In a probably misguided and sadly irreversible decision five and a half years ago I started following the money behind AstroTurf education operations play acting as parent groups while fronting for billionaire privatizers. I’ve seen quite a few phony operations and the new right wing entry Parents United (not Massachusetts Parents United!) has a unique niche.
The Globe did a story on Parents United (not Massachusetts Parents United!) and the first question should always be, who is funding you? But the Globe didn’t ask. It’s important because Families for Excellent Schools wasn’t families, unless you include the Walton family and the Mercer family, Strategic Grant Partners, the Boston Foundation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, etc. Massachusetts Parents United (not Parents United!) isn’t parents it’s the Walton family, the Boston Foundation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, etc. National Parents Union isn’t parents, it’s the Walton family, Mark Zuckerberg, John Arnold, Steve Ballmer, Charles Koch, etc. Parents Defending Education isn’t parents it’s (most likely) the Koch network. If you don’t follow the money you don’t know what the hell is going on and you can’t tell your readers what the hell is going on.
The Globe says “The campaign by the new, Boston-based group Parents United was prompted by parents’ glimpses into their children’s remote classrooms during the pandemic, said Ashley Jacobs, the executive director.” (Ms. Jacobs attended Harvard Business School and the parents have children in private schools. What, they couldn’t just pull funding for the new archery range?) A few paragraphs down here is the giveaway about the phoniness we’re dealing with here: “Jacobs teamed up with three other Boston moms to launch Parents United in May, spurred by a range of concerns…”
Can a retiree call bullshit? Can I get a ruling from the youngs on this? Because that’s what it is.
Almost all these groups have a creation story and it’s the same one. A handful of mommies become frustrated with their kids education and band together against the odds to fight the schools. Consider the Massachusetts Parents United creation story: “Massachusetts Parents United started as three parents meeting in a public library.” Breathlessly you ask, what happens next, Professor Cunningham? Well the library closes for the night and then the Waltons send $1.6 million and MPU rakes in dark money from the Boston Foundation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund. Then a couple years later the Form 990s become available and show the mom-in-chief making about $200,000 per year. And then the mom-in-chief becomes one of two mommies from opposite coasts who found a National Parents Union to take on the unions and in comes the millions from Walton, Koch, etc. and they hire an international communications firm and the Waltons’ pollster. I see this over and over. Who cares to guess what Ashley Jacobs is pulling down in her job as a frustrated parent? Any guesses on when she debuts on Fox News?
Yes, Ms. Jacobs has a number of violators but “She declined to identify the specific schools involved, citing worry that they might retaliate against students whose parents are involved.” Classic Parents Defending Education technique here: we have binders of evidence, but those equity folk are so mean that we have to keep it secret.
So if the Globe won’t ask and I’m confident that Parents United (not Massachusetts Parents United!) wouldn’t answer anyway, what can we figure out? One member of the advisory board is the president of the Institute for Free Speech, which has strong ties to the Koch and Bradley foundations. IFS is libertarian and let’s meet some board members, shall we? Director Ed Crane is Founder and President Emeritus of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. An original board member and donor was Charles Koch (Koch and Crane later had a falling out). Then there is Bradley Smith, a key advocate for dark money and deregulation of campaign finance regulations. And, trumpets blaring here please—Cleta Mitchell!!!!! You may remember Ms. Mitchell as the Trump lawyer on the call the former guy made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to pressure him to “find” enough votes for Trump to win Georgia.
Another adviser is from FIRE, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Boston libertarian attorney Harvey Silverglate is on the board and the advisory council includes a number of prominent academics and ACLU alum. They do annual rankings of what they consider the worst colleges for free speech. Donors include Koch and Bradley, and Parents Defending Education is tied to FIRE too. They developed a lot of the techniques now being used to pressure universities and K-12.
We know Parents United (not Massachusetts Parents United!) is not about politics because even though Chris Egan, one of the state’s biggest Republican donors is on the advisory board, Ms. Jacobs says they are not political at all (Youngs? Another ruling here?) The first big gambit was to appeal to two accreditation boards but the boards responded, ‘yah, that’s not what we do’ so maybe some more advising? So embarrassing to present yourself down at the “Quin” after this.
Actual community support is zilch. Actual parents, zilch. But they are going to have piles of money to create chaos.
And that’s what these groups are all about. Damage, create chaos. Tear down not only public education but the community edifice by which we solve our problems in a democratic society. The Kochs, Waltons, and Bradleys of the world don’t have much use for a peasant-run democracy,
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.]