Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

As noted a few days ago in a post, a widely publicized “grassroots protest” by charter school parents was in fact funded by the Waltons, a rabid pro-for-profit-charter pro-voucher group who has successfully convinced neoliberal America that the only solution to the “failing public schools” is providing parents with “choice”. I was appalled to see a link to a video titled “Protesters confront Warren and Biden at Campaign Events” with this text explaining the nature of the protests against Warren:

“In Georgia, Senator Elizabeth Warren was interrupted by protests because of her plan to cut charter school funding.”

The text was especially appalling since the video itself had nothing to say about the “plan to cut charter school funding” and did not show one frame of footage on the protest. Rather, the video showed Ayanna Pressley eloquently and patiently explaining to the protesters that Ms. Warren was ready to listen to the substance of the protesters’ complaints but that her purpose here today was to explain how she intended to remedy the many problems facing the nation.

The NYTimes seems intent on making it sound as if Elizabeth Warren opposes ALL charter schools and intends to cut funding to ALL of them as a result. As the previous post and Ms. Warren’s campaign literature explains, she is only opposed to those charter schools that are not governed by democratically elected boards and who seek to make a profit for shareholders. It is not difficult to include that distinction in framing her position…. unless, that is, the NYTimes and other media outlets wish to oversimplify an issue to advance their own agenda.