One of the claims of Massachusetts Parents United is that it is a grassroots organization dedicated to serving the needs of parents and children. But corporate-sponsored school privatization organizations like MassParents have come and gone, so how can we tell if the group is grassroots or AstroTurf? There’s a way.
Professor Daniel Katz used a four part test in analyzing a similar operation called Students for Education Reform (SFER). Professor Katz writes in How to Spot a Fake ‘Grassroots’ Education Group:
One problem with today’s education reform environment is that a number of groups exist that call themselves “grassroots” organizations, but which have expanded rapidly because of large infusions of cash from corporations and foundations invested in pushing charter schools, mass high stakes testing, data mining students and the Common Core standards. These groups do not exist to represent the organically derived priorities and shared interests of students, teachers and parents; they exist to put a more credible face on the priorities and shared interests of a very narrow but astonishingly influential set of repeating characters.
Katz continues that “Genuine grassroots organizations cannot just pop up out of nowhere, grow by 1000s of members practically overnight, afford slick web designs, afford Manhattan rent and big staffs.” So he offers a Four Part Test to figuring out if the group is really Faux Grassroots.
First, there is “Growth at a pace that only a corporation’s monetary resources could manage.” For instance, one day you’re three moms planning in a library, the next you’re playing with nearly a million dollars of the WalMart inheritance and claiming thousands of members.
Second, there is “Who is funding the group and for how much?” Answer: the Waltons, and probably over a million dollars to MassParents by now. It is worth noting in MPU’s favor that unlike almost every other similar organization of its type MassParents board is not corporate. Keep in mind though she who pays the piper calls the tune. (Also CEO Keri Rodrigues is depending on the Waltons to fund a new national group she wants to form to influence the 2020 Democratic nomination process in favor of corporate interests).
Third Katz asks “Who is REALLY running the operation?” Hmmmmmmm. In the case of MassParents the ties to Democrats for Education Reform run deep and DFER’s leadership is hedge funders who channel Walton money. DFER acts as a dark money banker. It held donations for SFER when that group was getting its 501c3 status, performed the same function for Michelle Rhee’s Students First (funding from DFER contributors like Rupert Murdoch) and also did so for MassParents, holding over $366,000 in Walton money for MPU’s use while it got its tax designation.
Fourth and finally Katz asks, “Do its supposed grassroots members have even a clue what the organization is about?” This is a fascinating question. Have the folks who show up in MassParents t-shirts been informed that the organization is part of the Waltons’ tax deductible political empire? Shouldn’t they understand that they are part of larger and hidden forces? Do they know the leadership is looking to go national with Walton money? What happens if the Waltons pull the plug? Do they want to be part of the next charters campaign or other privatization scheme? There is a very nice bio of the CEO available but it doesn’t mention that she was most recently state director of Families for Excellent Schools, which was banned in Boston for its dark money activities. MPU’s members deserve to know what is behind the expensive looking webpage and glossy pronouncements.
So there is your four part test. It probably won’t come up at the American Federation for Children national policy summit this week, where Ms. Rodrigues is scheduled to be on a panel titled “Getting Real About Parents and Grassroots Advocacy.” It will be followed by sessions including “A Conversation with Democrat Legislators” (yes, Democrat) and the Closing Dinner featuring Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
In Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy, Professor Edward T. Walker considers three possible manners in which an organization might be considered AstroTurf rather than Grassroots. The third is: “Masquerading: The campaign has covert elite sponsorship and is masquerading as a movement with a broad base of non-elite support.”
The great body of evidence is that Massachusetts Parents United is just another in a long line of AstroTurf fronts for the wealthy and powerful.
The Washington Post recently adopted a new slogan: “Democracy dies in darkness.” I agree.
[Full disclosure: as an educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money (and other things)].