Bradley Foundation To Honor Betsy DeVos

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation is a well established Milwaukee-based right wing money group that periodically honors folks who fit in with their support for "grassroots and faith-based groups that serve individuals, strengthen families, and revitalize neighborhoods by sharing common belief in the self-worth of individuals, the inherent dignity of work, and the need to reduce government dependence." They love freedom and free enterprise and think "America's founders" envisioned a unique and extraordinary form of government. 

This year, one of the honorees is Betsy DeVos. 

The Bradley Foundation is a busy group. Established way back in 1942, it honored Harry Bradley, a charter member of the John Birch Society (the granddaddy of US right wing fringe groups) along with Fred Koch, the father of the Koch Brothers. In the 80s the Bradley's scored big via the defense industry, and they have been spending that money on their vision of the country ever since.

They've backed Scott Walker heavily, denied climate change, put up voter suppression billboards, and given grants to folks like Charles Murray (author of The Bell Curve) and Dinesh D'Souza (author of The End of Racism and that crazy documentary). The foundation also makes considerable use of Donors Trust, a dark money laundering operation that lets rich folks fund their favorite causes without having their names attached. They've funded Richard Berman, a particularly nasty political operative. And they are, of course, big fans of defunding public education via choice programs; Charter School Growth Fund gets a lot of Bradley money. They've funded challenges to voting rights (including the Shelby County case in which SCOTUS decided that racism is no longer a big deal). Of course they're in with ALEC. And they put a whole lot of money into getting everything open again during the pandemic. 

Fun folks.

They award up to four Bradley Prizes each year. Previous winners include Jeb Bush, Roger Ailes, Carcy Olsen (the president of the Goldwater Institute), Larry Arnn (president of Hillsdale College, Mitch Daniels, Charles Murray. You get the idea.

DeVos joins a similarly rightward group.

“Perhaps no single individual has done more to promote educational freedom for families across the country than Betsy DeVos,” said Rick Graber, president of The Bradley Foundation. “Betsy has been a tireless advocate for kids of all backgrounds and circumstances, from advancing policies that allow them to attend schools that best fit their needs to pressing teachers’ unions to stop blocking the re-opening of schools in the wake of the pandemic. The Foundation has been grateful to call her a friend through its decades of work on educational freedom and is proud to award her a Bradley Prize.”

DeVos offers her own blah-dee-blah for the honor

“Helping every child unlock their potential through the opportunity to access world-class educational options has been my life’s work,” said DeVos. “Our nation cannot succeed if we don’t do all we can to help our rising generation succeed. That’s what makes education freedom imperative, not just important. Fortunately, we’re making rapid and historic progress toward ensuring students are hostages to an outdated, broken system no more. It has been gratifying to see so many join the fight for kids, and it’s quite humbling to receive the Bradley Prize.”

The prize  comes with a $250,000 stipend (or as the DeVos family calls it, "couch cushion change") but the point of rich folks gathering to honor each other is to stir up a little publicity and maybe make folks feel warmly enough to contribute some more to this quiet juggernaut of reactionary activity. It's inspirational. Perhaps here at the Curmudgucation Instiutute we will save up enough to start awarding our own prize. We can't quite swing a cool quarter million, but I know a place where I could take you for a really good pizza.