Will Bunch: Why billionaires and right-wing extremists want to wreck your kid's public school

[Nevilledog]

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/right-wing-destroy-public-education-20230514.html

No paywall
https://archive.is/Kn1tv


Jeff Yass, the working-class kid whose winning streak started at the late-night poker table in the dorms at SUNY-Binghamton and stretched from jai alai courts and horse tracks until he reached the trading floor that made him the richest man in Pennsylvania, just upped the ante.

Heading down the home stretch of Philadelphia’s make-or-break Democratic mayoral primary, Yass — who lives in Haverford — threw another $350,000 into the pot, raising his total donated to the wonderfully and obscurely named Coalition for Safety and Equitable Growth to $1.1 million. This brand-new political action committee seems to have just one job: running negative TV ads to stop Helen Gym, the candidate endorsed by the Philadelphia teachers’ union, from becoming the city’s 100th mayor.

Yass doesn’t really explain his donations — perhaps because this billionaire makes so many of them — but you don’t need Sherlock Holmes or even Inspector Clouseau to get to the bottom of this political caper. Yass — at least in terms of dollars invested — is Pennsylvania’s biggest advocate for charter schools or tax-funded vouchers to encourage parents to reject traditional public schools. Gym and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers are fierce opponents of that.

But here’s the part that’s not asked often enough: not what, but why?

It’s not that the $1.1 million is a lot of dough — it is for you and me but not so much for Yass. He reportedly has a net worth of $28.5 billion, and is said to have spent at least $18 million on politics ahead of last year’s primary, some on the Pennsylvania governor’s race but a lot on candidates, both Republican and Democrat, who support what he calls “school choice.” (The anti-Gym PAC has other backers including Josh Kopelman, The Inquirer’s board chairman, who gave $50,000.) But why is Yass so committed to his vision of an America where mostly nonunionized charter schools or religious schools thrive while what his crowd insists on calling “government schools” wither?

*snip*

[MagickMuffin]

1. He was educated in public schools so now wants to burn them down

From wiki

Political activities
Yass became a member of the board of directors of the libertarian Cato Institute in 2002[12][13] and now is a member of the executive advisory council.[14] In 2015, Yass donated $2.3 million to a Super PAC supporting Rand Paul's presidential candidacy.[15] In 2018 he donated $3.8 million to the Club for Growth, and $20.7 million in 2020.[16]

Yass and his wife, Janine Coslett, are public supporters of school choice, with Coslett writing a 2017 opinion piece for The Washington Examiner in support of then-incoming Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos's views at school choice.[17]

In November 2020, it was reported that Yass had donated $25.3 million, all to Republican candidates, and was one of the ten largest political donors in the US.[2]

In March 2021, an investigation in Haaretz said that Jeff Yass and Arthur Dantchik were behind a large portion of the donations to the Kohelet Policy Forum in Israel.[18][19]

In November 2021, he donated $5 million to the School Freedom Fund, a PAC that runs ads for Republican candidates running in the 2022 election cycle nationwide.[20]

In June 2022 ProPublica claimed Yass has "avoided $1 billion in taxes" and "pouring his money into campaigns to cut taxes and support election deniers".[21]

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Just because they have money, they think that they 'know it all'. Dumb Asses. I'm sick and tired

of them.

Pardon my language.

[MyOwnPeace]

3. Another tRump disaster.......

giving them 'Sweet Betsy DeVos' to lead their anti-public school parade......

[Irish_Dem]

4. The rich don't want to fund public schools and want schools to be indoctrination centers.

[keep_left]

5. George Carlin re: the attacks by billionaires and "think" tanks on public education...

...see 2:10 to the end of this clip.

[UTUSN]

6. So the answer to the cliffhanger question is:

*****QUOTE***

.... I’m sorry, but there is a society. It’s just that there’s a large faction in this country that doesn’t like the kind of society — more tolerant, capable of critical thinking — that well-supported public education will produce. It’s no coincidence that the immoral panic over antiracism education in K-12 classrooms — labeled ominously and falsely by the right as “critical race theory” — came after millions of young people marched in 2020 for Black Lives Matter.

If I had to guess, I doubt Yass really cares that much about “critical race theory.” And I think he believes in a “society” — just the kind where billionaires like him get to keep most of their wealth. Thus, he would care about keeping the teachers’ union — knowing that strong organized labor is a force for a more equitable society — weak and taxes low. Especially his own. ProPublica reported last year that Yass’ tax strategies that “push legal boundaries” saved him an estimated $1 billion over six years. The money he’s spending to defeat Gym and the PFT is just 0.1% of that, so it’s kind of like a “no-sweat” bet on FanDuel. ....

********UNQUOTE*****