Last spring I wrote a piece called “MASSPOLI#: Safe Harbor for Old School Pols & Politics” that began as follows: “American politics in 2018 is a hot mess. The Age of Trump will almost certainly be understood as a chaotic and terribly destructive time in American politics when our institutions were strained to the limit…
A Letter to Massachusetts Education Reporters
On May 1 I wrote a letter to several education writers on the topic of why they should be reporting on the financial backing of groups like Massachusetts Parents United or Democrats for Education Reform. Citizens have the right to be informed and only the media can do that. I’m sharing that letter here in…
Massachusetts Parents United: Grassroots or AstroTurf?
One of the claims of Massachusetts Parents United is that it is a grassroots organization dedicated to serving the needs of parents and children. But corporate-sponsored school privatization organizations like MassParents have come and gone, so how can we tell if the group is grassroots or AstroTurf? There’s a way. Professor Daniel Katz used a…
Massachusetts Parents United: Old Wine in an Expensive Bottle
Massachusetts Parents United claims to be “the independent voice of parents.” But it’s entirely dependent on funding from the Walton Family’s (tax deductible) political operations. When I wrote Massachusetts Parents United: Old Wine in an Empty Bottle in July 2017 there were some clues about its funding but not much detail, and what detail there…
Keri Rodrigues Goes Coastal with Plans for National Parents Union
Keri Rodrigues of Massachusetts Parents United, the highly subsidized-by-the-Walton-family front in the education privatization business, is pitching a new organization called the National Parents Union. It’s got elements that should appeal to the WalMart heirs – hidden money, infiltration of the Democratic Party, pro-charters, privatization of public goods, and virulently anti-union. But there are problems….
UnKoch* My Boston Globe
It appears that our once-upon-a-time paper of record The Boston Globe is supplementing revenues by publishing pro-corporate content masquerading as news and paid for by the Koch Brothers. Since corporate puffery isn’t one of my favored literary genres I didn’t pay much attention when I noticed the Bold Types interviews off to the side of…
The Plight of Progressives in the Bernie Sanders Era
Being a politically progressive college professor who isn’t a passenger on the Bernie Sanders Express can be uncomfortable at times. Lucky for me, I’m a political science professor, which means that I have plenty of scholarly company, particularly among my fellow political scientists who study American politics. The reason for the disparity is, in my…
“Education Reform by WalMart”?
“Education Reform by WalMart” isn’t going to win any awards for marketing slogans so instead the Waltons weaponize their philanthropic dollars by underwriting fronts like Massachusetts Parents United, Educators for Excellence, and Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts. Here are the latest dollar figures. How about $500,000 to Massachusetts Parents United? Remember their creation story, where…
Japan Dispatches: Thoughts on Public Transportation in the Commonwealth
On Thursday morning, I woke to find a friend and colleague had posted a story on my Facebook timeline about the efficacy of trains versus cars in response to a blog post I had made questioning Massachusetts’s investment in SouthCoast rail. It was the unicorn of all Facebook debates—respectful disagreement accompanied by the infusion of…
DFER Massachusetts’ Policy Luncheon: Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain!
Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts had a policy conference Wednesday to tout a report it did comparing schools in Boston and Lawrence. It’s a great case study on how wealthy philanthrocapitalists are able to set the agenda on issues. It was timely too because in the morning I was re-reading a book chapter by Aaron…