When we read an article in the Boston Globe sports page about the Boston Red Sox, we frequently see a critique not just of the performers on the field but also of manager Alex Cora, the coaches, team president Craig Breslow, the geeks in “baseball ops,” the minor league staff, and owner John Henry, who…
Category: National Parents Union
Keri Rodrigues Lolling in Fox Love
Fox News favorite “liberal” “Democrat” Keri Rodrigues is once again swaddling in love from America’s most penalized media outlet. This time Fox gets to use Rodrigues’ criticism of the Biden administration from the “liberal” position, allowing Rupert Murdoch’s $787,500,000-poorer outfit to get huffy from the left. Unless of course you know and acknowledge absolutely anything—a…
The Big Shill: Jon Keller and Keri Rodrigues Conjure Some Sunday Morning Hocus Pocus
Jon Keller hosted Keri Rodrigues of the Walton-Koch National Parents Union on Sunday to plump the corporate wish list on MCAS testing. If you don’t accept the masquerade the appearance was revealing. The part about the statewide testing falls against the unstated backdrop of teachers’ unions seeking legislative modification of MCAS. The Walton political team…
My Unpublished Globe OpEd Urging Better Education Interest Group Coverage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…
Why Do the Walton Family and Charles Koch Fund Voices for Academic Equity Member National Parents Union?
“Voices for Academic Equity,” is presenting a report on MCAS today and I could go through the Voices member groups and their funders but let’s focus on Voices member National Parents Union and the Vela Education Fund. Vela is a joint venture of the Walton Family Foundation and Charles Koch Institute. It provides funding for…
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…
Nicole Neily, Keri Rodrigues, and the “Parent” Group Gravy Train
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…
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, 1959 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…