OK, it's not really Wal-Mart. It's the Wal-Mart Family Foundation, controlled by Sam Walton's kids. As
USA Today explained last year:
"Wal-Mart's founders transformed U.S. business. Now they are taking on a very different subject: the nation's public schools. The Waltons -- the USA's richest family -- have quietly become top philanthropists in education reform, including controversial charter-school and school-voucher causes.
They have donated at least $701 million to education charities since 1998."
Some of you probably support vouchers and charter schools too. I know that the charter schools in my town are much better than the regular public schools. But you need to understand, public dollars spent on vouchers and public schools are dollars that other students don't get. They are an attempt to starve the government beast on a local level. It's as if you're saying, "Those kids are hopeless. Let's help these few select kids and leave the others to work at Wal-Mart some day."
But doesn't Wal-Mart money going to help schools mean that public funds aren't being expended? No. The Wal-Mart Family Foundation freely admits that their goal is:
"To maximize private school choice options for families who do not have the opportunity to attend quality public schools or the financial means to attend strong private alternatives. Specifically, the focus is to support private school choice initiatives that not only work, but would, with future replication
and some potential degree of public funding, work elsewhere and
at greater scale."
[Emphasis added]
Why do the Walton's want to fund school choice programs? Some have suggested that they want to help more students get a Christian education. Certainly, that's part of it. There has been some noise that the Waltons intend to start their own charter schools so that they can get in on the huge amount of public educational funds available to private enterprise if school choice ever becomes more widespread.
I'm actually more cynical than that. Let's follow some of their money, shall we? In 2003, the Wal-Mart Family Foundation gave approximately three million dolllars to a non-profit organization called KIPP: the Knowledge is Power Program, which helps organize charter schools in low-income neighborhoods. Here is the San Francisco Chronicle (via Susan Ohanian) describing their program:
At every KIPP school, students wear uniforms. They must walk in quiet, single-file lines at all times, and candy is absolutely forbidden....
Much like a chain store, KIPP is replicating by creating its own recognizable brand of education. While principals are given wide latitude to design their own schools, they all follow an underlying formula that defines KIPP.
All KIPP kids learn chants and hand signals that teachers use for everything from teaching multiplication tables to getting them to recite their college ambitions. Whether in the Bronx or Hunters Point or Oakland, KIPP school hallways are decorated with similar posters bearing KIPP slogans such as, "All of Us Will Learn," and "There are No Shortcuts."
[Emphasis added]
Remind you of anywhere?
Hereis a BBC reporter's story on his visit to Wal-Mart's hometwon, Bentonville, Arkansas:
All over the place are pictures of Mr Sam and posters of his quirky sayings. There's an Orwellian feel to it, a bit like being in one of those African states where images of the despotic president stare down at you from every street corner.
Compounding this sense of propaganda is the company's insistence that weekly staff meetings kick off with the Wal-Mart cheer. "Give me a W, give me an A. . . " And so on, until they end with a rousing: "Who's number one? The customer."
Compounding this sense of propaganda is the company's insistence that weekly staff meetings kick off with the Wal-Mart cheer. "Give me a W, give me an A. . . " And so on, until they end with a rousing: "Who's number one? The customer."
I saved my answer to the title question until the end so you wouldn't think I was paranoid. I think Wal-Mart wants to destroy public education in America so that they can turn everyone into the perfect Wal-Mart worker. Even if a student doesn't grow up to work at Wal-Mart bankrupting most public shool systems will assure that the biggest employer in the United States will always have a steady supply of customers.
Think about it. Do rich people shop at Wal-Mart? Does anyone outside of Wal-Mart's commercials shop their because they want to? If most Americans were well-educated and upwardly mobile, Wal-Mart would be on its way to oblivion.
Wal-Mart: They're even worse than you thought.
JR