One of the very exciting episodes in my new book SLAYING GOLIATH describes the struggle in Massachusetts surrounding a 2016 referendum to expand the number of charter schools in the state. The referendum was called Question 2. Yes on 2 received funding from billionaires (the Waltons and Bloomberg), DFER (hedge fund managers), and out-of-state groups whose donors were unknown. The last group is called “Dark Money” because it hides the names of the donors.
On February 26, I will be at the First UU Church in Cambridge at an event sponsored by Citizens for Public Schools, joined in conversation with two of the prominent figures in that campaign, Barbara Madeloni (who was president of the Massachusetts Teachers Union) and Maurice Cunningham (a professor of political science at the U of Mass whose blogs reported on Dark Money in the campaign),
The groups that fought Question 2 were teachers’ unions, civil rights groups, and local school boards.
The referendum was overwhelmingly defeated.
After the election, the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance investigated the funding of the campaigns. It found that one of the funders of the “Yes on 2” side was a Dark Money front based in New York City. It required the group to disclose the names of its donors and fined the group nearly $500,000, which cleaned out its bank account. Not long after, the Dark Money Group (which had also stacked the deck in New York State without being exposed) collapsed and closed its doors.
Recently, the director of this state office retired, and parents thanked him for upholding the integrity of state elections.
This letter to the editor by a parent activist appeared in the Boston Globe.
What a pleasure to read Matt Stout’s folksy portrait of Michael Sullivan, who retired last month as director of the Office of Campaign and Political Finance (“A career spent helping people ‘do things right,’ ” Business, Dec. 25). I met Sullivan at a “hackathon” sponsored by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. The center needed volunteers to test computer software. We got pizza, and a little orientation from the state’s campaign finance chief, who trained neophytes to navigate Office of Campaign and Political Finance databases.
Behind the scenes, Sullivan’s staff investigated an unusual pattern of financial transactions. They discovered that Families for Excellent Schools – Advocacy Inc. of New York illegally solicited, received, and funneled funds to the Great Schools Massachusetts ballot question committee to influence the 2016 Massachusetts election and increase charter school market share. Sullivan skillfully negotiated a six-figure fine.
Thanks to Sullivan, citizens can comb campaign finance data for evidence of expenditures that reveal fake-news media events. Remember those rallies with people wearing blue T-shirts demanding “Great Schools Now”? It turns out Great Schools Massachusetts paid for the T-shirts and had people show up at events to give the illusion of massive dissatisfaction with our public schools.
If only I had a “Great Schools Now” campaign T-shirt, I would give it to Sullivan in gratitude for providing me a political education I never received in school.
Peggy A. Wiesenberg
Boston
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ah, I attended that same hackathon to which Peggy alluded. Good stuff.
And indeed, kudos to Michael Sullivan… Including for addressing dark money flows like this:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/12/28/american-federation-teachers-revealed-funder-behind-mysterious-pro-walsh-pac-during-mayoral-campaign/g58NRCxjp3OMZLtoBQE0yN/story.html
That’ll also be highlighted as part of your Cambridge conversation?
Stephen, When I speak in Cambridge, I will discuss Question 2 and its defeat with Barbara Madeloni and Maurice Cunningham.
Am I obliged to speak out against anything wrong that a teachers union has ever done? I don’t think so.
I will leave that to you and the Waltons and Betsy DeVos.
Perhaps you can explain someday why you hate teachers’ unions? Do you hate all unions, or just teachers’ unions?
You may enjoy this recent history if you hadn’t read it yet:
“How New York’s Bagel Union Fought — and Beat — a Mafia Takeover The mob saw an opportunity. Local 338 had other ideas.”
https://www.grubstreet.com/2020/01/bagel-mafia-wars-local-338-union.html
As we have discussed before, I am a fan of some union behavior, but not uniformly so. I gave some small assistance to the United Farm Worker’s grape boycott and was grateful to receive Cesar Chavez’ support in some of my farm animal welfare work, etc. I’ve been a member of unions, including for years with AFSCME while working on the back wards of the state’s least-funded psychiatric hospital… Saw some value in that public employee union’s contributions, but also see some merit in various of the arguments advanced here: “The Trouble with Public Sector Unions”
https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-trouble-with-public-sector-unions
I am consistently skeptical of public employee union dark money being used to help elect the politician thought to be most successfully persuadable at the bargaining table.
And think that it would be ahistorical for you to join a Massachusetts teachers union to discuss dark money and elections without giving appropriate recognition to its own local shenanigans.
And it might helpfully round out the audience’s understanding if you were to point out that the successful attempt to defeat the ballot question was in significant part fueled by dissemination of factual inaccuracies. Please feel welcome to request assistance in developing a PowerPoint on that subject. Though I am optimistic you’re one who could and would eschew PowerPoints.
FWIW, my reading of essays in “Collective Bargaining in Education: Negotiating Change in Today’s Schools.” is that they support the notion that there are benefits attributable to unionization for many students at a cost that may not always be the most efficient use of public resources.
For example from Chapter 6 in the latter, “Are Teachers Unions Good for Students?” by Dan Goldhaber:
“Eberts and Stone find the total (direct and indirect) effect of collective bargaining agreements is to raise student achievement by about 3 percent over that of districts without such agreements. However, this increase in achievement comes at a cost, as the operating expenses in districts with such agreements are about 15 percent higher per pupil than in comparably achieving districts without such agreements.
“An interesting finding from this study is that the effects of bargaining are not the same for all students. The overall 3 percent increase in student achievement is driven mainly by a large 7 percent increase in the achievement of students whose test performance is close to the mean. Students who are either well below or well above the mean are marginally disadvantaged by the existence of collective bargaining agreements.”
Stephen,
I am a strong supporter of unions, period.
They build a middle class.
They give rights and decent standards of work to working people.
Have you ever read about working conditions before unions?
Do you think that corporations are more ethical than unions?
Are they perfect?
No.
Are you perfect?
I have never been a union member.
And I don’t use power point.
Stephen,
Why aren’t you skeptical of billionaire donations funding politicians?
Are you suggesting that what a few billionaires want is more important than what thousands of workers want?
Do you bash the police union and the fire fighters’ union, or do you only bash unions comprised mostly of women?
NYCpsp: “Why aren’t you skeptical of billionaire donations funding politicians?”
If it was not clear, my first message above aimed to applauded Michael Sullivan for shedding light on dark money from teachers’ unions as well as from billionaires.
NYCpsp: “Do you bash the police union and the fire fighters’ union, or do you only bash unions comprised mostly of women?”
Can you point to police union and fire fighters’ union activity comparable to the dark money that the teachers unions inserted into our Boston mayoral election? If so, let us gather our cudgels…
(I just meant that metaphorically, officer).
BTW, if you read the article I cited re: NYC bagel makers you’ll take note of chaps undertaking quite a vast range of union activity, much of it praiseworthy comma but…
You hate public schools and you hate teachers unions.
Shame on you.
Teachers need unions to protect their working conditions and to fight for proper wages and benefits.
I applaud the AFT and NEA for fighting for adequate funding for public schools.
Stephen Ronan,
I notice that the dark money billionaires who support charters are the ones spending so much money to fight transparency and the teachers’ union is not.
If you actually cared about transparency, you would be fighting against dark money in general, just like the politicians supported by the union are doing.
Transparency. That is a very dirty word for charter supporters and if the union was trying to elect politicians who demanded that charters should be allowed to suspend and humiliate 5 year olds, I would oppose it. Would you?
It shocks me that you still give the benefit of the doubt to charter CEOs because you apparently believe it is possible — if not likely – that so many African-American Kindergarten children would act out violently in their charters. I say it is impossible, and you still continue to dispute that. Until you acknowledge that anyone who claims huge numbers of African-American 5 year olds act out violently in charters and thus deserve to be given out of school suspensions is a liar, you give me no choice but to believe you are racist. Because that is IMPOSSIBLE. If you can’t acknowledge how impossible it is, everything else you say is suspect.
Kindergarten children whose parents are desperate to get them into the best charter ever are not disproportionately violent. And if you can’t acknowledge that simple fact — and I know you will not and that will speak volumes to everyone reading this — then your racism is evident for all to see.
“Name one non-union State with good schools.”
Last time we went down this road you asked about cities, and I mentioned Arlington, Virginia….
As for the current question, my impression is that every state, union and non-union alike, has both good schools and not-so-good schools.
But, should I assume that what you’re really trying to get at is the question: If one were to rank all the states by NAEP scores and rank them all by income, and then compare union and non-union states as to whether their NAEP scores ranking tended to be higher or lower than their income ranking, what would one find overall?
Myself, I’d suggest we have a school assessment problem needing to be better solved before we go too enthusiastically down any such-like investigative route… but be my guest.
Your hatred for teachers’ unions is appalling.
I once asked the same question to a room full of rightwingers, and no one could name a high-performing nonunion district or state.
Do you have any accountability standards for the billionaires who are privatizing public schools and squeezing out the middle class?
Paraphrasing from the Massachusetts Catholic Conference- the right of parents to choose an education in conformity with their religious faith .. due to public schools and state agencies in Massachusetts (I infer fears of promiscuity’s promotion, of tolerance for homosexuality and of loss of reproductive control), parents are being deprived of their rightful role and their freedom of religion is being violated.
Ronan was asked about his hatred of unions which could be followed up with a question about his agreement with the Massachusetts Catholic Conference’s disdain for public education.
The Koch network and the Catholic church appear to be aligned at the Catholic University of America, naming just one organization that brings them together.
Linda: “Ronan was asked about his hatred of unions which could be followed up with a question about…”
Had Diane printed the response I provided, the best she, herself, could come up with was a retort next proclaiming my disdain for apple pie.
When actually my opinion on that subject is nuanced. Does it unnecessarily include products from maltreated animals? etc
Stephen Ronan defends the money-dump by out-of-state billionaires like the Waltons and Bloomberg. He has a devout belief in charter schools. He was very critical of teachers unions for defending the public schools against the Waltons. I occasionally block his comments because it gets tiresome to have exchanges where he says the same things over and over. He still can’t believe that parents across Massachusetts voted to block charter expansion in 2016. He blames the unions, which were outspent by local and out of state billionaires. Read all About it in SLAYING GOLIATH.
I will be in Cambridge on February 26 @7 pm at the UU Church on Mass Avenue in conversation with two heroes of the Massachusetts fight to protect public schools: Barbara Madeloni, former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and Maurice Cunningham, Professor at U Mass and specialist in Dark Money.
Diane,
Thank you again for your book, speaking engagements and tireless efforts.
Stephen,
Do believe the Manhattan Declaration was a step in the right direction?
The report about Epstein and MIT has been released. In 2013, a conversation about swapping donations to conceal Epstein involvement, occurred. The next year, Leon Black (Apollo which recently financed the Gannett -Gatehouse merger) donated $5 mil. to MIT. BTW- David Koch was a “lifeltime” member of the MIT board.
The review panel did not receive answers from Black (board memberships of two of his sons in a different company attracted media attention due to Epstein connections).
In 2014, Gates donated $2 mil. to MIT. He told the review group there was no connection to Epstein.
Willett’s Magazine, “Shame on the Universities…”. does a good job of examining the slime themes at 3 well-known, private Massachusetts universities, MIT, Tufts and Harvard. The article has references to Epstein.
Tufts is referenced in relation to the Sacklers.