Several well-heeled Democratic Party donors have split with the state party and legislative leaders over education reform.
By Andrew Garber
(From The Seattle Times, Feburary 25th, 2012)
OLYMPIA — Several well-heeled Democratic donors have openly split with the state party and legislative leaders over education reform, arguing Washington is falling behind because lawmakers are afraid to buck the teachers union.
Donors say they fear the Democratic Party could lose ground to Republicans on the issue. Some even say they’re on the fence when it comes to supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna or Democratic candidate Jay Inslee, given the candidates’ stances on education.
It’s rare for what amounts to a Democratic family fight to get aired in public, but the parties to this feud are dragging out the dirty laundry with gusto as they argue over what reform really means.
The dispute boiled to the surface this month when venture capitalist Nick Hanauer fired off a widely circulated email saying, “I have seen the enemy, and it is us. It is impossible to escape the painful reality that we Democrats are now on the wrong side of every important education-reform issue.”
Hanauer, who’s contributed more than $2.5 million to Democratic campaigns and causes since 2001, is particularly ticked off about what he considers a lack of progress this year on beefing up teacher evaluations and allowing charter schools. The Obama administration has advocated both on a national level.
He also contends that the Washington Education Association (WEA), the state’s largest teachers union, has far too much sway with Democratic leaders and “is literally strangling our public schools to death.”
State records show the WEA has contributed more than $900,000 to the state Democratic Party since 2002 and more than $300,000 to state House and Senate Democratic campaign committees alone. The union also regularly donates thousands to individual candidates and causes.