by Via Alternet: Why a Case Against a Dark Money Charter School Group Is Great News for Democracy Billionaire charter school backers in Massachusetts wanted their identities kept secret. In one of the most important decisions ever about dark money in politics, a Massachusetts charter school advocacy group has been ordered to make the names of its donors public, and pay the largest campaign finance fine in state history. The case is likely to reverberate across the nation. This week, the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) exposed the charter school advocacy group Families for Excellent Schools, not as the education reform group of its own masquerade, but as a dark money front designed to hide millions in contributions from
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Via Alternet:
Why a Case Against a Dark Money Charter School Group Is Great News for Democracy
Billionaire charter school backers in Massachusetts wanted their identities kept secret. In one of the most important decisions ever about dark money in politics, a Massachusetts charter school advocacy group has been ordered to make the names of its donors public, and pay the largest campaign finance fine in state history. The case is likely to reverberate across the nation.
This week, the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) exposed the charter school advocacy group Families for Excellent Schools, not as the education reform group of its own masquerade, but as a dark money front designed to hide millions in contributions from plutocrats. The donors, who sought to keep their identities secret, spent big on a ballot question to dramatically expand charter schools in the state; voters rejected itby a wide margin in November.
OCPF reached a Disposition Agreement with Families for Excellent Schools that required the organization to register as a ballot committee and to admit that it had raised (and spent through the Great Schools Massachusetts ballot committee) over $15 million from donors “without disclosing the contributors, and by providing funds to the GSM Committee in a manner intended to disguise the true source of the contributions.” (Press release here).
“Intended to disguise the true source of the contributions.” Marinate in that phrase for a bit.