Dear Chairperson Lewis, Chairperson Gordon, and Committee Members: My name is Maruice T. Cunningham, and I am a retired professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. In 2016 I became curious about the dark money being spent on Question 2 to expand charter schools in Massachusetts, upward of $20 million in…
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).
Joan Vennochi is Right: OCPF Needs to Take Action BEFORE Voters Go to Polls
The Boston Globe’s Joan Vennochi has a must-read column today, Voters deserve guidance on campaign finance allegations: The Office of Campaign and Political Finance deliberately puts off reaching any resolution regarding specific complaints until after an election takes place. That needs to change. Ms. Vennochi is right: OCPF needs to act when it can inform…
Expert Douses Boston Globe’s “Science of Reading” Advocacy
The Boston Globe did another editorial hyping “science of reading” legislation and I don’t know anything about literacy instruction but neither does the Globe so I thought I’d introduce someone who does. Dr. Elena Aydarova is an assistant professor in the Educational Policy studies department at the University of Wisconsin Madison and an actual expert…
Boston Grassroots Leaders Demand Investigation of Josh Kraft Campaign and SuperPAC
Grassroots leaders of Boston’s Democratic ward committees have filed a request with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to “open an immediate investigation into troubling evidence of illegal campaign spending and coordination between the Josh Kraft for Mayor campaign and the Your City, Your Future Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee, which has already spent…
The Meaning of Josh Kraft’s “Thanks Dad”* Campaign
Last week the Boston Globe reported that the Josh Kraft-supporting SuperPAC Your City, Your Future will spend $2.4 million in the coming weeks to attack Mayor Michelle Wu. Globe columnist Adrian Walker registered his disapproval but also concluded that SuperPAC spending is “a standard feature of politics.” That assumes the public has become pacified by…
Boston Globe Dodges DFER Downfall
Over the years the Boston Globe has routinely turned to Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts for commentary on privateering efforts aimed at public schools. So, it is notable that the Globe has paid no attention to the apparent demise of DFER. The coverage blackout is even more significant since DFER’s struggles were revealed in a…
Boston Herald, Pioneer Institute, and Massachusetts Opportunity Alliance Push Great Replacement Theory
On Valentine’s Day the Boston Herald pushed the “great replacement theory,” relying on an unreliable “report” from the Pioneer Institute and a defective “poll” commissioned by the dark money Mass Opportunity Alliance. The story was “Massachusetts economy crashes as state loses domestic residents, gains migrants: report” by Lance Reynolds. The lede was “A Boston-based think…
Boston Deserves Democracy
The Boston Globe has an editorial today explaining again why poor and minority communities like Boston shouldn’t be trusted with democracy. The Globe has done this before about Lawrence, and I’ve written about it before. So, I’m just going to paste in what I wrote about the Lawrence school committee (just substitute “Boston” for “Lawrence”)…
Keri Rodrigues Should NOT Be Appointed to Massachusetts K-12 Statewide Graduation Council
It should be obvious that appointing a corporate lobbyist to the Massachusetts K-12 Statewide Graduation Council as a “parent” is a bad idea. Just in case, I wrote the following letter to Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler urging him NOT to consider appointing National Parent Union’s Keri Rodrigues as a parent representative to the…
Banned in Boston (Globe): Walton Family Massachusetts K-12 Political Spending, 2017-2023
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…