After 2016: Money Never Sleeps

Abstract

The oligarchs behind Families for Excellent Schools suffered a crushing defeat on Election Day but the worst was yet to come. Massachusetts Office Campaign and Political Finance had been watching the deluge of money and undertook an investigation. Three dark money fronts that had operated in 2016 were forced to disclose their true donors—the wealthy privatizers who had gone to such lengths to maintain secrecy. The Walton family analysis of what happened credited the actual grassroots of the teachers, and academic studies noted the alliance of the teachers with hardworking groups representing people of color in the neighborhoods. FES collapsed, but the privatizers, led by the Walton Family Foundation, simply funded a new array of positive sounding groups to carry out the Waltons’ political aims. The money flow barely slowed.