Education post-script: Our “Dark money” watch
If we didn’t have enough problems coming together as a community, we must contend with powerful outsiders using dark money to manipulate us through the media. From time to time, we hope to shine a spotlight on dark money manipulation. This issue turns that light on a 30-second TV spot launched recently called simply “Childhood”. The slickly-made video depicts children sadly wearing masks while the voice-over intones that they are losing out on their childhood. (See the video here) If this slick spot looks like it was produced for a political campaign – it should! The sponsor is the State Government Leadership Foundation. Sounds innocuous enough. But look at SGLF’s website and you will discover that it is dedicated not to our kids’ education but to – being a “strategic partner” of the Republican party’s campaign to win more elections!
So what is the SGLF’s expertise on education? Very little, apparently. What they are most known for, in fact, is trying to egregiously gerrymander North Carolina by paying for the services of a Republican consultant to draw up new election districts. (The results were so blatantly unfair that the North Carolina Supreme Court threw them out.) However, over the last year, the SGLF has become very good at paying for ads that try to turn parents’ understandable frustration with school closings against Democrats. These ads of course never actually propose anything better. But then, this isn’t about education, and it certainly isn’t about what is good for kids. It is about politics, pure and simple.
Where does SGLF get the money to pay for all of this? We can’t know for sure because, thanks to former president Trump, organizations like SGLF don’t have to tell us where their “dark money” is coming from. (Trump called this a “reform”.) However, a report by ProPublica in 2013 is enlightening – it seems that the SGLF was originally created by money from big corporations – like Exxon, Pfizer, and Time-Warner. In other words, big corporate money pursuing a big corporate agenda. We don’t know who put up the money for the latest ads, of course -- but it is a safe bet that they are too wealthy to actually have their kids in public schools! So if SGLF isn’t really interested in our kids’ education, why run ads that attack teachers? Why not praise our teachers for the incredible work they are doing, the fabulous dedication they are showing, in the face of an incredibly difficult time? Talking about these real problems is not SGLF’s goal. Its objective is to make voters angry, blame Democrats, and get Republicans elected. And our kids’? Just a pawn in a political game. See the SGLF website here (note its mission statement solely focused on electing Republicans to state office). See the ProPublica article here (February 14, 2013)
