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…
Category: National Parents Union
Management Follies: Chaos at National Parents Union
That must have been some “convening” National Parents Union held in September because by October two of NPU’s five board members had disappeared, as had four of the nine individuals on their September 17 “Our Leadership” page and all—ALL—of NPU’s “delegates.” NPU,—not national, not about parents, not a union—is routinely mismanaged, but it seems to…
“labor is the superior — greatly the superior — of capital”—Abraham Lincoln
On September 30, 1859 Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in Milwaukee in which he repeated his long held position, that “labor is the superior — greatly the superior — of capital.” Lincoln was responding to an 1858 speech by Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina, the “mud sill” speech. Hammond stated that: In all…
#ParentSham2020: Ten Questions about National Parents Union’s Financials
The Koch-Walton front National Parents Union appears to be facing serious mismanagement: two boards of directors (again), two presidents, the unexplained disappearance of the co-founder/board member/secretary-treasurer as money was pouring in and leaders were not being paid, and an upcoming election of officers (not!). The organization is holding a #parentpower2020 “convening” September 2-4. Last year…
National Parents Union’s Mythical Membership: Letter to Los Angeles Times
On July 24, 2022 a story in the Los Angeles Times included this whopper: “. . . according to Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. Her organization has seen its membership rise from 185 local activist and advocacy groups to over 600 since its inception in January 2020.” The LATimes doesn’t give an…
National Parents Union and Parents Defending Education in Faux Civil War! Can Charles Koch Save Them?
A mock civil war is raging between bogus National Parents Union and sham Parents Defending Education and only one man can feign to suppress it: Charles Koch. Koch funds both National Parents Union and (almost certainly) Parents Defending Education so he has a fantasy moral obligation to pretend to step in. The latest blanks in…
The Waltons’ Massachusetts Political Team (2020 update)
With a search for a new Boston Superintendent of Schools, a renewed review by the state of Boston Public Schools possibly leading to receivership, a new governor on the horizon, and the radical right promoting turmoil in public education, Massachusetts elites and philanthropic interest groups want to know one thing: what does the Walton family…
School Privatization Week: Your National Parents Union and Massachusetts Parents United Readers
I noticed in the Sunday Globe that Governor Baker has proclaimed this “School Choice Week” and I thought, what better time than School Privatization Week to re-up some of my favorite dark money and the politics of school privatization posts? It’s Saturday, we have a blizzard, so I’ve decided to post Your National Parents Union…
School Privatization Week: Charles Koch Buys into National Parents Union
I noticed in the Sunday Globe that Governor Baker has proclaimed this “School Choice Week” and I thought, what better time than School Privatization Week to re-up some of my favorite dark money and the politics of school privatization posts? Today’s classic is on that notable progressive Charles Koch sinking money into National Parents Union….
School Privatization Week: Keri Rodrigues Goes Coastal with Plans for National Parents Union
I noticed in the Sunday Globe that Governor Baker has proclaimed this “School Choice Week” and I thought, what better time than School Privatization Week to re-up some of my favorite dark money and the politics of school privatization posts? Here’s a piece on the “concept paper” submitted to the Walton Family Foundation by National…