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Fox & Friends Provides Partisan Guest, Kyle Olson, With Platform For School Choice

Posted by Priscilla -25.80pc on February 17, 2012 · Flag

Fox & Friends is the go to place for attacks on public schools, public school teachers, public school teachers unions, and public school textbooks. Their newest "authority" on the "trouble with schools" is Kyle Olson, head of the right wing "Education Action Group" which is "opposed to teachers unions and committed to privatizing public education." Earlier this month, Olson, who also writes for Andrew Breitbart's "Big Government," appeared on Fox & Friends where he accused those who support healthier school lunches of being part of a "federal power grab." Any semblance of his being objective about education is dispelled by his book, pimped by Fox & Friends on two occasions, which is titled "Indoctrination" - a screed about how public schools are subverting American "exceptionalism." Once again, he was warmly welcomed on yesterday's Fox & Friends where he provided more of the same old, same old biased agitprop.

Right out of the box, Eric Bolling reported that a "controversy" has been sparked, in Michigan, by an educator who says that "parents don't know best what's best for their children, but educators do." Video was played of Debbie Squires, of the Michigan Principals Association, talking about how "teachers are the people who best how to serve children" and "that's not necessarily true of an individual resident." Doocy reported that she made this comment during a hearing about school choice and lifting the cap on charter schools. Her comments did spark some controversy and Fox News never wastes an opportunity to use controversy to advance its right wing memes and hatred of the public school system is on the top of the right wing meme chart.

So enter, stage right, Kyle Olson who described her comment as "remarkable" and a "good glimpse into the contempt that the establishment has for parents. Doocy did his trademark "interpreting" of what the person being attacked is really saying. He noted that while most teachers help kids, Ms. Squires is really saying this: "Keep your kids in the public schools, you don't want them to go over to the charter schools where we don't have those unions. We need to handle them right here cuz we're gonna take care of them perhaps even better than their own parents." To Doocy's question of whether anybody agreed with her, Olson said "not that I've seen other than the unions and the establishment who just want to have a public school system." Doocy giggled. (Olson hasn't looked hard enough because there are several comments, on a Michigan website, that support her statement.)

Olson whined about how this "is a perfect example of the establishment and the teachers' unions, the administrators, and the school boards want to keep kids confined in a public school system"  where there "is no choice." He claimed that "if parents were truly in charge" and were able to choose schools, there would be no budget deficit or failing schools because parents, who do know what's best for their kids, would be in charge. To Doocy's question about the quality of Michiganschools, Olson cited Detroit as an example of poor public education and "why we need parental school choice."

Once again, the Fox & Friends audience is treated to their standard propaganda pabulum that presents a complex problem in very simple terms that communicates a right wing meme as the only solution. There are problems in the Michigan public educational system but claiming that school choice and charter schools are the only answers does no justice to the complexity of the issue - in the case of Detroit, there is a large poverty level population and that brings it's own set of dynamics. What Olson didn't say is that the record of Michigan charter schools is "mixed." While Fox is saying that teachers don't know best, Brian Jacob, professor of education policy at the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Brian Jacob says that "there are no silver bullets, but schools need to turn to research-proven methods to improve student achievement." You didn't hear that from Olson. But then Olson isn't an educator. He's a pure partisan - and that's why he's on Fox & Friends!

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el84 commented 2012-02-17 13:43:13 -0500 · Flag
Privatizing education will restrict quality education to an elite minority. This IS the Republican agenda. They want a wealthy elite ruling over a poor population – like where we’re headed now. Don’t believe me? They talk about it behind closed doors, but that is the agenda. Democracy, “America”, human rights, etc., is just hype. And a lot of Americans are suckers for it.

I have posted this web address before, never heard so much as a comment from NewsHounders. Find out who Nizkor is, and why the Fallacy Tutorial also became a popular software program some time ago. Want to refute Bill O’Reilly? Logic is the best weapon. It is critically lacking among much of the voting public, and against Fox policies. They are masters of illogic, propaganda, deception for a sinister motive.

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/
Thx4 Fish commented 2012-02-17 11:56:56 -0500 · Flag
This guy is in favor of privatizing public schools, But if you privatize public school, how is it still public?

I think there is a lot to fix in public schools, but these people focus on the unions and money exclusively as though fixing that will solve all problems. That is simplistic and probably hides their real motivations








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