John Thompson: Are Charitable Groups Crossing the Line Into Politics?
Guest post by John Thompson.
I do not intend to give legal advice without a license. It has been nearly three decades since I was a legal historian and a quarter of a century since I was a legislative lobbyist who studied the federal tax code and state laws on political activity. Back then, we were extra careful in distinguishing between our organization's charitable 501(c)(3) and our 501(c)(4) lobbying arm. My sense is that today's politics are more free-wheeling. So, I will limit my thoughts to the spirit of the law and the democratic principles that we should be practicing.
The IRS is proposing new rules on charitable organizations. Most commentators are focusing on organizations such as Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS and Tea Party groups, but in education we need to ask whether new rules will apply to the "astroturf" organizations that corporate reformers use to attack teachers. As NPR's Tamara Keith explains, 501c(4) organizations can now deny they are primarily political and still send the seemingly political message that "candidate X is terrible, call him and tell him to stop being so terrible." Under the proposed rules, that would no longer count as social welfare.
We in education know Students First as Michelle Rhee's blood-in-the-eye anti-teacher, anti-union organization, and it is a 501 C(4). Seed money for this political organization came from the Broad Foundation. In 2011, they fought the recall of Michigan Governor Paul Scott. In 2012, they spent nearly $2 million to support 105 candidates; 90 were Republicans. We could say that they exist to defeat teachers and unions in order to help schools, or we could say they exist to fight the people