Banned in Boston: Coverage of Walton Family Spending on K-12 Interest Groups, 2022 Edition

“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 an exercise of power, the conversion of private assets into public influence. And it is a form of power that is largely unaccountable, often perpetual, and lavishly tax-advantaged.” That describes the Walton Family Foundation’s (WFF) spending to influence Massachusetts K-12 education policy, and the lack of accountability from Boston’s major media outlets.

The Walton Family Foundation is the philanthropic organ through which the family funds education interest groups. The Waltons are America’s wealthiest family and reside (mostly) in Arkansas, not Massachusetts. According to its publicly available Form 990 tax return for 2022, WFF accepted $543,804,664 in contributions. Those contributions are tax deductible. Count in other categories of income and WFF total revenue for 2022 was $796,378,256. Contributions, gifts, and grants totaled $545,204,912.

The tables below represent WFF spending on interest groups that try to influence Massachusetts K-12 policy. Some are created by WFF—Massachusetts Parents United, National Parents Union—others were not created by WFF but are sustained by Walton dollars.

Skip down to the table if you like, I need to do some preliminaries, from a prior post:

First, a little political science. In Following the Money: How Foundation Dollars Change Public Schools, Sarah Reckhow argues that major funders (e.g., Gates, Broad, Waltons) have two expectations before committing dollars to a locale: 1. Strong mayoral or state control (hello, receivership vs. elected school committee); and 2. “a strong local nonprofit advocacy sector and a sizable pool of highly educated individuals.”[1] Or she asks “Why Boston but not Detroit?” The need is greater in Detroit but Boston has centralized power in the mayor’s office with no elected school committee, and a deep pocketed philanthropic sector.

Second, research by Tufts’ Jeffrey M. Berry and Duke’s Kristen A. Goff shows that in certain circumstances foundations and wealthy donors act as interest groups. They are investing with nonprofit advocacy organizations “seeking to influence politics and the policy process.”[2] That’s what the Waltons and Barr are doing; they’re interest groups.

So let’s see what the WFF has invested in Massachusetts school privatization interest groups since 2017. For details of year-by-year donations from 2017-2021, see my post on the Walton Political Team 2021.

WFF Donee	2017-2021	2022	2017-2022
Latinos for Education	$1,728,958	$0	$1,728,958
Latina Circle	$250,000	$0	$250,000
Massachusetts Parents United	$2,266,000	$0	$2,266,000
Pioneer Institute	$325,000	$0	$325,000
Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education	$1,250,000	$525,000	$1,775,000
Massachusetts Charter Public School Assoc.	$3,074,500	$500,000	$3,574,500
Total	$8,894,458	$1,025,000	$9,919,458

Now let’s turn to what WFF has invested in multi-state organizations that operate in Massachusetts. (Multi-state not national; DFER operates in eight states and has little going on in several; NPU is a shell, etc).

WFF Donee	2017-2021	2022	2017-2022
National Parents Union	$1,250,000	$950,000	$2,200,000
Educators for Excellence	$5,245,000	$500,000	$5,745,000
Education Reform Now Inc (DFER)	$13,456,775	$3,772,250	$17,229,025
Teach for America	$74,478,568	$28,500,000	$102,978,568
Total	$94,430,343	$33,722,250	$128,152,593

* ** In 2020 WFF started up National Parents Union (NPU) by funding it through Massachusetts Parents United (MPU), so this year I allocated the $400,000 shuffled through MPU directly to NPU. WFF also joined with Charles Koch on a 50-50 funding vehicle called the Vela Education Fund which gave $700,000 to NPU in 2020, so I attributed half of that to WFF and the other half to Koch.

When you see MPU get no money in 2022 don’t take up a collection. Just look at the multi-state table and you’ll see NPU got all the money. Same people.

WFF has put almost $10 million into Massachusetts-only privatization efforts, and way more than that when you consider multi-state funds that come into Massachusetts.

A search for the term “Walton Family Foundation” at the Commonwealth Beacon shows it occasionally reports on WFF funding of Massachusetts K-12 interest groups, though the most recent report I found was authored by Shira Schoenberg from February 15, 2021. It is the best report from any media source I’ve found.

A search on the WBUR and GBH websites turned up no hits (NPR sometimes discloses it receives funding from WFF).

A search for the term “Walton Family Foundation” through the Boston Globe archives available at the University of Massachusetts at Boston Healey Library shows a total of five references (eliminating duplicates in the database) from January 1, 2017, through March 20, 2024. The most recent reference is a December 23, 2021 report on homeschooling by Amy Crawford “a freelance journalist in Michigan.” She reported that “The National Parents Union receives funding from the Walton Family Foundation and other philanthropies that have historically supported school choice, including charter schools and vouchers.” An April 17, 2020, letter from Boston Teachers Union member Michael Maguire responding to a letter from NPU president Keri Rodrigues divulged “Her organization, the National Parents Union, is funded by the Walton Family Foundation, which is notoriously anti-union.” In a single paragraph entry to the Globe’s “Talking Points” on December 12, 2018 picked up from the Associated Press, it was disclosed that “The Walton Family Foundation is one of the leading supporters of America’s charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately operated.” (Also, “Andre Perry, an education policy expert at the Brookings Institution, said the Walton foundation’s reliance on black faces to make its case for charters suggests that they’re exploiting black people for a ‘white agenda.’’’). A 2017 piece by guest author Regina Cole covered WFF funding for an art museum, not anything about education.  A January 30, 2017 report by “Globe correspondent” Mariya Manzhos about Montessori schools in Massachusetts reported some are funded by the Walton Family Foundation. That’s it.

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.

If WalMart raided Massachusetts to buy up Market Basket, the local media coverage would be all over it. But instead, the Walton family spends over $10 million to create and sustain an infrastructure of K-12 interest groups, and there is barely a peep.

Why?

“Imagine movie critics who either did not know, or did not care to know, that movies have producers, script writers, directors, financiers, or casting directors, and so based their reviews on the premise that it was the actors alone who created the storyline, dialogue and mise en scene, and that the most successful actors were those who best understood the audience. That is essentially how all politics is covered in 21st century America.” – Michael Podhoretz, “Hiding in Plain Site”

Upcoming: Banned in Boston: Coverage of Barr Foundation Spending on K-12 Interest Groups, 2022 Edition

[Full disclosure: as a (now retired) educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money, democracy, and oligarchy. My book, Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization, is in print.]