“So far as I can tell, in a period in which the Waltons poured more than $10,000,000 into K-12 interest groups in Massachusetts, no Boston Globe staffer has ever reported that fact.” In Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better, Professor Rob Reich argues that “Big philanthropy is often…
Category: Walton family
How to Understand Democrats for Education Reform Using Two Quotes from Democrats for Education Reform
Democrats for Education Reform face-planted again in Tuesday’s Boston municipal election and that got me thinking about how to define DFER in two quotes from DFER itself. Here they are. “We’re essentially bundlers”—Joe Williams, DFER president, 2012. (He went on to be director of the Walton Education Coalition and now is political director of Walton…
More on Walton and Barr Stakes in Voices for Academic Equity
Last week the Boston Globe’s Opinion page announced the principle that the funders of interest groups should be identified to the public! I almost swooned! But I recovered fast when I saw that it meant only union funded interests and not the Globe’s corporate allies. Boy Scout helpful as I always am I posted Boston…
My Unpublished Globe OpEd Urging Better Education Interest Group Coverage
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…
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…
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…
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…
New York Times Covers AG’s Race and Misses the Story
Last week as the Massachusetts Democrats gathered in convention the New York Times rolled out Inside the Audition for Democrats’ Next Crusading Attorney General projecting the race for the party’s nominee as a signal of where the national party is headed. Then the Times just went for the usual horse race stuff. Too bad because…
Will the MassDems Address the Money Corruption in Their Midst?
“It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we’ve just…