PARTNER PAPER WITH PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS IN LA: OUT-OF-TOWN BILLIONAIRES & TRUMP BACKERS ATTEMPT TO HIJACK LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD ELECTION
The California Charter School Association (CCSA), directly and through its network of entities, has been the biggest spender in the 2017 election for Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) school board members to represent Districts 4 and 6, having spent over $4 million to-date. Nearly all of CCSA’s political campaign funding comes from millionaires and billionaires. Out-of-town billionaires make up the bulk of this funding.
Between July 2016 – December 2016, out-of-town billionaires like Doris Fisher, Co-Founder of The Gap, Alice Walton, heiress to the WalMart fortune, and Michael Bloomberg, New York financier and former Mayor, all made big political contributions to the California Charter School Association Advocates (CCSAA) Independent Expenditure Committee.
The combined net worth of these three out-of-town billionaires is $125.5 BILLION. Doris Fisher lives in San Francisco, Alice Walton lives in Bentonville, Arkansas and Michael Bloomberg lives in New York City.
Additionally, numerous contributors to the CCSAA political fund are Trump supporters, a position that puts them out-of-sync with the majority of Los Angeles voters.
Alice Walton and the WalMart family, for example, donated to the Super PAC that worked to elect Trump, donated to Mike Pence, Jeff Sessions, and to the Alliance for School Choice, an organization that Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos helped to lead. Richard Riordan, who gave $1 milion to CCSAA to then launch an independent expenditure committee working to elect Melvoin and Gonez, is a Trump supporter and donor. [i] Many others CCSAA donors are as well.
CCSA has poured money into these school board races directly through its Independent Expenditure Committee, [ii] and has also acting as a pass through for three other independent expenditure committees that are involved in the race.
- CCSAA sponsors and funds[iii] the deceptively named Parent Teacher Alliance (PTA), also a big electoral spender.
- The PTA, CCSAA helps fund[iv] the Students for Education Reform (SFER) Action Network, which also spent money on this election.
- LA Students for Change Opposing Steve Zimmer for School Board 2017 is funded by a $1,000,000 donation[v] from former LA Mayor Richard Riordan that was received through CCSAA
According to available filings,[vi] CCSAA and the groups it funds have provided almost all the independent electoral spending on behalf of Nick Melvoin and Kelly Gonez in the hotly contested District 4 and 6 races.
- District 4: of the reported independent expenditures on behalf of Melvoin — $2,415,345 in the primary and $768,316 in the general, or $3,183,661 in total – almost all were filed by CCSAA with Eli Broad and Speak UP – Supporting Nick Melvoin for School Board 2017 contributing the rest.
- District 6: all reported independent expenditures on behalf of Gonez — $739,821 in the primary and $588,564 in the general, or $1,328,385 in total — were filed by the CCSAA and PTA.
CCSAA has acted as a conduit for millions in campaign contributions flowing into the Los Angeles school board race, and while we know the identities of donors through 2016, the people of Los Angeles won’t know the identities of the more recent donors until well after the election.
HIDDEN MONEY DONORS OPPOSING PUBLIC EDUCATION FUNDING STRIKE AGAIN
Since the Supreme Court ruled on Citizens United we’ve seen an explosion in hidden money (so-called “dark money”) pouring into political races fueled by corporate self-interest, a desire for the super wealthy to lower their taxes and/or to privatize the functions of government. These races have typically been big races for the control of the House, Senate, Governor’s mansion or the presidency. In Partner Paper with Public School Parents in LA: Out-of-Town Billionaires & Trump Backers Attempt to Hijack Local School Board Election « Alice Walton « Hedge Clippers:
