August 22, 2014
By Neal Tepel, LaborPress Editorial
As children across the country head back to school, Walmart’s owners are supporting private charter schools while attacking public education. The Waltons have spent more than $1 billion to push corporate-style education reform that has resulted in school closures and shifting much-needed resources from public schools to for-profit corporate schools.
The Waltons have also fought common-sense proposals like ensuring that all kids get access to free public pre-K education and free breakfast and lunch.
Poverty is one of the largest single factors influencing whether a child succeeds in school. As the largest private employer in America, the Waltons have an opportunity to help countless students by raising hundreds of thousands of moms and dads out of poverty. Instead, they’re lobbying to close the schools that serve those families. They continue to pay their workers poverty wages and have fought attempts to unionize their stores.
We cannot accept the Walton's style America where poverty and low wages are the norm. Throughout the history of this great country, public education remains the most effective program to break the poverty cycle. The future of our nation depends on our public schools, from pre-K through university, providing a quality education for our children.
