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Russo's underhanded dig is followed up with his suggestion that billionaire funded astroturf groups like StudentsFirst, Stand For Children, and TeachPlus have the potential to correct what he perceives as an "imbalance." For Russo, the corporate education reform astroturf need to step up and post comments under articles, use twitter, blog, and avail themselves of social media. It simply isn't enough to be funded by the likes of the wealthiest one percent including names like Walton, DeVos, Broad, Bradley, Gates, Koch, Hastings, Dell, Powell-Jobs, Scaife, Tilson, et al. It's not enough to have the unwavering support of a bipartisan neoliberal consensus at every level of government including the most anti-public education administration and Department of Education of all time. It isn't sufficient to have the unquestioning editorial support of every mainstream media outlet-not to mention Rupert Murdoch's vast propaganda empire-all of which spew a nonstop stream of privatization propaganda with nary a dissenting note. This last point is of paramount importance, since it's often forgotten that outside the realm of privilege that has regular access to the Internet, there's a majority that obtains their information from more traditional sources.

Aim: How can the ability to identify and understand basic propaganda techniques empower you to make better informed decisions?

Scantron, the test publishing company, was compelled to delete a reading passage that was highly propagandistic after parent activists learned about it and called attention to it. The item was brought to the attention of the media by Parents United for Responsible Education. The Chicago Sun-Time wrote: "PURE executive director Julie Woestehoff said the passage, titled "Reforming Education: Charter Schooling,'' is so one-sidedly pro-charter that its use amounts to an attempt to "brainwash" children 'with propaganda about charter schools.''"

"In sum, the AP article does not reflect the declared purpose of the survey as evidenced by the survey questions. The parents completing the AP survey were not instructed in the use of the term "high stakes," including the potential, serious outcomes of high stakes testing.  They were also not informed of the high-stakes-testing requirements associated with Common Core. If one considers the survey results separate from the AP article, one sees parents who believe their children are receiving a better education than they did from excellent-yet-underpaid teachers who care about their students.  I dare the Joyce-Foundation-funded AP to print that info."

"This week I went to a screening of Won't Back Down starring Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal.  The movie is about a mom and a teacher who band together and use the Parent Trigger law (which is never mentioned by name) to take over and turnaround a failing elementary school in Pittsburgh.  The film is loosely based on real events (though in my research I couldn't find anything other than the Los Angeles based parent trigger law, which was backed by a big charter school organization), and produced by the same man who produced Waiting for Superman. As someone who has been deeply embroiled in the discussion and reality of parents advocating for better schools, for student and parent rights, and as a PA C0-President who has worked closely with many teachers and administrators, this movie got to me on many levels. So, I have decided to break it down in two parts: As a movie and then as a propaganda film."

Where is the tipping point for education reform? The fact that we even use the term "reform" speaks to the utter victory of their propaganda campaign. Reformers are fresh with innovative ideas that inject new life into stale institutions. The deformers have injected poison into education, causing it to go backwards towards a musty and oppressive era of segregation. The blame is squarely on their shoulders, since they are the status quo.

what better way to capture the Bizarro world of education reform than with a serious work of journalism, disguised as a comic? Our three-part series - published over the next three months - is not intended to be funny, but rather, to pull back the progressive propaganda disguising the neoliberal, corporate nature of education reform. Our goal is to expose the free-market policies that really make up "education reform"; how these policies threaten our public education; who supports these policies; and, ultimately, what we might be able to do about the "Disaster Capitalism Curriculum."

The NYC teacher data reports were released on Friday; and it's no surprise that Rupert Murdoch's  NY Post was the first out of the gate to name and shame a teacher with a low rating.  Sunday's Post featured a photo of teacher at a Queens school, naming her and the school, with the headline, "The worst teacher in the city," based on her TDR.  They also interview a parent at her school who says she should be fired.   Expect this sort of thing to go on for weeks if not months - as the Post tries to publicly shame one teacher after another, plastering their photos in the paper, pursuing a virulent propaganda campaign to attack the union and eliminate teacher tenure. The only question remaining is how many other papers will follow suit and participate by naming names.

Two of the most effective tools of propagandists are to tell a big lie so often that it is accepted as undeniable truth, and to create a scapegoat for the anger and frustration that the public feels. An op-ed by Ted Nugent published on Jul. 29 in the Washington Times is a page torn from the textbook used in Propaganda 101 ("NEA - master of disaster").

If it weren't a propaganda war already, the debate over a longer school day has now turned nasty, with both sides accusing each other of exerting pressure to sway teachers.

These Charter Schools, and Bill Gate's own words,  like the words of propaganda used in Orwell's Animal Farm - are often preaching to us from on high, using the language of 'choice', 'freedom', and 'civil rights' as outlined in my own blog "The White Shadow:  Bill Gates, Charter Schools, and the Evil Twins". This re-segregation is repeated more and more across our country, harming the lives of so many of our children, our families, our teachers, and our public schools.

"Right now, people who are CEO's of business model corporations are acting through propaganda, marketing, and donations through their foundations as the great saviors to all of our education problems, placing themselves and their foundations in the role of the protagonist in OUR story! I write today to suggest that we reclaim our own story, reclaim our own language, and shift our own role from victims/antagonists to the true protagonists that we are! We are the main characters of our own story!"