Political Ruminations

VIDEO: The Koch Brothers Effort to Resegregate Our Schools

If you haven’t yet watched Part I [an overview] of  Robert Greenwald’s documentary film series, “The Koch Brothers Exposed”,  you should do that prior to watching Part II, which concerns our public education system.

Part II is about the Wake County school system (one of the largest school districts in the country) in North Carolina, where the Koch founded and funded ‘Americans for Prosperity’ funded a resegregation effort on the part of a group of parents in Wake County. Resegregation. In 2011 America.

Since the Koch brothers are very bullish on privatizing our schools, both I and apparently the films producer, Robert Greenwald, believe that this resegregation effort is just a stepping stone to privatization.

Watch Part II of  The Koch Brothers Exposed - Why do the Koch Brothers want to end public education?

From kochbrothersexposed.com:

The Facts

1. 1. After the November 2009 elections, the Wake County school board dismantled socio-economic diverse schools and began to implement a neighborhood schools plan that would resegregate schools.
2. 2. Resegregation in schools would be a disaster. It would turn back the clock fifty years with the creation of high poverty, racially isolated schools. The integration plan destroyed by Koch-supported board of education members was used as a model for high achieving, diverse schools throughout the country.
3. 3. This October 2011, Wake Country elections will decide if schools become resegregated. Koch-supported candidates are still pushing for neighborhood schools and to end diversity.
4. 4. The Koch brothers free market, libertarian ideology rests on privatization in society, especially the privatization of education.
5. 5. The Kochs founded Americans for Prosperity in 2004, and AFP indirectly poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Wake County school board elections and helped jeopardize the diversity policy.

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RELATED POSTS:

- Koch Brothers Exposed, Part I
- Koch Brothers (page)

VIDEO: The Koch Brothers Propaganda Echo Chamber

The most recent short film from Brave New Films/Robert Greenwald, a primer on the right wing propaganda machine, and in particular, Charles and David Koch’s very successful efforts to undermine support for social security via dissemination of lies/propaganda.

Watch (Sen. Bernie Sanders (D)narrates):

Digby:

BNF is taking on the Kochs specifically and they are major kingpins in this operation. But the conservative infrastructure project has been underwritten for years by a variety of wealthy benefactors. This goes all the way back to the Powell Memo, but their infrastructure is so well entrenched decades later that it has an organic quality that's taken for granted in the political bloodstream. It's important to take it apart and explain it so that people can see this.

You can read the Powell Memo in its entirety here.

Adding….I can’t stress enough how important it is to share this video, and others like it, with your family, friends, and so forth. If we are to be successful in ending such corporate influence in our politics, people must first become aware of how it affects them.

VIDEO: Robert Greenwald and Lee Fang Discuss the Koch Brothers With Thom Hartmann

Watch it:

RELATED POSTS:

• Corporations Behind Michigan's Unconstitutional EFM Law, Including Amway and Koch Industries

• Robert Greenwald Announces Campaign to Expose the Koch Brothers

• The Koch Brothers Trojan Horse in Wisconsin and Why A Koch Associate Was Awarded a Contract to Manage a Wisconsin Energy Program

• Gov. Scott Walker Punked By Koch Impersonator Proves Himself to Be a Shill for the Oligarchs

• Right Wing Attack on Michigan and Wisconsin Professors

• Hey Tea Party People.Youve Been HAD

• 8 False Tea Party-Republican Memes to Talk About Before You Go to the Polls

Robert Greenwald Announces Campaign to Expose the Koch Brothers

You may have seen a few other award winning documentaries produced by Greenwald’s Brave New Foundation.

With Outfoxed, we exposed the unbalanced propaganda that is Fox News. With Wal-Mart we uncovered the damage done to our country by the high cost of low prices. We exposed the war profiteering in Iraq For Sale, and we were on the frontline of questioning what we are doing, and doing wrong, in Rethink Afghanistan. We fought against insurance company greed in the battle for health care with Sick for Profit. We halted the history channel from smearing President Kennedy.

Today, Mr. Greenwald announced his latest project, a documentary which will expose the brothers who are destroying our country.

And now we aim our focus at the Koch brothers.

With a net worth of 43 Billion the Kochs have already spent decades of their lives and over 324 Million of their wealth exerting their influence. The Kochs accomplish their goals by funding a massive array of right wing front groups, think tanks and tea party efforts. They largely operate outside of the public eye, and target their funding to infiltrate public opinion, the media, judicial decisions and legislation. Over three dozen organizations are funded by the brothers, and they spend additional money lobbying and backing conservative candidates. Everything the Kochs do is to fight for a country free from protections and any degree of a social safety net for working Americans.

You might recognize names of some of the organizations that the Koch brothers fund. Americans for Prosperity is their Tea Party effort. They fund the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Reason Foundation, the Institute for Justice, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and many many more. Through their massive funding efforts, they have fought against health care and are fighting against protecting social security, as well as fighting efforts to halt climate change, and fighting against LGBT rights, Immigration rights, unemployment insurance, environmental protections, the rights of unions to organize and educational opportunity, just to name a few areas they focus on.