By STEPHANIE BANCHERO
(The Wall Street Journal, November 3rd, 2010)
CHICAGO–Two national education groups have plowed about $3.5 million into local campaigns in Illinois, Colorado, New York and other states, in an effort to challenge teachers unions’ longstanding clout in the political arena.
Stand for Children, based in Portland, Ore., has given $1.5 million to candidates who support overhauling teacher tenure policies. The group has pumped $600,000 into Illinois alone.
Democrats for Education Reform, which lobbies for charter schools and tougher teacher evaluations, has spent about $250,000 of its own money and gathered another $1.7 million in fund-raising efforts that went to candidates, mainly in New York and Colorado, said Joe Williams, executive director of the New York-based advocacy group.
That compares to $75,000 and $200,000 that Stand for Children and Democrats for Education Reform, respectively, spent on 2008 state races, according to the directors of the two groups.
Even the groups’ fresh spending is significantly smaller than that of teachers unions. The Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association, for example, are outspending Stand for Children by 3 to 1.
But the latest infusion of cash shows how groups seeking change in education are flexing their political muscle with cash for candidates.
“We’ve learned the hard way that if you want to have the clout needed to change policies for kids, you have to help politicians get elected,” said Jonah Edelman, who founded Stand for Children and runs its Illinois operation. “It’s about money, money, money.”
Dave Comerford, a spokesman for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, representing 103,000 teachers, said, “When someone comes in and dumps a bunch of cash, it gets your attention. But we’ve always been pretty successful in getting our friends of education elected.”
The nation’s teachers unions have consistently been among the top campaign contributors to national races, and long have provided candidate endorsements, armies of campaign workers and big-time contributions in state elections as well. This election season, groups pushing for change, often backed by wealthy businesspeople, are pouring more cash into the local races.
They are emboldened by President Barack Obama, who favors their agenda, and by Race to the Top, the federal competition that enticed states to rewrite teacher evaluation and tenure rules and lift a cap on charter schools, public schools run by private groups.
“The reformers have largely been absent from the political process,” Mr. Williams said. “This year, we wanted to show that we understand the rules and protocols that most other interest groups follow.”
Still, they face a formidable foe. So far this year, the teachers unions have contributed more than $24 million to candidates and party committees at the state level, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a nonpartisan campaign research firm.
Stand for Children has been active in Oregon and Colorado for years but made its foray into Illinois only this summer. Mr. Edelman persuaded four business leaders, including Paul Finnegan, co-CEO at Madison Dearborn Partners, a private-equity firm, to donate money.
Mr. Edelman said he felt Illinois was fertile ground because state lawmakers already had lifted the charter cap and had tied teacher evaluations to student test scores to compete for Race to the Top. Stand for Children wants tenure rules tightened to make it tougher for teachers to earn job protection and easier for them to lose it.
Mr. Comerford, of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said state law already allowed districts to fire low-performing teachers.
“I don’t know where this group is coming from,” he said. “I encourage them to look at the reality in our state.”
Mr. Edelman interviewed 36 Illinois candidates and has targeted nine Democrats and Republicans for support. Illinois State Sen. Toi Hutchinson, who is in a tough re-election bid, said she was surprised to receive $100,000 from the group, by far the largest contribution the Olympia Fields Democrat received.
“That kind of money can be a game changer,” said Ms. Hutchinson, a former teacher who supports tougher tenure rules but also higher pay for educators.