Daniel TilsonMaybe if public policy deception were a crime, I wouldn’t have had to write this column. But there’s no law against disingenuous propaganda. So I had to write this.
I had to push back against powerful vested interests advancing a dangerous social agenda while claiming it’s a public service. Vested interests like these pay “public affairs” guys like Ron Matus to publicly dissemble and distort the truth for public consumption.
That’s what happened yesterday, when Matus rebutted my recent column, “Floridians need to fight the privatization of public schools.” And what a rebuttal it was.
I’m touched that I touched a nerve with his employer, Step Up For Students (SUFS), the 31st largest “charity” in America with $311 million in revenues last year. SUFS runs Florida’s school-voucher program.
Instead of pumping money, energy and ingenuity into reinventing our public schools, they’re creating a shadow system where corporations get pre-tax write-offs for sending kids to mostly religious schools with little public oversight. SUFS calls it a “tax credit scholarship” program. Hmm.
SUFS is also pushing hard to divert more of our tax dollars to privately run, for-profit charter schools. With the swirl of controversy surrounding charters — and SUFS’s motives and methods — it’s not surprising they think their best defense is a good offense.
As an HBO “Real Time With Bill Maher” fan, I figured I’d shamelessly steal his “New Rules” bit, and adapt it to this “teachable moment” for SUFS, and Matus.
New Rule: If you’re going to pick a public fight with me, distort my words and dissemble about your motives, then you ought to consider waiting till the harshly revealing floodlight shining on your “charity” business has dimmed.
From hammering away at state legislators as unregistered lobbyists, to boasting about buying influence with millions in campaign contributions, to Frankenstein-worthy resurrection and sneaky last-minute passage of presumed-dead voucher-expansion legislation, to pushing charter expansion and funding hikes when companies in Florida and nationwide are being investigated and accused of fraud and mismanagement… your credibility’s not so hot these days, SUFS.
New Rule: If you’re touting a prominent progressive as drinking your privatization Kool Aid and saying it tastes like “choice”…then you’re going to have to do better than Joe Trippi (Sorry, Joe, nothing personal).
New Rule: If you’re using terms like “parental choice” and “school choice” to describe mercenary manipulation of desperate parents and public schools into being moneymakers and tax-savers for corporations…then you have to change the cute name of your propaganda blog from “redefineEd” to “hoodwinkEd.”
New Rule: If you repeatedly call for politics and ideology to be left out of the education debate…then don’t title you rebuttal “Progressives should embrace parental choice…” I mean, really.
New Rule: If you say of my column, “A dominant thread in the piece is a common myth: that parental choice is the brainchild of the radical right”…then make clear they’re your words, not mine. I described a coalition of corporate profit-seekers and tax evaders, religious special interests, conservative Republicans, and some Democrats. Guess that translates to “the radical right” for Matus. But weren’t we putting ideology aside?
New Rule: If you say, “…contrary to Tilson’s characterization, progressives have long supported expansion of learning options”…then you’re wrong about any “characterization,” and you must stop deceiving people into thinking “expansion of learning options” requires taking children and tax dollars out of public schools. It doesn’t, and progressives know that.
Last New Rule: If you’re audacious enough to say, “In a fortuitous twist, parental choice dovetails as much with progressive values of equal opportunity as with conservative values of limited government”…then progressives will have to make you pay.
The best imaginable “fortuitous twist” would be if progressives build a strong statewide coalition capable of exposing, shaming and shunning you and other enemies of our public school system into submission.
Daniel Tilson has a Boca Raton-based communications firm called Full Cup Media, specializing in online video and written content for non-profits, political candidates and organizations, and small businesses. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
