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Monday, October 21, 2013

Teach For America — America’s fastest growing political organization?

Teach For America — America’s fastest growing political organization?:

Teach For America — America’s fastest growing political organization?

Money and more money.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Money and more money.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
In recent years we’ve seen the rise of big money being poured into local school board races from well outside the district, or city or even state where the election is being held. Millions were spent, for example, in Los Angeles school board races earlier this year. In April Ipublished a piece by a teacher in New Jersey who blogs under the name “Jersey Jazzman” about the financing of a local school board campaign, and here is a new one, about another election and the same pattern of outside funding.  A version of this appeared on the Jersey Jazzman blog.

By Jersey Jazzman
Last spring, I came across an unannounced, coordinated campaign finance machine, put together to support reform candidates in school board and state-level races across the country. This machine distributed more than one-quarter million dollars to small,