Marty Walsh's BPS Parent Counter-Intelligence Op

A blog post published today by a political science professor at Umass Boston, Mo Cunningham, tracks the source of dark money funding a new education non-profit from 'philanthrocapitalists' he says will target Boston School teachers.

Mo did some epic work tracking the source of dark money that funded the Question2 campaign to remove the cap on charter schools statewide. Voters rejected Question2 2 to 1. 95% of the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth opposed it, 100% of the cities opposed it. Mass. has the highest rated K-12 education in the US and it seems parents and taxpayers want to remain in control of their schools democratically.

The problems with dark money in a democracy is that it is unaccountable, it gives people with more wealth more influence in policy debate, and it seems especially problematic when the money is from a place which will not live with the policies they advocate.

Did you know that 1 of their AstroTurf organizers infiltrating parent groups was passing herself as "just a parent" but works for the Mayor?

— Kristin Johnson (@KrissyCabbage) June 6, 2017

Now we learn that a person who works in the Mayor's education cabinet in city hall, (which was a Marty Walsh innovation that didn't exist when Tom Menino was guardian of our schools,) is infiltrating parent groups and not acknowledging she works for the mayor in his education cabinet. You might think she'd be proud to share the information about where she works and what she does, answer questions about the work being done and solicit feedback from BPS parents but no, instead she prefers to engage as a mole. Secrecy and deception is no way to develop or gain consent for new education policy nor is treating parents like they're the opposition party and the way to get things done is hide the agenda. It reminds me that Boston2024 and Mayor Walsh kept chapter two of the bid book classified for six months until city council held a hearing and demanded it.

The mayor should know, he works for the students, parents and teachers of Boston Schools, not the other way around.

If this is the mindset that pervades the Marty Walsh administration, it's got to stop. We can't have a productive policy debate when public servants are sneaking around and being dishonest with constituents.