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SW: Addition of educational astroturf run by the Gates Foundation
==Virtual astroturf (the "Echo Chamber" approach to advocacy)==
A 1998 memo, written by [[John F. Scruggs]] of [[Philip Morris Management Corporation]]'s Federal Government Affairs Office (lobbying office), describes a public relations technique that corporations use to dominate virtually the entire decisionmaking environment in which legislators operate. The "Echo Chamber Approach to Advocacy," as Scruggs describes it, involves making a chosen corporate message, or slight variations this message, emanate from virtually all major sources that influence legislators' decisionmaking: constituents, colleagues, opinion leaders, local and national media (TV, radio, newspapers), fundraisers, advertising, etc. Scruggs says "...[T]his repetition, or 'piling on' approach works" because the message emanates from those who have " 'the greatest degree of credibility' with the legislator."<ref>John Scruggs, Philip Morris Management Corp. [http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/xiz37c00 The "Echo Chamber" Approach to Advocacy] Memorandum. December 18, 1998. Bates No. 2078707451/7452 </ref>
==Educational Astroturf==
[[Bill Gates]] by way of the [[Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation]], funds a number of astro-turf grass groots groups to challenge teachers' unions in education, including [[Teach Plus]], the [[Education Equality Project]], [[Educators for Excellence ]], the [[Alliance for Excellent Education]], the [[Center on Education Policy]], the [[Education Trust]] and former Florida governor [[Jeb Bush]]'s [[Foundation for Educational Excellence]]. Bush has extensive ties to educational testing companies that make millions off of teach-to-the-test statewide testing programs.
"''It's Orwellian in the sense that through this vast funding they start to control even how we tacitly think about the problems facing public education,'' said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who said he received no financing from the foundation." <ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04E5DC143CF931A15756C0A9679D8B63&pagewanted=all]</ref>
According to the [[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04E5DC143CF931A15756C0A9679D8B63&pagewanted=all New York Times], the foundation paid millions to set up the same labyrinth of groups, think-tanks and research fellows that [[Grover Norquist]] established to effect control of the [[Republican Party]] over a 35 year period. The Gates Foundation paid a New York philanthropic advisory firm $3.5 million ''to mount and support public education and advocacy campaigns.'' It also paid universities to support pieces of the Gates educational agenda. Harvard received $3.5 million to place what it termed ''strategic data fellows'' to be ''entrepreneurial change agents'' in school districts in Boston, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
The foundation gave money to unions, the [[American Federation of Teachers]] (AFT) and the [[National Education Association]] (NEA), nearly $6.3 million over the last three years, but the money seems to go to influence policy debates, and foster political members careers who will challenge the thinking of the current union leadership. Mr. Gates spent $2 million on a ''social action'' campaign using the film ''Waiting for 'Superman,' '' which demonized Randi Weingarten, the president of the AFT.
''It's easier to name which groups Gates doesn't support than to list all of those they do, because it's just so overwhelming,'' noted Ken Libby, a graduate student who has pored over the foundation's tax filings as part of his academic work.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04E5DC143CF931A15756C0A9679D8B63&pagewanted=all]</ref>
==Articles and resources==
