If you been upset about how the Koch Brothers have been using their vast wealth tto unduly influence our political system, hold onto your hat, because Dave Levinthal, from the Center for Public Integrity, exposes How The Koch Brothers Are Targeting The Hearts & Minds Of College Students at colleges, universities, and think tanks around the nation.
Billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch may rank among the nation’s biggest bankrollers of conservative causes and Republican campaign vehicles. But Koch proselytizing of government deregulation and pro-business civics is increasingly targeted not just at creatures of Capitol Hill, or couch sitters in swing states, but also at the hearts and minds of American college students, as well.
In all, two of the six private charitable foundations the Koch brothers control and personally fund combined in 2012 to infuse colleges and universities with more than $12.7 million, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of Internal Revenue Service tax filings.
The vast majority of this cash was spread among 163 U.S. colleges and universities — many with reputations for liberal faculty and left-leaning patrons — throughout 41 states and the District of Columbia. It came on top of tens of millions of dollars more Koch foundations have given colleges and universities during the past decade, tax filings show.
The Koch foundations together have also spent millions more to fund dozens of academic scholarships and internships, numerous think tanks and education-focused organizations, such as the Philadelphia-based Jack Miller Center. The latter is a nonprofit that used $250,000 in Koch money to help bankroll academic programs that “reinvigorate the teaching of America’s founding principles and history” at 45 institutes of higher education, from Harvard University to American University to the University of California, Los Angeles.
I recommend you read this very long and well documented expose which details the Koch strategy for converting our next generations to their way of thinking. It is quite depressing. We have our work cut out for us to counter their propaganda. What a good feeling to learn that the Dave Levinthal and the Center for Public Integrity is on the case and doing excellent work. Keep on truckin' Dave.
10:49 AM PT: Most of the colleges and universities contact say donations from the Koch Brother's foundation has not affected their curriculum, however, in many cases the evidence seems to prove otherwise. For example:
When, for example, the Charles Koch Foundation in 2011 pledged $1.5 million to Florida State University’s economics department, a contract between the foundation and university stipulated that a Koch-appointed advisory committee select professors and conduct annual evaluations, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Levinthal also provides examples where the courses offered seem tailored made to please the Kochs
11:11 AM PT:
The Koch Network: A Cartological Guide
by Communications on January 7, 2014 12:53 PM
Our joint analysis with the Washington Post of the Koch brothers' labyrinthine network of political groups -- none of which reveal the names of their donors -- showed that the coalition raised more than $400 million during the 2012 election.
As OpenSecrets Blog has previously reported, the network includes both tax-exempt groups and limited liability companies that are, in effect, subsidiaries of the tax-exempt corporations but go by different names, helping to mask how money moves around within the system. Some of the most prominent groups connected to billionaire conservatives Charles and David Koch include the Center to Protect Patient Rights, the existence and role of which was first reported by OpenSecrets Blog, and Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce.
Follow link for less blurry image of The Maze of Money for 2012 Election political donations.