by Clint Bolick
Goldwater Institute
Ever wondered who’s behind those “I Vote 4 Education” signs sprouting up on street corners across Arizona? They’re sponsored by an issue advocacy group called Expect More Arizona. That group is funded by a variety of interests including the Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA), which represents public officials who oversee taxpayer-funded school districts.
ASBA has been directly involved in several recent Arizona elections. The association contributed to the Yes on 100 sales tax increase campaign and, in June, donated $50,000 to the No on Proposition 302 campaign to oppose a November ballot measure that would end a costly and ineffective early-childhood program.
Wait, you might ask, isn’t it illegal to spend public funds on ballot measures? Yes, it is.
ASBA believes it is immune from that law because it is a “private” nonprofit organization. But its voting members consist entirely of school districts, whose dues come from public funds, and all of ASBA’s officers are current school board members. It’s a nifty trick: school boards that cannot use public money to campaign create a “private” organization that can.
It’s not just ballot measures: one of ASBA’s stated goals is to “advocate the core beliefs and political agenda as adopted by the membership.” That translates into a 21-page political agenda that calls for – you guessed it – more spending on public schools.
ASBA contends it uses only “private” money generated from its workshops to support its election activities. We decided to find out by submitting a public-records request to see ASBA’s finances. Guess what? Request denied. Even though every voting member is subject to the public-records law, by joining together in ASBA – voila! – suddenly they’re not.
In our view, public money should not be used for lobbying or electioneering. The misuse of public funds doesn’t get any cleaner by laundering them through a theoretically private entity. It’s an abuse of power that cries out for legislative action – and if necessary, litigation.
Clint Bolick is the director of the Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation at the Goldwater Institute.
If the trial lawyers weren’t all AWOL when ya needed them, they’ve have a better reputation.
These days, is seems as if one has to register as a Democrat before one is awarded one’s law degree.
Hmm… this is news?
There’s a very, very simple solution to put the lockdown on school districts. It’s http://www.prop13arizona.com
This isn’t the only organization with its fingers in the taxpayer pie. Take a close look at an even more powerful organization: ASSBO, Arizona State School Business Officers
The real fix is to get conservatives onto school boards and stop the indoctrination, insane spending and lack of accountability that has been going on for decades. The problem is getting people off their duffs to do it. We have 7 open seats in the Casa Grande and Toltec school districts and got 6 conservatives on the ballot. All are out of local Tea Party groups and are Pinal GOP PCs as well. Was there any help or interest by anyone in the Pinal GOP outside of us Tea Partiers? No. Was there any support getting signatures? No. For the first time in a long time we have contested board seats with a conservative option. In 2012 three out of the five positions on every board in the state will be up for election. Start recruiting now and work up a slate of conservative candidates.
The G.I. is doing the same thing folks.
All of their Annual Reports are available online as PDFs but most of the newer ones do not list specific names of donors — if you go back a few years they do list some from their 2006 report:
http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2006annualreport.pdf
Goldwater Institute
Sponsors*
Alliance for School Choice
Jeanne Archer
Barry and Mandy Asmus
John and Christine Augustine
William Aust
Ron Barness
Barbara Barrett
Gay and Ron Baukol
Bob and Margaret Beardsley
Melanie Beauchamp
Brett and Kate Bishov
Pete Bolton
The Lynde and Harry
Bradley Foundation
Andrew and Pamela Brinkman
John and Martha Bryan
David and Joan Buchanan
Lyle P. Campbell
Wil Cardon
Challenge Foundation
Challenge School, Inc.
Chase Foundation of Virginia
Mike and Evy Chipman
Bill and Margaret Clark
Jim and Vicki Click
Sam Cowley
Garland and Carolyn Cox
Kenny and B.J. Dahlberg
The Daniels Fund
John Dawson
Tim and Sandi Day
DCI Group
Patrick and Sara Dial
Jack Dillard
Graham Dorland
Clarence Duncan
Eaton Family Foundation
Karl and Stevie Eller
Dick Erath
Excellent Education for Everyone
Ross Farnsworth
Becky Fenger
Fight Night
Justin Firestone
Jeff and Cheryl Flake
Fleischer Foundation
Budd and Laurie Florkiewicz
Bill Franke
The Lynn and Foster Friess
Family Foundation
Sam and Rita Garvin
Geddes and Company
George and Dyan Getz
Gleason Foundation
Herbert Goldberg
Neal Goldman and Marlene Mieske
Greenberg Traurig, LLT
Bob and Joanne Hannay
Robert and Marie Hansen
Foundation
Jon Held
Jerry Hirsch
Hirshman Foundation
Bob and Karen Hobbs
Adriana Holy and Alan Gordon
Home Builders Association
of Central Arizona
David and Carolyn Hubbard
Len Huck
J. C. Huizenga
William Huizingh
Ethelmae Humphreys
Tom and Marilyn Husband
Mike Ingram
Bruce Jacobs
Larry and Joan Jarnagin
JELD-WEN Foundation
John A. Jenkins
John Jennings
Bob and Pattie Johnston
Judy Joseph and Stephen Fry
Michael Kasser
Michael and Dawn Kennedy
Ken and Randy Kendrick
The Kern Family Foundation
Guy and Mary Kezirian
Anne L. Kleindienst
Dennis and Margot Knight
Charles G. Koch Charitable
Foundation
Dick Kossmann
Richard C. Kraemer
Mike and Jane Kunde
Frank Labriola
Michael and Sharon Lechter
Robert A. Levy
Richard Lochridge
Jack and Lynn Londen
Mac and Sandra Magruder Jr.
Matrixx Initiatives, Inc.
Norman McClelland
Jack and Isabelle McVaugh
Louise Menk
Andrew and Marcia Meyer
Chris and Abbie Milisci
Lisa and Alfredo Molina
Dorothy Donnelley Moller
C. P. and Margaret Montgomery
Jan and Jeffrey Moorad
Francis Najafi
National Federation
of Independent Business
Todd Nelson
John Norton
Allan Norville
Bill and Sada O’Brien
Daniel and Dana O’Connor
Gerry Ohrstrom
Gerald Olson
Christine and Lute Olson
Herb Owens
Sameer Parekh
Dr. Thomas and Jeanne Patterson
W. Bradford Perkinson
Ruth and Lovett Peters Foundation
Earl and Pat Petznick Sr.
Pierce Farms, Inc., Las Vegas Ranch
Kenneth Pinckard
Platt Photography
Bill and Linda Pope
Donald and Dorothy Povejsil
Randy Pullen
Dan and Marilyn Quayle
Dr. H. Rafi zadeh
Fred and Karen Reams
Manson and Jane Reedal
John and Graceann Reese
Dean Riesen
David and Irene Roberts
Ed and Michelle Robson
The Rodney Fund
Roe Foundation
Jason and Jordan Rose
Chris Rufer
Charles F. and Jennifer E. Sands
Terry Sarvas
R. Evan Scharf
Reid and Linda Schindler
Jim and Patty Simmons
Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer Gerry Smedinghoff
Southwest Gas
Scott Spangler
SRP
Jeffrey D. Steier, MD, and
Elizabeth Steier
Frank and Linda Surdakowski
Terence Thomas
Fred and Mary Tucker
Jon and Tammy Underwood
Carly Van Dox
Warne Family Trust
Norma Zimdahl
*Sponsors at the
Senator level and above.
The Challenge School is a public charter. Wonder if the GI gave the public money back. Also wonder how many folks on that list own charters in this state.
The Challenge School is owned by the Challenge Foundation. A building they list as valued at $3 million.
Stephen,
You can stop tooting your own horn. School board elections are nonpartisan.
Joe,
Stephen has a valid point – he didn’t say that there was no help from the Pinal County GOP, he said that – except for Tea Party members – there was no help from PEOPLE in the Pinal County GOP.
The only way school board electins are “nonpartisan” is a lack of formal party activity. Most school boards look like a Who’s Who of liberal activists who command great support from their overwhelmingly Democratic base. Taking issue with a lack of support by individual party members is appropiate because the schools are going to just get worse unless people step up to the plate.
For an example of a good conservative candidate for a school board, there’s Shane Stapley in LD22 who is running for the Gilbert School Board.
http://stapleyforschoolboard.info/index.html
The education establishment is whining constantly about not having enough money. They dump millions into political campaigns, so that means they have PLENTY of money. They just aren’t using it for top curriculum and teachers with subject competencies. Parents needing a solid education for their children are the clients, the children are the recepients and the service is measurable skills aquisition. The unionized teachers and administration are NOT the clients and the srevice is NOT gold plated pensions, insurance packages and tenure.
Until they have no bucks to spend on frivolties, they don’t need more money, in fact they need LESS, because they are using quite a bit of it for other purposes. The priorities are all backwards.
WHo would care if kids were graduating with outstanding educations, but they AREN’T. It’s not even average, it’s piss poor. They have an inadequate education product NOW, deteriorating every year. The unions are so selfishly focussed they can’t even remember the kids.