Maurice Cunningham is a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts. During the heated battle over a referendum to expand charter schools (Question 2), Cunningham wrote about the funding of both sides. The Massachusetts Teachers Association spent heavily to oppose Question 2, but they were far outspent by the many millions poured into the state to support charter schools. Most of the pro-charter money came from outside Massachusetts, from the Walton family, Michael Bloomberg, and financiers in a group calling itself “Families for Excellent Schools.”
The referendum lost by 62%-38%. The only districts that voted for it were affluent districts that never expected to see a charter school in their backyard. The opposing votes were highest in districts that had charter schools because they realized that a vote for a charter was a vote to defund their local,public schools.
Cunningham continued to follow the money after the election of last November.
Read this dynamite piece about Democrats using Republican money to advance Obama’s legacy on charter schools. He goes right to the dark bipartisan heart of privatization.
He learned of a new group called Massachusetts Parents United, and he discovered that it was funded by the same organizations that funded the pro-charter referendum. He wrote about it and was barraged on Twitter by outraged members of the group, who accused him of “bullying” and “belittling” some dedicated moms. These are the moms funded by the Walton Family Foundation. He challenged them to cite any inaccuracy in his article, but they did not.
Here is the way it begins:
“Mom and pop education organizations in Massachusetts seem to crop up just as fast as billionaires can fund them these days. The latest such entrant is called Massachusetts Parents United, with ties to Families for Excellent Schools and Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts. It’s old wine in an empty bottle.
“The first tie is personnel – the state director of MPU, Keri Rodriguez Lorenzo, is the former state director of Families for Excellent Schools, which last year poured over $17 million in dark money into the Great Schools Massachusetts ballot committee. She is also on the Advisory Council of Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts, which pours dark money into legislative races and into the 2013 Boston mayoral race.
“The second tie is financial. One of MPU’s funders is The Walton Family Foundation. In last year’s Question 2 fight, Walton money funded most of the activities of a ballot committee named Advancing Obama’s Legacy on Charter Schools, which was itself a front established by DFER MA. The Walton money – about $1.8 million from cousins Jim and Alice Walton – was funneled through another ballot committee named Campaign for Fair Access to Quality Public Schools. In Democrats Using Republican Money for Education Reform Now to Advance Obama’s Legacy on Charter Schools, I noted the irony of a putative Democratic committee subsisting on funds generated by the notoriously anti-worker WalMart. The rest of the Obama’s Legacy money came from DFER MA’s customary funder and dark money kissin’ cousin, Education Reform Now Advocacy of New York. If you understand all this, you probably own an intuitive grasp of the lyrics to “I’m My Own Grandpa.””
To follow the interesting Twitter exchange, go to Maurice Cunningham’s Twitter feed. @MassPolProfMo
“Mirror Images”
When Demos look in the mirror
Republicans they see
Cuz left is right
And money’s tight
And corporate they be
The only time I looked closely at Maurice Cunningham’s research/analysis regarding Massachusetts charter school ballot question (Q2) funding, it was largely debunked. See comments section here:
http://haveyouheardblog.com/family-affair/
I’m sure he’s occasionally correct but haven’t myself subsequently considered it worth the time to try to separate the wheat from the chaff.
I haven’t seen any debunking of Cunningham’s research. It reflects public records. If you know of any evidence that the Waltons did not fund Question 2, please let us know.
Well, just so you’re not entirely bereft of the debunking of both his research and analysis, here are two comments I alluded to:
Stephen Ronan AUGUST 10, 2016 AT 3:58 AM
EduShyster: “Political scientist Maurice Cunningham says the campaign to lift the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts is driven by GOP operatives and a handful of wealthy Republican families in Massachusetts”
(…)
“Edushyster: But what you’ve found in your research is that this is basically a Republican production from top to bottom.
“Cunningham: That’s right. There are a handful of wealthy families that are funding this. They largely give to Republicans and they represent the financial industry, basically.”
I just tried replicating Cunningham’s search for Public Charter Schools for Mass, 2015 Year End Report, which he primarily relies on here: http://blogs.wgbh.org/masspoliticsprofs/2016/7/15/great-schools-or-great-scheme/
That’s the article that Jennifer/EduShyster links to above at “your research”.
The search results are readily available, without any heavy duty flashlights, here:
http://www.ocpf.us/Reports/DisplayReport?menuHidden=true&id=571639#schedule-a
I started looking at donations to political candidates made by the listed five-figure donors, proceeding alphabetically. I put a (D) for a recipient Democratic politician, (R) for a Republican, while eliminating duplicates for individual politicians, e.g., if the donor gave four or five times to a particular Democratic politician, there’s only one (D). And I just examined the first page of each donor’s results at the Office of Campaign and Political Finance. The dollar figure is just the amount that was given to the Public Charter Schools campaign. This is what I found:
Donor: J.B.: $40,000
Recipients: Public Charter Schools for Mass, (D), (D), Committee for Charter Public Schools, (D), Democratic State Committee, MA, (D), Democratic State Committee,(D),(D),(D), Democratic State Committee, (D),(R),(D),(R),(D)
Donor: R.B.: $10,000
Recipients: (D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),Committee for a Democratic Senate Pol Action Comm.,(D),Neighborhoods United Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee (a PAC for a (D)),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),(D),Democratic State Committee,(D),Committee for Charter Public Schools,(D),Democratic State Committee(D),(D),(D),Democratic State Committee
Donor: D.D.: $10,000
Recipients: Public Charter Schools for Mass,(R),(D),(D),(R)
That’s as far as I got. Enough for me to wonder whether it’s really true to say “that this is basically a Republican production from top to bottom.” (Quite possibly it’s closer to true for the middle and bottom of the alphabet).
Stephen Ronan AUGUST 15, 2016 AT 4:40 PM
Again, this is the Cunningham posting you linked to at “your research” where he provides a “small list of names”.
http://blogs.wgbh.org/masspoliticsprofs/2016/7/15/great-schools-or-great-scheme/
Cunningham cites 13 individuals and starts at “K” for Klarman noting that he’s a Republican donor. And also ends at “K” for Klarman.
OCPF gave me the listing in alphabetical order, including the very same 13 individuals, all listed alphabetically among sundry other smaller donors, and I started at the top of the alphabet of five-figure donors. You see what I found. Lucky I stopped where I did. I now see that unbeknownst to me, a Republican-leaner was up next. Phew.
Please shelter any kids or tax attorneys in your area from Cunningham’s postings; the kids may be frightened and confused as they watch Cunningham sturdily crushing Russian dolls together, as he refers to “Public Charter School for Growth’s” expenditures.
There’s a “Public Charter Schools for Massachusetts” and also a “Strong Economy for Growth”. I think he intended to refer to the former.
And the tax attorneys may be startled to see him strew the tax code to the winds. He writes: (http://blogs.wgbh.org/masspoliticsprofs/2016/8/2/hidden-money-behind-great-schools-strategic-grant-partners/):
“An important limitation on a 501(c)(3) is that it is barred from political activity.”
[…]
“Educators for Excellence and OneGoal are 501(c)(3)s and should not be involved in politics, but their roles in Massachusetts bear watching as well.”
Warming up for that magical evening of fact-finding, I find those statements on the weak end of the supported-by-persuasive-evidence spectrum.
In respect to 501(c)(3) organizations that are classified as “public charities”, according to NonProfitVote:
“The most important thing a 501(c)(3) nonprofit should know is that the IRS considers activity on ballot measures a lobbying activity – not electioneering. A 501(c)(3) may work for or against ballot questions up to normal lobbying limits. The IRS makes this distinction because advocacy on ballot measures is an attempt to influence a proposed law or policy – not the election or defeat of a candidate.
[…]
“If your nonprofit has chosen to measure its lobbying under the so-called 501(h) expenditure test, it has clearer guidance and can do more lobbying. Under this expenditure test, you can spend a certain percentage of your annual budget (as much as 20% for small organizations, less for larger groups) on efforts by you or your members to directly influence the outcome of a ballot question or legislative vote.”
http://www.nonprofitvote.org/nonprofits-voting-elections-online/ballot-measures/
In respect to 501(c)(3) organizations that are classified as “private foundations”, they are also allowed to lobby/participate in ballot question campaigns… but they would incur a significant excise tax on those expenditures which would normally persuade them to avoid such activity.
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/private-foundations/lobbying-activity-of-section-501-c-3-private-foundations
I don’t think anything you posted debunks Cunningham’s research.
Wall Street kingpins are financing the growth of charter schools and privatization. Educators for Excellence is a Gates-funded anti-union group of ex-TFA folk who taught for a couple of years and moved into a better deal.
Diane: “I don’t think anything you posted debunks Cunningham’s research.”
In the instances I cited his “research” was (1) looking at very easily reviewable public records and distorting the degree to which the pro-Q2 donors were Republican and (2) incorrectly stating that 501(c)3 organizations are “barred from political activity”.
Diane: “Wall Street kingpins are financing the growth of charter schools and privatization.”
And the Boys and Girls Clubs, and clean water.
Before anyone decides to reflexively oppose anything the Waltons support I would encourage a careful look through Attachment 19 here:
Click to access 2014-133441466-0bff07b1-F.pdf
that’s pp 56-74
You’d be painting yourself into a very small corner.
Charters are officially supported by the Republican Party, by ALEC, by Trum, by DeVos.
The Walton family supports both charters and vouchers. They are anti-union.
There are Democrats who support charters. Too many. They shouldn’t.
Charters are the gateway drug to vouchers.
“There are Democrats who support charters. ”
Indeed. Deval Patrick and Barack Obama supported them more effectively than their more recent Republican counterparts have yet done.
“Charters are the gateway drug to vouchers.”
I see someone like Jay P. Greene excessively praise vouchers and excessively criticize charter schools and am not persuaded by that. We discussed his research here:
In Massachusetts, as the charter sector has gradually expanded I have seen no corresponding move towards vouchers. In fact one could argue that the success of charter schools here has diminished inclination to support vouchers.
Wrong, Stephen.
The people of Massachusetts don’t want charters. They made that clear by an overwhelming vote of 62-38%. In a presidential election, that would be called a landslide.
The Democrats who support charters–Obama, Duncan, Rahm, Cuomo–made a huge mistake.
The school choice movement makes no distinction between charters and vouchers.
Betsy DeVos is the Queen of school choice. Her state is overrun with charters, like Jeb Bush’s. She is the face of the charter school movement now.
Stephen B Ronan,
The VOTERS rejected charters by a huge margin. Why can’t you accept that. It wasn’t even as close as the Presidential election.
Furthermore, you are a liar if you don’t acknowledge that Families for Excellent Schools or whatever their new Massachusetts offshoot to fund this ballot issue was called is not pro-privatization anti-public school billionaires then you are lying.
It’s true some of them are co-opted Democrats but many are Republicans. The own the ENTIRE Republican Party but only some of the Democrats. And not yet all the ones in Massachusetts.
You lost. The public REJECTED your lies. In a straight up vote.
When it’s a straight up vote, the people who fund you can’t buy politicians like they can in NY State.
When it’s a straight up vote, the people of NYC voted for the Mayor who wanted to make sure charters were regulated and not free to have as many got to go lists as they wanted. Or as many suspensions of 5 year olds as they wanted.
When your funders get to buy politicians, as in the NY Senate, they can thwart democracy.
You have much in common with Trump although you probably will never acknowledge it.
“The VOTERS rejected…”
As you may know, I considered the recent Massachusetts ballot question on charter schools well-intended, but ill-timed and ill-advised and wasn’t involved in initiating it, gathering signatures, developing TV spots, etc.. I did occasionally correct a falsehood asserted by its opponents and as Diane has correctly intimated that was a sisyphean task that left her blog periodically, momentarily, blanketed with verities, trying her patience to the max.
I did once play key roles on a Massachusetts ballot question, which lost far worse: 71-29. And later assisted with a subsequent similar initiative on the same subject that won 78-22.
Persistence can be rewarded. And I’m confident that the supporters of high quality, well-regulated charter schools will persist.
The number of high-quality politicians (like f’rinstance) Barack Obama, whom I would not dismiss as co-opted, who lost in their first political foray is quite large. Thankfully, they persisted.
Which reminds me that in an earlier posting I rather underestimated, for example, the number of snazzy T-shirts I have in my possession with politicians’ names on ’em. Most won… If not initially, then eventually.
Stephen, you are right to recognize the importance of persistence. But it is better to fight for the public good rather than privatization. Unions built the middle class. The Waltons support charters not to improve education but to bust unions. And you have the advantage these days that Trump and DeVos agree with you and have many millions to support more charters. I hope one day you will see the light and support democratically controlled public schools.
Must read! Choice is not just ordinary Moms advocating for their kids. Those choice groups orchestrated & funded by billionaires in cases like Mass. Let’s make our public schools in urban areas equal to any others in suburbs.
“The dark bipartisan heart of privatization.” This is a major problem.
“The Dark bipartisan heart of Privatization”
The telltale heart is beating
Beneath the “Family” floor
The party heads are meeting
Behind the basement door
The Dumbocrats and the Rethuglicans, the left and the right wing are both a part of the same vulture that is gorging itself on the corpse of American democracy. All of the nations citizens, no matter their asserted political affiliations, are viewed by this vulture as being one of two things: either a commodity to be exploited or a liability to be externalized or eliminated.
How does money/funding help a referendum to go through or not? I know this may sound like a naïve question but I don’t understand…And the fact that money determines the outcome is excruciatingly sad. More corrupt politics as far as I am concerned.
Bogus groups funded by Walton, etc. pretend to be grassroots groups and come off a PTA moms who only want what is best for their kids. They make calls, print fliers, run commercials, to DUPE the real moms into voting for the issue. Who doesn’t want what is good for their kids? That is how they influence and “buy” votes. Why would Bloomberg, a New Yorker, give a crap about a school board race in Backdirt Kentucky? The only reason is, to get his candidate in so his candidate can create the change that puts the Ka-ching back into Bloomberg’s pocket, or, alternatively, to wipe out public education altogether and change curriculum so the wealthy can create a compliant work force – or teach creationism, or teach that the world is flat, or that dinosaurs walked with Jesus. That’s how it works. Anyone else want to chime in?
In Utah, the money goes toward paying professional signature-gatherers, in order for the referendum to get on the ballot. In Utah, 10% of registered voters in 26 of the 29 counties must sign a petition. Particularly in rural Utah, this is very hard to do.
I’m thinking that this may be the case in other states.
A lot of money also goes toward advertising slots to convince people to vote one way or another.
Unless big money stops flowing into the pockets of these crooks, nothing will change. Reason that after 55 years, I am no longer a Democrat!
The problem is that too many people can’t recognize co-opted Democrats from the ones fighting for public education. And instead they run to “independents” like Bernie Sanders who is far worse on public education than many Democrats who are rejected by so-called “progressives” simply because they have a D next to their name.
It’s exactly what the right wing wants. The answer is to fight for Democrats who support this instead of allowing them to be defeated.
Hey, I found a post from someone in the group, Erika Sanzi, responding to Cunningham’s piece. Sanzi claims that the group’s leader and her personal friend Keri Rodrigues was a one-time “social justice” labor organizer with SEIU, but now .. doncha know … Keri and Erika just luuuuuuve shopping at Walmart, and apparently have no problem supporting all of the Walmart family’s heinous labor practices and mistreatment of their employees:
(The Walmart Foundation, as Cunningham noted in his critique, is funding the group — a fact that was hidden prior to Cunningham’s exposure of the connection.)
http://goodschoolhunting.org/2017/07/dont-get-twisted-professor.html
Yeah baby! argues Sanzi, Walmart funds us, and gosh, we just couldn’t be prouder!!!!
Sanzi write for the billionaire-funded Education Post. Eli Broad, the Waltons, Michael Bloomberg. The editor is Peter Cunningham (no relation to Maurice Cunningham), who was Arne Duncan’s Assistant Secretary for Communicatuons but widely known as “Arne’s brain.” Huge supporter of charters and high-stakes testing and VAM.
Every time you write that Peter Cunningham was known as Arne’s brain, Ican’t help thinking of the movie Young Frankenstein
Dr. Frankenstein: whose brain did I put in [the monster]?
Igor: Abby someone.
Dr Frankenstein: Abby who?
Igor: Abby Normal.
Julie, I’m as bothered by the Walmart connection as you and Cunningham are.
That is to say, I’m bothered that Keri and Erika are NOT bothered by their Walmart connection … if that makes any sense.
Indeed, I posted in Sanzi’s article’s/blog’s Facebook commenting function to that effect:
–
Daniel Moran · University of Notre Dame
Erika, in the middle of this piece, you said that Keri “is a PROUD Democrat dedicated to social justice and her party at the state and national level.”
Yet in the the final paragraph, you state that “Keri and her team are PROUD to be funded by the Walton Family Foundation. You see, sir, most MPU members are also proud Walmart shoppers.”
NEWSFLASH: those two “PROUD” convictions are directly contradictory. They can NEVER be reconciled.
As a teacher myself, let me offer you two lovely women (and everyone reading this) a homework assignment: watch this documentry (thankfully, now free on YouTube, btw .. albeit with annoying ads that you have to occasionally “skip”):
This award-winning film shows in graphic, thoroughly documented detail what a truly diabolical organization Walmart was and still is, and how Walmart and allies such as yourself will always be in direct conflict with “social justice and her party at the state and national level.” Keri and you are now sleeping with and funded by the social, economic, and anti-human-rights/anti-workers’-rights equivalent of Satan.
Then, after you watch this video, I invite Keri, you, and whoever else to ask yourself the question:
“Do you really want this monstrsous Walmart orgainzation to do to the two-centuries-old public school system and to the lives of itts employees (teachers and the rest) and to its students what it has done to small independent businesses and to the living and working conditions of millions of working Americans?”
I sure hope not.
Oh, and shame one you for shopping there.
Anything at Walmart is cheap crap.
You couldn’t pay me to shop there.
How would you compare Walmart to Amazon, Daniel? You totally avoid shopping at either? I guess there’s Whole Foods… oops.
I won’t even walk into a Walmart.
Even if some of the stuff isn’t “cheap crap”, you still shouldn’t shop there.
At one point in the movie, some ex-employees from a European Walmart express their disgust at the mandatory morning group singing and chanting, and being treated like children.
Here’s an example: (listen to the singing of the guy close to the camera … he’s dead inside)
… or how about this horror: (the leader’s primal scream and King Kong-like chest beating is mega-sad)
One thing the film noted was that in European countries, Walmart could not get away with having non-union stores with slave wages as they have done so in the United States. In these countries, neither the workers would tolerate this and still work there, nor would he citizens/customers in sympathy with those workers tolerate this and still shop there.
However, in Europe at least, Walmart someone manages to stay in business with unionized stores, and more reasonable salaries … yet Walmart leaders claim they can’t do that here, and they then proceed to bust unions with the same ferocity that Frick used to break the Pennsylvania steel-workers.
They could allow unionizing of their stores in the U.S., and still make a huge profit, but that would never be enough. If there’s ever a way that will maximize even greater profits, they MUST do it.
That’s what’s scary. Should these creeps succeed and take over some, most, or all of our public schools … well, that’s too scary to even imagine.
Stephen,
Since you brought it up, I shop at Costco and Cost-Plus and the various Dollar Stores, Family Dollar, etc., even though the prices are usually higher at these places than they are at Walmart. I did so because those organizations pay their workers a living wage.
Walmart fought protests and legal obstacles for years— and donated to certain politicians’ campaigns — in an effort to open a story in L.A.’s Chinatown neighborhood, which Walmart eventually did. In the process, they hired the Mercury Consultancy Group to infiltrate and combat the groups protesting the possible Chinatown opening.
A Mercury operative was caught posing as a journalist in an effort to acquire intel on the protests. bringing much embarrassing publicity. (Mercury also runs the reform website THE 74, and is behind the multi-million-dollar union suppression movement at Los Angeles’ Alliance Charter schools).
The protestors spread this and other such info to the citizens of Los Angeles, and also circulated the link to the free YouTube video of “WALMART: THE HIGH COSTS OF LOW PRICE.” Al of this — combined with years of publicized protests — did the trick of raising the public’s consciousness about what Walmart was all about, since, after it opened, few people actually patronized the Chinatown Walmart, and it soon closed. Whether you’re rich or poor or somewhere in the middle, whether you’re black,white, brown, whatever…. shopping at Walmart just ain’t cool here.
One more thing: I used Amazon exactly ONCE .. in Fall 2013, when I wanted to get a copy of Dr. Ravitch’s REIGN OF ERROR as it was coming out, and using Amazon was the way to get and read the book at the earliest possible time.
Daniel: “I shop at Costco and Cost-Plus and the various Dollar Stores, Family Dollar, etc.,”
Ah, thanks for the info. I hear pretty good things about Costco, relatively speaking.
As for the Dollar stores, I’m not sure I understand your reasoning. As you probably know, Carl Icahn was a major share holder of Family Dollar as of 2014 who made a killing when it was sold to Dollar Tree in 2015. In 2016, Icahn endorsed Donald Trump and “announced the formation of a super PAC pledging $150 million to push for corporate tax reform, in particular of inversions, which occur when corporations leave the U.S. to take advantage of lower tax rates elsewhere.” “Upon becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump announced that he would nominate Icahn for Treasury Secretary. However, this position went to Steve Mnuchin instead.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Icahn
This 2016 article “Companies Paying Americans the Least” says “Wal-Mart, the world’s largest company and private employer, recently raised the minimum wage of its employees to $10 an hour.” and “Of Dollar Tree’s 167,800 employees, about 112,00, or two-thirds, are employed in a part-time capacity…. Dollar Tree cashiers can expect to make just $8.22 an hour, roughly $1 above minimum wage”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/companies-paying-americans-the-least_us_57ee9996e4b095bd896a0c94
Incidentally, Walmart earns 3.2 stars on 28 thousand reviews at Glassdoor.com with Dollar Tree at 2.7 stars on 2.2 K reviews.
I think I got my copy of Reign of Error through Amazon also (used… not very good condition… lots of highlighting and underlining… but cheap and well worth the price).
FWIW, I get almost all my clothes from an outfit intimately linked to the Waltons:
http://corporate.walmart.com/news/news-archive/2013/09/16/5-million-walmart-foundation-grant-helps-goodwill-grow-jobs-program-for-veterans-their-families
Unfortunaterly for Republicans and Democrats alike, people are onto these “fake mom” groups.
My sister, who lives in Massachusetts and has two kids in public schools and another who went through twelve years of public school voted against the latest Charter initiative, saying “Charters just take money away from public schools”
Hard to debate that point.
I hope that trend continues.
“Dedicated Mom$”
We’re dedicated mothers
To Waltons and to Gates
To Eli Broad and others
We’re dedicated fakes
Moms for Privatizing Public Schools
A suburban Walmart in ILL-Annoy is being sued by the family of an Uber driver after a 16-year-old customer walked out of its store with a stolen knife & machete in full view of two associates at 3 AM, then fatally attacked her driver. ‘Walmart said in a statement that its associates “acted appropriately.”‘
Yeah…a 16-year-old…at 3 AM…leaving a store w/a knife AND a machete. And this occurred in an upper middle class suburb.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/…ct-uber-driver-killed-family-sues-walmart-met-2017062...
(You might be blocked by a firewall, here, but just Google this.)
Keri & Co. at Massachusetts Parents United just put out this defiant and somewhat confused diatribe directed at Professor Cunningham:
https://www.maparents.org/single-post/2017/07/14/The-Dogs-Are-Barking-and-We-Gallop-Forward
They first try and draw a comparison between themselves and a famous Latino journalist & social justice activist from the 1800’s, quoting him in the process, and comparing Cunningham’s piece to the persecution this 19th century figure had to endure.
As in this past example, Massachusetts Parents United represents “a threat to the establishment’s status quo, and the type of discrimination faced by revolutionaries like Dario continues today (in the form of Professor Cunningham’s article).”
Ohhh-kay. Whatever you say.
Then they claim that they don’t need to ask Professor Cunningham’s permission for their group’s right to exist.
Well, I’ve read everything so far, and at no point, did Professor Cunningham ever question the group’s right to exist, nor did he ask them to ask for his permission to exist, so that’s a just a flat-out straw man argument.
Exist all you want. People still have the right to criticize or question your group’s actions and hidden motives, and the actions and hidden motives of your group’s funders. (i.e. the Walmart Foundation.) That’s all Cunningham was doing.
What Cunningham DID point out was their funding from the Walmart Foundation, and their not being upfront about that funding. Keri & Co. seem to think that they are immune from any criticism or skepticism one might have based on this Walmart Foundation funding, and their willful attempt to conceal that funding.
They ain’t so immune.
Here’s some of what they said:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
MASSACHUSETTS PARENTS UNITED:
*”So we’d like to take this time to make it clear: Massachusetts Parents United is our organization and we’re not asking anyone — fancy professors, special interest groups or politicians — for permission to exist.
“MPU is an organization that we have literally built together with our bare hands — block by block — by having conversations with our family, friends and neighbors. We do not need permission from anyone to organize together nor do we seek the approval of any outside group to justify our existence.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Again, no one, including Professor Cunningham, is saying anything of the kind, or claiming that MPU need to ask him or anyone for such permission, or to justify their existence.
They are asking NO ONE for PERMISSION to EXIST! Only the Walton Family and assorted billionaires.
I perused their tweets in the recent tweetstorm, and a common refrain from MPU is that they’re totally transparent and unashamed of the funding they receive from the Walmart Foundation, and from other corporate ed. reform groups.
The MPU folks repeatedly insist that all those alleged “dark money” funders pare posted clearly and easy to find on both their website and Facebook page … or so they claim.
Well, I invite you to check out both of those:
https://www.maparents.org/
https://www.facebook.com/massachusettsparentsunited/
And here’s the “About” page from the MPU’s Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/massachusettsparentsunited/about/?ref=page_internal
I’ve clicked everything on all of those above links, and there is nothing about their funding, and the fact that Walmart and the rest are bankrolling this organization.
Is there something that I’ve missed? Because there is nothing clearly posted or easily discoverable about their funding and funders.
But for Professor Cunningham’s article, no one would ever have been the wiser about their source of funding and funders.
“Is there something I’ve missed”
Aguilar’s blog posting provides a link to this page
https://www.maparents.org/contact-us-page
where the Walton Family Foundation’s name and logo are prominently displayed.
Stephen B. Ronan,
Why is the executive director of maparents.org listed as an important staff person in December 2015 at the pro-charter Walton funded Families for Excellent Schools?
It takes some chutzpah to then pretend she is just a mom who started her maparents.org with some other parents in a library after being a paid employee of a billionaire-funded pro-charter group! Just a “coincidence” that she is paid by one pro-charter organization that is funded by the exact same people who happened to immediately find millions to fund her “new” organizations started by a few random moms in a public library.
You pro-charter people are so much like Trump that it is not surprising that he embraces you. You have no shame in lying through your teeth as long as it keeps your high salaries coming.
I think I’ll stick with REAL parent groups that don’t have overpaid professional “moms” whose relationship with the truth is a problem.
I know lots of moms fighting for their kids schools — including charters — but they don’t collect high salaries and they don’t try to convince the public of things that aren’t true
That’s what is wrong with you. You don’t want an honest discussion of the issues. You want to win and if you have to mislead people to do it, you will do without a moment of conscience. Do you have any?
“It takes some chutzpah to then pretend she is just a mom who started her maparents.org with some other parents in a library”
I’m not entirely clear what motivates your “just a mom” reference; Keri apparently takes that particular role seriously, but if you look at her readily accessible LinkedIn profile, you’ll see it supplemented by others:
Founder, “Mom in Chief”, Mass Parents United
President, Massachusetts Parent Action
Exec. Cmte – Ethnic Coordinating Council Democratic National Cmte
Ambassador, New Leaders Council
At Large Democratic State Committee Member, MA Dem Party
Advisory Board Member, DFER
Co-Chair Women’s Outreach Committee, MA Democratic Party
Justice of the Peace, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Mass State Director, Families for Excellent Schools
Exec VP, Democrats for Education Reform
Senior Advisor/Campaign Co-Chair, Cmte to Elect erin DiBenedetto
City Commissioner, City of Somerville
Chair, Somerville Democratic City Committee
Senior Communications Coordinator local 1199 of SEIU (5 yrs 10 mos)
Senior Fellow, Obama for America
As for “with some other parents in a library”, I’m tempted to quote someone: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.” But am not sure whom to credit.
Stephen,
Sorry, but this is a resume of someone aligned with the Wall Street effort to privatize public education. DFER is the hedge fund managers’ group. Families for Excellent Schools was started by half a dozen Wall Street billionaires who don’t approve of public schools. DFER and FES have poured millions into Eva Moskowitz’s no excuses charter chain in NYC. DFER has poured money into races across the country to impose charters, high-stakes testing and VAM.
To understand properly the kind of perspective represented by DFER, I would recommend to anyone who hasn’t yet read it, your excellent discussion with DFER founder Whitney Tilson:
http://edreform.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/round-2-of-my-discussion-with-diane.html
http://edreform.blogspot.com/2016/05/round-3-of-my-discussion-with-diane.html
Thanks, Stephen. Whitney and I had a civil exchange. But I could not dissuade him of his beliefs that public schools need merit pay and VAM, both of which I believe have shown harmful results. The DFER approach is literally driving teachers out of the profession and discouraging young people from considering it as a career.