Thursday, April 18, 2013

Never Mind The Facts, Bring on the Bollocks!

By Jeff Simpson

We brought you recently the story of how republican front group The MacIver Institute knowingly lied in a recent story about the amount of jobs that Scott Walker has "created".  They were flat out told that their story was completely and utterly wrong and they ran with it anyway!  Of course their loyal servants then ran out and repeated the lie.   In the end, they were awarded with a very well deserved Pants on Fire rating.  

Well they are at it again!   This time its not by a group labeled MacIver but instead by one that calls themselves EAGnews.  All of these shadow righty groups have the same MO

* funded by a billionaire who doesn't want to get their hands dirty
* Find a bunch of unethical brown noser's who will do whatever they are told to do for a few crumbs.
* Pick an issue that they need to push
* Lie, Lie, Lie!

More on these groups here! and here!

So here is the latest from this group of news nuts!While I do not recommend reading the whole thing here is an example. 

Petty cash spending district-wide came to $49,520. The district paid PMI Entertainment Group $10,533.50 for building rental for graduation. Nine payments to the National Staff Development Council came to $29,781.57. Six payments to Seroogy’s Chocolates came to $4,005.20. A single payment to the Wisconsin Association for Equity in Funding (a political organization of Wisconsin school districts) came to $7,500.
Seats for Milwaukee Brewers baseball came to $1,090. The combined cost for taxis, rental cars and limousines came to $6,716.36. The total cost of golf course and country club use was $8,721.06.
 the nerve of the district.  A Brewer Game?  GOLFING? who do they think they are...John Boehner?  However a quick review and we see these expenses are NOT quite what they seem(and EAG knew that)!  But run it anyway! 

   For example, EAG implied the district has been irresponsible by spending on a box seat at a Brewer’s game and a trip to Sea World, when in truth, these expenditures were a student DECA trip, paid for by students who reimbursed the district.  EAG asked for an explanation of this expenditure and was provided this explanation prior to the release of their report.
·         EAG curiously reports that the district spent $8,000 on golf courses and country clubs, when in fact they were informed that these expenses were for our student golf teams at our four high schools.
·         EAG fails to note that some of their “questionable expenditures” were in fact directly related to kids – state and national competitions for DECA, Mock Trail, cheerleading, FBLA, and more, as well as our graduation ceremonies to ensure ALL family members can attend.
·       ...Apparently, EAG is not interested in providing an accurate report to the community.
Wow they asked, were answered and then knowingly lied!  Are  Steve Gunn and Ashleigh Costello that dishonest of people? Apparently! 

Unfortunately, it takes the work of a whole website to correct the many lies of EAG people like Gunn and Costello! 

That website can be viewed here

Thanks to bloodsuckers like Eag"news" and their cub reporters from above, the Green Bay school district is forced to have someone like Amanda Brooker, Manager of School and Community Relations in the Green Bay School District.   She had to take time away from her busy day, to address the flat out lies, mistruths and slander in the Gunn and Costello hit piece!   Shame on them!

Here is Ms. Brooker's response in full:

EAG clouds the truth with misleading information about district

This school year, the Green Bay Area Public School District was asked to provide volumes of information as part of an open records request made by the Education Action Group (EAG), a pro-voucher, anti-public education group based in Muskegon, Michigan. The request asked for cell phone and credit card statements as well as copies of our check registry, which we fulfilled in January. This month they asked for explanations of a number of the expenditures.  We fulfilled this request, in detail.

As a public institution, we fully support the public’s right to seek information and ask questions about all aspects of our operation.  The report says “A complete copy of the district’s check register and credit card expenditure is attached to this story.”  Irresponsibly, the copy is not complete.  Rather, the district put in hundreds of man hours to meet and document their request and subsequent follow up in detail, only to have EAG irresponsibly put out a report that purposely omits the explanations they requested in both their “report” as well as their copy of expenditures.  Rather, their report misrepresents expenditures that were given to them with detailed explanation. Apparently the explanations did not fit their pre-judged narrative that the district was irresponsibly spending taxpayer dollars.  Instead, they chose to ignore the truth, thereby supporting their political agenda.

·         For example, EAG implied the district has been irresponsible by spending on a box seat at a Brewer’s game and a trip to Sea World, when in truth, these expenditures were a student DECA trip, paid for by students who reimbursed the district.  EAG asked for an explanation of this expenditure and was provided this explanation prior to the release of their report.
·         EAG curiously reports that the district spent $8,000 on golf courses and country clubs, when in fact they were informed that these expenses were for our student golf teams at our four high schools.
·         EAG fails to note that some of their “questionable expenditures” were in fact directly related to kids – state and national competitions for DECA, Mock Trail, cheerleading, FBLA, and more, as well as our graduation ceremonies to ensure ALL family members can attend.
·         EAG targets dollars spent through our food service program for pizza for Domino’s and beverages from Pepsi-Cola Co.  The fact that EAG fails to note is that Domino’s provides district pizza through our food service because the particular version we order meets the federal nutrition guidelines required in public schools. Additionally, the district orders food product from companies such as Dominos and Alpha Baking Company because such products are more cost effective for these companies to make than by our food service staff. Pepsi supplies our water and juice.
·         EAG failed to note that the district purchases from local vendors such as Cellcom and Camera Corner because it is more cost effective and keeps taxpayer dollars in the community.
·         EAG also failed to note that taxis, paid for by a grant, are used to transport homeless students to keep them at their same school.

Apparently, EAG is not interested in providing an accurate report to the community.

The district questions the criticism of the pro-voucher advocates stating that students have no “choices” for their education in this district, when in fact, many of the travel expenses questioned by EAG relate to our cutting edge, customized curriculum such as International Baccalaureate, AVID, gifted and talented, professional learning to close the achievement gap, and more. While these groups contend that the district is failing underrepresented students and failing to provide choice to our students, these same critics want to deny us the tools to accomplish this goal.   

Taken from their report: “The purpose of this project is to shine the sunlight on frequently ignored spending patterns in public schools, to keep citizens informed and school officials honest.”  Unfortunately, even EAG cannot abide by their own agenda.  Their report cannot keep citizens informed as the information is intentionally misleading. 

This is not honest reporting.  Moreover, in order to highlight spending patterns, the information regarding the spending – information that Green Bay School District provided – must be included to “illuminate” the pattern.  Simply reporting that the district spent $8,000 on golf courses and country clubs shows the taxpayer no information for that “spending pattern.”  Rather, the information the district provided illuminated the pattern – the expenditures were for greens fees for student golf teams. 

Running a district with 21,000 students and almost 3,000 staff requires expenditures. With all the documentation provided by the district, EAG’s focus was on .5% of the district budget. To that extent, while EAG would have taxpayers review half of the story, we have attached the documents that were originally sent to EAG with full explanation. 

In addition, it must be noted that the district is audited by an independent organization every year.  As we have consistently stated, we invite all taxpayers to sit down and review our records. The Green Bay Area Public School District has nothing to hide. Is it any coincidence that EAG will also be shedding “sunlight” on other districts identified for voucher expansion? We ask the media and taxpayers to do research on what extremist groups are affiliated with the school voucher movement and that tactics they use to put forth their political agenda.


Amanda E. Brooker
Manager of School & Community Relations
Green Bay Area Public School District

Feel free to Contact them and tell them to keep their lies OUT of our state!

 Education Action Group Foundation, Inc.
801 W. Norton, Ste. 1
Muskegon, MI 49441
(231) 733-4202 

 @EAGnews

@kyleolson4 


 



2 comments:

  1. " * funded by a billionaire who doesn't want to get their hands dirty"

    Who the hell taught your grammar classes?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shakespeare, maybe? This is referred to as "singular they." It's used when a gender-neutral singular pronoun is needed. It's much cleaner than using he/she or his/hers all the time. And it has been used for ages, even by that grammatical moron William Shakespeare. Not everyone likes it, but it's not improper.

    Who taught YOUR grammar classes?

    ReplyDelete