The Campaign of 2016

Abstract

The Campaign of 2016 explores the details of the most expensive ballot campaign in Massachusetts history. Question 2 was a continuance of a long effort to privatize public education and decimate teachers’ unions. This time the teachers fought back. The corporate reform side promised choice and defended their claim to public dollars, while the teachers’ side hammered away at the millions being drained from traditional public schools by charters. The privatizers’ ballot committee, Great Schools Massachusetts, was being funded by a dark money operation called Families for Excellent Schools of New York. The teachers attacked the wealthy out-of-state elites. Eventually, the secret funders were revealed and were not from New York, but were a handful of Massachusetts wealthiest persons.