Last week I explained how the National Parents Union is not a union, not national, and not about parents. Today we’ll go into more detail about what NPU is: a political unit of the Billionaire Boys Club.
Education scholar Diane Ravitch popularized the term Billionaire Boys Club in her 2010 book The Death and Life of the Great American School System, describing the school privatization funding of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
Oftentimes it is hard to know who is funding a political interest group hiding under the legal banner of a Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3) organization, but a story in the pro-privatization The 74 was a big help in identifying NPU’s underwriters. Here’s an excerpt:
Alma Marquez and Keri Rodrigues Lorenzo are the public faces of NPU. Let’s take a look at the net worth of their donors, from Forbes Magazine’s Real Time Billionaire’s List that tracks the daily ups and downs of billionaires.
Billionaire Net Worth in Billions
| Gates, Bill | $106.50 |
| Ballmer, Steve | $65.80 |
| Walton, Jim | $56.50 |
| Walton, Alice | $56.30 |
| Walton, Rob | $56.10 |
| Walton, Lukas | $19.20 |
| Walton, Christy | $9.20 |
| Kroenke, Ann Walton | $7.90 |
| Laurie, Nancy Walton | $7.30 |
| Dell, Michael | $28.60 |
| Broad, Eli | $6.80 |
| Hastings, Reed | $1.90 |
| Arnold, John | $3.30 |
| Koch, Charles* | $44.40 |
| Total | $469.80 |
Charles Koch isn’t in The 74’s story but he and Koch Industries have a proxy on the board of National Parents Union, an almost certain indication that he has money invested. On the other hand, I did not include his brother David Koch’s widow, Julia Koch and family for $44.4 billion, though her wealth also comes from Koch Industries. I also did not include Michael Bloomberg, who funds the Education Post, which also has a seat on the board. Nor did I include Education Post funder Mark Zuckerberg. As of May 18 Bloomberg’s net worth was $58.6 billion and Zuckerberg’s was $78.8 billion. Arguably those three could be included for another $181.8 billion.
To put it in perspective, the CARES Act cost somewhat over $2 trillion. NPU’s donors could pick up $400-450 billion of that and still have plenty left over for visits to Davos.
Also, remember that National Parents Union is an IRC 501(c)(3) which means it is tax exempt and contributions to it are tax deductible. That means when the Waltons put in $1 million, America’s richest family really puts in only $630,000 and you, the taxpayers, donate the other $370,000.
In 2016 privatizers went to the ballot in Massachusetts with a charter schools increase proposal and got clobbered by teachers. The corporate titans need a front that presents as sympathetic. The creation story of NPU is that two mothers from opposite coasts pulled together to form a union of parents. The reality is quite different.
Don’t buy hype. Follow the money.
We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
[Full disclosure: as an educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money, not education.]
Image: thefinancialexpress.com.bd