Andrea Gabor writes here about the dark money campaign to persuade voters in Massachusetts to lift the cap on charter schools last November. The dark money came pouring in, but suffered a crushing defeat when voters weighed in. Andrea worked closely with Peggy Wiesenberg, a Massachusetts attorney and parent of three public-school graduates. Peggy wrote to tell me that KIPP is planning to open two new charters in Lynn, Massachusetts, despite the fact that the people of Lynn don’t want more charter schools. Governor Baker, a Republican, has added two new charter supporters to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education; one is a board member of KIPP, the other is a Harvard scholar funded by the Walton Family Foundation:
KIPP plans to expand in Massachusetts by adding two schools in Lynn per a pending request to increase enrollment by 1,014 seats (up from 1,586 in Lynn). The Mass. Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will take up that request in Feb 2018.
See”Charter Amendment Requests Pending BESE Action (Grades, or Maximum Enrollment, or Change to Charter Region)” http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=24563
One of the two new BESE members appointed by Gov Baker is on the Board of Trustees of KIPP MA; the other Martin West whose scholarly work has been funded by the Walton Family Foundation.
But, back to the new post by Andrea Gabor:
The New York-based Families for Excellent Schools added about a third of the $45 million spent to push charter schools. Pro-public education advocates spent nearly $16 million.
“Voters defeated Question 2 by a stunning 62-to-38 margin–an endorsement of Massachusetts public schools, which are rated number one in the nation. But not for lack of efforts by organizations like FESA, which allowed a slew of wealthy contributors to hide their identities and their sizeable contributions in support of the referendum. In some cases individuals contributed twice: Once through a ballot committee that was required, by law, to publish names of contributors, and a second substantially greater contribution, in some cases millions more, via FESA.
“At the top of the list of FESA’s secret donors were public officials in the Massachusetts government. Governor Charlie Baker was a leading proponent of Question 2 and backed efforts to impose charter schools in towns, like Brockton, where there was widespread local opposition.
“Normally, nonprofits organized under IRS Code 501(3), such as Families for Excellent Schools (FES), don’t have to reveal the names of donors so long as they are not engaging in political activity. And ordinarily, their affiliated social-welfare nonprofits, organized under IRS Code 501(c)(4), such as FESA, can have some political involvement in electoral politics and keep donors secret, so long as this is not their primary activity. However, if the organization is a vehicle for receiving contributions for a ballot campaign, then the voting public is entitled to know the names of each contributor and the amount donated before the election.”
FES was fined more than $400,000, the largest fine ever imposed by the state for a campaign finance violation.
Here are some of the big donors:
“The campaign-finance disposition agreement has revealed other backers of Question 2 who used FESA contributions to hide the full value of their donations in support of the charter-school referendum including:
“Paul Sagan, Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, who contributed $496,000 on August 4 and 5 in addition to his previously disclosed contribution of $100,000 on August 10, 2016.
“Seth Klarman, Investment Manager of the Baupost Group LLC, contributed $3 million within six months of the election in addition to his previously disclosed contribution of $40,000 in September 2015.
“Jonathan Jacobson, Managing Director Highfields Capital Management LP, contributed $2 million in August and October. That’s in addition to the previously disclosed contribution of $40,000 in September 2015 by his wife Joanna, Managing Partner of Strategic Grant Partners, another dark money vehicle, according to Professor Maurice Cunningham of UMass Boston…
“Josh Bekenstein, a Bain Capital investor, and his wife Anita, a private philanthropist, each contributed $750,000 in August and $500,000 on October 2016 for a combined total of $1.5 million, in addition to Josh’s previously disclosed contribution of $40,000 in September 2015.
“Chuck L. Longfield, Founder of Target Analytics and Chief Scientist at Blackbaud, funneled $650,000 to FESA under the name “Chuck Longfield,” in addition to a previously disclosed contribution of $100,000 under the name “Charles Longfield” on August 2016 and $1,000 in November 2015. [The OCPF filings have a discrepancy in the house number associated with Longfield’s contributions—in all likelihood a typographical error.] Longfield went on WBUR radio on October 31, 2016 to explain why he gave $100,000 in support of raising the cap on charter schools, never mentioning the exponentially larger contribution that he made through FESA to lift the cap.
“Martin Mannion, Managing Director of Summit Partners, contributed $100,000 to FESA between August and October 2016 in addition to a disclosed campaign contribution of $30,000 in October 2016.
“Alice Walton contributed $750,000 to FESA on November 2016 in addition to her previously disclosed contribution of $710,000 to Yes On 2, another campaign committee, in July.
“The Boston Globe reports that in addition to paying the fine, and revealing its donors, the group also “agreed with the IRS to dissolve itself, and Families for Excellent Schools, its umbrella group, agreed not to fund-raise or engage in any election-related activity in Massachusetts for four years.”
Gabor says that New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman may look into the “Families for Excellent Schools,” a political group of millionaires and billionaires with no purpose other than to destroy and privatize public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
” despite the fact that the people of Lynn don’t want more charter schools.”
That’s because they DO want more charter schools- they’re just too dumb to know it.
Luckily we have these billionaires to set them straight.
“Diane Tavenner is the Founder and CEO of Summit Public Schools (SPS), a leading chartermanagement organization serving California and Washington State. Summit invented Summit Learning, an approach which leverages technology to connect students’ purpose to their daily
actions and empowers them to own their learning. As a result, Summit’s graduates are completing four-year college degrees at twice the national average. Newsweek and US News & World Report
have ranked Summit among the top public schools in the nation. In partnership with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Summit is currently working to scale personalized learning by making the Summit Learning Platform available to schools across the United States, for free, through the Summit Learning Program”
The Summit/Facebook learning program is now in 130 public schools. That’s what “scale” means- they push charter methods into public schools. “Free!” is a big hook, obviously, although of course it isn’t “free” unless teachers and students time is “free”, which it isn’t.
Harvard couldn’t see their way clear to inviting a single person from a public school to their education conference, not even to talk about the Summit/Facebook program the public school adopted?
In what sense is ed reform a collaboration with public schools if they aren’t even allowed into the room?
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Question: how does Facebook and the rest of the burgeoning ed tech sector plan to sell products to public schools (90% of schools, remember) if the ed reformers they “partner” with either vilify or ignore public schools?
Doesn’t seem very collaborative to me, and it’s certainly no way to treat your largest customers.
Perhaps public schools should seek out vendors who share their goal of improving public schools rather than eradicating them. This does not seem like a very good deal for public schools to me- they do all the buying and the vendors either ignore them or actively lobby against their existence?
Surely if we’re good enough to buy billions of dollars in product we can sit at the cool lunch table with the Best and Brightest and have some say in the policy they’re developing,since it will be quickly exported to every public school in the country, with or without our consent.
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Chiara,
Public schools exist to provide money to ed tech providers.
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These CHARTER folks are just so TIRING. $$$$$ talks and BS walks.
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this is another appointment by republican governor in MA… he is from Fordham Institute where they like to measure “Grit”… But they start out with the ideology that kids in public schools don’t have any…. New Board of Ed members
two new members of the Board of Ed sworn in before the meeting. The Governor’s press release went out later that day and says the following:
About Martin West:
Martin West is an associate professor of education at Harvard Graduate School of Education and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is also deputy director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Education Policy and Governance and executive editor of Education Next, a journal of opinion and research on education policy. He studies the politics of K-12 education in the United States and how education policies affect student learning and non-cognitive development. In 2014-15, he worked as senior education policy advisor to the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He previously taught at Brown University and was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he is now a nonresident senior fellow. He received his Ph.D. in Government and Social Policy from Harvard in 2006 and his master’s in economic and social history from Oxford University in 2000.
He is on that program with Paul Shumpeter Peterson at the Kennedy School (Harvard)
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Martin West was trained by Paul Petersen. Like Petersen, he is a true believer in charters, vouchers, and choice.
Baker is stacking the state board with true believers.
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here is another one; stacking the boards. This one happened some time ago. BOSTON – Governor Charlie Baker announced the appointment of Sheila Balboni to the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care (EEC).
About Sheila Balboni:
Sheila Balboni serves as an Executive Director of a non-profit agency, The Community Group Inc.
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Board meeting : Sagan describes his thinking: ” He vigorously defended his right to make those donations, placing the responsibility for disclosure on FES and relaying that, while he had considered publicly disclosing all donations, he felt it would be taken as using his position to advocate in favor of the ballot question if he did so.” Well, duh … isn’t that the meaning and definition of conflict of interest?
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acting chair Wulfson: ”
Wulfson announced that two groups have been invited to submit full applications for new charter schools: Lynn Equity Lab and Phoenix Lawrence. The full schedule of Board consideration of charter authorization, renewal, and amendment may be found ” The Bostoon line . The Globe said they are targeting my city , too, Haverhill; the vote was 60/40 in my City but they will disregard the people’s voice just as they did in Brockton.
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board considers selecting a new Commissioner: “Member Mary Ann Stewart expressed surprise that the hiring of a search firm had already been done without Board consultation and asked for more information on what the Board’s role would be; Sagan directed her to the staff with questions. The intent is to have a job description by the October meeting.”
if you live in MA consider info@progressivedemsofmass.org. time to get a new governor in there.
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they are choosing Mitchell Chester’s replacement : assist the Board in the search; specifically, the Board will be working with Rosa-Lyn Morris, who was a Teach for America member in Atlanta, partnered with the National Council for Teacher Quality, and now specializes in education searches. Sagan said that she would be soliciting input from Board members through individual interviews and more broadly from the field in creating a job description. ” That is Kate Walsh’s group (cf. Fordham Institute) and the teacher training programs just love Walsh’s ratings of the colleges (irony intended)
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board meeting Massachusetts: “Finally, the Board heard an update on the budget. There remains a request before the administration for an additional $4.1 million for assessment for the new MCAS. ” I really get ill when I see this proceeding and they don’t listen to anyone — they will insult the teachers in the Boston Globe if anyone speaks out.
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“Families for Excellent Schools, its umbrella group, agreed not to fund-raise or engage in any election-related activity in Massachusetts for four years.”
What good is this? The Waltons will just start another group with another misleading name and probably move over the same people running the FFEC to manage another trojan horse.
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