Over the years the Boston Globe has routinely turned to Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts for commentary on privateering efforts aimed at public schools. So, it is notable that the Globe has paid no attention to the apparent demise of DFER. The coverage blackout is even more significant since DFER’s struggles were revealed in a lawsuit brought against DFER by its former Massachusetts executive director Mary Tamer, who alleges that DFER unjustly fired her in a discriminatory fashion.
The details of the lawsuit and DFER’s evident decline are laid out in my article for The Progressive, What Now for Democrats for Education Reform? I learned of the suit from reporting by Adam Gaffin of Universal Hub and Julie Manganis at Law360.
Since Tamer became executive director in March 2022, a ProQuest search shows the Globe used Tamer as a spokesperson for DFER twenty times. That includes three op-eds authored by Tamer.
Since 2007 the Globe has used DFER in approximately sixty articles, op-eds, and letters to the editor.
Tamer is also a former Boston School Committeewoman.
Tamer’s sudden absence from last year’s MCAS ballot question fight after DFER let her go last September might have been noted by the Globe. Her complaint states that at the time “Ms. Tamer was in the midst of leading an important statewide ballot initiative in Massachusetts, a key element of the local organization’s mission.”
To broaden the possibilities for the Globe there is a Rhode Island angle and the Globe has a team covering the state. Tamer’s complaint alleges that it was DFER Chief Operating Officer Jorge Elorza who directed age and gender discriminatory comments and actions against her. Elorza is a former two-term mayor of Providence, Rhode Island.
Since her departure from DFER in September 2024 the Globe has used Tamer in three education items. In a story on Mayor Wu’s re-election prospects Tamer was identified as “a former BPS parent and School Committee member who heads the policy and advocacy organization MassPotential.” Last month in a piece about calls for an elected Boston school committee, Tamer was identified only as a former committee member. In a co-authored letter the Globe published last month, Tamer identified herself as executive director of MassPotential.
The Globe has had nothing to say about what MassPotential is, or who is funding it.
Full disclosure: as a (now retired) educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money, democracy, and oligarchy. My book, Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization, is in print.]