Disclaimer: (I have several friends employed by corporations such as Farm Bureau, Devon, and the Walmart corporations). I purchase many things from these corporations, including Farm Bureau Insurance and Devon Energy, but I vehemently disagree with their political position concerning our rural public schools - that our rural Oklahoma public schools are failing. Like Merle Haggard said in 1969 - When you're runnin' down my country (public school), hoss, you're walking on the fightin' side of me.
The common code phrase among corporations for "failing public schools" is "school choice". But the corporate choice in school choice is the State Legislator's choice as to where our public tax dollars are directed, and not the parent's choice of schools. For corporate lawmakers, that choice is often toward private and corporate charter schools - not our rural public schools. Only by continuing to proclaim that our public schools are failing, can (for-profit) non-profits such as the American Federation for Children (AFC), corporations, and corporate lawmakers direct public tax dollars to private and corporate charter schools. Schools receiving an 'F' on the now discredited A-F school report card are the ones most vulnerable to corporate attack. Corporate profiteer intent is a "shakedown" of our most vulnerable public schools for public tax dollars, much like the "school yard bully" shaking down lunch money at recess.
The connection between corporations that seemingly have "no connection" to our public schools, or no connection to for-profit non-profits such as the AFC, is not readily evident - but is still there. As an avid public school supporter, I noticed the connection between Walmart and our public schools, and Devon and our public schools several years ago. It seems that many corporations, education non-profits, and corporatists (state corporate lawmakers) belong to a secret organization which calls itself the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). It is an organization in which corporations and education non-profits such as the AFC buy state lawmakers and even exchange them as if they were a commodity. They say it's the "American Way", buying and selling state lawmakers as if they were stocks to be invested in. These corporations, non-profits, and corporatists are all on the same team - when one is successful in the fine art of profiteering, they are all successful.
I noticed the Farm Bureau link to our failing public schools (corporatist terminology) about a year ago. While pointing out disingenuous corporate and foreign interests in the "Right to Farm" State Question 777, I noticed that Farm Bureau was claiming to be a "grass roots" organization and SQ 777 would be good for our local farmers and ranchers. What was good for the foreign factory farms and ranches though, turned out to be very bad for our local farmers and ranchers. Tomi Lahren, conservative commentator, pointed this fact out several months ago. Farm Bureau, however, jumped in on the side of corporate farm factories, instead of our local farmers and ranchers. State Question 777 if approved, would have simply provided marketing advantages for corporate farms, to the disadvantage for our local ranch producers. Farm Bureau had thus far stuck to campaigning and advocating farm related issues, but several months later trumpeted a "position paper" on public school issues - Voices from Rural Oklahoma: Where's Education Headed on the Plain? Bellwether Education Partners (BEP), a Massachusetts-based education for-profit, non-profit group had published "its" facts (fabrications) about the failure of our rural Oklahoma schools. The end-game for education non-profits such as the BEP and the AFC is to turn public schools into profit centers for the rich and famous. It's what they do, and the name of the game is school choice - which in reality should be called profiteers choice. Farm Bureau's cover as a local, grass-roots organization was blown with their advocacy of SQ 777, but their true colors became evident in their support of the BEP propaganda report. The propaganda supported by Farm Bureau, Devon, the AFC, and Chinese factory farms is that our rural public schools are failing, so state funding should be turned over to education profiteers. Many conservative Oklahomans take issue with increasing taxes for out-of-state corporate education groups and private schools because corporate lawmakers only know how to increase spending in order to keep up with the demand for tax dollars.
In my opinion, only rural lawmakers can stop the corporate slaughter of our rural public schools. For Oklahoma's sake, we can only hope they do.
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