- Image courtesy of shutterstock.com
Let’s take a look at the group — actually the groups — behind the robocall Ed Supe John Huppenthal made advising parents to send their kids to private schools on the taxpayer dime — in other words, in support of vouchers. The whole story deserves one of those complicated diagrams with names and arrows and circles, but I’m not a diagram guy, so I’m going to try and draw the picture in words.
The short version is this: Huppenthal recorded a robocall giving parents the “great news” that they can take advantage of “alternative education choices for their children, including private school. That’s right! You may be able to send your child to private school for free!”
It’s part of a $250,000 PR push for Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) paid for by Alliance for School Choice. Its partner organization, American Federation for Children, spent $63,000 on an independent expenditure campaign to help Hupp win his 2010 election. It’s no surprise the Alliance for School Choice has Hupp on speed dial.
From there the story gets more complicated, involving the Walton family which owns Walmart, Betsy DeVos who is part of the Amway fortune, and a faux-Democratic group that pours money into voucher-friendly Democrats’ campaigns. You’ve heard tell of the vast right wing conspiracy. This is the story of a small part of the vast, well funded conservative/corporate “education reform” movement which spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to get out its pro-voucher, pro-privatization message.
Let’s start with the Alliance for School Choice that’s footing the bill for the ESA push. It’s a conservative nonprofit organization with lots of donors and millions to spend. The biggest single donor is the Walton Family Foundation — that’s the Walmart family — which is a huge funder of the whole voucher/privatization movement. From 2009 to 2013, the Waltons sunk $9.65 million into the Alliance for School Choice. During those same years, by the way, the Waltons also gave $3 million to the Arizona Charter Schools Association. Those two donations are only a small part of the Foundation’s educational largesse. In 2013 alone, it gave $164 million under the heading of “Systematic K-12 Education Reform.”
The American Federation for Children (AFC), the group that poured $63,000 into Hupp’s 2010 campaign, is the part of the Alliance for School Choice that gives money and support to candidates. It’s led by Betsy DeVos who married into the Amway fortune and is another major source of money for the school privatization movement.
The AFC doesn’t limit its political money and endorsements to Republicans, even though it’s a conservative organization. When it sees Democrats who might buy into its agenda, the AFC helps them too.
Case in point. In 2012 Democratic State Senator Barbara McGuire (LD-8) proudly displayed an endorsement from the AFC , which created an independent expenditure campaign on her behalf, on her website. In 2013, she first voted No on a bill to expand the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. But when she realized her vote made the difference between the bill going up or down, she changed her vote to Yes, and the expansion passed. As a result, McGuire received public praise from both the Goldwater Institute and the AFC.
Also connected to this conservative privatization web is a group named Democrats for Education Reform (DFER). Its Democratic credentials are so questionable, the California Democratic Party passed a formal resolution condemning the group. DFER has the same function as the AFC — giving money and support to pro-privatization candidates — but its name makes it look like a solid Democratic group. In fact, it shares its leadership with the AFC.
DFER recently set up shop in Arizona and is shopping around for current Democratic legislators to pull into its web while it scouts around for promising new Democratic candidates who will carry the pro-privatization banner.
Following the money and influence of the conservative “education reform” movement gets complex and confusing in a hurry. It includes the groups I’ve discussed, our own Goldwater Institute, ALEC of course, and dozens of other groups, local and national, large and small, which work to create a groundswell of support for its anti-public school agenda.
This article appears in Feb 13-19, 2014.
Empowerment Savings Accounts provide funds for students to attend schools like the Foundation for the Blind. The Director of that foundation has a blind child who hiked Mount Kilamanjaro and who is attending law school. The typical outcome for blind children in American is straight to disability, not independency.
So, you want to take this opportunity away from those 680 children?
Falcon9, thats a very odd comment. My post is about groups that promote vouchers and other forms of education privatization. It’s not a post about the pluses or minuses of ESAs or vouchers per se. I’m against vouchers, true, but I don’t make my arguments here, so you’re refuting an argument that wasn’t made.
If you want to argue my facts or assertions, please feel free. Otherwise, I’m going to assume your comment is an attempt to hijack the conversation so people don’t discuss the topic of the post: that there’s a “vast, well funded conservative/corporate ‘education reform’ movement which spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to get out its pro-voucher, pro-privatization message.”
If you believe I’m incorrect, I’ll be interested in reading your analysis.
This is a very good column. I’d add that in Arizona one factor omitted from the column is that charter schools have actually captured many of the students who used to wind up in private schools. This presents a dilemma for for so-called education reformers…mostly those aligned with Democrats for Education Reform and the Michelle Rhee Students First fraud. These latter groups love charter schools because they can continue to say, “See, we are all about public schools and charters are public schools.” All the while, charter schools enjoy…on a de facto basis…many of the same advantages private schools enjoy such as the right not to even try and work with challenging students.
I have been saying for ten years that the real goal of “education reform” and “vouchers” is the destruction of the public school system. The recent legislation expanding vouchers is a major step in this direction. How unfortunate for Arizonans that our Supt. of Public Instruction is now leading the charge to further damage our public schools. Before long, the only students in public schools will be those that charters and private schools don’t want to deal with…those with disabilities and non-English speakers.
My comment is right on point, blind children with multiple handicaps use ESAs to attend and receive a great education from the Foundation for the Blind. You wold shut that down. Huppenthal and the alliance would not. 680 children is not the destruction of the district system, it is a wake up call. And potentially salvation for these children. Thank you to these groups who are fighting for this opportunity for these children – there that’s to your point.
Falcon9, since you don’t challenge any of my information, I’ll assume it’s substantially correct. I take that as a validation of the post’s verbal diagram of the linkages between groups involved in the opulently funded voucher/privatization movement.
Why couldn’t that kid go to ASDB?
Just have to say that this new column in the Weekly Blog is like a breath of fresh air to those of us who feared that the Weekly was headed into a timeless loop of talking about new beers and new and old music–worthy at a certain level, for sure, but not raising particularly large issues. To be fair, the paper version of the Weekly seemed to maintain more articles of substance, but the Blog was ?Weekly light”. Thanks to the editors and to Safier, with whom, I might add, I don’t always agree–but it is so refreshing to see stories like these on my morning Blog.
This is great information, and I look forward to hearing more about DFER.
Sure, that child could go to ASDB, but the typical outcome for an ASDB child is inability to read and inability to write. Plus they are an organizational mess.
1) David, your editorial post/letter is interesting. I’m a Democrat and am a
promoter of 100% Education Vouchers for all Arizona children. But I have
not received any funds from endowed sources. In this country our
constitution(s) protect our rights of free speech and free association.
2) Seems to me that your right, Huppenthal is the state education sup….but in
the spirit of free thought and free speech he does indicate that private schooling
is a legal choice for our children.
3) Dave, agree with your opening comment: “…The whole story deserves one
of those complicated diagrams, etc…” The actual complications are real and find
their way back into our voter unfriendly elections/campaigns laws. Our
elections/campaigns laws need to be up-graded to reflect every individual voter’s
“Full Voting Rights”. This is a needed subject of your future post/letters.
Thanks and Good Luck, Frank Henry, “Full Voting Rights” Advocate.