What a strange world we live in!
Why are a California businessman and a pair of Arkansas billionaires dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into the race for the state board of education in Louisiana?
Mercedes Schneider explains it here.
Billionaires Eli Broad and Alice and Jim Walton have contributed a combined $650,000 to Baton Rouge businessman Lane Grigsby’s PAC, Empower Louisiana, so that Grigsby might use it to try to retain a corporate-reform-bent majority on the state’s education board, BESE, from 2016-19.
The BESE election is scheduled for October 24, 2015.
According to Empower Louisiana’s campaign finance report (07-17-15 to 09-14-15), Jim and Alice Walton each donated $200,000 on August 20, 2015, and Broad contributed $250,000 on September 10, 2015.
The total on the above report is $763,710, which means that as of September 14, 2015, money from two billionaires from Arkansas and one billionaire from California constitutes the principal funding for Grigsby’s efforts to preserve a BESE majority known for supporting charters and vouchers without equally supporting adequate oversight; supporting high-stakes testing without supporting timely, clear, comprehensive reporting of testing results, and for allying with a state superintendent known for hiding and manipulating data, refusing to honor public records requests, and refusing to consistently audit the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE).
Grigsby considers the above to be the desired course for Louisiana’s state board of education. According to the October 01, 2015, Advocate, he plans to spend his PARC’s predominately Walton and Broad money on 3 of the 11 BESE seats:
Grigsby’s group — it is limited to independent expenditures — will rely mostly on television and radio advertisements and direct mail.
Races where it will be involved include BESE vice president Jim Garvey, of Metairie, against challenger Lee Barrios, of Abita Springs; incumbent Holly Boffy, of Youngsville, against challenger Mike Kreamer, of Lafayette and incumbent Mary Harris, of Shreveport, against challengers Tony Davis, of Natchitoches, and Glynis Johnston, of Shreveport.
The group backs Garvey, Boffy and Davis in those contests.
This is blatant buying of our democracy. There ought to be a law limiting campaign expenditures. People with unlimited resources (who don’t even live in the state) should be prevented from buying elections by flooding them with cash. Ordinary folks, who are well informed and devoted to education, but don’t have any billionaires funders, don’t have a chance.
That’s just plain wrong.
People who use their vast wealth to buy elections should be charged with criminal activity. They undermine our democracy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is racketeering authorized by the Supreme Court and in several cases, upheld for state level elections. Too bad it is not prohibited by the RICO act. It is not among the activities that can be prosecuted (but that list is interesting. U.S. CodeTitle 18Part IChapter 96.
The only thing that works is massive voter turnout to defeat the “bought and paid for” candidates, telling it like it is with as much savvy media hype as possible.
Racketerring is right!
I thought racketeering was reserved for teachers that cheat on standardized tests.
Not charged—-shot.
Broad, various of the Waltons, Murdoch, Bloomberg, and other of this billionaire brigade of robber barons, have been pouring huge amounts of cash into LAUSD BoE elections for some years, Not paltry amounts, but rather multi millions of dollars into a district where only 10 years ago, it cost a candidate only about $30K to run. The last election had two privatizer-charter supporters, and one is an owner of 16 charter schools, running, Tamar Galatzan, and Refugio Rodriguez of PUD Charter Schools. Former BoE Prez, Vladovic (who too often voted with former disgraced Supt. Deasy, Broad’s imposed toady) also benefited from this largesse in his winning campaign. Galatzan lost, but Rodriguez won using the dirtiest campaign tricks and even bribery to win his seat.
This election alone garnered close to $6 M in donations, most cash from these billionaire profiteers. Previous elections saw Zimmer beat back Anderson, and Ratliff win over Sanchez, so that the underdog teachers won…the losers had the donated support of these outsider deep pockets. The unions were forced to donate about $1.5 M to close some of this heavily weighted donation gap.
It is indeed a dangerous and undemocratic situation when outsider wealth with the agenda of doing away with public schools and unions, can influence local elections.
This is why what is (and is not) happening in New Orleans matters to us all. It is a beachhead for the invading forces of privatization and charters. The people in charge are almost all grads of the Broad academy and TFA. And the local profiteers are all part of the old money oligarchy that has never before had an interest in public education. And with spokespersons like Scott Cowen shilling for them and providing a purchased “aura” of disinterested legitimacy, it means we have to work harder to save public education and expose the hucksters for what they are.
Louisiana, you are an amazing state except for the corporate powers that try to destroy everything that is great about you.
Bobby Jindal. John White. David Vitter. Chas Roemer.
Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.
To the teachers and real educators of Baton Rouge, take heart and fight these bastards tooth and nail.
We in the other LA (the less costumed and more densely-packed Bon Ton Roulet city) feel your pain.
Addendum…read the highly nuanced fluff piece written today in the LA Times on Broad and his push to rapdily run at least 50% more of the LAUSD schools…as charters. His muck-filled hand is in everything….and there is NO real journalism offered about it all. As a footnote at the end of the article they box a comment that the Broad Academy pays for their education reports.
Beware America…Eli Broad and his pals are coming to take over all your schools.
“…fight those bastards tooth and nail.”
Don’t stop there: fight them “hammer and tongs” as well.
I wonder, however, if it is ever possible to win an unfair fight without getting your hands dirty. Being on the right side of the debate is great, but having a diaper-load of money helps.