LilSis (also known as the Public Accountability Project) pays careful attention to the networks and money behind nefarious efforts to destroy the public sector.
In this report, LilSis describes the corporate backers of school privatization against whom Little Rock teachers went on strike. The money behind this network of interlinking organizations and individuals is the Walton family, whose wealth clocked in at $163 Billion (that’s Billion with a B) in 2018.
LilSis writes:
A major backer of the anti-union, pro-charter agenda in Arkansas is the Walton family, whose foundation is a huge funder of the school privatization infrastructure that exists across the state. In addition to the Waltons, corporate elites from Murphy Oil, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Democrat Gazetteand others are backers of the school privatization efforts. These corporate interests are close to Governor Hutchinson, who supports their agenda, and they have close ties to the state Board of Education. In addition, they are also interlocked with a host of lobbyists and academics that push their agenda…
The Waltons are major advocate of charter schools nationally, and they carry out their school privatization agenda through their Walton Family Foundation, which showers hundreds of millions on pro-charter groups and schools. The foundation claims it has invested a whopping $407 million into pushing charter schools since 1997.According to a recent report put out by the Arkansas Education Association, the Waltons pump millions into propping up the state’s school privatization infrastructure – or what the report calls the “Arkansas’s School Privatization Empire.”
It’s not just that the Waltons give big money to a few groups – it’s also that these groups then distribute that money to other organizations, lobbyists, consultants, and academics, creating a vast network of billionaire-funded activity to attack unionized teachers and push charter schools.
For example, the Walton family Foundation gave $350,000 to the Arkansans for Education Reform Foundation (AERF) in 2017 – around 80% of all the contributions the organization took in that year.
The AERF board includes other powerful funders and advocates of school privatization in the state, such as Claiborne Deming, the former CEO of Murphy Oil, a big backer of charter schools in Arkansas; William Dillard III, part of the Dilliard family that owns the Dilliard’s department stores; and Walter Hussman, publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state’s flagship newspaper. Jim Walton is also on the board.
In addition to the $350,000 that the Walton donated to the AERF in 2017, Deming gave $60,000 and Dilliard III gave $10,000, while the National Christian Foundation gave $15,000, according the the group’s 2017 990 form.
AERF has in turn used the money it receives from the Walton billionaire fortune and other Arkansas elites to fund other school privatization efforts. For example, it gave $115,000 to Arkansas Learns, which describesitself as “the Voice of Business for excellent education options – including industry-relevant career pathways…” The CEO of Arkansas Learns, Gary Newton, is also the Executive Director of the AERF (for which he earned $189,639 in compensation in 2017).
In turn, Arkansas Learns has the same board members as AERF, and Randy Zook, the CEO of the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, whose wife Dianne Zook is on the state Board of Education that decided to end recognition of the Little Rock teachers’ union, is also a board member. Dianne Zook is also the aunt of Gary Newton.
What a cozy and mutually beneficial arrangement: The Waltons have a lot of money to hand out to achieve their goal of privatizing public schools and breaking unions, and the recipients take the money and carry out the Waltons’ wishes.
Any time you see a group called “XXXXXXX for Education Reform,” you can be sure it is committed to charter schools, union-busting, and privatization, and the odds are high that there is Walton money behind it.
The Waltons have claimed credit for subsidizing one of every four charter schools in the nation.
LilSis creates wonderful graphical depictions of networks.
Here is the LilSis graphic of the Little Rock school privatization network.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“In turn, Arkansas Learns has the same board members as AERF, and Randy Zook, the CEO of the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce, whose wife Dianne Zook is on the state Board of Education that decided to end recognition of the Little Rock teachers’ union, is also a board member. Dianne Zook is also the aunt of Gary Newton.”
Well! THAT is certainly a lively and open debate. Good to see ed reformers once again filled a room with true believers and then, after an exhausting room-wide ‘debate’, issued the same boilerplate recommendations they issue in every city.
Let me guess- the recommendations are: abolish labor unions, replace every public school with a charter school and issue vouchers.
As usual nothing positive or of benefit or value to the students who remain in public schools – they simply weren’t considered.
Ed reformers should tell students and parents in these places they’re phasing out public schools. The least they could is tell them there will be no further investment or effort expended on their schools. They have a duty to do this, although it’s politically damaging to them so they deny it.
If it’s anything like the rest of the portfolio plans they have jammed into cities all over the country, we can be assured of one thing- none of the effort or investment will go to public schools.
Public school students are the barely mentioned in these plans, other than as a throwaway line at the end “the students who remain in public schools”.
Our students exist only as the disfavored control group that is used to promote charters and vouchers.
ESSENTIAL statement: Our students exist only as the disfavored control group that is used to promote charters and vouchers.
It’s interesting that ed reformers haven’t changed their approach to privatization at all, despite suffering some political losses.
They use the identical strategies and tactics that became so unpopular after 2010.
They seem to be unable or unwilling to change course at all. It’s the same top-down takeovers, public school bashing, and anti-labor activism they have employed for nearly two decades now.
I suppose they can’t really change because the Walton money only flows to groups who meet the Walton ideological requirements. If they became less hostile to public schools the funding would disappear.
From the posted article- National Christian Foundation-$15,000.
NCF may act as a donor fund where an undisclosed benefactor earmarked his money for the pet project or, it may be otherwise.
Other news about NCF, “…an important moment in terms of the working relationship between evangelicals and Catholics as we join together to …evangelize our culture.”
The article describes the process where property that belonged to evangelist Dwight Moody (subsequently owned by Hobby Lobby’s owners) was donated to Thomas Aquinas College, which the school would share with the Moody Center. (2017)
The “culture’ that is aligned, IMO, is gender inequality, rhythm birth control as the only option, elimination of common goods, the election of Republicans, the advancement of the wealthy libertarians’ agenda and the undermining of democracy.
And, opposition to worker collectives that bargain for workers’ rights and support for authoritative governance.
What about the vast amounts of
Money teachers union also have assembled and the extraordinary high salaries it pays their leadership and consultants . And what about the traditional approach of finding schools regardless of their track record of failing families. All
I hear is criticism of public charter schools but no say on accountability for traditional public schools located in places where generational academic failure has been the norm. What do you tell those parents, wait?
Wanda, you are listening to the wrong people, the people hired by Wall Street and hedge fund managers to undermine your support for public schools and teach you to yearn for a school controlled by Walmart.
Wanda-
I tell the taxpayers in Ohio that their Republican legislators failed them in order to get campaign funds for the GOP state party. The ALEC-aligned legislators enabled unaccountable charter school operators to fleece the citizens out of $1 bil.
I tell Michigan’s citizens where 80% of the charters are for-profit that the newspaper reporter was correct when he wrote, “charters are brutal on black families”.
I tell you that BAEO, similar to all of the other self appointed ed reformer organizations, was funded by billionaires to destroy public education.
I tell you that New Orleans lost its last opportunity for a democratically elected school board because disaster capitalism invaded after the hurricane.
I inform you that union leaders are paid out of the dues from workers’ paychecks unlike profiteers in education who take consumers’ money and instead of using it as free enterprise describes, spend it to buy politicians and media bias.
I ask you what happens to the community’s economy when the local taxes leave and go to Silicon Valley’s schools-in-a-box product? Answer- more Walmartization of neighborhoods.
You are 100% wrong. Charter schools are not public. The community has no asset ownership in charter schools. To completely clarify the point, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled charter schools are NOT public.
I ask you to show education oligarchs that you are not their pawn.
Join the fight against the libertarians’ starvation of funds to public education. Their end goal is defund all education for the 99%. Don’t
help them.
Wanda,
The “vast amounts” of money held by the unions is a pittance (a tiny amount) compared to the billions held by one family funding America’s charter schools, the Waltons. The Walton family accumulates $4 million every hour of every day.
The money held by unions comes from teachers’ dues.