P is for Payoff

Inside the Bradley Foundation's Campaign to Privatize Education in Wisconsin

Executive Summary

The Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation is among the largest funders of the right-wing propaganda machine in the country. Their influence in Wisconsin cannot be underestimated. Michael Grebe, Bradley Foundation Chair, also served as co-chair of Gov. Walker’s campaign committee and was instrumental propelling Walker, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus and U.S Representative Paul Ryan to national prominence.

And, as our report reveals, he has orchestrated the funding of a massive propaganda campaign to advocate for the privatization of schools in Wisconsin.

Key findings include:

The Bradley Foundation, headed by Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign co-chair Michael Grebe has underwritten a massive pro-privatization propaganda campaign.
Bradley has spent over $31 million since 2001 supporting organizations promoting education privatization, academics providing favorable pro-privatization pseudo-science, media personalities promoting the privatization agenda and lobbying organizations advocating for privatization legislation.
The Bradley-financed campaign has manufactured an education “crisis”, proposed a “solution”, attacked and undermined the ability of potential opponents to block their agenda and funded aggressive pro-privatization media and lobbying efforts.
Spending on the voucher program in Gov. Walker’s 2013-15 proposed budget would increase a whopping 32%.
The voucher program would be expanded to at least nine new urban school districts under Gov. Walker’s proposed 2013-15 budget.
Wisconsin taxpayers will have spent $1.8 billion on the private school voucher program by 2014-15.
These organizations will provide Gov. Walker with the right-wing education “reform” credibility he needs to pursue his national political ambitions.

Introduction

The private school voucher program that gives qualifying parents a taxpayer funded voucher to send their children to participating private or religious schools, is a cornerstone of an elite cabal of big-money, right-wing ideologues’ effort to transform American society through the radical privatization of public institutions.

There is no bigger player in this campaign than the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, headed by Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign co-chair, Michael Grebe, that has spent over $31 million since 2001 to support organizations, think tanks, journalists and right-wing academics engaged in a comprehensive propaganda and lobbying campaign promoting the privatization of public education.

By 2014-2015, $1.8 billion in tax dollar will have gone to private schools in Wisconsin

In return for their investment, by 2014-15 pro-voucher politicians will have forked over $1.8 billion in tax dollars from the people of Wisconsin to private schools since the inception of the voucher program in 1990-91.

And they’re just getting started.

The Bradley Foundation and pro-privatization allies are poised to enact a massive expansion of the private school voucher and private charter school programs in Wisconsin – and provide Gov. Walker with the right-wing education “reform” credibility he needs to pursue his national political ambitions.

In his 2013-15 state budget proposal, Gov. Walker is calling for a huge funding increase for the private school voucher program and charter schools, a massive geographic expansion of the voucher program to at least nine new urban school districts, and a power grab that strips local school districts of their ability to control the creation of private charter schools in their communities.

To understand the scope of the raid on public education, and the shifting of funds to a second parallel system of state-underwritten private schools, consider that the total funding for private school vouchers, charter and virtual schools will have increased over $150 million between Walker’s enacted 2011-13 budget and his proposed 2013-15 budget. Meanwhile, over the same two budgets, total state and local revenue available to fund public K-12 schools will have been reduced by well over $1 billion.

Gov. Walker’s 2013 budget scheme provides an increase in the per pupil value of private school vouchers of up to $1,414, yet freezes public school per pupil spending, despite public schools absorbing an average cut of $486 in per pupil spending in the last budget, as part of the largest cuts to public education in state history.

Overall, spending on the voucher program in Gov. Walker’s 2013-15 proposed budget would increase a whopping 32%, while public schools would receive a mere 1% funding bump.

In sum, the voucher and charter schools that educate approximately 40,500 pupils would benefit from nearly $100 million in increased state spending while the K-12 public school system, responsible for the education of 872,000 students statewide, would receive only $111 million in new state funding — even after taking $1.6 billion in cuts over the last two years. And, because public school revenue limits are frozen, the additional state public school funds will actually go to replace local property tax revenues instead of being used for education related expenses.

How has Wisconsin – a state with a strong tradition of support for public schools, from the earliest days of its statehood and one of the highest performing public school systems in the country – become ground zero for education privatization?

We follow the trail of Wisconsin’s “Money Badger” Michael Grebe, chair of the Bradley Foundation, to document how they have done it.

Michael Grebe is the Chief Executive Officer of the Bradley Foundation, a Milwaukee-based 501(c)(3) organization with income of over $550 million. Since 2000, the Bradley Foundation has handed out nearly $500 million, making it one of the largest pipelines for conservative money in the nation, surpassing even the foundation giving of David and Charles Koch. In building this rightwing empire, Grebe has also been instrumental in the rise to power of Wisconsin’s most prominent national Republican players — Scott Walker, Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus — and helping build the strength of the state’s conservative infrastructure.

Since 2000, the Bradley Foundation has handed out nearly $500 million

With hundreds of millions of dollars available to them, Grebe and the Bradley Foundation advance an agenda of less corporate accountability, lower taxes for the wealthy and corporations and privatization of public schools. These unmatched funds finance right-wing junk science across the country to make the case for their radical “solutions.” In turn it also finances studies on the backend, which “prove” these policies, where enacted, are somehow working.

In recent years, Bradley has begun supporting organizations front and center in the war on legal voters and supporting right-wing politicians. As just one example, a joint investigation by the news service theGrio and One Wisconsin Now showed that the Bradley Foundation financed a voter suppression billboard campaign in Wisconsin that included the words “Voter Fraud is Illegal” and the penalties.

Stir Discontent

The Bradley Foundation’s infrastructure has been engaged in a systematic and relentless campaign to turn public opinion against the public school system in Wisconsin and its ability to educate our state’s children.

Milwaukee Public Schools were the first target, and the Bradley-funded Wisconsin Policy Research Institute was the launchpad. In order to justify the need for the private voucher schools in Milwaukee, the existing public school system was purposely and consistently attacked.

While purporting to be measuring public opinion on education in Milwaukee, Bradley-funded voucher advocates were in fact stacking the deck. This was most dramatically revealed in 2010 when it was uncovered that the Bradley financed Wisconsin Policy Research Institute pressured the University of Wisconsin professor they had retained to downplay results showing opposition to the voucher program from a survey he conducted for them, and instead feature only favorable results.

The election of Gov. Walker, again whose campaign is co-chaired by Bradley chief Michael Grebe, resulted in an uptick in anti-public school rhetoric and the implementation of a school “report card” system now being utilized by the pro-voucher campaign as they offer their “solution” to a largely manufactured problem.

For example, Gov. Walker, despite strong evidence to the contrary, declared Wisconsin public schools are “failing” and even claimed, again falsely, that up to one-third of Wisconsin fourth graders were unable to read at a basic level.

Identify an Enemy

After having aggressively promoted the “public schools, especially those in Milwaukee, are failing” meme, the next step in the Bradley campaign was to identify the enemy.

Instead of working to directly address what is widely regarded as the single largest variable in student’s academic achievement, poverty, the Bradley machine targeted public school teachers, unions, and “education bureaucrats”.

At their disposal were Bradley funded research and communication vehicles like longstanding partner Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, and more recently, the more radical anti-teacher, anti-organized labor MacIver Institute, Media Trackers and Education Action Group.

From the MacIver Institute touting a “study” alleging Wisconsin has overspent in excess of $300 million on school administrative staff, to the Education Action Group’s reference to teachers as “union thugs,” there has been a concerted effort to denigrate the people who run our schools and teach our children by the Bradley machine.

Leaked documents from the Bradley-funded Heartland Institute detail their strategy, dubbed “Operation Angry Badger”, to attack public schools and promote Act 10, Gov. Walker and legislative Republicans’ public employee union busting effort.

Even national right-wing pundit George Will has been enlisted. A member of the Bradley Foundation Board of Directors and recipient of a $250,000 Bradley “outstanding achievement” cash prize, Will was recently debunked by the PolitiFact Wisconsin project for using his nationally syndicated column to repeat right-wing allegations about the Department of Public Instruction’s curriculum.

In total, Bradley has poured over $1.4 million into support for MacIver, Media Trackers and the Education Action Group. And, since 2001, the Heartland Institute has taken in $1,080,000 in Bradley support.

$1.4 million to support MacIver, Media Trackers and Education Action Group

The demonization of education stakeholders like teachers, along with law changes to cripple their unions, was a strategic effort to neutralize, if not eliminate, the most likely sources of organized resistance to privatization.

Suggest a “Cure”

The denigration of public schools, and the professionals that run, and staff them, is a means to an end: privatization. Therefore the Bradley machine is also employed in the promotion of a “cure” for the “disease,” which they have created. To give their solution the sheen of a big idea, the Bradley foundation supports multiple think tanks and academics to promote their cure, like the aforementioned Heartland Institute, Institute for the Transformation of Learning, Center for Education Reform, Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, American Center for School Choice, Barry Goldwater Institute for Public Policy and more.

What is being proposed is the starving, and eventual elimination of the public school system in Wisconsin, to be replaced by a voucher based system of private schools “freed” from the involvement of a government accountable to the public playing a part in educating children.

Of course, privatization does not address the poverty that is, according to education experts, the genesis of the vast majority of the challenges facing our public schools – and that is why different enemies, the public school system and its teachers and administrators were targeted.

Privatization was sold as the solution to the twin manufactured fallacies of bureaucracy (also known as accountability) and parents being trapped in failing schools staffed with uncaring teachers.

While privatization does not address poverty, it is quite effective in both evading the accountability measures applied to other public institutions and undermining the rights of workers in their workplace.

Is It Working? Researchers You’re Funding Say, “Yes”!

The lack of transparency in the voucher program combined with private schools being largely exempted from administering the same standardized tests as public schools, or disclosing the results, has made analysis of the program difficult.

$250K to fund analysis of the voucher program supported by Bradley

Bradley Foundation affiliated academics have filled the void. Bradley has provided $250,000 to the University of Arkansas to fund an analysis of the voucher program. The work was overseen by a researcher brought in from another Bradley funded entity, the Manhattan Institute, who once wrote that his preference would be for an entirely privatized education system in which there would no longer be any government operated schools.

In addition, the Bradley Foundation has been a longstanding funder of Marquette University and the Institute for the Transformation of Learning, providing $230,000 in 2010 and 2011 alone. The stated mission of the Institute is the study of education alternatives. In practice it aggressively attempts to rebut any suggestions that the voucher program its benefactors support is anything less than successful.

According to the One Wisconsin Institute’s 2011 report, “D is For Dismantle”, in fair comparisons, Milwaukee Public Schools perform as well as, and in some cases, better than, the private voucher program.

For example, when contacted, the researcher behind a study touting voucher program high school graduation rates acknowledged he did not account for numerous socio-demographic factors, including students with disabilities and high-mobility. Not including such data prevented a true “apples to apples” comparison between Milwaukee public schools and private voucher schools. In fact, when said factors were accounted for, MPS graduation rates exceeded those of voucher schools.

Make Sure Everyone Knows

To protect and promote the voucher program and tout the results of the analysis it funded, the Bradley built communications infrastructure is once again deployed.

From newspaper editorial pages to the airwaves of the largest radio and television stations in Southeastern Wisconsin, columnists and talk show hosts receiving significant sums from the Bradley Foundation mouth the same pro-privatization talking points.

Across the board, a slew of “Bradley Intellectuals” are consistently engaged in promoting their internal, biased analysis of the voucher program and aggressively attacking independent analysis suggesting serious flaws in the voucher program.

Multi-platform Bradley Intellectual Charlie Sykes leads the pack. In addition to serving as editor of the print publication of the Bradley funded Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Sykes hosts a three and a half hour radio talk show Monday through Friday, a Sunday morning local issue television talk show and curates a web-based news service, underwritten by the Journal Broadcast Group. The Bradley Foundation even employs Sykes’ current wife as its communications director.

In the lead up to the introduction of the Governor’s proposed education privatization, media events were staged by Bradley funded communications organizations in communities across the state into which the proposed education privatization would first impact. Calling them town halls, right-wing luminaries like Fox News analyst Juan Williams, talk show host Tony Katz and panelists Kristi LaCroix (of Walker recall television ad fame) and staff of the MacIver Institute, School Choice Wisconsin and the American Federation for Children appeared in Beloit, Kenosha and Green Bay.

Speakers on the Bradley payroll, promoting Bradley-funded science have trotted out to attempt to insert pro-privatization messages and propaganda in local media outlets.

Bradley funded MacIver Institute has been an aggressive re-packager and distributor of Bradley funded research in response to concerns about the efficacy of the voucher program raised by education professionals.

Elect and Protect Your Politicians

In recent years, Bradley has moved beyond funding traditional think tanks to aggressively and explicitly promoting politicians sympathetic to its pro-privatization agenda.

There is no more salient example of the benefit of this strategy than Gov. Walker. With Foundation Director Michael Grebe serving as Walker’s campaign co-chair since 2010, the Bradley Foundation literally has a seat at table.

From footing the bill for voter suppression billboards in the 2010 election, uncovered by One Wisconsin Now and theGrio.com, to Bradley funded organizations, the MacIver Institute and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, sponsoring an unprecedented multi-million dollar 501(c)(3) tax deductible television ad campaign in the lead up to Gov. Walker’s recall election, their investment in friendly politicians is aggressively protected.

The Bradley Foundation also provides funding to the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for School Choice, an organization closely affiliated with the American Federation of Children. In fact, the American Federation for Children touts that they “work closely with our educational partner, the Alliance for School Choice.

The American Federation for Children (AFC) is well known in Wisconsin, with disgraced former Republican Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen among its top leadership.

AFC has been extremely active in state legislative races in recent years and recently released a report that brags that the $2.3 million they spent in 2012 was responsible for electing nine pro-privatization Republican legislators. The organization’s 2011 report features a word of thanks for AFC’s electoral work from the Republican Co-Chair of the powerful Joint Committee on Finance, Senator Alberta Darling. The 2010 report touts $1 million in spending to try to secure a pro-privatization legislative majority.

In addition to the multi-million dollar investment by the American Federation of Children, it has been reported wealthy, individual education privatization boosters from across the country have poured nearly $3 million directly into the campaign coffers of pro-voucher legislators since 2003.

With sympathetic politicians who have access to the purse strings in place, pro-privatization forces are well positioned to aggressively move forward with looting the public treasury to fund private and religious schools.

Get Your Way?

To ensure the politicians they helped to elect don’t forget their agenda, Bradley provides funding to organizations that directly lobby at the State Capitol. School Choice Wisconsin, Inc., who currently retains two former Assembly Republican Speakers of the Assembly as lobbyists and a former top GOP legislative staffer, was underwritten to the tune of $500,000 in 2010-11 alone. In total, School Choice Wisconsin has received $2,250,000 from Bradley since 2001.

Outside the Capitol, the Bradley machinery remains vigilant to bring into line any politicians who may be tempted to stray from their hardline education privatization effort.

As previously noted, Bradley funded organizations led events in communities not only into which voucher advocates hoped to expand, but that are also represented by Republican legislators who have questioned the impact of massive education privatization.

Even the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal have been enlisted to, by name, attack a State Senate Republican wary of the privatization of public schools. It is certainly not a coincidence that their editorial page editor, Paul Gigot, was the recent recipient of a $250,000 prize for “outstanding achievement.”

With millions at their disposal, paid media advertising in the key Northeast Wisconsin media market was also sponsored by the Bradley-affiliated Americans for Prosperity Foundation.

$2.25 million to school choice in Wisconsin

Outside the Capitol, the Bradley machinery remains vigilant to bring into line any politicians who may be tempted to stray from their hardline education privatization effort.

With millions at their disposal, paid media advertising in the key Northeast Wisconsin media market was also sponsored by the Bradley-affiliated Americans for Prosperity Foundation.

Conclusion

The largesse of the Bradley Foundation has underwritten an unprecedented propaganda campaign.

To achieve their end goal, the massive diversion of public tax dollars into an unaccountable education privatization scheme, they have: manufactured a crisis, singled out their enemies, generated a cure, justified their scheme with pseudo-science, broadcast their message through the media, helped elect politicians to advance their agenda and kept them in line with high-powered lobbyists and well-funded pressure campaigns.

The results have been stunning.

Since its inception, nearly $2 billion in state taxpayer funds have been spent on the private school voucher program in Wisconsin. Now Gov. Walker and other Bradley sycophantic politicians are seeking to dramatically increase that amount.

The 2013-15 state budget proposed by Gov. Walker includes a 32% increase in overall spending on the voucher program, while at the same time K-12 public schools will not even be given an inflationary increase. Per pupil, the contrast is even starker. Gov. Walker would, on the heels of the largest cuts to public education in state history, increase the value of a private school voucher by up to $1,414 while freezing public school per pupil funding levels.

A strategic decision has been made at the highest levels of state government to starve public education to feed education privatization and create a self-fulfilling prophecy in which public school quality inevitably suffers. And potential political opponents ability to organize opposition has been systematically undermined by punitive legislative measures crippling their ability to mount a counter-campaign.

Will the ideologically driven privatization campaign, underwritten with millions of dollars from the Bradley Foundation, succeed in undermining Wisconsin’s proud tradition of support for public education?

How much will this ideological payoff cost the students of Wisconsin’s chance at a brighter future?

It is not overstatement that the future of public education hangs in the balance.