The Kansas City Star reported on an unprecedented injection of money into the city’s local school board races. An unknown group with unknown donors has given more than $100,000 to pro-charter candidates. This concealment is known as Dark Money.
A newly formed nonprofit has already pumped tens of thousands of dollars into two contested races for the Kansas City Public Schools board, raising suspicions about the group and the candidates vying for seats in Tuesday’s election.
Blaque KC, short for Black Leaders Advancing Quality Urban Education, has spent more than $100,000 on political consultants, mailed advertisements, radio spots, digital advertising and newspaper ads, according to reports filed this week with the Missouri Ethics Commission. That eclipses the combined fundraising haul of about $42,400 reported by campaign committees for the four candidates — including the two candidates backed by Blaque — running for contested seats on the board.
While campaign committees regularly report individual donors and expenses, Blaque KC is spending independently of the candidates. And its leader won’t say where the money originated — leading to questions about Blaque KC’s motives. Some believe its ultimate goal is to disrupt the district’s center of power and usher in even more charter schools in Kansas City.
Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/education/article250350646.html#storylink=cpy
The race is over. The two Dark Money candidates won. The people of Kasnsaas City deserve to know who bought seats on their school board and why.
If I were betting, I’d guess The City Fund, established initially by billionaires Reed Hastings (Netflix) and John Arnold (ex-Enron) with a startup grant of $200 million. It’s purpose, apparently, is to find small and medium-size districts where a strategic contribution can give charter advocates the upper hand. District by district, they are disrupting, defunding and destroying public education.
https://www.kauffman.org/people/tanesha-ford/
Executive Director, Kauffman Scholars, Inc., Education
Kandace Buckner Continuum Coach
https://kcteach.org/who-we-are/our-team/
Looks like a TFA offshoot
Welcome to our world, for the past 20 years. They’re going to have to organize and fight like hell. The newly-minted “Blaque KC” marketing to sell this platform (along with the selling of segregation) is abhorrent.
essentially spoken: ALONG WITH THE SELLING OF SEGREGATION
Right? Twisted.
We need to work to get rid of Citizen’s United. Dark money floods in to local elections, and lesser informed voters fall for the hype and spin. They have no idea they are voting against their own community asset. Quality public schools enhance property values in communities. Voting to bring in outside interests that will undermine the public schools is voting against your community asset. I am sure lots of local people are unaware of the impact of their vote. Yes, they will have to fight like hell to stop the carpetbaggers.
We lost our chance to get rid of Citizens United when “she who must not be named” was defeated in 2016.
Can you imagine a Supreme Court with 3 right wing justices replaced by 3 who are not?
Now progressives and democrats are stuck having to fight with one hand tied behind their back, against opponents who don’t just have two hands but also weapons. We can still win, but it makes the fight significantly harder and significantly slower.
That’s why I’m so happy Biden is moving in the right direction.
There will be no ending of Citizens United until the Democrats unpack the right wing the Supreme Court.
“A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. Neither are a people any the less slaves because permitted periodically to choose new masters…”
BALDERDASH It’s the lesser informed voters and dark money…
A history of race and Kansas City’s schools can be found in an article (6-30-2020, The New Santa Fe Trailer), “Dissecting the Troost Divide and racial segregation in Kansas City.” The article describes the situation as it continues to this day, “…the Country Club Districts (white) pay into KCPS but send their students to private schools, Barston, Notre Dame de Sion, Pembroke Hill, Rockhurst and St. Teresa’s.”
Dr. Cokethea Hill is the founder of Blaque KC. Previous stints as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for SchoolSmart Kansas City, yet another reformy outlet (sounds a lot like GO in Oakland. Heck, they are all the same). Charters and district schools, doesn’t matter, we just want quality, yada, yada. Their “Starting Smart” arm sounds just like Oakland Reach, Memphis Lift, Atlanta Thrive. “families that are informed about school quality and empowered to take action.” Same playbook. Funded by the Waltons. Of course.
https://www.schoolsmartkc.org/#clients
https://www.blaquekc.com/our-leadership