Today Matt Stout of the Boston Globe continued the healthy habit, when reporting on the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, of stating that it hides its donors. (See Baker’s Push to Curb Emissions Draws a Familiar Foe: His Own Party). But since no one can say with any accuracy whose interests MassFiscal represents, why include it in…
Author: Maurice Cunningham
Professor Cunningham Ph.D., J.D., is author of Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization. He retired in 2021 as associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston but he continues his research into dark money in politics. His two reports on the dark money threat to public education are available on the Network for Public Education website: Merchants of Deception: Parent Props and their Funders, and “A Citizen’s Guide to the School Privatization Movement” (forthcoming). His work has been distributed through the Independent Media Institute and has appeared in The Bucks County Beacon (PA), Shepherd Express (WI), Alternet, Tampa Bay Times, The Daily Progress (VA), Idaho Education News, New Hampshire Bulletin, The Detroit Free Press, and The Portland Press-Herald (ME), and at Diane Ravitch’s Blog, dianeravitch.net.. His work on dark money in Massachusetts has earned him the 2017 Distinguished Public Service Award from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and the 2018 MTA President’s Award from the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Education historian Diane Ravitch has named Professor Cunningham to her "Honor Roll" on her education blog. He can be reached at maurice.cunningham153@gmail.com.
Publications that focus upon Massachusetts Politics include two co-written chapters in the edited volume The Politics of Massachusetts Exceptionalism: Reputation Meets Reality. He has also written “Defeating ‘Death with Dignity’: Morality and Message in a Massachusetts Referendum” in American Catholic Studies (2014); “Massachusetts Politics 2012” in New England Journal of Political Science (2012); “A Christian Coalition for Catholics?: The Massachusetts Model,” Review of Religious Research (2009); and “Massachusetts Republicans: the 2004 Challenge to Democratic Legislative Hegemony,” in New England Journal of Political Science (2008).
Power Outage: Right Wing Attacks on Black and Latinx Political Power in Massachusetts
Yesterday’s post on the Boston Globe’s suggestion of a future state takeover of the Boston Public Schools discussed Domingo Morel’s Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy. Morel’s research shows that state takeovers of school districts usually (not always) bring about the political dis-empowerment of communities of color. Unfortunately we’ve seen several attempts to restrict representation…
The Racial Politics of the Globe’s Proposal for a State Takeover of the Boston Public Schools
On Friday the Boston Globe editorialized in favor of a possible state takeover of the Boston Public Schools, pointing out city-state political obstacles. It isn’t city-state politics at issue though. It’s racial politics. In Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), Domingo Morel finds that state takeovers of public school…
Two and a Half Ways (Maybe 3?) the Waltons (and Charles Koch?) Welcome Themselves into the Democratic Primaries
In the world of dark money, things are never what they seem. So as the Democrats try to pick a presidential nominee is it a surprise that the Waltons and Charles Koch (?) are funding front operations to influence the process, disrupting an Elizabeth Warren speech, forming an anti-union “union”, and trying to nudge the…
Got Democracy? National Parents Union Doesn’t
One interesting thing about privatization fronts like the Walton family’s National Parents Union is that of membership and governance. Who gets to be members, what are the powers of members, how is leadership chosen? In the world of privatization organizations these components are rarely, if ever, democratic. National Parents Union is a union, right? It…
National Parents Union, the Anti-union Union
The National Parents Union front for the Walton family’s dive into the Democratic Party’s primaries decided to adopt the name union, though it is not only not a union but is virulently anti-union—a posture that surely satisfies the WalMart heirs. A union is “An organization of workers, formed for the purpose of negotiating with employers…
Waltons Dive into Democratic Primaries Behind National Parents Union
The Walton family, heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune, are trying to deal themselves in to Democratic primary politics. It isn’t any mystery why. Conservative billionaires feel gravely threatened by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Their vehicle is yet another new privatization front posing as a parents group, National Parents Union. National Parents Union appears to…
The Waltons: From Dark Money to Dark Store Theory, It’s All About Taxes
The Walton Family of Arkansas has been funding a robust Massachusetts Political Team—over $3.3 million worth in 2017 and 2018, and all tax deductible! Will their Arkansas retail giant WalMart also bring its dark store tax dodge to Massachusetts soon? WalMart and other big box corporations have been appealing local tax assessments in over twenty…
Walton Family Political Front Disrupts Elizabeth Warren Speech
Last night a southern unit of the Walton family’s national private political operation attempted to shut down a speech by Elizabeth Warren. Ostensibly this was about charter schools. Realistically, it was probably about the wealth tax. Not much gets past Central Massachusetts political observer Lance Harris, who tweeted last night that a Walton family political…
Pioneer Institute Throws Out Welcome Mat for Koch Funded Institute for Justice
It’s getting harder to keep track of the right wing groups operating in Massachusetts but when one interferes in the Green Line extension, dives into cosmetology, and pumps up school privatization, take notice. That’s the Institute for Justice, and when you’re an out of state libertarian law firm you need a friend; that would be…