Today I learned that Jim Walton’s grandchild goes to a private school that doesn’t participate in standardized testing, doesn’t assign homework, and doesn’t offer health insurance to any of its teachers.
This morning, because my family attended a private school event with some of the most privileged parents who live in Bentonville, Arkansas, I got to take this picture:
Yes, that is Jim Walton – son of Sam Walton, who turned Walmart into an international powerhouse. Jim Walton, currently valued at $52.9 billion, is the richest member of the Walton family. The Waltons fund and promote efforts to turn taxpayer money into private profit at charter schools across the country (especially in Arkansas.)
Walton family money also created the Arkansas State Teachers Association (ASTA,) which promotes itself as the “non-union alternative” to the Arkansas Education Association (AEA.) ASTA acted like an illegal “company union” when I taught at an Arkansas charter school. ASTA lobbies alongside multiple other, Walton-funded nonprofits to bust the teachers’ union in Arkansas.
Thanks to multiple, Walton-funded nonprofits and politicians, the Arkansas State Board of Education (SBoE) is preparing to vote on whether to decertify the Little Rock Education Association (LREA) for collective bargaining on behalf of teachers in the Little Rock School District. LRSD is the only district in Arkansas that still recognizes a local AEA chapter, since Fort Smith decertified their union last year.
What would a non-union LRSD look like?
What would a non-union LRSD look like? Probably a lot like the Walton-backed charter and private schools. Some do pretty well for their students, and some do more harm than good. Many commit fraud with taxpayer money. I taught in one, and it hurt me terribly. Heather Holaway worked for another one, and they cut off her health insurance without notice (even though she still had her job) six days before she was scheduled for necessary surgery.
The private school where the Walton family sends their grandchild doesn’t have a school nurse on staff, and offers no health insurance to teachers, at all.
Last year, I emailed the Head of School about her teachers’ need for health insurance. I wrote:
When I learned that neither of [the] teachers have health insurance, I figured I needed to write to you directly . . . . It kind of blew my mind. All the work & responsibility of teaching, but no health insurance? . . . . I realize that medical care must be discussed privately, between teachers & their employers, and there are many factors to consider. Still, I just wanted you to know you’d have MY support . . . if you made the extra effort to extend health care benefits to all of the teachers. I’d even be thrilled to help read fine print, if you need that kind of volunteer.”
Elizabeth Lyon-Ballay: February 4, 2019
The Head of School responded, “While I can’t go into details, [our school] does try to create opportunities and compensation to support teachers on lots of levels. I join you in valuing health care as a fundamental human right. Please be assured that we also share the value of taking care of our employees in mind, body and spirit and will always keep trying to do better in this regard.”
It was not a satisfactory response, for me. However, apparently it’s good enough for Jim Walton.
As long as a school is beautiful and exclusive, without the burden of mandatory standardized testing that most Arkansas students have to carry, it doesn’t matter if the teachers get health care. That’s the school where the Walton kids are going to enroll (as long as they don’t require access to a school nurse.)