Does this strike you as a "radical" statement?:
“How school districts are run belongs under the control of local parents and taxpayers, not the State or Federal governments."
How about this?:
“Federal control of education strikes at the very heart of the system of federalism…"
Or this?:
“We therefore believe that all attempts to increase State or Federal control over any aspect of our education system or its funding should be resisted."
The scribe(s) behind the Greater Orange eBlog think they are.
These statements were lifted from the Education Alliance's website. The fact they are held up by the Greater Orange eBlog as examples of "radicalism" says far more about the Greater Orange News eBlog (GONE) than about the Education Alliance.
The Greater Orange News eBlog has its roots as a widely-distributed e-mail newsletter sent out during the successful 2001 recall that ended the conservative majority on the Orange Unified School District Board. And it shows whenever they write an "election analysis" about the Education Alliance -- which they report on with the same dedication objectivity and factualness Pravda brought to the Cold War. The robotic application to the Education Alliance of pejoratives like "radical" and "fringe" reminds me of Communist Bloc news reporting: "The democratic peace-loving peoples of the USSR condemn the war-mongering statements by the imperialist government of the USA..."
By way of example, I offer Greater Orange News eBlog's "history" of the Education Alliance's founding:
The Education Alliance is the brainchild of Orange County political activist and ultra conservative attorney Mark Bucher and his allies Jim Righeimer (now Orange County Housing Commissioner) and Frank Ury (now Mission Viejo Councilman). The idea was to elect fringe ultra Christian right extremists (which they label as conservative) to local school boards.
Really? That was our idea?
I was there in Mark Bucher's living room in late 1993 with Jim Righeimer, Frank Ury and number of other Prop. 174 volunteers when we met to discuss forming a group that could be some sort of counter-weight to the teachers unions in school board elections. At no point did one of us say, "Remember! Our goal is to elect fringe ultra Christian right extremists -- which we will label as conservative -- to local school boards!"
We didn't care whether or not a candidate was religious. Our concern was to find and assist candidates who supported back-to-basics education, local control, maximizing parental choice (they didn't necessarily have to support vouchers) and charter schools.
GONE continues:
The Education Alliance was started in 1994, with financing coming from radical Christian extremist financer Howard F. Ahmanson Jr., heir to the Home Savings fortune and a member of the Board of Trustees for the leading radical Christian Reconstructionist think tank Chalcedon.
“We believe that the whole Word of God must be applied to all of life. It is not only our duty as individuals, families and churches to be Christian, but it is also the duty of the state, the school, the arts and sciences, law, economics, and every other sphere to be under Christ the King. Nothing is exempt from His dominion.”
This is a typical GONE, guilt-by-association rhetorical device. Ahmanson gave money to both Education Alliance and this Chalcedon group, therefore Education Alliance and Chalcedon have the same goals. Sure it's illogical -- but GONE's intent is to obfuscate, not illuminate. I've never heard of Chalcedon. And I certainly attest it never came up in any EA meetings I was involved in.
Here's another twisted account from GONE:
In 1993 Bucher, Righeimer and Ury backed Proposition 174, a school voucher initiative that lost big in part due to opposition from the state and national teacher’s associations. From there the story is that Bucher was angered that the “unions” were able to mobilize huge resources against his political initiative.
He was a small businessman who had never been involved politically before, but gave the OC office of the 174 office space to use. I first met him at a 174 volunteer meeting. he was busily setting up folding chairs. I asked a friend who he was. All my friend knew was he owned the little office building was letting us use some space because he really believed in the initiative.
Prop. 174's defeat was the direct impetus for starting the Education Alliance. Those of us involved in creating the Education Alliance weren't angry about teacher union spending as dismayed by the proprietary attitude the educrats and the unions took toward public schools -- as if the schools belonged to them. We were dismayed by the blatantly illegal campaign activity that took place on school property -- even going so far as to send anti-174 campaign material home in school children's homework. I remember attending more than one "back to school" night where a classroom was set aside with a chairs and TV monitor that played an anti-Prop 174 video tape over and over again. School officials were unapologetic, believing they were perfectly justified in breaking the law because they were "defending public schools."
Education Alliance was simply an effort to provide an alternative to candidates whose only prior option for obtaining serious financial for their campaign was to go to the public school unions. And even at the peak of its activity, Education Alliance paled in comparison to the financial and organizational resources of the school unions -- not that you would have known if you relied on the hysterical coverage from the local media.
This is just the tip of this Greater Orange News eBlog iceberg of distortion and untruth. I encourage every reader to visit the Education Alliance platform, read it ask yourself why do the folks behind the Greater Orange News eBlog find these stances so objectionable?:
- Does GONE favor union control of school boards?
- Do they favor greater federal control over public schools?
- Do they believe government, rather than parents, should exercise primary control over the education of children.
- Do they believe how school districts are run belongs under the control of the state and federal governments, not local parents and taxpayers?
Given their relentlessly negative portrait of the Education Alliance and its platform as "radical" and "fringe," it follows the folks behind GONE subscribe to the above counter-principles.
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Posted by: gucci shoes | August 11, 2010 at 11:44 PM