Back on March 9 I posted Rhode Island: Dark Money Backs “Parents Group” for More Charter Schools about a new operation called Stop the Wait RI. Maybe I should incorporate as I Told You So RI. That’s because the new Stop the Wait Group RI has taken a familiar path for dark money operations.
Recall that this group filed for IRS 501(c)(4) status only on February 25, 2021. That status allows a group to raise unlimited sums of money for “social welfare” purposes, including political activities. And that’s what has happened.
Stop the Wait RI commissioned a poll damning public schools and promoting charters regurgitated by the GoLocalProv News Team. A poll is like free catnip for a news organization, though when an interest group provides one a news outlet might suspect advocacy masquerading as science. But this poll had added credibility: it was conducted by Joe Biden’s pollster.
Golocalprov own reporting could have sparked some curiosity: “Earlier this month, five frustrated mothers announced the formation of Stop the Wait RI.” Then the five frustrated mothers incorporated a non-profit social welfare organization, built a quite lovely webpage, started advertising on Facebook, and engaged the president’s pollster!
Doesn’t this pique the curiosity Golocalprov, enough to ask, where’s the money coming from? Inspector Clousea wouldn’t miss this.
What we see here is quite common, a front purporting to be parents but actually funded and acting for wealthy privatization interests. In Massachusetts, Massachusetts Parents United claims to have been founded in 2017 by three moms in a library. From 2017-2019 MPU and its allied 501(c)(4) took in over $3.3 million (actually more, for technical reasons I won’t get into) and about half of that came from the Walton Family Foundation. The organization’s “mom-in-chief” paid herself just short of $400,000 in 2018-19. In 2020 the same mom founded the National Parents Union, which is not national, not parents, and not a union. But it is a money pit. Its financial backers include the Waltons, Charles Koch, and a boatload of America’s wealthiest oligarchs.
And you’ll never guess! But advocacy through polling is a major component of National Parents Union’s marketing strategy.
The story Golocalprov fell for is one of scrappy moms facing off against hidebound unions. But the real story is corporate and oligarchic interests masquerading behind parents versus teachers and the very notion of the public good.
The patterns are there. Just follow them. And follow the money.
I told you so RI.
In the darkness of secrecy, sinister interest and evil in every shape, have full swing. . . . Publicity is the very soul of justice.”—Jeremy Bentham
[Full disclosure: as an educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money, democracy, and oligarchy.]