Massachusetts voters will decide whether to raise the cap on charter schools in one of the country’s best states in educational achievement.
It’s no surprise that outside money from the Billionaire Boys Club, including heirs to the Walmart fortune, are paying to try to pass the measure.
WBUR in Boston reports that pro-charter forces have spent more than $19 million, 50 percent more than those fighting charter expansion. Most of the money comes from out of state. Most of it comes darkly, without specific disclosure as to source behind a nonprofit umbrella organization. Almost 10 percent of the money, a whopping $1.8 million, comes from Jim and Alice Walton (not that $1.8 million is much more than pocket change to the billionaires.) It’s possible they contribute to some of the nonprofits, too.
The Waltons hope to do to Massachusetts what they are doing to Arkansas. Which is why people who value local control of schools in Massachusetts are fighting them so hard.