Who is funding the attacks on your protections, your healthcare, your pension? In short, right-wing billionaires.
It shouldn’t be a surprise. They want to privatize our schools and make you work for less money so they can make more. Because billions aren’t enough. And they’re happy to spend some of their billions nationwide to dismantle union membership.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY. KNOW THE TRUTH.
What They Want：
- To disrupt and defund public education
- To vilify and weaken the teachers union
- To destroy the power of labor unions and workers
- To consolidate their power so they can make more money
How They're Trying To Do It：
- Actively pushing to defund public schools and promote unaccountable charter schools
- Bringing the culture wars to our schools
- Promoting misinformation and conspiracy theories designed to fracture our society and disrupt our kids' learning
Who are these groups?
Freedom Foundation
What a nice sounding name. Who doesn’t want freedom? Well, if you’re looking for freedom from worker protections, freedom from a dignified retirement, and freedom from a good healthcare plan, this is the group for you!
The donor list for this group is a veritable who’s who of right-wing billionaire donors; the Walton family, the DeVos family, the Mercer family, and the Koch family are all listed prominently on donor rolls. They claim to hate big government and “the entrenched power of left-wing union bosses,” but didn’t have any problem taking over $300,000 in Paycheck Protection Program money from the government during the COVID pandemic. They also have received over $3 million from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.
They also work with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and State Policy Network (SPN) to pass around cookie-cutter legislation to state legislatures across the nation to weaken union protections across the board.
Who's Funding:
- Walton Family Foundation ─ $3,275,000
- Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation ─ $1,000,000
- Mercer Family Foundation ─ $500,000
- Charles Koch Charitable Foundation ─ $25,000
New Choice NY
Wait, we mean Americans For Fair Treatment... because their website goes to another group entirely. Not from New York, actually from Oklahoma, this group is dishonest all over. Tim Hoefer from the Empire Center for Public Policy sits on the Board of Directors, and the rest of the board is a who’s who of right-wing think tanks and billionaire dark money.
Who's Funding:
- The Mackinac Center/Donor's Capital Fund ─ $4,962,550
- The DeVos Family ─ $1,410,000
- DonorsTrust ─ a fund that gives to right-leaning public policy organizations
- Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation ─ the fund’s president is the former head of the Wisconsin Republican Party. Their campaign in Wisconsin helped shepherd in the devastating anti-union changes that took place in that state
Mackinac Center
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy — a Michigan-based conservative think tank long funded by the family of former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos —launched a whopping $10 million campaign aimed at persuading public-sector union members to disaffiliate.
Who's Funding:
- Betsy DeVos and her family ─ $1,410,000
- The Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation ─ $400,000
- Betsy DeVos’s husband was even a member of the Mackinac Center’s board of Directors
See the Pattern?
Right-wing billionaires want to take away YOUR retirement, YOUR pension, YOUR healthcare, YOUR workplace protects all so they can make a few extra bucks. The millions they spend are a “charitable” tax write off for them, but for us, these protections are essential.
They want you to believe that not supporting your union is in your best interest. It’s not. It’s in theirs because they benefit from you making less money and having less power while they get more of both.