A while back I submitted the following oped to the Boston Globe. It was not selected for publication. I’ll leave it here as submitted and have more to say about it soon. The Globe covers numerous aspects of education but never explores the enabling force behind interest groups like Massachusetts Parents United or Parents Defending…
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).
Why Do the Walton Family and Charles Koch Fund Voices for Academic Equity Member National Parents Union?
“Voices for Academic Equity,” is presenting a report on MCAS today and I could go through the Voices member groups and their funders but let’s focus on Voices member National Parents Union and the Vela Education Fund. Vela is a joint venture of the Walton Family Foundation and Charles Koch Institute. It provides funding for…
New “Ed Reform” Coalition Shows How Media Allows Billionaires to Control Narrative
According to a State House News Service report picked up at WWLP a coalition called “Voices for Academic Equity” has formed to oppose teachers’ unions efforts to amend the MCAS law. The story doesn’t say whom the coalition members represent. Simple: it’s the familiar story of capital vs. labor. But you wouldn’t know it because…
Why Gun Violence in Schools Is NOT a Problem
In the wake of the murder of three 9 year olds and three adults at a Nashville grammar school some have called for stronger regulation or even banning of certain weapons such as the AR15 used in the killings. This will not happen because gun violence is not a problem in this country. Republican Congressman…
Banned in Boston (Globe): the Walton Family’s 2021 Political Team
We all love us some Market Basket so imagine if the Walton family of Arkansas (d/b/a WalMart) bankrolled a takeover of our local grocer! News coverage would be constant—the Globe, the two NPR radio stations, local TV descending on shoppers to ask about their favorite possum pie recipes (it’s an Arkansas delicacy). But the Waltons…
Parents for Education’s Hit and Run Job on Milton Public Schools
The Boston Globe‘s Adria Watson recently reported that Parents Defending Education has filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against the Milton Public Schools. It sounds daunting. But PDE is not parents, it’s an obedient franchise of right-wing donors like Charles Koch. PDE’s Milton complaint is based on an email exchange…
Nicole Neily, Keri Rodrigues, and the “Parent” Group Gravy Train
Lisa Graves and Alyssa Bowen at True North Research have a new research article at Truthout Tax Docs Link Right-Wing “Parents Group” to Leonard Leo’s Dark Money Network. It’s stunning. Stop reading this and go read Graves and Bowen right now. Ah, you’re back. The Truthout piece is a masterful use of research and logic…
DFER, a Campaign Finance Bundler, Scores Op-ed in Boston Globe
A recent commentary in the Boston Globe by Mary Tamer, state director of Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts, was notable in that you don’t see a newspaper cede op-ed space to political money “bundlers” every day. Note the quotation marks. I’m not calling DFER a bundler I’m quoting DFER’s former president calling DFER a bundler….
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Brings Koch’s Circus to Town
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, the Koch-tied operation, held a press event in Boston with other New England Koch allied fronts and I always wonder what milquetoast description the media that cover MFA will hide behind. How about “fiscal watchdogs” (Boston Herald)? Or this one: “Business-minded, small government groups.” Here’s one I’ve seen often: “right-leaning.” MassFiscal is…
Yvonne Abraham Explains Why Robert Kraft and Jim Davis “would be fools to appear in their own ads”
On Sunday the Boston Globe’s Metro columnist Yvonne Abraham wrote The face of opposition to Question 1 admits proposed tax wouldn’t hurt him much: ‘I’m not struggling.’ The face of opposition was Leo Cakounes who made some standard conservative talking points about government and then Ms. Abraham got to the important point: Fair enough. But…