Why Is PBS Airing Right-Wing-Sponsored School Privatization Propaganda? – AlterNet

A new documentary aims to drum up public support for Betsy DeVos' proposed voucher system.

June 15, 2017, 7:05 AM GMT

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Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her department have pushed for an expansion of privatized school choice programs in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2018, particularly in the form ofprivate school vouchers. Now a propagandistic three-part documentary series calledSchool Inc.will help DeVos in her efforts to gain public support for expanded private school choice options. The series has alreadyaired on PBS stations insome markets and will be shown on more this month.

Amajority of people across the partisan spectrum opposeprivate school vouchers, programs that redirect public education money to pay for private school tuition. Vouchers areproblematic for many reasons, including their history of allowing fordiscriminationagainst LGBTQ, disabled, and special education students, their impact onreducing public education funding,and theirineffectivenessin boosting academic achievement.

Despite these problems, private school vouchers are a long-standing priority of thecorporations and right-wing fundersbacking the education privatization movement. The late Andrew Coulson, long-time head of the Cato InstitutesCenter for Educational Freedom, was thedriving force behindSchool Inc.The Cato Institute is aright-wing, libertarian think-tankthat calls for theelimination of public schoolsin support of greater educational freedom to choose from a free market of privately run schools.

In addition toSchool Inc.srootsin the radical, libertarian Cato Institute, education historian and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of EducationDiane Ravitch foundthat the film wasfundedby a number ofarch-conservative foundationswith ties to the dark money ATMDonorsTrustand the Ayn Rand Institute. Ravitch has prescreenedSchool Inc.and provided this scathing review toThe Washington Post:

This program is paid propaganda. It does not search for the truth. It does not present opposing points of view. It is an advertisement for the demolition of public education and for an unregulated free market in education. PBS might have aired a program that debates these issues, but School Inc. does not.

Why would apublicbroadcast channel air a documentary that is produced by a right-wing think tank and funded by ultra-conservative donors, and that presents a single point of view without meaningful critique, all the while denigratingpubliceducation? PBS responded in part with astatement to thePost, saying,"PBS and local member stations aim to offer programs that reflect diverse viewpoints and promote civic dialogue on important topics affecting local communities."

However, as Ravitch notes, when a documentary fails to objectively present information about a topic that may not be well understood by the general public, the result is unlikely to promote civic dialogue. And when major media outlets uncritically provide a platform toright-wing ideologues, they further misinform and polarize the debate around important issues such as public education.

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Why Is PBS Airing Right-Wing-Sponsored School Privatization Propaganda? - AlterNet