Head of local conservative think tank publicly derides the concept of public education
For years in North Carolina, the advocacy groups funded by arch-conservative financier and politico Art Pope have attempted to portray themselves as champions of both private and public education.
On the one hand, groups like the John Locke Foundation (and the group formerly known as the Pope-Civitas Institute that Locke recently absorbed) have never missed a chance to promote and advocate for “school choice” through things like private school vouchers and charter schools.
At the same time, however, these same groups have long held themselves out as experts on how we should run traditional public schools. Down through the years, Pope-funded groups and commentators (like former Locke boss John Hood) have produced scores of columns, reports and blog posts in which they have delved into (and held forth on) the minutiae of public school funding, curricula, building standards, testing — you name it.
And while there has almost always been ample reason to disagree with most of the takes the Locke people have espoused, one has been obliged to at least take them at their oft-repeated word (and give them some degree of credit for it) that they cared about public schools and wanted them to succeed.
Read more: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2021/07/08/head-of-local-conservative-think-tank-publicly-derides-the-concept-of-public-education/
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... inching towards the Libertarian insanity of David Koch from 1980.
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2014/4/10/1291095/-Astounding-Charles-Koch-s-1980-VP-Run-Kill-Medicare-Soc-Sec-Min-Wage-Public-Ed