The Walton Foundation likes vouchers and charters. It does not like public schools.

Last year, it spend $159 million to promote vouchers and charters.

In addition, members of the billionaire family have dumped a few million here and there into political campaigns, like the Georgia referendum to allow the governor to create charters despite the opposition of the local school board, or the Washington State referendum to allow charters in that state.

Now the Walton Foundation plans to expand. As a local Arkansas blogger puts it, “Wow, when the Walton family — which has put more than $1 billion into “education reform” through its foundation and spent untold millions more in separate political activties — indicates it’s going to increase its political effort it’s time for political opponents to build a bomb shelter.”

It is important that when the Walton Foundation says “education reform,” what they really mean is privatizing public education, getting rid of local school boards, and allowing for-profit corporations to run your neighborhood school.

Sort of like Walmart. When they come into your local region, the mom-and-pop stores go out of business, and the Waltons own everything. If they don’t make enough money, they leave, and your town has a lot of empty stores on Main Street.