Since 2017 the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) has poured a minimum of $10.79 million (in reality, millions more) into the Waltons’ campaign to privateer Massachusetts’ public education system. That spending binge has garnered zero press attention. This news is banned in Boston. So, here is our annual report on Walton spending. WFF is the IRS…
Category: Boston Globe Education
Behind the Curtain: The Boston Foundation Is Underwriting that “Science of Reading” Lawsuit
The Boston Foundation is underwriting the plaintiffs’ law firm at the center of the Boston Globe’s story Two Mass. families sue famed literacy specialists, claiming reading curriculums were intentionally flawed. The Globe never mentions that. That dereliction masks the efforts of moneyed interests to wrest decision making from elected bodies and mold K-12 education to…
How Boston Globe’s Education Coverage Educates Us About the Capital v. Labor Divide
When I was a kid in the Sixties we’d occasionally hear stories about some poor Japanese soldier, abandoned on a Pacific island after WWII, finally being rescued while believing he was still fighting the war. That’s sort of where the Boston Globe’s post-MCAS coverage is. But as a lesson in the biased media approach to…
Barr Foundation K-12 Interest Groups Throw Their Muscle (and Dollars) Around
The Barr Foundation Family of K-12 Interest Groups has had a heady two days with a story in the Barr funded Boston Globe touting a poll commissioned by the Barr funded Education Trust from the Barr funded MassInc Polling Group with remarks from Keri Rodrigues of the Barr funded National Parents Union and Lisa Lazare…
It’s True. The Globe Sports Page Really Does Provide Better Coverage of Sports than the Globe Does of K-12 Education Interests
I dragged myself down this rabbit hole by responding to a Globe story titled MCAS ballot question pits Massachusetts Association against business community – again. As a critique I wrote Why Is the Boston Globe’s Sports Coverage So Much Better Than Its K-12 Interest Group Coverage? It’s true. You can regularly see Globe sports reporters…
2024 Ballot Questions: Capital v. Labor
The Boston Globe recently framed the possible MCAS ballot question as a contest between the “Boston business community” and the Massachusetts Teachers Association. A better frame would be “capital v. labor”–which applies to additional ballot questions this year as well. First, some housekeeping: I’ve recently been writing about coverage of billionaire-funded K-12 interest groups and…
My Letter to the Boston Globe re K-12 Political Coverage
On March 14, 2024, I wrote to several Boston Globe editors and reporters concerning the Globe’s coverage of K-12 interest groups in Massachusetts. I have received no response. The letter is below, I will list addressees and another note after the letter. I hope you will also read Banned in Boston: Coverage of Walton Family…
Banned in Boston Globe: Coverage of Barr Foundation’s K-12 Interest Group Spending
As I wrote yesterday in Latest on the Barr Foundation K-12 Interest Group Team, 2022, from 2017-2022 the Barr Foundation spent over $14,000,000 to support K-12 interest groups in Massachusetts. The twist is, Barr also helps fund the Globe’s K-12 interest group coverage. So, we have the unique situation in which Barr funds K-12 interest…
Banned in Boston (Globe) II: the Barr Foundation/Hostetter 2021 Political Team
Last year I published The Barr Foundation-Hostetter Political Team to set out non-profit advocacy spending by the foundation of Boston billionaire Amos Hostetter through 2020, then the most recent data available. Today I’m updating that with donations through 2021 and the addition of some additional advocacy groups. And no, uh-uh, fuhgeddabouditt, no way will you…
Boston Globe and Corporate Elites Prop Up Their MCAS
In a weekend editorial the Boston Globe establishes the important principle that the funders of interest groups should be identified to the public. Then the paper went about establishing that this principle should not apply to interest group allies of the Boston Globe. I’ll fill in what the Globe left out. Here is the principle:…