When it Comes to Public Education: Is Florida the Capitol of Kochland?
Over the weekend, I listened to an episode of the podcast “Have You Heard?” titled “Kochland: Inside the Kochs’ Vision for Public Education.”
SPOILER ALERT: That vision doesn’t involve the word “public.”
WARNING: Public education advocates in Florida will experience a significant feeling of deja vu.
“Have You Heard” is a fantastic podcast which focuses of current education “reform” trends and the unintended consequences of the current shift towards privatization and a market-based education system. The podcast is hosted by journalist and public education advocate, Jennifer Berkshire, and education historian Jack Schneider. It is always worth a listen.
Their recent podcast, centered on an interview with Christopher Leonard, author of the bestselling new book “Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power.” While the book is focused on the rise of the Koch family corporation and the Koch philosophy, which now influences American workers, markets, and elections, the interview delves into the Koch Brothers’ interest in public education. It turns out the dismantling of public education has long been one of the Kochs’ priorities. Please take the time to listen to the interview:
You can read the podcast’s full transcript here.
Christopher Leonard is a business reporter whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Kochland is his second book. Charles Koch and Koch Industries were huge supporters and huge funders of ALEC through the 1990s. Even back then, they were focused on education. A few basics from the interview:
- Koch Industries is focused on one bottom line: making profits (no surprise).
- Charles Koch has created a top down organization that is ruthlessly focused on Return on Investment.
- The Kochs would like to eliminate unions.
- In the view of Charles Koch, the world needs to be organized as a private marketplace and when the government intervenes it distorts the market system and it creates more problems than it solves.
- The Koch’s objection to the system of public education is ideological, starting with the taxes that pay for it. They see taxation truly as a form of of theft and robbery.
- Their ultimate vision is that a public system would be replaced entirely by a private sector school system, which in their view is more efficient or would deliver better results.
So, because government is bad, public education must be destroyed for the good of all American citizens. Does it sound like Florida yet? It should.
After seven years spent digging deep into the Koch worldview, Koch Industries and their political advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, Leonard is blunt when he describes the ultimate goals of the Koch’s and the glossy propaganda materials they will use to advance their efforts:
“Know what the blueprint is. The Koch influence machine is multifaceted and complex and I am just telling you in a very honest way, there’s a huge difference between the marketing materials produced by Americans for Prosperity and the behind the scenes actual political philosophy. There’s a huge difference. And here’s the actual political philosophy. Government is bad. Public education must be destroyed for the good of all American citizens in this view.
So the ultimate goal is to dismantle the public education system entirely and replace it with a privately run education system, which the operatives in this group believe in a sincere way is better for everybody. Now, whether you agree with that or not as the big question, but we cannot have any doubt, there’s going to be a lot of glossy marketing materials about opportunity, innovation, efficiency. At its core though the the network seeks to dismantle the public education system because they see it as destructive. So that is what’s the actual aim of this group. And don’t let them tell you anything different.”
Hmmmm. An organization whose “ultimate goal is to dismantle the public education system entirely and replace it with a privately run education system”… the elimination of unions… the focus on Return of Investment… operatives who believe “in a sincere way” that the privatization of public education would be better for everybody”? That sounds like Tallahassee, specifically our current Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran. For example:
- In his opening remarks as House Speaker in 2016, he attacked the teachers unions, calling them “evil.”
- As Commissioner of Education, he has been open about his intentions to transform Florida’s education system, moving 2 million of Florida’s public school children into private options during his tenure.
- At the August 2019 state Board of Education meeting, Corcoran announced an increased focus on becoming a leader in efficiency or Return of Investment – achieving higher national test scores for less money.
Corcoran’s words and actions align almost perfectly with the Koch agenda for public schools. Why is this man, who wants to tear down public schools for idealogical reasons, placed in charge of Florida’s public schools? Governor DeSantis has abdicated that responsibility to him.
Of course, Corcoran isn’t the only one in Tallahassee connected to Kochs’ money/influence. Americans for Prosperity – Florida, the state chapter of the Koch-funded activist network, (AFP-FL) refers to itself as “the state’s leading grassroots advocacy organization” and includes the privatization of public education (which they refer to as “empowering students” to chose something other than traditional public schools) as one of their “five steps to reform.” AFP, also, operates the LIBRE initiative – more idealogical “grass roots” focused on reaching Florida’s Hispanic population. Both groups and Political Action Committees funded by the Kochs are influential in Florida politics, and have been for some time. For example:
- 2012: Jeb Bush’s “Foundation for Excellence in Education” (ExcelinED) had close ties with the Koch funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a corporate bill mill working to profitize public education among other legislative changes. They advocated for the same legislative priorities, benefitting their corporate benefactors, collaborated on an annual education “report card” and had some of the same “experts” on their staff. Together, they worked to satisfy the free market fundamentalism of their billionaire donors.
- 2017: Corcoran, DeSantis and (now) House Speaker Jose Oliva attended a Koch retreat in Colorado.
- 2018: A Koch-backed group created the Freedom Partners Actions Fund, which served as the vehicle to funnel national donor cash DeSantis’ gubernatorial bid, and marked a turning point in his primary race against once GOP frontrunner, Adam Putnam.
Koch ideology, and the money that accompanies it, has had a major influence in Florida education policy over the last two decades. We now have a Commissioner of Education who believes, perhaps “in a sincere way,” that the dismantling and privatization of public education “would be better for everybody.”
Do Floridians share his philosophy? Will Florida be improved by the lack of public schools? The time to speak out is now. Stand up for our public schools before the entire system is dismantled.