Critics of the new Wake County school board majority are again hammering the connection between board members and conservative businessman Art Pope.
A group of N.C. students sent out a press release today announcing plans to protest tonight's on-campus speech that's organized by a group funded by the John W. Pope Foundation. According to the press release "protesters will voice their concerns about the role this ideological foundation has played at their University and as a force behind the new Wake County School Board majority."
"How much influence have [Pope']s dollars had on my education, and how much money are he and his buddies spending to install misguided puppets who are set on dismantling Wake County's nationally recognized diversity policy and sending us back to the Jim Crow segregated South?" said Vidya Shankar, an NC State undergrad, in the press release.
Similar attempts to link Pope through the foundation and his political contributions have increasingly been used by critics of the new board.
The state NAACP alluded to Pope and conservative businessman Bob Luddy in the complaint filed Friday. The NAACP's complaint referenced last week's front-page article in the liberal Independent about "Wake County Goes To Hell."
"In Wake County, in fact, the same multimillionaire conservative helped fund the anti-health care protests and the campaign to seize the school board: Raleigh businessman and former state Rep. Art Pope," writes Bob Geary in the article.
Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of the iiberal N.C. Policy Watch, has repeatedly written columns saying that Pope and LUddy are directing the new board majority.
Here's the press release on the protest:
STUDENTS AND WAKE COUNTY STUDENTS PICKET A JOHN POPE FOUNDATION LECTURE SERIES TO DEMAND HANDS OFF PUBLIC EDUCATION
WHEN: Monday, March 8, 2010 at 7:00 PM
WHERE: SAS Hall at NC State University, 2311 Stinson Drive, Raleigh NC
Raleigh, N.C. – Students and Wake County citizens are concerned about the role the John W. Pope Foundation, Art Pope, and their affiliate organizations (such as the John Locke Foundation and the Civitas Institute) have played in providing strategic advice and financial support to the new Wake County School Board majority.
Tonight the Pope Lecture Series at NC State, which is supported by a grant from the John W. Pope Foundation, features former Bush speechwriter David Frum. The event is hosted by the Society for Political Science, Economics, and Law, a student organization that has been funded by the Pope Foundation since at least 2004.
Media is invited to a demonstration outside the lecture. Protesters will voice their concerns about the role this ideological foundation has played at their University and as a force behind the new Wake County School Board majority.
The John W. Pope Foundation advocates the privatization of public and non-profit high education, opposes any kind of regulation of racist or sexist speech on campus, and has also attacked university women’s centers, women and gender studies curricula, and multi-cultural studies curricula. Their brother organization, the John Locke Foundation, advocates a “school choice” agenda that promotes school vouchers and an expansion of charter schools.
"The public has a right to know how much money Art Pope has thrown at public universities and the funding of candidates for political office to advance his own political ideology," says Vidya Shankar, an NC State undergrad, "How much influence have his dollars had on my education, and how much money are he and his buddies spending to install misguided puppets who are set on dismantling Wake County's nationally recognized diversity policy and sending us back to the Jim Crow segregated South?"
The demand of the protesters is simple: Art Pope – Hands Off Our Public Education!
Comments
Mr Hui Question
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 22:09 — Voice_of_Reason_Did you happen to catch the organization that promoted that protest? I am sure that it wasn't spontaneous. I would really like to know this information, it might be an important piece to a bigger story. I'd would really like to know how many protesters attend and whether the signs they carry are professionally printed. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.
I'm working the 2-10 shift
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 22:36 — KeungHui (author)I'm working the 2-10 shift this week so I'll probably have something up later tonight.
Awesome, Thanks Keung
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 23:53 — Voice_of_Reason_..
Barber, Luddy, Pope,
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 20:21 — woodstockBarber, Luddy, Pope, Gatewood, Fitzsimons, Woodhouse, etc. They have zero influence on the new BoE members...or any members for that matter, but apparently an enormous of amount of influence in what drives so-called news stories. It has gotten beyond ridiculous. The news has gotten to a point where it has no relationship with reality.
Now we have N.C. State Stepford students programmed to repeat verbatim, the baseless claims from the opposition playbook/talking points: "How much influence have [Pope']s dollars had on my education, and how much money are he and his buddies spending to install misguided puppets who are set on dismantling Wake County's nationally recognized diversity policy and sending us back to the Jim Crow segregated South?"
It is all so silly and pointless.
The Pot Clangers are Back!
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 19:39 — mike27513Ah Yes- Another "Protest" by the Geniuses at some local "University"
"How much influence have [Pope']s dollars had on my education, and how much money are he and his buddies spending to install misguided puppets who are set on dismantling Wake County's nationally recognized diversity policy and sending us back to the Jim Crow segregated South?" said Vidya Shankar, an NC State undergrad, in the press release.
Well , Mr./Ms. or Whatever Vidya Shankar
You are free to attend ANY other University that meets your "Standards"
Preferably in a another State or even better another country.
Please take the Duke Gang of 88 with you.
Ginned up by the N&O
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 18:21 — AgentPierceThe whole "Pope & Luddy as Boggiemen" as been consistently ginned up by the N&O for years thru both its op/ed and, regrettably, also in its news departments.
"Local millionaire activists" such as Jim Goodmon and Jim Goodnight who, "encouraged" by their wives" give equal amounts to liberal partisan causes are never given the same treatment.
The N&O will never accept responsibility for the consequences of its partisanship whether in Duke Lacrosse or the current WCPSS mess.
It's simply the way it and the way it will remain.
Really? You don't understand
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 18:03 — gregishereIn the world of Art Pope, Tedesco is expendable, Dallas Woodhouse is encouraged and the NAACP is muscling up just as expected. Really, people? Do you really believe this is about making Wake schools better. Pope and Luddy saw a chance to undo the system and lunged at it. They are encouraging all of you with good intentions on the "community" schools side, knowing they are using you. I'd be a little upset, if I were you. As for "my" side, well, those fighting with good intentions to keep diversity as a part of the system seem to be walking into a trap. I don't know how many people I've talked to who, tired of the fighting already, just might take their children to private school. And there's the rub. Pope and Luddy want this "market" approach. They want middle class support -- the very thing that has helped Wake keep a good school system, albeit with problems that need correcting -- to abandon the system. The abandoning just proves their point. How devious. Conspiracy? Um, no. Just ask Grover Norquist, a hero of Pope's, what his plan was for the federal government. Man, he was close in the late nineties to getting his wish.
I just wish people could unwrap themselves from their ideologies and say, yeah, let's get at all these problems without going to high poverty schools. I mean, jeez, let's just be a little more sane in how we send kids to magnet, how we build schools and how we get resources to students who aren't doing well. That doesn't involve blowing everything up, does it? Oh, that's right, Pope says it does. And he's the Pope.
I have a sneaky suspicion
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 22:32 — Voice_of_Reason_Maybe a proud parent of a magnet school child? Am I correct? I think the "I just wish people could unwrap themselves from their ideologies" was really cute; especially when you just made yours very clear.
Ok...
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 18:41 — Bob_SconceFirst this....
And then this...
Ironic, no?
Nice
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 19:58 — gregishereNice catch. It's my inner cynic battling with my outer idealist. But my inconsistency doesn't negate my point. I do believe this is a bigger battle, but I'm open to being wrong. And, I do believe there are real issues that need to be addressed that doesn't involve starting from scratch. Maybe the process will bear that out. I don't think so but, hey, we can all be wrong, right?
noble indeed
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 16:22 — red_balloonHow much influence have his dollars had on my education
Nobel thoughts indeed but rather late for these misgivings if you were educated at the taxpayer's expense.
Perhaps NC State will "throw
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 16:14 — DrActualFactualPerhaps NC State will "throw back" the money that Mr. Pope sent them. Don't think so, but if they do Mr. Pope you can send it to me, I'll make very good use of it! BTW, the SAS bldg. the meeting will be held in was likely donated by Mr. Goodnight and his corporation, why don't you protest the money they "throw" at education while your at it. Perhaps they will skip the universities and donate to oh....I don't know, maybe Big Brother/Sisters. You just can't find enough "clean" money for protesters.
SAS originated at NC State
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 18:26 — Dove314We're all becoming way too focused on our personal prejudices and forgetting history.
SAS is a big supporter of NC State because Goodnight and others developed their product, Statistical Analysis Systems or SAS, while they were professors teaching classes and doing research at NC State. This is similar to Gillings donating money to UNC where he began Quintiles.
Each has a soft spot for the universities that started them on very successful business paths.
...
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 16:41 — ego7601Good call about the SAS donations! If the students feel that strongly about how much $$ Pope has given to influence their education, maybe they should transfer to another school. I'm sure there is a college somewhere that has not been given money by a businessman that has political affiliations- I just can't think of one right now. :)
I disagree about the SAS
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 17:55 — danofncI disagree about the SAS comments being a good call. There is a little evidence to suggest that SAS is neutral, isn't there?
I've seen critics here accuse SAS/Goodnight of being a force behind the liberal Wake Education Partnership.
I've also seen critics using the SAS EVAAS report to show why the schools need to be overhauled.
If SAS/Goodnight was really on the liberal side, do you think that report would have ever seen the light of day?
Agree to disagree
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 19:26 — ego7601The EVAAS report is not something SAS developed. The EVAAS was tweaked from a Tennessee methodology that presents data. Also, it is an application run on the SAS platform where districts input the information and the program spits out the data. And the data shows the school system needs to be overhauled. Just because it has the SAS name doesn't mean Goodnight had anything to do with it personally.
According to Businessweek.com, Jim Goodnight "set up a private school in SAS’s hometown of Cary, N.C., and has adopted a cluster of public schools." What that adoption actually entails, I'm not quite sure about. Oh, and in the same article Jim is trying to sell one of his software programs to Obama for nationwide use. Ann Goodnight is involved with: the UNC System's Board of Governors, the William and Ida Friday Institute for Education Innovation at North Carolina State University, Cary Academy, the Public School Forum of North Carolina, the North Carolina New Schools Project, the YMCA of the Triangle, the Wake Education Partnership, the Triangle Leadership Academy and the High Five Regional Partnership.
All those educational entities the Goodnights are supporting is very similar to educational entities the Pope Foundation is supporting, no?
Heh...
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 22:42 — Bob_SconceSo, that private school Goodnight set up was Cary Academy. And, IIRC, there was a lot of complaining at the time about all the Magnet teachers that were being hired away from Enloe.