Unlimited funding and resources...and she has to report none of her spending. In New Jersey, the state affiliate of StudentsFirst can count on nearly unlimited support from hedge-fund managers David Tepper and Alan Fournier, the executive director said. Tepper and Fournier are also substantial donors to the PAC backing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Both men declined to comment. There is no budget, said the state director, Derrell Bradford. They are willing to spend whatever it takes. On a smaller scale, Charter Schools USA, one of the largest for-profit charter school management companies in the nation, gave Rhees group $5,000 last year after honoring her as a New American Hero, a spokeswoman for the outfit said. And StudentsFirst has received more than $1 million in small contributions of less than $100 each from parents and other grassroots supporters, the staff said. While Rhee is not required to disclose her spending, Reuters tracked more than $2 million in advocacy expenditures over the past nine months alone. Among the line items: $790,000 on advertising and lobbying in Connecticut; $6,700 to wine and dine lawmakers in Missouri; and $120,000 in donations to candidates and political caucuses in Tennessee. In Michigan, StudentsFirst spent $955,000 last fall to push an education package that included evaluating teachers primarily by student test scores and restricting union bargaining rights (so issues like the new evaluation system would not be subject to negotiation). Rhees top ally in that campaign was State Representative Paul Scott, a social and fiscal conservative seen as a rising star in the Republican party. Furious, the teachers union organized and funded a drive to recall Scott. Wealthy business and evangelical interests and StudentsFirst fought back in a failed bid to keep him in office. Rhees group alone spent at least $210,000 on that campaign, state records show. articles.chicagotribune/2012-05-15/news/sns-rt-us-usa-education-rheebre84e1oa-20120515_1_michelle-rhee-studentsfirst-grade-level/2
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 13:13:52 +0000
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