EAGTruth

EAG's Lies Continue

2010-10-06T16:05:00.004-04:00

The EAG's failure to spread MESSA lies and anti-union propaganda throughout Michigan over the past several years must mean Kyle Olsen's anti-union pals in his home state are cutting off his money machine. Looks like he’s now taken his con artist game to bordering Great Lakes states where some financial backers haven’t figured out they’re being suckered yet.

Check out this story from Milwaukee Magazine. The EAG's latest target is the Wisconsin EA’s health care affiliate, WEA Trust. In Milwaukee, they're running radio adds, promise a TV ad (which will probably never be more than a web ad), and is sending the usual Op Eds around.

A spot or 2 on Fox News might impress some deep pockets of conservative think tanks in other states right now, but the word is spreading and people are starting to figure you out what the EAG and Kyle Olsen really stand for . . . . and it isn’t quality education.

Might want to consider updating your Linkedin account or pulling a resume together for a real job Kyle. Cons always get found out sooner or later.

Word Gets Out on EAG

2009-05-07T11:44:00.012-04:00

As Kyle carpetbags his way across the state offering advice on how the locals should run their schools, more and more people are seeing the light. Comments on newspaper websites are much more common then they were just a few months ago, as are Op Eds opposing his interference. Now the blogesphere is getting involved.

Blogging for Michigan, based in Lansing has recently started watching Kyle, as has Dispatches from the Intelligentsia and Grand Rapids based Media Mouse. Have a look.

By the way, with Tuesday's elections, the EAG Scoreboard has gotten a bit longer. You'll remember it tracks Kyle's (lack of) success in making trouble around the state.

As usual, it appears the locals are taking care of things without listening to EAG. The question is, how much longer will Kyle's secret financiers keep paying his salary with this kind of record?

Stop the Presses!

2009-05-04T12:07:00.001-04:00

EAG Targets Someone Other Than the MEA!

Now it just may be that he's found some readily available material for his email list, but given that we've pointed out endlessly that Kyle is paid to attack the MEA and MESSA, we've gotta react when he actually finds someone else worth attacking.

In an email today, Kyle was flabbergasted to learn in a DTF newsletter that if a teacher doesn't pay their union dues, they don't get off scott free. Of course, that's the whole point to the Right to Work (Freeload) ballot proposal that Kyle is on record as supporting.

But now that he's finally taken an easy shot at another union, let's have a look at the tote board:

The number of times these organizations are mentioned on the EAG website:

MEA 319
DFT 2
UAW 2

Attention all For-Profit Insurance Salespersons . . . . Kyle Olson Wants to Line Your Pockets With Millions of Tax-Payer Dollars

2009-04-26T17:28:00.001-04:00

So you’d better join your colleagues and get your checkbooks out. Write a big one to Kyle for all the help he’s giving you.

Lately, Kyle’s mantra is “dump MESSA.” He writes it almost every chance he gets. He then suggests school districts should buy their employee health insurance from competitors who are mostly for-profit, and mostly provide inferior plans. MESSA is a not-for-profit insurance company and it charges no sales commissions.

At the standard 5% sales commission charged by these non-MESSA competitors, those insurance agents stand to gain over $50 million in sales commissions if Kyle’s mantra is fulfilled statewide. Kyle is their very own, “one-man economic stimulus plan.” Maybe this is why Kyle Olson insists on not disclosing his list of financial donors.

Kyle Must Have Forgotten to Read His Own Reform Agenda

2009-04-26T17:25:00.002-04:00

In it, he calls for the disclosure of “information about any lobbying/political advocacy organization the district supports with its funds, including the name of those organizations, the amount of dues paid to each, and the legislative agenda that each lobbying organization is supporting or opposing.”

He also calls for disclosing “historical budgets and current budget” and “the district checkbook register.”

Kyle keeps inserting himself as the dauntless defender of quality and reform in our public schools. He invites himself to towns where, most often, nobody requested his presence, only to spew the same tired opinions that he left behind at the last place. “Beat the union, dump MESSA, and replace your non-instructional jobs with crummier ones” is what he offers up everywhere he goes.

Shouldn’t Kyle hold himself accountable to the same standard he touts? A person of ethics and good morale nature would. Why shouldn’t Kyle want to make the same obligation to the taxpayers of these communities relative to transparency in disclosing who is financially backing his agenda for public schools?

At EAGTruth.com you can read a whole lot of speculation on this question. A growing number of people in this state are beginning to agree with us. It is only Kyle’s disclosure of donors, amounts and expenditures that will prove us wrong.

An Utter Disregard for the Truth

2009-04-24T11:15:00.001-04:00

The Education Action Guy, Kyle Olson, is a political operative not a policy wonk. You can tell this because he has a track record that demonstrates an indifference for facts. Winning's the thing.

For example, in an email the other day he railed against a 6.1% increase in MESSA insurance rates. Trouble is, today MESSA announced the increase will be 5.2% not 6.1%. Kyle's source? Disgruntled ex-MESSA director Frank Webster. Frank is quoted: “The 6.1 percent MESSA increase . . . follows a 4.5 percent increase last year.” Wrong. Last year's increase was 3.3. Maybe it's this kind of work what got Frank fired.

A quick Google search shows that nationwide "premiums for employer-based health insurance rose by 5.0 percent in 2008. In 2007, small employers saw their premiums, on average, increase 5.5 percent." MESSA rates were below these national averages both years. I'm sure Kyle has heard of Google, but doesn't look for these facts because he doesn't care.

Perhaps more important than what Kyle says is what he doesn't say. MESSA rates go up: Kyle complains.

But what about other provider's rates? How come Kyle doesn't complain about them? How much did they go up, Kyle?

MESSA provides health insurance for a little less that half the state's school employees. Why never word about the health insurance companies covering them?

How come Kyle never criticizes or second guesses any health care provider choice but MESSA? He bills himself as a school reform group. But his only targets are MESSA and the MEA. Never anyone else. Ever.

In a slip a few weeks ago, Kyle admitted: "we would like very much to convince every school board to dump MESSA..." He's a political operative charged with opposing the MEA and MESSA on all fronts: he's neither a group nor about school reform.

Advice for Kyle

2009-04-20T11:11:00.001-04:00

I just had a great idea. Kyle can't point to any successes in his quest to convince school districts to dump MESSA or to keep unpopular school board members, and as a consequence, he's having trouble convincing his funders to give him more money.

[click to download]

A good example of how his current plan is backfiring can be seen in Leslie. Kyle bought a full page ad for four weeks and wrote his usual villainizing Op Ed in the local paper, which only managed to generate a blizzard of outraged responses. Have a look at the Op Ed's in the last issue of the Leslie Weekly Guardian. It's a textbook example of what to do when Kyle comes to town.

So here's my suggestion: read the paper, find a district that's about to privatize. Then write an Op Ed in the local newspaper recommending privatization. Then if it happens, claim victory.

He's already done something like this. He claimed he was the reason the legislature refused to move the teacher early retirement bill. Not that a little detail like the fact that no one in Lansing has ever heard of him got in his way.

So give it a try Kyle. With your pals at the Mackinac Center doing the heavy lifting, I'm sure you'll get no complaints from them if you take credit for all the people they've put out of work.

Kyle's Next Target

2009-04-06T11:30:00.001-04:00

The Leslie schools have been a fixture on the MEA Critical List for years. The Superintendent has been targeting MESSA and talking privatization. Given this trouble, it can only be a matter of time before Kyle comes to town.

Word is that he'll run his usual slam job in the area's on-line newspaper, the Leslie Weekly Guardian, this time with a weekly ad buy. Here's something Kyle won't include.

SET-SEG was founded in 1971 by Michigan Association of School Boards to sell health insurance to schools. Which means that MASB has a financial interest in bargaining SET-SEG into it's contracts, something that one would think would outrage Kyle. Of course, not a word from him on this.

But it's worse. This ad in the MASB newletter, MASB Headlines, shows that SET-SEG makes money by developing free RFP’s for schools, and then bids on their own RFP. They even charge a commission on those they win. And most incredibly, they offer to advise districts on which bid to accept!

[Click on image to download]

Nice work if you can get it.

We All Value Quality Jobs With Good Benefits and a Pension in Our Community, Right?

2009-03-26T12:35:00.003-04:00

Usually, it is considered "good news" when such jobs are announced by an employer in one of our communities. These types of jobs are important for the economic vitality of all communities. However, Kyle Olson and his Education Action Group's agenda oppose such jobs by tauting the virtues of privatization.

By encouraging community employers, such as school districts, to privatize the jobs they provide in the community, he is advocating for diminished quality in those jobs, plain and simple.

Instead of working for a school district as a custodian for 30 years and receiving a pension from the state, Mr. Olson seems to prefer these jobs have no pension and be managed by money-grabbing for-profit companies that take from the workers to line their corporate pockets. In most cases, this results in lesser paying jobs in our communities, usually without benefits and pensions, and a reduced standard of living within that population of workers.

How is this good for Michigan? Why doesn't Olson and the EAG advocate for a lesser standard of living for everyone? We sure hope it isn't the whole "school employees are public employees" argument. If this is the case, they why not just advocate for pensionless jobs and reduced quality of living for everyone who is paid with tax dollars? Clearly, his beef is with only one segment of public employees and it is because they have a union.

School employees' skill sets, levels of responsibility, and knowledge requirements for their jobs working with Michigan's children deserve the compensation, benefits and pensions they receive. But the only thing Kyle seems to support is driving these specific community jobs to some place "below their current standard."

Is this the type of future jobs you want in your community from one of its most important employers?

Kyle Needs the MEA

2009-03-25T12:13:00.001-04:00

I received this from an MEA member a few days ago:

There's no pleasing Kyle. After spending considerable time and effort ranting against taxpayers for exercising their democratic rights in recall elections, he's now complains that a group of teachers, taxpayers, and concerned citizens has withdrawn a recall petition in the community of Gladstone. The group did so in order to work in good-faith to improve relations with school officials with the help of a federal mediator.

Kyle also mocks a community group assembled to help improve Gladstone schools and laments "poor Gladstone" now has to put up with involved citizens--going so far as to call one of its members--a parent in the district-- a bully (add that to the long list of name-calling that has gone on at the EAG blog). Usually what sets Kyle off on one of his name-calling rants is a taxpayer exercising his or her Constitutional rights, whether that be speaking up at a public meeting, peacefully protesting, or writing letters to the editor (you know, the stuff Kyle himself does).

The truth is Kyle has no interest in peace, no interest in seeing teachers, unions, and school officials work together. When that happens, the EAG loses currency. When that happens, Kyle loses face-time in the press. When that happens, Kyle's paycheck is adversely affected. He needs to drum up controversy and hate to pay his bills. That's simply reality.

There is no pleasing Kyle, and there will be no pleasing Kyle as long as teachers, citizens, and taxpayers are involved in unions and have any say in their working conditions. That's the bottom line. And that's a bottom line we will always fight for and protect against the real bullies like the EAG and their supporters.

MESSA Facts EAG Wishes You Didn't Know

2009-03-09T10:53:00.003-04:00

We recently received some actual cost information for MESSA plans in schools right near the Education Action Guy's headquarters.

Boy were we surprised. Come to find out, many schools in the area that have MESSA insurance for their employees now pay less per employee for their health care costs than what they were paying 3 years ago.

How can that be you ask? Simple. MESSA has introduced benefit reductions in their plans that reduce the cost and affordability of their plans in districts where this cost relief is needed. Those plans subsequently get bargained without Kyle's help, life goes on, and the artificial crises Kyle and his cronies try to create from place to place throughout the state never occur.

What Kyle and his cronies really hate is the fact that the MESSA Board, made up largely of MEA members, controls when this benefit erosion occurs and makes their decisions based on the bargaining need for more affordable health plans from MESSA. . . . in other words, they don't just cheapen the plan and take employee benefits away for the sake of doing so.

Kyle really doesn't want to "reform public education." He just wants to strip more rights away from employees by drumming up a whole bunch of false premises that, to date, are supported by no actual named individual involved with public schools in Michigan.

Kyle Olson Bills Himself as a Potential Martyr

2009-03-05T12:32:00.001-05:00

Kyle, as always repeatedly referring to himself in the plural, recently updated his email list on his accomplishments, and he appears to be getting a little off balance. Apparently the MEA was quoted somewhere referring to him as a nuisance. From that, he concludes that his life is at risk:

Gulp. We wonder what they mean by that...

As long as you keep seeing this update every week, you'll know we're not yet at the bottom of the Detroit River.

Getting a little paranoid there, Kyle?

But then he regains his bearings and moves on to do a pretty good job of summing up the case against EAG:

As you might have noticed by now, MEA officials like to refer to us in the media as “right wing nut jobs” who stick our noses into situations that are none of our business. They say we’re obsessively anti-union, anti-teacher and anti-MESSA, and spend all of our time looking for ways to discredit the MEA.

Well, it appears the MEA is at least equally obsessed with us. The union has already published its ”EAG Toolkit,” advising members around the state how to deal with us if we become active in their districts. Then there’s the union’s “EAGTruth” website, which tracks our activities and tells readers how ineffective we’ve been.

No denials. None. And then:

One entertaining highlight of the EAGTruth website is the EAG scorecard. Someone at the MEA is apparently assigned to keep track of the school districts where we’ve been active, note the eventual outcome of teacher contract negotiations, and determine whether our efforts were successful in influencing the outcome.

For instance, in several districts where we’ve been active, the scorecard notes that MESSA insurance was retained in new teachers’ contracts, or that well-meaning school board members were recalled. Those outcomes supposedly represent defeat for EAG.

Not true says Kyle, he is successful when he "does his best." Yikes! That's setting the bar pretty low. I'm sure his secret financiers will be eager to give him more money based on that kind of performance standard.

But here' the deal: Kyle can't point to any accomplishments to justify his salary. So instead, this long list of MEA criticisms is designed to portray himself as important enough that the MEA is summoning huge resources to oppose him.

I gotta say, I debate this all the time, should I treat him as an nuisance (easy there Kyle, calm down...) or answer his lies.

But the capper is that Kyle finally sets the record straight on whether his agenda is about schools saving money or about killing off MESSA:

...we would like very much to convince every school board to dump MESSA...

I'm sure this is a one time slip, and we'll continue to read the usual school reform/competition is good/saving school's money blather from Kyle. But a little honesty from Kyle is like a breath of fresh air...

Leader Speaks Out

2009-03-01T09:33:00.003-05:00

We received the following letter from someone fed up with the lies constantly being repeated by Kyle Olson and his Education Action Group. If you want your voice heard, please email us at eagtruth@gmail.com.

Hi,

My name is Craig Culver. I taught HS science for 16 years and negotiated for about 12 of those years for my local association. I took a job with MEA as a UniServ Director in 2001 and still work in that capacity. In all of my years of negotiating, I have represented over 40 local Associations (including my own local). In all of these experiences, the negotiations to keep MESSA have always been driven by the priority of the members of each local Association as surveyed by their local leadership.

That being said, none of the districts I have represented have settled contracts with MESSA insurance that resulted in financial ruin for the school districts. Both school employees and school boards have agreed to and ratified these contracts.

In the county I now work, most teacher groups now consume a smaller percentage of their district's revenue in total compensation (salary, insurance, FICA, and retirement costs combined) than they did 4 years ago. I suspect this trend is similar in other places as well.

I wish Kyle Olson, reporters, legislators, and others would actually look at the facts surrounding collective bargaining, cost savings generated from benefit reductions in MESSA (and all other) school employee benefit plans, and actual facts surrounding the collective bargaining of school employees and embrace the fact that our current status of collectively bargaining with our employers has worked for many years and continues to work.

It is true that, at times, employers and employees have differing views of "what their best interest" is. However, these differences keep getting sorted out eventually in ratified agreements. The truth is, by prioritizing district expenditures towards benefit costs vs. salary (no contract I have represented contained a COLA adjustment for the past 15 years), taxpayers actually get a break. When you factor FICA and retirement costs on salary increases, the public taxpayer actually has to pay about $1.25 for each $1.00 of salary improvement. With insurance, a dollar only costs a dollar.

I also would like to address the comment made in Kyle's November 17th entry. In it he says:

"We have been told multiple times, by people all across the state, that UniServ directors, those overseeing negotiations on behalf of the MEA, earn some type of bonus for keeping MESSA in a contract. Therefore, it's in that UniServ director's interest to keep MESSA."

It's just not true Kyle. NONE OF US GET THE URBAN LEGEND MESSA BONUS. This type of deceipt serves only to continue your lack of convincing facts to contradict those I've outlined above. I am paid to represent members and their interests (the amount, no doubt, Kyle will spread to the world as some sort of atrocity once he reads this). That is my "bonus". It is a particularly gratifying job that I take seriously, as do my colleagues.

As far as MESSA goes, it is a health insurance plan that has provided many MEA members, administrators and their families security and assurance that should their health turn bad, they won't have the hassles and hardships many others have experienced with non-MESSA plans. . . . and it continues to prove to be affordable as exemplified in many ratified agreements throughout the state.

Just because other sectors of the public haven't joined unions to protect and preserve this priority for themselves and their families, or because other unions have made insurance concessions to preserve COLA rights in their contracts, etc. doesn't make one group right or wrong.

The proof is in the fact that our schools haven't gone broke due to MESSA benefit negotiations, and they won't in the future either. Most of the people that negotiate these benefits are teachers who are college educated professionals. They aren't going to negotiate themselves out of existence.

Please feel free to post this e-mail on your blog. I believe that in time, those who agree with what EAGtruth represents and stands for will prove how politically charged Kyle and others are in their anti-union campaign that is so void of facts and truth.

Reply to all

Forward

Kyle Crys Out for Sacrifice

2009-02-27T14:16:00.001-05:00

I just came across a Olson letter to the editor in last week's Jackson Citizen Patriot where Kyle blasts the Salters/Bishop Retirement Stimulus Plan. After a few 'the sky is falling' predictions, he moves on to:

These are tough financial times, and everyone in Michigan is making sacrifices.

Very inspirational. But then a better idea occurs to him:

To make it simpler, we are calling on the MEA to simply declare a "rate holiday" for several months, so schools could skip paying their MESSA premiums and save precious dollars.

This from the guy who is outraged at the suggestion that he's targetting the MEA and MESSA. No mention here of a rate holiday from SET SEG or any other health insurer, only MESSA.

Come on, MEA! Let's talk about sacrifice from everyone involved so we can truly address the financial crisis haunting our public schools.

Well not 'everyone.' Just MEA.

Westwood Heights Makes Up Its Own Mind

2009-02-25T09:23:00.003-05:00

Voters in Westwood Heights voted 2 to 1 to recall three members of the WH school board yesterday. That means that inventing a non-existent MEA role, raving about union puppets and branding an election foolish without knowing anything about its history isn't enough to fool the public. The really sad thing is that Kyle's so PR tone deaf that he doesn't realize that as his road show moves around the state, he's only managing to establish himself as a know-nothing opportunist from the other side of the state.

EAG continues to show no return for its secret investors. The updated EAG Scoreboard:

[click on Scoreboard to download]

Kyle's Anti-American Views

2009-02-23T13:39:00.003-05:00

One of Kyle’s ongoing rants is against teachers, other school employees, and private citizens from exercising their rights. In the February 19 issue of the Flint Journal, Kyle once again publicly criticizes citizens that participate in their community’s affairs. He argues that some citizens (school employees) shouldn't be allowed to participate in local government.

A high school civics text used in schools all over Michigan states that, “people have used their power and authority to influence their government. They have done this in various ways.” One of the ways is to elect and recall their leaders, yet Kyle thinks recall campaigns are “foolish.” In other words, the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are foolish.

All over Michigan Kyle promotes an anti-democracy, anti-American view point. He doesn’t think that citizens should participate in local government. He doesn’t think elected officials need to be held accountable to the public that elected them. He doesn’t think Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote, “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” is valid.

Don't buy the Education Action Group's claims that there should be no recalls because they might hurt someone's feelings. Each American citizen, including a school employee, has the right to elect his/her leaders AND these leaders have the responsibility to listen to the voters.

Kyle Looking for a Phony Victory

2009-02-23T11:16:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow's Westwood Heights recall election represents, at least in Kyle's mind, a chance to chalk up a victory (finally). You'll maybe remember that WH is where a long-simmering battle between board members, together with, according to press accounts, the hiring of a new superintendent and the firing of a principle has led to tomorrow's recall election against three school board members.

As today's Flint Journal reported, the history of this recall is complicated enough, but:

"There's a lot of people drumming up issues that aren't pertinent, and certainly they don't know all the facts." One board member said. The articles continues:

"A new twist has entered the race in the final week with a Muskegon-based group that calls itself Education Action Group claiming the recall is being pushed by the teachers union, which recall organizers called 'a blatant falsehood'."

Recall organizer James Mitchell wrote:

The resentment against EAG runs deep, thanks to the turmoil that the area is already dealing with. Just today, Flint's now former mayor, Don Williamson, asked for $250,000 in back pay, although he had agreed to work for a $1 a year. He's the guy that resigned just days before his recall election.

All this town needs is an outsider taking advantage of this chaos. But then that's just what Kyle's brand of attack conservatism is all about.

EAG Scoreboard

2009-02-19T15:41:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, the Education Action Guy, Kyle Olson, wrote to his mailing list that he's having a great year. For example, he managed to determine that Wayne Westland school employees like MESSA. It took him four FIOA's to uncover that.

Forget that in the settlement, MESSA survived, they got a raise, class sizes got reduced a little, and Kyle's work probably had no effect, except perhaps to delay a settlement that could have been reached months ago. I'm sure the locals are happy he came to town.

But again, that got me thinking. That same email included some begging for contributions: "current funds are running low..." So as I wrote the other day, I wonder how Kyle's secret financers feel about their investment.

So let's have a look at Kyle's Scoreboard. The target district, the methods he used to nose in, and the result:

Not so good there, Kyle. I can see why raising funds is getting harder.

Kyle Has Zero Support

2009-02-09T10:08:00.008-05:00

A recent poll on this site asked readers what they thought was the best way to improve their local public schools. The most popular answers included: maintaining adequate class sizes, providing a diverse curriculum, and ensuring that highly qualified/certified teacher and support staffs are employed by local districts.

One answer got ZERO support - NO ONE thinks that bashing teachers, support staff, and the MEA is a way to improve public schools. But that is exactly what Kyle Olson, the Education Action Guy, does. He butts into local public school issues with his anti-public school rhetoric, even when local teachers and school boards tell him they don't need nor want him (http://eagtruth.blogspot.com/2008/07/kyle-is-butting-in-again.html).

He somehow believes that demeaning teachers and support staff for working to improve their schools will help.

If you believe otherwise, join the growing list of supporters of EAGTruth at the EAGTruth.com website.

Kyle Loses Every Which Way in Wayne Westland

2009-02-04T13:03:00.001-05:00

All of those who were paying attention noticed that Kyle's Wayne Westland FOIA request came up with nothing. Just back and forth between teachers and other employees about school, the contract and the strike. Not exactly headline-generating material.

No conspiracy by the MEA to force the locals to strike, no secret agenda, no nothin.

And now, we hear that the WW contract was ratified by the Board last night. One board member said that he was voting for the contract reluctantly, as the union won everything.

Not exactly. They got a raise, class sizes got reduced a little, and they kept MESSA. But they're paying a bit more for health coverage than they did before and got a "letter of reprimand" in their permanent file.

This is how contract negotiation works: both sides talk and eventually they agree somewhere in the middle.

But Kyle fails to change anyone's mind. MESSA survives. All that time and trouble trying to butt in and nothing changes. I wonder how Kyle's secret financiers feel about their investment?

Kyle's Predicatable Knee-Jerk Opposition

2009-01-28T12:00:00.001-05:00

Not known for taking time for reflection, Kyle Olson managed today to issue his opinion within minutes of learning about the MEA's plan for countering next year's expected $410 million State Aid deficit. Not that the legislature has ever asked for it; Kyle is as, always, taking any shot he can think of at the MEA.

This is par for the Olson course:

The Muskegon-based Education Action Group is critical of the plan because it does nothing more than shift—and increase—the financial burden at a time when we can least afford it.

Now, as always, he loves to refer to himself in the third person, but more importantly he somehow manages to miss the obvious fact that the MEA plan shifts the cost from the state to the state. That's some shift!

He also hasn't noticed that Early Retirement Incentives (does the acronym 'ERI' ring a bell?) are everywhere these days because they save money. Google it Kyle! I got 276,000 hits! ERI's were recently or are now under consideration all across the U.S.: Ohio, Minnesota, Now Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, the list goes on and on. But of course, to find it you have to look for it .

But again, this isn't about facts, it never is. It's about Kyle trashing unions, meaning almost every single time, the MEA, as often as possible.

The silver lining here is that by issuing press releases like this, it helps seal his reputation as an union-obsessed zealot.

Why would anyone ever listen to this guy?

EAG's links to the Anti-Union Movement

2009-01-26T16:58:00.001-05:00

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.

Education Action Guy Sees Plots Everywhere He Looks

2009-01-12T11:42:00.001-05:00

Last week Kyle posted another rant, this time that the Wayne Westland MEA local has the nerve to want to keep it's email communications private. He's sure that means they've got something to hide. Well other than the obvious observation that Kyle must be hiding something himself because he doesn't share his emails with the rest of us, there's this:

The MERC ALJ requires the WWEA communicate through their website, which is password protected, and to advise their members that the updates are for members only. This is part of the interim agreement.

Given that these are merely facts it's no shock that Kyle ignores them. He has, after all, always limited himself to the Republican attack campaign style.

The posting includes a link to an WWEA newsletter that makes a good point. While Kyle obsesses over MESSA, he never gives a thought to how much the WW school district spends on legal fees, administrator salaries, district buildings, administrator health insurance and on and on. He's only outraged by money spent on MESSA.

I'll save you the suspense, that's because he's been assigned to oppose the MEA in every way possible. Look at his website: MEA, MEA, MEA.

Kyle Cries Foul!

2009-01-08T11:15:00.001-05:00

In the last election go round, the Republicans took a pretty good beating after using their usual vilanizing campaign technique. Who'd of thought labeling Obama a pal of terrorists wouldn't work? But voters are pretty obviously tired of that kind of character assassination. Obvious to the rest of us; not to Kyle.

This kind of tactic is his bread and butter. Look over his website and it's all you'll find. Take for example his suggestion that MEA members fight for MESSA coverage because: “they can't live without coverage for such things as sex-change operations and massages.” Or his suggestion that a candlelight vigil by privatized MEA members would make Fidel Castro "proud."

Today he writes to complain about me writing in this blog, and then guesses that it is run by "a community college instructor that has foamed at the mouth about EAG at school board meetings, blogs, news sites, and anywhere else that will accept his anger and vitriol." It's hard to feel Kyle's pain, when he's such a virtuoso of the ad-hominem attack.

And for the record, I haven't a clue who runs this blog. I sent a couple of contributions to EAGTruth@gmail.com, and then got an email allowing me to post. You can do the same.

EAG Tonedeafness on Public Relations

2008-12-18T13:25:00.002-05:00

Months ago, Kyle drove up to Gladstone to get involved in the bargaining between the school and its teachers. He posted a YouTube video featuring a clueless schoolboard member who later took some abuse for playing ball with EAG.

He also did the same in Grand Rapids, a got a bunch of bad press there too. The WOOD-TV report labeled EAG as "anti-union." Finally a report that doesn't pussy foot around the plain truth.

Now Kyle has emailed his fans promising more of the same. I'm sure he thinks people fight to be the first to view whatever he comes up with, but he's dreaming.

His Gladstone video grabbed all of 2,864 views. Sounds like a lot until you look at just about anything else from Gladstone.

Like for example a video of highschool girls dancing in Lake Superior, on a golf course and in a cemetary.

Really. And the view count: 27,009. This is what grabs Gladstone's attention.

"Ok Go In Gladstone Dancing"

Birds of a Feather

2008-12-03T07:57:00.000-05:00

“So if you hear someone pontificating that the Mackinac Center is biased, ask them to explain what their bias is.”—Lawrence Reed

The Mackinac Center gets tangled up in the EAG through blood ties (Kyle Olson’s brother) and philosophy. They also tag-team body slams against the MEA and MESSA quite regularly. So it wasn’t surprising that when the Oakland Press ran a softball editorial praising the Mac Center that Kyle (or one of the other alleged two EAG people) posted snide and snippy remarks in the reader comments under editorial.

Birds of a feather…

The Mackinac Center claims to be non-partisan and, given the above quote from Mr. Reed, claims to welcome dialog and discourse that debates that claim. But one of our members learned this past week that appears to be lip service.

In a public commentary forum at the Mackinac Center website, our member asked if the Center would consider publishing any positive stories about MESSA saving districts money—you know, the balanced stuff unbiased media should be interested in promoting; you know, the novel concept of giving all sides of a story.

Our member was asked to go for it by Jack McHugh. He did. Jack’s response was to cut a portion of the response, insert his last-word rebuttal that was at best a red herring, then shut our member out from further participating.

When our member then took Lawrence Reed at his written word and provided links to scholarly reviews of the Mackinac Center’s scholastic work by PhD s at the Great Lakes Center for Education and Research, Jack got busy with the delete key.

delete.

Actions do indeed speak louder than words. And birds of a feather do indeed flock together.

Oh, and those positive stories about MESSA? We would advise against looking for any to show up any time soon at the “unbiased” Mackinac Center (or at the EAG). But we’ll continue to ask the hard questions and provide substantive, public criticism of these entities.

Our good members—parents, teachers, taxpayers—don’t deserve the ambushes and the attacks that come from Kyle or others like him.

Who's Getting Ripped Off

2008-11-25T12:17:00.002-05:00

Kyle Olson bravely filed Form 990 with the IRS on November 9, disclosing how much donors pay him for his myriad services as the big shot of EAG. The documents show that Kyle alleges he made around $30k this past year, with about another $9K in benefits. The expense report is impressive for such a small operation--over $20 K for things like travel, lodging, dining, office supplies, and the proverbial "other" category so popular with diligent itemizers.

And what do his donors get in return for their investment in these tough economic times? About 108 short blog entries, 13 opinion columns, a couple of YouTube videos, and about a half-dozen mentions in news stories. Oh, and he got his picture taken with Sarah Palin.

And Kyle thinks MEA teachers have it good?! How does one sign up for such a cushy gig as the one Kyle has?! That's a pretty good living for someone who writes a couple of blogs a week and about once a month gets a conservative newspaper to run a 400-word opinion piece. Taxpayers are indeed getting ripped off alright, Kyle--namely the taxpayers contributing to your personal bottom line.

Kyle says EAG isn't focused on the MEA. Hello Google...?

2008-11-24T11:15:00.004-05:00

Kyle recently wrote an op ed in which he responded to a comment (mine)that the EAG was charged with opposing the MEA on all fronts: "He provides no basis for the statement as there is none."

I did provide basis, I said have a look at the EAG website. But to save you the trouble, 30 seconds of Googling will set the matter to rest...

Number of times these phrases appear on the EAG site:

AFT/MFT 4
AFL-CIO 1
UAW 1
MEA 206

And if there's any doubt about in which direction Kyle's criticizms fly:

Bush 0
Obama 59

Kyle drops the Commie Bomb

2008-11-19T16:24:00.002-05:00

Kyle's blog is an endless source of amusement. This time he calls anyone bold enough to demonstrate a communist, equating a candlelight vigil with propaganda. He's talking about a demonstration held last week where a couple hundred people, including those that lost their jobs, stood outside a Southfield School Board meeting. Only Kyle would miss the obvious reaction Castro would have if such a thing happened in Cuba.

But that's okay, because he can't control himself. He probably really thinks he's reaching new believers with this kind of raving.

But then this is the guy who picked Dick Morris as an effective front man for EAG. Rave on, Kyle!

EAG and FOIA

2008-11-17T10:34:00.001-05:00

Word is in the Kyle has come up with a new line of attack on Wayne Westland. He's got it in his head that the recall there is secretly driven by the MEA, so he wants to look thorough the emails that teachers have written, hoping to find mention of the recall. Or maybe any kind of union talk, who knows?

Trouble is, the recall is run by an actual group of locals who are apparently pretty annoyed at how the board has handled things. This story says Shawnn Maxwell is spearheading the recall effort. I Googled her/his name, and all I can find is a chicago saxophone player. If that's the right Maxwell, then Kyle's really got something to run with.

Kyle gets a little defensive...

2008-11-12T11:16:00.001-05:00

Last week the Wayne Eagle ran a story that referred to EAG as "a non-profit organization promoting school spending reform". I wrote the reporter to give him the very Republican nature of the EAGuy, and they ran it as a letter to the editor.

Yesterday, they ran a letter from Kyle that suggested I had injected partisan politics by running through his Republican past and present, and the EAGuy's links to the Mackinac Center. He corrected me by pointing out that he has no twin.

I had made the mistake of saying that his brother Ryan was his twin. Ryan, it turns out, is two years older than Kyle. Woops. Of course Kyle was careful not to repeat the rest of the passage: that his brother ran the Mackinac Center's education operation for years.

Kyle, feel free to point out any spelling errors I make. And I'll assume you'll continue to avoid the real issue: EAG is a tool of the right wing and is all about softening the ground for a Right to Work (AKA: Right to Freeload) ballot proposal.

We're No Longer Thugs!

2008-11-10T20:54:00.002-05:00

What's in a word? Plenty. Kyle Olson has consistently labeled good, hardworking teachers, citizens, parents, and taxpayers "thugs" by listing them at his "Thug Watch" blog at the EAG website.

But last Tuesday's election--an election that saw the public repudiate hate politics in elections from local to state to national--must have shocked and awed Olson into a sobering epiphany. Just scant days after the election the EAG "Thug Watch" blog has now been renamed "Reform Watch."

It's a rather appropriate title, given how the public "reformed" and "informed" right-wing hate politics and politicians last Tuesday.

It looks like many entitities, big and small, are doing some thoughtful soul-searching after getting a loud-and-clear message from the American public last Tuesday. Even Olson appears to have taken note.

The Mackinac Center and the Election Result

2008-11-07T13:58:00.003-05:00

Well given last Tuesday’s result, we should have expected this. The Mackinac Center website today posted an article written by the Center's legislative analyst Jack McHugh, which begins with:

“The fundamental problem facing our nation is that true representative government has been supplanted by an inbred, self-serving, self-perpetuating political class that does not represent the people. As a result, the government has escaped the control of the people.”

I’m thinking McHugh’s is a minority opinion, based on the reaction to the election results I’ve seen from around the country. But he doesn’t stop there. He tells us that this political class includes school employees: “The elected officials who grant [public sector retirement benefits] and their beneficiaries are all members of the same political/government class, which protects its own above all else.”

He sounds pretty upset, which I guess it'ss understandable given that election day closely followed the imploding of the economy and with it, the death of the Center’s central premise that free markets regulate themselves. Previously, the Center’s only response to the resulting bailout came from past president Larry Reed. He downplayed it as small potatoes: “Thank God we have the private sector to bail out the federal government not just last week, but every week!” This, he said, was because when companies pay taxes, they bail out the government.

Getting back to McHugh, he’s been busy. In addition to the above venting, he’s been taking time out to revise the Wikipedia Mackinac Center article. Rather than simply deleting the material detailing the Center's finances, he’s taken the novel approach of drowning the article in material from the Center’s website, driving the original text deep down. It’d take a pretty committed reader to get to anything revealing more than the Center’s usual PR.

In the past, several corporations, including Wal Mart, were taken to task by the media for revising their own Wikipedia entries. We'll have to see if word about this gets out.

But that’s the way Wikipedia works, everyone gets to edit. Including you. Have a look and make any change you think is warranted.

Kyle Calls Them His "Citizen" and "Community" Supporters. The GR Press Calls Them Local Republicans

2008-11-06T13:51:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the GR Press and one of Kyle's own recent blog postings (October 31, 2008), his list of supporters are becoming better known and reported on.

After Paul Helder of the GREA called Kyle the 'Education Action Guy', Kyle piped in with this to say. "Tell that to the nearly 250 people who heard the EAG message yesterday alone and responded with their checkbooks and offers to help."

According to the Press, Kyle and Dick Morris spoke to about 125 local Republicans at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel on their 1 day road show. The attendees were county GOP Chairwoman Joanne Voorhees, Congressman Hoekstra, candidate for Governor and other private invitees.

Let's see . . . 125 of the 250 "grassroots supporters" that showed up during the 1 day EAG Roadshow were "local Republicans at the Amway Grand Plaza?"

No suprise to us though. We called him on who his real backers were a long time ago when EAGTruth was launched. It's just nice to finally see some reporting of this fact in places other than the EAGTruth.com website.

Really Kyle? Dick Morris???

2008-11-04T12:02:00.004-05:00

Dick Morris made a visit last week to Grand Rapids, and preached to the choir in the form of a small group of 12 Republicans at the Amway Grand. An article in the Grand Rapids Press was the only press hit this three city tour received, and was distinctive in that it labeled EAG "a Muskegon organization critical of teachers unions.” "Anti-union" would have been more accurate, or better yet, "anti-MEA", as a complete examination of EAG’s work shows that it has yet to target any other organization.

The article had a great quote from local leader Paul Helder: "It's interesting that Mr. Morris believes that Kyle Olson, the 'Education Action Guy,' is considered a grassroots group."

Exactly. And Kyle, you’re the vice president of strategy. Why won’t you tell anyone who the President is? Is it because EAG doesn’t have a president?

And finally, why in the world are we taking education advice from Dick Morris? You might remember that he was a political advisor to President Clinton until he let hooker Sherry Rowlands listen in on his phone calls to Clinton. The original article tells us that he had a weakness for singing “I’m Popeye the Sailor Man” to Rowlands while dancing in his underwear.

We should listen to this guy when he spouts education policy?

Kyle is Butting In Again

2008-07-30T21:42:00.001-04:00

Once again, Kyle Olsen is involving himself where he's not wanted or needed. Grand Rapids Board of Education President Catherine Mueller:

"They (Education Action Group and Kyle Olsen) need to mind their own business. We don't need the EAG's help, nor do we want it.

See the complete article here: http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/07/post_19.html#more

It is time to stop trying to fool the public!

2008-07-17T09:20:00.000-04:00

The Education Action Group (EAG) claims to be a nonpartisan group of citizens and school board leaders who are advocates for improving public education. It's a false pretense and simply not true.

In fact, EAG is a fraud and a joke with an ugly tone being foisted upon the public, the media, public school employees and board members who are dedicated to a free public education for all.

EAGTruth was launched by Michigan citizens who've been singled out in Kyle Olson's “EAG Thugwatch,” his letters to the editor and his blog for simply doing their job, making a contribution to the candidate of their choice or speaking out for public education.