a weekly column on Breitbart's Big Government site

http://biggovernment.com/kolson/2011/07/29/indoctrination-fridays-three-little-pigs-slaughtered-by-leftists

I don't know which is more disgusting - the columns or the comments.

Olson takes an obscure 1994 article called “Rethinking the Three Little Pigs” that was less than 1 page long and concludes the fairy tale could be used to discuss “why homes are different in different parts of the world” and that different does not mean inferior. He presents it as if every teacher adopted her idea and it is another piece of the big conspiracy - it was that week's example of "leftist propaganda incorporated into public school curriculum".

In fact, finding a teacher who even heard of that article before the publicity for this book would be quite a task. But do a search for “Rethinking the Three Little Pigs” and every right wing blog comes up.

The people commenting on Olson's column do not have to worry about rethinking anything.
If they could manage to think once about something it would be a miracle.

[chervilant]

6. K&R, and just WOW...

Nothing surprises me anymore...

[midnight]

7. This guy complaining about the Wisconsin teacher doing her job is just mad

that the state of Wisconsin has made it a law to teach children about labor.... and that she is following the law.... The Republicans want our school teachers to break the law?


"Here’s a piece of irony: Wisconsin law requires that public school students be taught the history of organized labor. The kids certainly are getting a real-time lesson in the subject."http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/25/wisconsin-law-requires-teaching-of-history-of-organized-labor/

[sulphurdunn]

8. The right wing continues

to push the double standard that assumes right wing indoctrination to be objective while progressive teaching is subversive, which it is, and must be in a world dominated by people like DeVos, her money and her puppets. Legitimate education is and has always been subversive. Socrates was executed for it and nothing has changed. Anything less than revealing the truth while teaching people how to be responsible citizens is the mere training of worker bees. Indoctrinated conformity for the masses is the clear goal of all conservative educational models and always has been.

[GreenEyedLefty]

9. I never, ever watch Fox news but at the gym...

my favorite machine is parked in front of the one TV that plays it. What a bunch of goddamned kooks. Rallying to the defense of the poor, put upon Republican presidential candidates because they're such victims of the liberal media. Yammering on about the "WAR ON CHRISTMAS."

At the very least it gets me good and pissed off, resulting in an excellent workout.

On the actual topic... I always loved Click Clack Moo for the very reasons the anti-union nuts hate it. Heh heh. Indoctrination, indeed.

[sulphurdunn]

12. Just about anywhere I go

that has a TV on the wall (including the gym and the doctors office) has either FOX news on or Judge Judy. :shrug:

[cmd]

10. I read Click, Clack, Moo to my kindergarten class

and never once thought I was indoctrinating my kids. It's simply a cute story with great illustrations.
These people are sick.

[blackspade]

11. Just great. More republican carnival barkers.

These guys are pathetic.
But they are great for book sales!

[Selena Harris]

13. Betsy DeVos is Erik Prince's sister;yes,the same Blackwater Prince-eom

DeVos grew up in Holland, Michigan, the daughter of Elsa Zweip Prince (later, Broekhuizen) and Edgar Prince, a self-made industrialist noted for his right-wing politics and strict Christian values.<2><3> Edgar was the founder of Prince Corporation, an automobile parts supplier based in Holland, Michigan, which at one time employed almost one-quarter of the population of the town.<2> DeVos' mother has been a philanthropist and has been active in conservative social causes, including supporting an anti-gay marriage ballot proposal in California.<4> DeVos' brother, Erik Prince, founded Blackwater USA, a private security firm which has operations in Iraq.<2>

After graduating from Holland Christian High School, DeVos attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and political science. In the 1980s, she married Dick DeVos, an heir to the Amway fortune, who ran its parent company Alticor, from 1993 to 2002 and was the 2006 Republican nominee for governor of Michigan.<2><5> The couple has four children.


Wikipedia

[Selena Harris]

14. Blackwater Runs Red

Dick and Betsy DeVos donate huge sums of money to Republican candidates and causes. In the 2004 cycle, the couple ranked fifth among the highest political donors with $981,846 to Republicans. In fact, from 1990 through 2006, the couple donated $2,491,270 to Republicans with only $1,000 going to Democrats back in 1992.

The Grand Rapids Press reported July 9:

Since 1999, DeVos, his wife, Betsy, and their immediate family have poured at least $7 million into expanding school choice -- vouchers, tuition tax credits and charter schools -- and promoting candidates who back those causes.
In 2000, the family headed the campaign to legalize school vouchers in Michigan, raising big money and donating plenty as well. The initiative failed to pass.

This election cycle, the family is back at it again. But this time, Dick is running for the Republican Party's nomination for Michigan Governor. His campaign chairman is David Brandon, chief executive of Domino's Pizza and major Republican donor. Brandon has given over $100,000 to GOP candidates since 1987. (Side note: The founder of Domino's Pizza, Thomas Monaghan, broke ground on the Ave Maria, Florida township, complete with its own university and strict Catholic-based laws.)

(NOTE: The particulars on Ave Maria University are a thread in and of itself,imho.)

Blackwater Runs Red

www.sealtwo.org/blackwaterprince.htm

Dick and Betsy DeVos donate huge sums of money to Republican candidates ... Pizza, Thomas Monaghan, broke ground on the Ave Maria, Florida township, ...