Kyle's Predicatable Knee-Jerk Opposition

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

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

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!

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

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

“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.

delete.

delete.

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

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.