Kyle recently had another MEA-bashing op ed printed, this time in the Lansing State Journal. My letter:
I just read Kyle Olson’s piece on the MEA. In it, he is referred to as the vice president of “a Muskegon-based non-profit that advocates spending reform in Michigan schools.” This is more or less accurate, but EAG is much more.
EAG was incorporated by Republican Party General Counsel Eric Doster and is run by Republican State Committeeman, former Republican staffer, failed Republican candidate and former lobbyist Kyle Olson. Kyle’s brother Ryan was until recently the Mackinac Center’s Director of Education Policy.
EAG has always refused to disclose it's funding sources even in the face of accusations that it is a Mackinac Center front group. Olson says that EAG is financed by “a group of citizens and school board leaders” while the EAG Articles of Incorporation show: “The corporation is to be financed under the following general plan: contributions from corporate foundations and private foundations.”
A closer connection with the aggressively anti-union group UnionFacts is obvious. UnionFacts spent $1.3 million on TV and radio adds trashing unions last year. Like Kyle, they specialize in what’s been called “attack conservatism.” Kyle maintains the MEAexposed website while UnionFacts sponsors the TeachersUnionsExposed site. Both are making a major push into what they sell as “Hijacked Elections.”
Olson has also formed an IRS 527 group, the Education Action Fund. You’ll remember the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was a 527. What does a group that represents itself as non-partisan need with a 527?
EAG alternatively poses as an “education reform” or a “spending reform” group , but is in fact a well-financed Republican party operation charged with opposing the MEA on all fronts. A quick look at their website establishes this.
Your readers deserve a better description of the EAG so that they can judge its work. You can’t intelligently listen to anything Olson says without knowing his background.
I just read Kyle Olson’s piece on the MEA. In it, he is referred to as the vice president of “a Muskegon-based non-profit that advocates spending reform in Michigan schools.” This is more or less accurate, but EAG is much more.
EAG was incorporated by Republican Party General Counsel Eric Doster and is run by Republican State Committeeman, former Republican staffer, failed Republican candidate and former lobbyist Kyle Olson. Kyle’s brother Ryan was until recently the Mackinac Center’s Director of Education Policy.
EAG has always refused to disclose it's funding sources even in the face of accusations that it is a Mackinac Center front group. Olson says that EAG is financed by “a group of citizens and school board leaders” while the EAG Articles of Incorporation show: “The corporation is to be financed under the following general plan: contributions from corporate foundations and private foundations.”
A closer connection with the aggressively anti-union group UnionFacts is obvious. UnionFacts spent $1.3 million on TV and radio adds trashing unions last year. Like Kyle, they specialize in what’s been called “attack conservatism.” Kyle maintains the MEAexposed website while UnionFacts sponsors the TeachersUnionsExposed site. Both are making a major push into what they sell as “Hijacked Elections.”
Olson has also formed an IRS 527 group, the Education Action Fund. You’ll remember the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was a 527. What does a group that represents itself as non-partisan need with a 527?
EAG alternatively poses as an “education reform” or a “spending reform” group , but is in fact a well-financed Republican party operation charged with opposing the MEA on all fronts. A quick look at their website establishes this.
Your readers deserve a better description of the EAG so that they can judge its work. You can’t intelligently listen to anything Olson says without knowing his background.
