Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and former DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee were the star attractions at a "policy summit" held by the American Federation for Children—and
hundreds turned out to protest.
What's the American Federation for Children? Alex Pareene at Salon sums it up pithily. It's a:
a right-wing "education reform" organization founded and funded by religious right activist multimillionaire Betsy DeVos (former Republican candidate for governor of Michigan and sister of Blackwater founder Erik Prince) and dedicated to electing state legislators who'll fund Christian schools with taxpayer money and crush public employees' unions.
But that's not all you should know about the American Federation for Children. It's not the first such organization DeVos has created to push school vouchers:
Betsy DeVos has headed a confusing array of state and national pro-voucher entities under different names, including different types of non-profits and PACs. The current Betsy DeVos-led organization at the helm of the voucher movement is the American Federation for Children (AFC). As noted in the Pennsylvania report, the AFC was established after Betsy DeVos and All Children Matter have failed to pay a 5.2 million dollar fine in Ohio for funneling money from the affiliate organization in Virginia in amounts exceeding Ohio's campaign finance laws. The organization was also fined $500 for providing media support for candidates without registering as a PAC in Wisconsin.
School vouchers, of course, are a ploy to defund public schools and privatize education in the name of choice. According to a People for the American Way report,
The long-term goal is to make all schooling an activity supplied by private sources: for-profit management companies, religious organizations and home schools. The movement believes that targeted voucher plans, such as those in Florida, Milwaukee and Cleveland, give them a foot in the door en route to achieving this goal. While many of those who want to privatize education choose their words very carefully, others are more candid about their goals. The Heartland Institute’s Joseph Bast has urged others who share his group’s extreme agenda to be patient. “The complete privatization of schooling might be desirable, but this objective is politically impossible for the time being. Vouchers are a type of reform that is possible now, and would put us on the path to further privatization.”
That's the education agenda Scott Walker, Tom Corbett, and Michelle Rhee were in Washington, DC to support today, at the behest of Betsy Prince DeVos.