Blogger Jon Pelto, who is running as a third party candidate for governor of Connecticut, reports here that Governor Malloy has received large contributions from Jonathan Sackler and the Sackler family.

 

Jonathan Sackler is a leader of the charter school movement in Connecticut and elsewhere.

 

Pelto writes:

 

Jonathan Sackler helped Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, create Achievement First, Inc. the large charter school management company that owns and operates schools in Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island.

 

Jonathan Sackler created ConnCAN, the charter school advocacy group that led the record breaking $6 million lobbying campaign to pass Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy’s corporate education reform industry initiative in 2012. The bill made Malloy the only Democratic governor in the nation to propose doing away with teacher tenure and unilaterally repealing collective bargaining for teachers in so-called “turnaround schools.”

 

Jonathan Sackler founded 50CAN, the ConnCAN knockoff, which is attempting to spread the charter school lobbying effort across the country. Sackler is also a member of the board of directors of the NewSchools Venture Fund, a national hedge-fund industry funded organization that is promoting the corporate education reform industry’s activities.

 

Jonathan Sackler and his family also own Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical company made famous due to their product known as OxyContin.

 

In a stunning investigative report by the Hartford Courant’s Jon Lender, we now learn that Sackler and his family have given $91,000 to Malloy’s political operation while Sackler’s company has given another $106,000.