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Billionaires v teachers: the Koch brothers’ plan to starve public education
A small group of women have succeeded in putting a state law promoted by Betsy DeVos and billionaire donors which they see as an attack on public education on the ballot in November.
‘The Koch brothers and DeVos are trying to do everything they can to divert money that should go to the public-school system, where 90%-plus of students go,’ according to the Arizona teachers’ union.
‘The Koch brothers and DeVos are trying to do everything they can to divert money that should go to the public-school system, where 90%-plus of students go,’ according to the Arizona teachers’ union. Photograph: Alamy
Arizona has become the hotbed for an experiment rightwing activists hope will redefine America’s schools – an experiment that has pitched the conservative billionaires the Koch brothers and Donald Trump’s controversial education secretary, Betsy DeVos, against teachers’ unions, teachers and parents. Neither side is giving up without a fight.
With groups funded by the Koch brothers and DeVos nudging things along, Arizona lawmakers enacted the nation’s broadest school vouchers law, state-funded vouchers that are supposed to give parents more school choice and can be spent on private or religiously affiliated schools. For opponents, the system is not about choice but about further weakening the public school system. A half-dozen women who had battled for months against the legislation were angry as hell.
Steven Greenhouse in Phoenix
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