Yesterday Politico’s Massachusetts Playbook was gobsmacked, astounded, discombobulated, and dumbstruck by what it called “strange ballot bedfellows,” “an unlikely coalition,” “organizations on both sides of the aisle,” and “an unlikely alliance,” meaning, the front groups predictably allied against the teachers’ unions proposed ballot question to eliminate the MCAS graduation requirement while keeping MCAS as a diagnostic tool.
There’s no reason for surprise. Just consider the funders behind the “coalition” and it all comes together. The major donors are the virulently anti-union Walton Family Foundation of the Boston suburb of Arkansas, and the Barr Foundation of Boston billionaire and school privatizer Amos Hostetter. Let’s take a look at those two organizations’ donations to the named “coalition” members from 2017-2022, the last year for which we have information.
| Organization | Walton | Barr | Total |
| Education Reform Now Inc (DFER) | $17,229,025* | $505,000 | $17,734,025 |
| Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education | $1,775,000 | $940,000 | $2,715,000 |
| National Parents Union/Massachusetts Parents United** | $4,466,000 | $945,000 | $5,411,000 |
| Pioneer Institute | $325,000 | $0 | $325,000 |
| Total | $23,795,025 | $2,390,000 | $26,185,025 |
*Giant caution flag: DFER operates in about ten states, and we only have what WFF donated in aggregate, not broken down to isolate Education Reform Now/DFER (simply different legal entities under the same roof) in Massachusetts. Democrats for Education Reform has taken at least $1,000,000 from famous Democrat Rupert Murdoch.
**Mass. Parents was formed in 2017, National Parents inaugurated in 2021 and claims to be national but has never identified member organizations which, as I wrote in Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization, seem to be mostly from the charter school industry. NPU has also taken money from famous Democrat Charles Koch.
ERN/DFER and NPU/MPU would likely not exist (or at least would be much less well funded) without the school-privatizing Waltons. MBAE did not receive money from the Waltons before the failed 2016 charter school ballot proposal, and money has poured in since. Pioneer got Walton money in 2017 and 2018. Barr has upped its contributions to all these groups except Pioneer since 2017.
Cousins Jim and Alice Walton combined, and Hostetter both gave in excess of $2,000,000 each in favor of 2016’s charter school ballot proposal.
Pioneer is “right-leaning” like the Pope is Catholic-leaning. Past donors include the late David Koch and his estate, and the Koch-connected Donors Trust, “a dark-money ATM funding the conservative movement.”
The “both sides of the aisle” construct is of no utility. It’s the Oligarch Party that matters.
Or, just go with Capital v. Labor.
Can we in Massachusetts no longer be thunderstruck, dazed, bewildered, floored, open-mouthed, agog and aghast, when patrons dependent on the same money act in the same way?
Just follow the money.
“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!”— Capt. Renault
I write about dark money, democracy, and oligarchy. My book, Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization, is available.
I’m so glad you’ve flagged this too, Professor. I nearly ruined my laptop when I spewed my morning cuppa at the screen on reading that absurd statement; not that I look to Politico to be clear eyed about public education. It’s therapeutic to know my outrage is shared.
It’s not terribly surprising though is it? Massachusetts political media have zero interest in examining the power exerted by billionaire’s money in politics. They just ignore it.