The oligarchy has long sought to turn the education system into a for-profit business shaped in their image: replacing intellectual freedom with fundamentalist obedience, and ending teachers' unions for good. We identified the billionaires driving, enabling, and profiting from the war on public schools.
Marc Rowan
Apollo Global Management
The architect of Donald Trump's higher education loyalty oath is hellbent on silencing student expression and academic freedom.
Linda McMahon
Department of Education
After two failed Senate runs, the exploitative ex-WWE CEO is now taking a chair to the Department of Education.
Joe Lonsadale
8VC
Co-founder of ICE’s go to tech firm Palantir and Bari Weiss’ “anti-woke” University of Austin called Gen Z students “the loser generation.”
Jeffrey Yass
Susquehanna Foundation
The richest man in Pennsylvania is one of the biggest funders of the Republican Party and the billionaire-led charge to defund public schools.
Ken Griffin
Citadel
The owner of a first-edition Constitution and a $300 million painting helped close 50 Chicago public schools.
Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein
Uline
Uline shipping magnates fund traditional school privatization candidates and modern “Moms for Liberty” extremists alike.