Polls Can Easily Become A Tool Of Totalitarianism

BC is experiencing a deluge of organized attacks and destabilization maneuvers to force more funding for government schools. 

Even though throughout the rest of the world the same constraints on public spending are being felt, and school spending is seriously being cut back, BC seems to be experiencing more than its share of grief from the lobbies which benefit from the education tax dollar. 

Thus, we see the call for more funding for public service workers – teachers — in our schools, rather than more efficient spending of money.  That independent schools do “more with less” is a thorn in the side of the public government schools.

On another blog, one in Ontario (School for Thought), we were discussing tools of totalitarianism and how the media was used to ensnare citizens to totalitarian thinking.  The article started out with Hitler having said  “Your child belongs to us already”’ and then we discussed how a totalitarian state used propaganda techniques to brainwash.

I contributed a classic case of how polls can be used to contribute to totalitarianism and I provided the link to the Vancouver Sun story about the Angus Reid poll:  “Most British Columbians want more public-school funding: poll”.

This poll was commissioned by a group whose aim is in the name:  BC Society for Public Education.  Therefore, you know that  they lobby for more public education and, of course, for less competition from independent schools.  And that is what the poll delivered. 

Briefly, there were three questions: 1) Should the government do more to support public education; 2) to increase funding for public education, and 3) to continue funding private schools?  The scores were 81% YES 79% YES and 64% NO.  What an outstanding result!   It garnered considerable mileage in the press and meetings. The poll achieved what the client wanted.

The newspaper, however, through its blogging ability, received over 100 comments and, unfortunately (for the lobby), some serious questions were raised:

1.  Were the questions loaded? Or leading?
2.  Isn’t Angus Reid polling rather questionable considering they are left-wing and support massive social spending?  Don’t they use questionable polling techniques, that is, online polling?
3.  Who is behind this poll and who pays?

The answers:

1.  See the pdf for the questions  http://www.scribd.com/full/30311572?access_key=key-u1vfkvolw0eiygqp0qj
Note how the preamble leads to a “correct” answer.  How it “primes the pump”, so to speak, for the waterworks to follow.  The questions were well “crafted”, manufactured.

2.  The online polling is questionable. The “random selection” was done from the Angus Reid Forum, a self-volunteered array of citizens who get points for surveys taken, and qualify for monthly awards of $1000, $100, or other perks.  The left-wing swing of the principal of the company is well noted in his writings.

3.  The group commissioning the poll has been in place since 2005 and with Board members long associated with “progressive” activism, including Patti Bacchus, current chair of the VSB.  (Wouldn’t they  just love to deflect an accounting probe away from the VSB?)  Two current BCSPE Board members, Helesia Luke and Catherine Evans, run a communications, public relations, guerilla marketing company.  Their literature includes these statements: “How you ask questions is important – language matters”, and “Asking questions influences groups in some way.” Funding for BCSPE and expensive polls  – who know?

What if, what if the poll did have more credibility.  That is, what if a disinterested group (one without an agenda or self-interest) commissioned a poll on these issues?  Suppose someone, just for an academic exercise, repeated such a survey, but with a different slant to the questions and preamble, could they have achieved a result of 81% NO, 79 % NO to more support or funding for public education, and 64% YES for continued funding for private schools?

The headlines would scream:  “8 out of 10 British Columbians want government to stop supporting and funding public education: poll”.  “2 out of 3 want more funding for private schools: poll”.

Wishful thinking?  SURPRISE.  The Angus Reid Chief Research Officer, Andrew Grenville, coincidentally on the same day as the BCSPE newsrelease came out (Apr 21, 2010), illustrates my point –  that with the right questions you can get exactly 180 degree different answers, 100% opposites!  Please see this article:  Why The Way You Ask a Question Can Determine The Answer.  http://www.visioncritical.com/2010/04/why-the-way-you-ask-a-question-can-determine-the-answer/

So, is this education underfunding crisis in BC a magnificent example of engineering disinformation and propaganda by ideological stakeholders? Isn’t that how agent provocateurs work?

It’s just a matter of degree.  Expect all schools and school systems to be vulnerable to corruption – anywhere from pilfering a pencil from a school to outright criminal embezzlement as we’ve seen in the Detroit Public School system. The education systems, being the biggest or second biggest spenders of public money, have few stringent accountability measures to counter what is a system replete with opportunities for wrong-doing.  All at the expense of childrens’ education, of course.  In Detroit the “culture of corruption” is so severe that only one in four students graduates.

As a year end (2009) report for British Columbia, Canada, I have just published the following:

CORRUPTION: BC’s Education Nightmare – I

For the New Year, the new decade (2010), I wish to see a rededication to the task at hand – proper education of the young.  All else is secondary or non-essential. And, I’d like to see a lot less corruption. The two go together.

Fortunately, tough economic times help in the task of eliminating waste and refocusing on the essentials. It’s like in the Depression – maximize the resources you have.

In New Zealand when the government saw that it had “created a massive, unresponsive educational system where parents had little or no influence”, which didn’t meet acceptable achievement levels, and which “consumed 70 cents of every education dollar, with only 30 cents spent in the classroom” they did something radical. They implemented a very simple organizational change to switch those figures around.  District school boards were replaced by parent boards at each school, very much as we have in our independent schools. Those who care the most were now in charge. Parent trusteeship is voluntary, no pay!  (PS:  The Ministry was reduced to half its former size. Money saved is ploughed back into the schools, special services, and indigenous education.)  See: http://4brevard.com/choice/new-zealand.htm

Does our government in BC have the guts to do something so simple? Something radical.  The present system is totally unacceptable and getting worse by the month. There never was a year like 2009, rudderless and full of holes.

Before I list some of the corruptions we’ve seen in the last year let’s stop a moment to review what corruption is. Very simply, it is anything that robs the intended recipients of goods and services and/or deviates from its intended mission.  This deviation might be as simple as pilfering a school pencil, which is not a criminal offense, to the criminal embezzlement of millions of dollars, as we’ve read about in the Detroit Public School system.

Basically, to corrupt is to spoil, alter, or debase something into less than what it is supposed to be. Passing the smell test is another way of putting it.  “Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark”, that is, the fish is rotting from the head down.

These are just some of the corruptions, debasements and questionable practices discussed on this blog this year:

1.  Cronyism, nepotism — which was outed in the debates concerning deployment of TOC’s (substitute teachers). A dedicated page on this blog now has over 1,000 comments.

2.  Double dipping — TOC’s who are retired but still working on call, superintendents retired and on pension and working under contract.

3.  Conflict of interest – trustees who are teachers or ex-teacher union officials, have family on staff, in the role for 30 years, who have signed teacher union pledges to support teacher causes, etc.…

4.  Using school property for private commercial purposes – producing materials for sale, organizing businesses, charging high telephone calls to foreign countries for business….

5.  Conventions, junkets, retreats in distant locations and in expensive settings.

6.  Overspending by a school board because of poor accounting practices and poor reporting…

… more later …

Though I am shocked by the scale of the corruption in BC education, the long duration of some of the bad practices, and the depth, I an equally concerned about the lack of transparency and lack of accountability that is revealed.  Both oversight and procedures are flawed.

In the general field of corruption studies, perception is considered as important as the reality.  I am surprised and disappointed that it seems as if people don’t care.  As if this is the norm. The system is there to be milked – the children be damned!

Lest we get too agitated, however, a 6 year study by UNESCO has just published its report in English called: "Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities: What Can Be Done?”  The blurbs about the study say things like: “Corruption in education is rampant globally”, and “Corruption is endemic in many education systems around the world, undermining them and costing governments billions of dollars”.

In discussions about this report, in addition to the wrong-doing and harm done, is the painful acknowledgement of the effect on young people.

“Lack of integrity and unethical behaviour within the education sector is inconsistent with one of the main purposes of education: that is, to produce ‘good citizens’, respectful of the law, of human rights and fairness.” 

(by Tunya Audain, 100103, comment to blog Report Card by Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun Education Reporter, on her story: “Happy New Year – make a wish”, 091231 communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/reportcard/archive/2009/12/31/happy-new-year-make-a-wish.aspx)