USD 501 super (Topeka, KS) defends Koch-linked entrepreneurship classes

[deminks]

http://m.cjonline.com/news/2014-07-16/usd-501-super-defends-koch-linked-entrepreneurship-classes

Topeka Unified School District 501 superintendent Julie Ford stands by entrepreneurship classes offered at Topeka high schools and linked to a Koch Foundation-funded organization.

The classes came under fire Wednesday in a Huffington Post article that traces the origin of the nonprofit Youth Entrepreneurs and says the group’s underlying mission is to “impart Koch’s radical free-market ideology to teenagers.”

Youth Entrepreneurs provides training and resources to schools to establish classes on small business. USD 501 offers the classes for sophomores, juniors and seniors at Highland Park High, Topeka High, Topeka West and, starting this year, Hope Street Academy.

(snip)


Ford said she hasn’t seen anything in the program that raised red flags, and the school has a policy against teachers using their position to teach personal political beliefs.

But she also said she would review the matter in light of the allegations being made, and she welcomed reporters to view the curriculum and course materials.

“You’ve motivated me, maybe I need to turn every page of” the curriculum, she said. “I’m going to be honest, we have not looked at every page of that curriculum, but what I’ve seen being taught, I haven’t seen anything (problematic).”


(end snip)

These 'classes' are taught by local teachers recruited by Koch Industries, paid for by Youth Entrepreneurs (Koch Industries), and monitored by Koch Industries???

In case you missed it, here is the Huffpo article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/koch-brothers-education_n_5587577.html

In the spring of 2012, Spenser Johnson, a junior at Highland Park High School in Topeka, Kansas, was unpacking his acoustic bass before orchestra practice when a sign caught his eye. "Do you want to make money?" it asked.

The poster encouraged the predominantly poor students at Highland Park to enroll in a new, yearlong course that would provide lessons in basic economic principles and practical instruction on starting a business. Students would receive generous financial incentives including startup capital and scholarships after graduation. The course would begin that fall. Johnson eagerly signed up.

In some ways, the class looked like a typical high school business course, taught in a Highland Park classroom by a Highland Park teacher. But it was actually run by Youth Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit group created and funded primarily by Charles G. Koch, the billionaire chairman of Koch Industries.

The official mission of Youth Entrepreneurs is to provide kids with "business and entrepreneurial education and experiences that help them prosper and become contributing members of society." The underlying goal of the program, however, is to impart Koch's radical free-market ideology to teenagers. In the last school year, the class reached more than 1,000 students across Kansas and Missouri.

Lesson plans and class materials obtained by The Huffington Post make the course's message clear: The minimum wage hurts workers and slows economic growth. Low taxes and less regulation allow people to prosper. Public assistance harms the poor. Government, in short, is the enemy of liberty.

(end snip)

emphasis mine