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IS FOR SHILL
November 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IT ALL BEGINS WITH BRADLEY
Creating the Science for Vouchers Bradley Funding to WPRI and MacIver
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10 10 11 12 12 13
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MACIVER, WPRI, AND & ALEC: A COORDINATED RIGHT-WING AGENDA IN WISCONSIN CONCLUSION
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
For the last two decades, there has been an assault on public education in the state of Wisconsin. The fuel for the shift of tax dollars from public education and into unaccountable private education entities has come from a relentless propaganda campaign to discredit public schools and promote privatization schemes as the solution. These attacks on public education are part of a national network of funding and right wing non-profit organizations that includes Wisconsin-based groups, most notably the Bradley Foundation, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and the MacIver Institute. Both WPRI and MacIver are members of the State Policy Network (SPN), a vast collection of conservative think tanks in states across the country. The State Policy Network is also closely aligned with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its well-documented anti-middle class economic agenda. The following report sheds light on the network of Wisconsin-based and outside organizations working to steer even more dollars from the states public school children in favor of privatized school operations. The research shows: 1. MacIver and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute benefit financially from the nations preeminent anti-public education funding sources. 2. On the boards of directors of both organizations are long-time established Republican donors and political operatives. 3. While the Bradley Foundation provides substantial support to both groups, they are part of a coordinated, nationwide effort by the State Policy Network and the American Legislative Exchange Council to advance anti-public education propaganda and promote privatization. With the financial backing of Milwaukees Bradley Foundation, two Wisconsin-based conservative think tanks," the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and the MacIver Institute, have led the charge, as part of the SPN web, to expand private school vouchers and charters, while insulating these schools from the accountability measures required of the states public schools. The result has been a 2013-14 state budget that expands taxpayer-supported private schools statewide, despite objective evidence showing that taxpayer-supporter private schools perform no better and, in some cases, worse than public schools. In the meantime, these private operations are able to pick and choose the students they enroll without fear of reprisal for refusing students based on their economics, race, sexual orientation or disability. With the state of Wisconsin having endured the largest cuts to public education in its history as a result of the 2011-12 state budget of Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled legislature, public education dollars have become even more scarce, leaving the ability of public school students to enjoy a quality education that can help lift them out of poverty and ensure a middle class lifestyle at risk. The public school children of Wisconsin face a propaganda campaign of unprecedented resources and relentlessness with the single-minded purpose of shifting as much of the states shared tax dollars as possible from public schools to private operations and providing air and comfort to the elected officials willing to aid and abet this historic attack on public education. This report focuses on the major players and organizations at the heart of this campaign, most notably the Bradley Foundation, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, and the MacIver Institute.
This report examines the campaign to discredit Wisconsin and Milwaukee public schools by two Bradleyfunded right-wing groups, the MacIver Institute and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. 4
One of the strategies that the Bradley Foundation initially used to lay the groundwork for vouchers in Milwaukee was to create a think tank called the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, which churned out studies trashing public schools.
THE WASHINGTON MONTHLY
For example, Gov. Walker, despite strong evidence to the contrary, declared Wisconsin public schools are failing and even claimed that up to one-third of Wisconsin fourth graders were unable to read at a basic level.5 After having aggressively promoted the public schools, especially those in Milwaukee, are failing meme, the next step in the Bradley campaign was to identify the enemy.
Shared Board Members and Leadership Instead of working to directly address what is widely regarded as the single largest variable in students academic achievement, poverty, the Bradley machine targeted public school teachers, unions, and education bureaucrats. At their disposal were Bradley funded research and communication vehicles like longstanding partner Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, and more recently, the more radical anti-teacher, anti-organized labor MacIver Institute, Media Trackers and Education Action Group. From the MacIver Institute touting a study alleging Wisconsin has overspent in excess of $300 million on school administrative staff,6 to the Education Action Groups reference to teachers as union thugs,7 there has been a concerted effort by the Bradley machine to denigrate the people who run our schools and teach our children. The demonization of education stakeholders like teachers, along with legal changes to cripple their unions, appeared to be a strategic effort to neutralize, if not eliminate, the most likely sources of organized resistance to privatization. The Bradley Foundation efforts are by no means isolated to public policy propaganda. A joint investigation by One Wisconsin Now and theGrio.com proved that racist, voter intimidation billboards, which were placed in and around Milwaukee in 2010 in advance of the November election, were paid for by the Bradley Foundation. Those billboards resurfaced in the 2012 elections in both Milwaukee and Ohio. Community pressure caused Clear Channel, owners of the billboards, to remove them.8
Since the start of WPRI and MacIver, there has been a revolving door between their leadership and board members with the Bradley Foundation. Michael W. Grebe. Grebe currently serves as the President and CEO of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a position he took over in 2002. Grebe, according to a November 2001 National Review article, was a director of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and had served on the Bradley board for five years when the Bradley Institute announced he would become the next president of the Foundation. The December 2011 One Wisconsin Institute report D Is for Dismantle notes that Michael Grebe, CEO of the Bradley Foundation, headed Walkers campaign and his transition into the Office of Governor. In addition major conservative advocacy groups, the MacIver Institute, Americans for Prosperity and the Wisconsin Policy Institute receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from the Bradley Foundation. Allen Taylor. Taylor, as of November 26, 2001, was described by National Review as the Bradley Foundation chairman and was listed as an Emeritus Director for WPRI in a 2005 IRS tax document. Michael Joyce. The late Michael Joyce, who helped launch WPRI, came to Milwaukee in the mid-1980s to lead the Bradley Foundation. When he and others decided to start the institute as a way to push changes they wanted to see, Joyce played an important role in recruiting [James] Miller, tells a February 2009 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article. James Miller. Miller was the president of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute since it was founded in 1987 until he retired in January 2009. A January 2009 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article reported under Millers leadership, the conservative think tank has played an important role in shaping state policies in areas including welfare reform, the rise of the private school voucher program in Milwaukee, other education reforms and economic development. Dennis Kuester. Kuester sat on the Board of Directors for the MacIver Institute from 2002 until 2005 and has sat on the Board of Directors for the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation since June of 2006. Sam Orr, Jr. Orr sat on the Board of Directors for the MacIver Institute from 2002 until 2005 and has sat on the Board of Directors for the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation since June of 2006.
MacIver and WPRI are also affiliates of the State Policy Network (SPN). SPN is a web of what conservative commentator Michelle Malkin called do tanks11 across the United States, founded in 1992 by Thomas Roe (of the Roe Foundation and South Carolina Policy Council), according to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).12 In addition to its state think tank affiliates, many other national right-wing organizations are associate members of SPN, including ALEC, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Franklin Center, the Heritage Foundation, the Heartland Institute, and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, organizations that receive funding from Bradley.13 SPN has played a major role in supporting ALEC, serving as a chairman level sponsor of the 2011 ALEC Annual Conference and participating in at least three of ALECs task forces, according to CMD, which publishes ALECexposed.org.14 Since its founding, SPN has been funded by conservative organizations including the Bradley Foundation, the Koch-funded DonorsTrust/Donors Capital Fund, the Roe Foundation, and the Kochs Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation.15 SPN has been the recipient of $150,000 from Bradley 20052012.16 In 2012, SPN awarded the MacIver Institute a Network Award for its excellent work in defense of free markets.17 Between 2008 (previous to the organizations official founding in 2009) and 2012, Bradley has given $635,000 to MacIver.18
Source: Bradley Foundation 2012 Funding Report; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Inside the Bradley Foundation" database, 8/6/2011; Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation 2011 Grantees Report Circled organizations are members of the State Policy Network
In a 2012 report on conservative organizations starting their own news outlets, The Capital Times reported that WPRI and its magazine, Wisconsin Interest, have strong connections to the Republican 9
Party and the national conservative movement.25 The report detailed WPRIs links to former GOP Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), along with funding from the conservative Bradley Foundation. The Capital Times report also called WPRI board chairman Jim Klauser a kingmaker in Wisconsin GOP races. Republican Ron Johnsons U.S. Senate campaign gave sole access to Schneider to control the campaigns message in 2010. The Capital Times noted that Schneiders then-employer (WPRI) had views closely aligned with those of Johnson.26
Right-Wing Funding
While the vast majority of WPRIs known funding has come from the Bradley foundation, it has also received contributions from a variety of other rightwing foundations and other organizations. More recently, WPRI received $25,000 from DonorsTrust, the Koch brothers-backed fund Mother Jones recently called the dark money ATM of the conservative movement, as well as significant funding from the John M. Olin Foundation and the State Policy Network. Donors
Donors Trust Charlotte and Walter Kohler Charitable Trust JM Foundation Jacqueline Hume Foundation John M. Olin Foundation
Funding
$25,000 $277,267 $25,000 $49,475 $292,500 $11,145,000 $176,000 $25,000 $61,055
Years
2007 2003 -2006 2003 1999 1988-1995, 1997 - 1999 1987-2010 1998-2010 2001 2007
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Roe Foundation Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation State Policy Network
!
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute has ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) through Wisconsin state senator Leah Vukmir, who is an ALEC board member and was the Public Chair of the ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force.27 Vukmir is a Wisconsin state senator representing the 5th district since 2011. Prior to serving in the Wisconsin Senate, Sen. Vukmir was a representative in the Wisconsin Assembly for Wisconsin's 14th assembly district from 2002-2011. Sen. Vukmir has been a contributing author as well as an Institute Research Fellow at WPRI. Conservative radio show host Charlie Sykes is an editor for WPRI. Heartland features WPRIs research on its website.28
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The Institute partnered with the Beacon Hill Institute29 (BHI) on a report critiquing the recommendations from a 2007 state clean energy task force, including the state's renewable portfolio standards (RPS).30 Board Chairman James R. Klauser was a consultant from 1992 to 1996 for the Republican National Committee and Republican Governors Association. Board Chairman James R. Klauser served as Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Administration from 1986 1996 and as special counsel to the Governor from 1994 1996. Board Member Tim Sheehy, who is also the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerces Milwaukee affiliate, is on the Board of School Choice Wisconsin. A 2010 WPRI blog post declares that the Tea Party movement is wonderful and that they are on their way to being the most important movement for conservatism (or libertarianism, in some cases) in the past twenty years.
Republican National Committee & Republican Governors Association Former Governor Tommy Thompson
Tea Party
In 2012, Wisconsin journalist Bruce Murphy wrote a piece for Urban Milwaukee exposing the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute connections to the right-wing Bradley Foundation and the think tanks political activities. Included in Murphy's criticism of the group is WPRIs bankrolling of newspaper columnists. Both Mike Nichols and Christian Schneider (a former Republican operative) have worked for WPRI and have been columnists with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, using their columns to promote a conservative or libertarian message supported by WPRI. Nichols has now succeeded George Lightbourn as head of WPRI, and has given up his newspaper column as part of his expanded role at the right wing organization. Schneider, as noted previously, has left WPRI and become a regular, paid columnist for the Journal Sentinel. While in the past, media would cite material from WPRI without accurately identifying its conservative ideology, this has changed over the past decade. Despite its nonpartisan posturing, WPRI leadership is closely connected to the Republican Party, both in Wisconsin and nationally. Board Chairman James R. Klauser. Klauser was a consultant for the Republican National Committee and Republican Governors Association from 1992 to 1996, and also served on George W. Bush's Wisconsin campaign committee in 2000 and 2004 (chairman in 2004).
(WISCONSIN DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN, WISCONSIN GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY BOARD, FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION)
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Board Chairman James R. Klauser, along with the rest of the board, have donated nearly $300,000 to Republican federal candidates and Republican and conservative Wisconsin state political candidates31
Funding
$19,500
Years
2009-2011
Donors Capital Fund Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation State Policy Network
$450,000
2009-2011
Right-Wing Funding
IRS records show the MacIver Institute has received significant funding from the Koch-funded DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. In 2009 alone, grants from
$550,000
2008-2012
$75,000
2008
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the two Donors organizations made up 79 percent of the total grants MacIver received in that year. The MacIver Institute has released several reports and studies advocating for policies that would directly benefit the Koch brothers corporate interests, including calling for lower taxes for the wealthy and corporations and opposing clean energy and renewable energy sources. Among the most generous of donors to MacIver has been Milwaukees Bradley Foundation, which has given $550,000. This early and sustained financial support has not only given MacIver the ability to continue its operations, but also have the conservative seal of approval because of Bradleys reputation and the might it wields in the conservative infrastructure both inside and outside of Wisconsin. This is also seen in the regular cross-posting of MacIver materials by other organizations supported financially by Bradley.
Connected to the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Koch Brothers, and the National Right-Wing Network
MacIver is closely associated with the Koch brothers Americans for Prosperity. MacIvers former Treasurer, Mark Block, was the state director for Wisconsins chapter of Americans for Prosperity. Block also founded Prosperity USA and the Wisconsin Prosperity Network, two pro-Tea Party groups related to the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity. MacIver and AFP-Wisconsin also share two board members, David Fettig and Fred Luber, and teamed up to run ads in Wisconsin in 2012, prompting questions about the groups IRS status.39 A June 2012 post on the MacIver Institutes website described the MacIver Institutes June 2012 trip to Las Vegas for the RightOnline conference sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, held just a few weeks after the 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election.40 The MacIver Institute and other representatives from Wisconsin were talked to like heroes for the work they did with AFP. At the conference, representatives from the MacIver Institute and Americans for Prosperity got to tell the story of how they won the 2011 public policy debate that spurred the 2012 recall elections. Their presentation included how the two organizations jointly launched a paid media campaign through television ads and ItsWorkingWisconsin.com to educate the public about Act 10. Their presentation also pointed out how it was the MacIver Institute that showed that it wasn't just the sweet little school librarians doing the protesting and agitating in Madison. Instead, according to the MacIver presenter, it was idle students, the homeless, leftist radicals, anarchists, former hippies, would-be hippies and outside agitators from groups affiliated with Big Labor who provided the front lines in the infamous Wisconsin Capitol Occupation of 2011. Both AFP and MacIver claimed they did not use Governor Walker in their campaign because they wanted to transcend politics. According to MacIver Institutes public tax documents, Mark Block served as the Treasurer for the MacIver Institute in 2008 and 2009, while he was the state director of AFP-Wisconsin. And according to the AFP-Wisconsin website, in January of 2010, Block sat on the State Board of Directors for the MacIver Institute.41
In 2001, Block paid $15,000 and was banned from running Wisconsin political campaigns for three years for his part in the Supreme Court race collusion scandal.
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In 2001, Block paid $15,000 and was banned from running Wisconsin political campaigns for three years for his part in the Supreme Court race collusion scandal.42 In 2011, Block managed the short-lived campaign of presidential candidate Herman Cain. Cain famously called himself a Koch brother from another mother and proud of it, in a speech he was giving at the 2011 Defending the American Dream AFP Foundation conference. His and Blocks close ties to the Kochs were noted in a New York Times story: Mr. Cain was hired [by AFP] in 2005 to lead its Prosperity Expansion Project to seed more state groups, using his gift for public speaking to advance goals like lowering taxes, slashing government regulations and curtailing unionsBecause the Cain campaigns core staff members are veterans of Americans for Prosperity Mr. Block, his deputy manager, the senior economic adviser some critics on the left suggest that despite Mr. Cains image as an outsider, his candidacy is in effect a mouthpiece for the corporate interests of the Koch brothers.43 MacIver received $469,500 from the Koch-funded groups DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund between 2008 and 2011.44 The MacIver Institute also participates in the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellowship Program, through which it can receive funding for summer interns. Meanwhile, MacIver has pushed for policies in Wisconsin that would benefit the billionaire brothers, including lower taxes on millionaires and corporations and barriers to development of green and clean energy. MacIver is also connected to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) through former MacIver Director of Communications Brian Fraley, who was previously the Senior VP for State Affairs at Americas Health Insurance Plans in D.C. and the Private Sector Chairman of ALECs Health and Human Services Task Force. He has since been hired to assist right-wing radio host and WPRI Interest magazine editor Charlie Sykess RightWisconsin.com, a conservative propaganda website financially supported by the Journal Broadcast Group, owner of WTMJ-AM radio and WTMJ television in Milwaukee. MacIver has been an affiliate of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, a conservative investigative reporting organization that focuses on the state legislature.45 The Franklin Center has similar affiliates in most states across the country,46 and many of the centers affiliates have been accused of faulty reporting and manufacturing news coverage to benefit its conservative interests.47 The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, using a sliding scale of highly ideological, somewhat ideological and non-ideological, ranked the "Watchdog.org" franchise (the Franklin Centers website in many states) "highly ideological." 48 Since its founding, the Franklin Center has been funded by conservative organizations including the Koch-funded DonorsTrust/Donors Capital Fund and the Bradley Foundation.49
MacIver received $469,500 from the Koch-funded Donors groups between 2008 and 2011.
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how to raise tax-deductible donations for the course -- which will be beamed by satellite to 133 sites around the country -- from foundations and Gingrich supporters. Gingrich, in an interview yesterday, defended the course he calls Renewing American Civilization. The course, to be held 10 consecutive Saturday mornings starting later this month, is designed to find ways to replace the welfare state in America, Gingrich said. The several hundred documents [Stephen F.] Bruning obtained from the college show planning for the course began early this year. The first large donation was $ 50,000 from the Randolph Foundation, a contributor to conservative think tanks.55 Congressman Newt Gingrich Told GOPAC Donors That The Renewing American Civilization Course Was Part Of A Structure To Help Build A Republican Majority In The U.S. House. According to the Washington Post, Mid-1993: GOPAC sends letters signed by Gingrich stating that the Kennesaw State College course on Renewing American Civilization will provide the structure to build an offense so that Republicans can break through dramatically in 1996. Another letter states that if we can reach Americans through my course, independent expenditures, GOPAC and other strategies, we just might unseat the Democratic majority in the House in 1994 and make government accountable again.56
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Issue
MacIver Institute
The MacIver Institute has supported education privatization measures, including the expansion of school vouchers and charter schools, in several reports, articles, and studies, including in their recent report, Debunking Five Common Myths About School Choice (May 2013).
The MacIver Institute has released several reports and articles attacking clean and renewable energy, and has specifically opposed Wisconsins renewable energy portfolio.
WPRIs March 2013 report, Law Mandating Use of Renewable Energy Costing Wisconsinites Hundreds of Millions, attacks Wisconsins renewable energy portfolio.
AFP is well known for its support of the fossil fuel industry and denying the science behind climate change. Like ALEC and the SPN think tanks in Wisconsin, it has been an aggressive opponent of renewable portfolio standards.
The MacIver Institute has supported a supermajority amendment for tax increases in the past, including in its January 2011 report, Use Every Measure to Limit State's Ability to Hike Taxes.
WPRI calls for a supermajority requirement to raise any taxes in its January 2011 report, Why Wisconsin Should Require A Supermajority To Raise Taxes.
ALECs Super-Majority Act would amend the state constitution to require all tax and license fee increases or impositions be approved by two-thirds of all member s of each house of the legislature, expect when there is insufficient revenue to pay interest on the states debt. ALECs Voter ID Act makes it more difficult for American citizens to vote. It would change ID rules so that citizens who have been registered to vote for decades must show certain kinds of ID in order to vote. This bill disenfranchises many low-income, minority, college students and elderly Americans who do not have drivers licenses but have typically used other forms of ID.
AFP has supported supermajority acts in at least Michigan, New Hampshire, Kansas, and Washington.
Voter Suppression
Several of MacIver News Services article promote and support voter suppression measures, including GAB Directive Could Undermine Voter ID Protections (August 2011), Racine Irregularities Renew Calls for Voter ID (July 2012), and Voter ID Law Upheld by Court of Appeals (May 2013).
WPRI Mike Nichols supported Voter ID and voter suppression in the January 2011 WPRI post Voter ID? How About Candidate ID?
AFP has taken part in its own version of voter suppression. During the 2011 recall elections, AFPWisconsin sent many Democratic voters a mailing that gave an incorrect deadline for absentee ballots. AFP is also known for hosting events featuring Catherine Englebrecht, a voter suppression activist. In North Carolina, AFP bused suppression activists to the state capitol to sit in on hearings on voter ID bills.
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The MacIver Institute has released several reports against the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion, including Rejection of Medicaid Expansion Will Save Federal Taxpayers Money (June 2013), Chart of the Day - Wisconsin's Medicaid Options (June 2013), and More Voters Support Scott Walker's Rejection of Obamacare Medicaid Expansion (May 2013). The MacIver Institute is well known for supporting Gov. Walker in his 2012 recall, spurred by Walker stripping collective bargaining rights, by spending $3.7 million with Americans for Prosperity to promote Walkers policies. MacIver was an initial supporter of Act 10, the bill that stripped collective bargaining rights, and has released several reports supporting the measure since it became law. In April 2011, Mother Jones reported MacIver even cut a video that dismissed the pro-labor protesters at the Wisconsin capital as radicalized communists and socialists.
WPRI speaks out against Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act in a July 2012 post: Medicaid Expansion: A Tough Sell for Governors of Both Parties
ALEC has issued several model bills against the 2010 Affordable Care Act, including the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act and the Resolution Opposing Employer-Paid Health Care Mandates. ALECs Guide to Repeal Obamacare is a guide for state legislators to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and urges them to reject Medicaid expansion and federal grants for Medicaid. ALECs Right to Work Act is an attack on working families across the state as this bill takes away workers ability to negotiate fair contracts. ALECs Employee Rights Reform Act limits revenue streams for public employee unions and imposes new reporting burdens on union activities. ALECs Paycheck Protection Act is an attack on workers and attempts to make it difficult for unions to raise funds.
AFP, both nationally and in Wisconsin, is well known for its efforts opposing the Affordable Care Act, including spending at least $1.7 million on TV ads around the country denouncing the reform.
WPRI is an outspoken opponent of collective bargaining rights, noting in one Wisconsin Interest Magazine article that unions are the barrier to innovation.
AFP was one of the most active organizations supporting Walkers repeal of collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin throughout 2011 and 2012, and continues to support the legislation Act 10 today.
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CONCLUSION
As S is for Shill documents, the right wing assault on public education is coordinated, calculated and continuous. The breadth of junk science to make the right wing case for school privatization solutions is as expansive as it is suspect, and would not be possible without the deep pockets of the Bradley Foundation and other conservative donors. Nor would it be possible if the propaganda campaign was not relentless and sustained never veering from the premise that only privatization can save our public schools. With privatization champion Scott Walker in the Governors Office and a Republican-controlled leadership that believes in privatization and has seen its members benefit at campaign time from both donors and outside spending by the privatization cartel, Wisconsins public school students will remain at risk for seeing public schools and public school teachers attacked by this propaganda network. Already, the state legislature has upped its investment in privatization. The 2013-14 state budget expands privatization statewide, albeit with caps. It also provides an unconscionable $30 million tax credit for parents already sending their students to private schools. It includes no income limit, meaning millionaires sending their children to private schools will get a break on their taxes paid for by the rest of Wisconsin. The Department of Public Instruction reported that 75 percent of the students who have applied for enrollment in the expanded statewide privatization program were already not attending public schools. Not only does this show that Gov. Walkers insistence that this expansion would help many new students access the program was a falsehood, but it also shows strong support for public schools in Wisconsin by the parents of public school students. The forces of privatization continue to use their limitless resources and powerful elected allies to advance an agenda that, if fully implemented, will break the social contract that Americas students deserve the best public schools. And Wisconsin is left to ask: Will public education remain a public good that is supported by our public officials?
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CITED SOURCES
1
Bradley Foundation 2011 & 2010 IRS Form 990; Bradley Foundation 2011 Grantees Report; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Inside the Bradley Foundation" database, 8/6/11 2 http://progressive.org/bradley-foundation-spearheading-assault-on-public-schools 3 http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/p-is-for-payoff.pdf 4 La Crosse Tribune, 3/7/10, http://lacrossetribune.com/news/state-and-regional/wi/uw-madison-faces-liberal-backlash-in-pollingdeal/article_459ca1a8-2a19-11df-b349-001cc4c002e0.html 5 Scott Walker for Governor campaign website; retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20101230060653/http://www.scottwalker.org/issues/education 6 http://www.maciverinstitute.com/2013/03/wisconsin-public-schools-spend-330-million-on-bloated-administrative-costs/ 7 eagnews.org, 4/2/13 8 theGrio.com, 10/29/2012: http://thegrio.com/2012/10/29/web-of-dark-money-behind-wisconsin-voter-suppression/#49579389 9 http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/purple-wisconsin/150827735.html#!page=1&pageSize=10&sort=newestfirst. 10 The Wisconsinite, 3/2/2004, http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/07/10911/alec-activity-wisconsin-circa-2004 11 Idaho Spokesman-Review, 9/15/2013, http://m.spokesman.com/stories/2013/sep/15/idaho-freedom-foundations-charitablestatus/ 12 http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=State_Policy_Network 13 http://www.spn.org/directory/organizations.asp 14 http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=State_Policy_Network 15 http://bridgeproject.com/?organization&id=275641 16 Bradley IRS 990s 2010 & 2011, Bradley 2012 Annual Report; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Bradley Grants database 17 http://www.maciverinstitute.com/2012/11/maciver-institute-receives-first-ever-national-think-tank-award/ 18 Center for Media and Democracy, Contributions of the Bradley Foundation, SourceWatch.org, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Contributions_of_the_Bradley_Foundation; Bradley Foundation 2012 Annual Report, http://www.bradleyfdn.org/pdfs/Reports2012/2012AnnualReport.pdf 19 http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/02/21/145492/zombie-johnbirch-walker/ 20 http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/02/21/145492/zombie-johnbirch-walker/ 21 http://bdgrdemocracy.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/conservative-think-tank-wisconsin-policy-research-institute-releases-newpoll-and-puts-itself-in-spin-mode/ 22 http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/02/18/the-first-blow-against-public-employees/wisconsins-governor-is-fiscallymodest-politically-bold 23 The Capital Times, 11/28/12 24 Associated Press, UW-Madison faces liberal backlash in polling deal, March 7, 2010 25 http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/politiscope/conservative-groups-create-own-news-outlets-to-counteralleged-liberal/article_e5c01972-38cf-11e2-ad6a-0019bb2963f4.html 26 Capital Times, November 9, 2012 27 http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Leah_Vukmir; http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Health_and_Human_Services_Task_Force 28 http://heartland.org/policy-documents/wisconsins-state-budget-outlook-worst-yet-come 29 http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Beacon_Hill_Institute 30 http://www.wpri.org/Reports/Volume22/Vol22No7/Vol22No7.html; http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Renewable_portfolio_standards 31 Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, Federal Election Commission 32 http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/politiscope/conservative-groups-create-own-news-outlets-to-counteralleged-liberal/article_e5c01972-38cf-11e2-ad6a-0019bb2963f4.html 33 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/25/2012, http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/recall-race-cost-record-801-million-finaltally-shows-go68b2k-163702916.html 34 http://www.wisdc.org/pr031312.php 35 Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin press release 3/20/13 36 The Capital Times, January 21, 2012, http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/editorial/john-maciver-would-not-approve-ofthe-distortions-being-made/article_ffed9605-5e89-5055-afba-075116a09a11.html 37 http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt_and_politics/article_43751011-0980-527f-be38-63ee4a4530bf.html 38 Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, Federal Election Commission 39 http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11114/cmds-quick-guide-mark-block-blocktopus 40 http://www.maciverinstitute.com/2012/06/what-happened-in-vegas-on-wisconsin/
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http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2011/10/28/top_cain_aide_has_checkered_past/; MacIver Institute form 990, 2008; and http://americansforprosperity.org/012510-afp-wiscosin-state-director-mark-block/ 42 http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2011/10/28/top_cain_aide_has_checkered_past/ 43 New York Times, 11/3/2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/us/politics/mark-block-faces-tough-questions-on-caincampaign.html?_r=0 44 Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, IRS Form 990s, 2008-2011 45 http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/e/e4/Franklin_Center_Statehouse_News_Bureaus.jpg 46 http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/07/11636/how-right-wing-group-infiltrating-state-news-coverage 47 http://www.prwatch.org/node/10971 48 http://www.prwatch.org/node/10971 49 http://bridgeproject.com/?organization&id=275891 50 American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, Bridge Project for Conservative Transparency, MacIver Institute For Public Policy page, accessed 6/4/13 51 Walton Family Foundation, K-12 Education Reform Investment Sites map - Milwaukee, WI, accessed 6/4/13 52 Los Angeles Times, 3/27/13 53 http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Randolph_Foundation 54 American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, Bridge Project for Conservative Transparency, MacIver Institute For Public Policy page, accessed 6/4/13 55 Washington Post, 10/3/93 56 Roll Call, 1/20/97 57 http://franklincenterhq.org/, http://watchdog.org/category/wisconsin/ 58 http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/08/12161/koch-funded-franklin-center-watchdogs-infiltrate-state-capitols 59 http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Contributions_of_the_Bradley_Foundation
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