Education -- No Place for Dark Money

 Missed posting last weekend due to a lot of other stuff I had to do. Margan and I did a Current Events session here at MonteCedro last Tuesday on the topic of Dark Money in politics. That entailed reviewing a book I had already read but needed to review (Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer) and a book I just read (Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean) and making a short introduction for our group with slides. Lots of work but it really is the way to learn. I recommend both of these books.

Both Mayer and MacLean detail the efforts of billionaires (the Koch brothers are front and center but there are many others) to influence our government behind the scenes. In my view, what they are doing is buying the best government for their own benefits, which are no business regulations and as little taxation of them and their corporations as possible. As I pointed out to our discussion group, buying influence in government is of course not new. During the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, congressmen and senators were simply plied with literal bags of cash. Since that route became dangerous (for them), we have seen the rise of things like political action committees (PACs) and “charitable” organizations (legally organized) so that money is “donated” by the billionaires who then direct the “charities” on how to spend it.

A lot of that money goes to think tanks. The Cato Institute was founded in 1977 to “have a focus on public advocacy, media exposure, and societal influence.”  One of its founders was Charles Koch. There are many other examples in the books I cited. A lot of money has flowed to educational institutions, such as Hillsdale College, a private school but also to state universities such as George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, site of the Mercatus Center. If you are interested in which think tanks in the U.S. are the most influential, here is a link: obviously not all are conservative or libertarian.

The United States has a long tradition of publicly funded education with Dedham, Massachusetts having established one in January 1644. The rising tide of immigration during the 19th century led to the general idea of locally funded public schools guided by local school boards. This model was challenged in the 20th century and in 1925 the Supreme Court ruled that children did not need to be educated in public schools. Parochial schools have flourished over the past century but as Nancy MacLean notes in her book many conservatives did not want to pay for public schools and were backed by billionaire money that eroded good public schools. In California, Proposition 13 in 1978 limited the collection of property taxes to 1976 levels plus a small inflation factor. California public schools have suffered since. The rise of charter schools and private schools has a link with opposition to taxes as well as, more darkly, opposition to school desegregation under the 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court. Education is important to society and it requires a communitarian rather than an individualistic focus.

This brings me to the present moment. As part of what seems like an interminable culture war, school boards are increasingly being threatened by irate parents who object to… what? Critical race theory (CRT) is a bugaboo of the far right now. It is not a part of any school curriculum and is being used by right-wing politicians to stir up often violent protests at local school board meetings across the U.S. But CRT is a dog whistle to mean anything about systemic racism, the realities of chattel slavery in our history, or white privilege that parents feel will make their children feel guilty or anguished. Funding for these protests comes from sources such as the Heritage Foundation; billed as grassroots inspired, this is yet another example of astroturfing through dark money. Groups such as Moms for Liberty extend these protests to public health in their opposition to mask mandates and vaccines to protect against Covid-19. Books about the Holocaust in the classrooms in a Texas school district were ordered removed unless they were counterbalanced by books that offered an “opposing view.” That district thankfully apologized before copies of Mein Kampf were placed on its bookshelves to provide balance. One is reminded of the long-time slogan of Fox News “Fair and Balanced” which was jettisoned in 2017.

I am a product of public schools in Reading, PA in the 1950s and 1960s as well as state-funded colleges and universities through my graduation from Temple University Medical School in 1974. Perhaps not a sleek prep school like Andover or Harvard or Yale but places where I was able to gain an education. In retrospect, I can easily see the holes in the curriculum then. Limited discussion of slavery. Not enough attention to civil rights. Misogyny in various and sundry guises. Too much xenophobia. Clearly imperfect. It has taken a lot of experience and living and reading to make up for that in the deep autumn of life. Schools at all levels, from elementary school on, need to teach the truth and the facts about America. We were founded on ideals written in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We are old enough as a nation to face the reality that the words of those documents were meant for while males of property and that much of what has occurred since 1776 is bringing the ideals to fruition for everyone. Those who want public education to shrivel, those who believe their children will be harmed by learning the truth about chattel slavery and the genocide of the original peoples, those who are intent only in prolonging hatred and chaos -- to those of you, I say enough. We either solve our problems together or we will descend like all other republics have, to oligarchy -- or worse.