Ed reform group leader showed true colors in ugly note to a Ft. Wayne union teacher.

[madfloridian]

The note is posted at the website of the Ft. Wayne Education Association in all its rudeness. They omit the name of the teacher, and no background is given on the situation.

In my mind there is no explanation and no background needed that would excuse such outrageous comments.

The True Colors Of EAG

From: Steve Gunn (mailto:[email protected])
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 10:47 AM
To: A FWCS HS Teacher Name withheld
Subject: RE: EAG Response to a FWCS Teacher

I don’t need to be an “expert.” I am a taxpayer. In case you haven’t noticed, we fund the schools and we will run them any way we choose, whether you and your self-serving union friends like it or not. The vast majority of Indiana voters are obviously ready for reform , or they wouldn’t have voted the way they did. The nation is obviously ready for reform, or laws wouldn’t be changing as quickly as they are.

By the way, what makes you an “expert?” Your low-grade bachelor’s degree? I have one of them, also. Your temper tantrum is getting louder. That means the people did the right thing by finally telling you and your kind “No More!”

No more laying off young teachers and cancelling student programs while selfish old teachers get to keep their perks and benefits.

Selfish old teachers get to keep their perks and benefits? Another way to fight the generational wars, I guess.

There's a little more:

Schools are for children, not selfish union activists who staff them. The people (not some Nazi-like totalitarian regime) have made that final determination at the ballot box, whether you like it or not. It’s troubling that a radical freak like you is allowed to speak in front of impressionable children. You should be shown the door. Perhaps in the new, reformed environment, you will be.

Steve Gunn is the communications director of the Education Action Group. There is more about him at their website.

At least one blogger has been hounded by them. Here is a post of his from last February when he learned that group had gotten all of his school emails turned over to them.

McCarthyism redux.

A visit from my superintendent this morning brought the news that some punks from an anti-union outfit called the Education Action Group had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on all my district emails.

Why?

They’re fishing for evidence that I’m a pro-union, politically active, progressive teacher.

Hey. They could have just asked my colleagues. It’s not a secret. That’s why they elected me president of their union local for ten years. I write openly about my views on my blog. And I don’t use work email to do it.

Of course that’s only part of their intent. They also want to intimidate others.

This is an old story. They tried it back in the 1950s when they followed the lead of that drunk Joe McCarthy.

The Michigan Education Association in 2008 wrote about this group, and they warned people to be on guard.

Behind the false front

It may be helpful for MEA members to know about EAG, in case it tries to interfere with local bargaining matters. Here’s some of what is known about EAG, as of March 1:

EAG isn’t really a group. It’s two very partisan men with ties to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Dick DeVos of Amway Corp. fame. Olson’s brother is director of education policy at the Mackinac Center, another anti-union, pro-privatization group. The man who incorporated EAG, Eric Doster, is a Michigan Republican Party lawyer who has served on the board of the Great Lakes Education Project, a political action committee linked to DeVos. DeVos, of course, helped finance the failed 2000 vouchers initiative.

EAG bashes the collective bargaining process and school employees’ rights to inform the community and to work to elect leaders who value students and the employees who teach and help them at school.

Olson claims to be nonpartisan, but he is a partisan Republican Party activist and an officer in the state party.

Olson refuses to disclose his group’s funding sources, making it difficult to discern whose agenda EAG is pushing.

In another thread DUer midnight posted a recent article that they are pushing their agenda hard this October.

I googled them and they have rolled out their campaign this week in Oct.
"The campaign began this week with ads on talk radio, according to EAG vice-president Kyle Olson, and will pick up pace next week with TV spots and about a dozen billboards in the Milwaukee and Madison area. What’s not clear is where the funding for all this is coming from. The group, based in Muskegon, Mich., has ties to the Michigan Republican Party and has raised eyebrows before with billboard campaigns in Ohio and Michigan."

Group rolling out attacks against teachers' unions.

There are many groups like this. Michelle Rhee's group called Students First, Jonah Edelman's group called Stand for Children, Democrats for Education Reform...DER for short. Many more.

They make it sound as though they are the only ones standing up for students. That is a lie, and they get away with it...unfortunately.

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[roguevalley]

8. They should do what I did to a school board PRESIDENT here.

I took her bullshit and edited it with a red pen. Halfway through I quit circling and correcting and sent it back to her with an F circled and 'rewrite entire thing' notice. I heard from someone later that she cried when she got it, the illiterate buffoon.

Later on she stopped by my class and introduced herself: "I'm the one who can't spell."

[madfloridian]

9. Heh heh...love that.

:hi:

[theaocp]

10. Uh, the correct term is, "unliterate."

:sarcasm:

[rurallib]

2. any idea where they get their money? Sure smells like a Koch.

[Dr Fate]

3. They gotta spend Obama's tax cut extensions on something. Nt

Nt

[madfloridian]

5. I did find this....DeVos, Mackinac.

http://www.mea.org/voice/march2008/educationactiongroup.html

"EAG isn’t really a group. It’s two very partisan men with ties to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Dick DeVos of Amway Corp. fame. Olson’s brother is director of education policy at the Mackinac Center, another anti-union, pro-privatization group. The man who incorporated EAG, Eric Doster, is a Michigan Republican Party lawyer who has served on the board of the Great Lakes Education Project, a political action committee linked to DeVos. DeVos, of course, helped finance the failed 2000 vouchers initiative."

Also...looks like they love to harass.

"Bill Milligan, a faculty member at Bay de Noc Community College in the Upper Peninsula, knows first-hand about EAG’s methods.

Milligan had a close encounter with the group last fall after he wrote an e-mail to EAG, criticizing an opinion column published in The Detroit News by EAG’s only apparent staff member, Kyle Olson. Olson contacted Milligan’s boss, the college’s president, to complain. The president supported Milligan’s right to exercise free speech."

That is from 2008...looks like they have more than 2 now.

http://educationactiongroup.org/about-us

[Blue_Tires]

4. FFS where do these people come from??

I didn't even notice them until a few years ago, and now they are seemingly in every county of every state...

I've noticed that these corporate lowlifes use the word "reform" in the same loaded, omnious way Bush/Rumsfeld used "freedom" with the Iraqis...

[madfloridian]

6. They are enabled through the education "reform" movement.

Arne Duncan's policies have made them able to grow and prosper.

[Brigid]

7. Is there any other civilized country that treats its schools as political footballs?

But it has been this way for decades here, and kids are paying the price. No wonder our public schools do so poorly in comparison to those in other countries. :banghead:

[madfloridian]

17. It's worse lately.

I don't know of any other countries that treat teachers so much with contempt.

[ohbill]

11. "I don’t need to be an 'expert.' I am a taxpayer."

I can't wait until he says this to a police officer after being pulled over for speeding. It'll take a gallon of saline and a barrel of milk to get the mace off of his eyes and face.

[Sportsguy]

12. K & R, Shit

I don't get it.

[bluestateguy]

13. I'm a taxpayer who is fed up with seeing a trillion $ a year wasted on "defense"

Hence I don't need to be an expert either.

I therefore claim for myself the right to decide what and how the military budget will be cut.

[madfloridian]

14. There you go.

That'll work. :evilgrin:

[Kurovski]

15. K&R. (nt)

[Starry Messenger]

16. k&r

[sulphurdunn]

18. Why is Bernie Madoff in prison

while Dick DeVos is still at large?

[Dont call me Shirley]

19. Wow, that Steve Gunn is won smart feller, aint ee.

This just goes to show you the mentality of these privatizers. Scamway is the DeVos way.

[Bozita]

20. WOW! ... Simply WOW!

[yurbud]

21. Sign White House petition telling Obama to kick ed "reform" scammers to the curb:

www.tinyurl.com/teachersnotscammers

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Amazing.

[TheKentuckian]

23. K&R

Though I think their true colors have been pretty clear the whole way, this guy is just a bit more brazen than they usually roll.