NEWS FLASH: The secret-but-public Yahoo group that I described yesterday here has now been closed! Apparently too many Kossacks were checking the link, recognizing the evidence of potential criminal wrongdoing by Advocates for Student Achievement of Milwaukee, and sharing it with their friends and neighbors, the media and Wisconsin law enforcement agencies. I hope that everyone was able to copy the data found there before it was closed this morning. I did!
Now, on to today's update:
Kossacks, I've been thinking this morning about the reasons why the daily newspaper in Milwaukee might choose not to follow up on the investigative reporting (consisting of a couple of Google searches) I did on Monday and reported yesterday here and here.
I've also been puzzling over how representatives of the pro-voucher Advocates for Student Achievement know which candidates will get the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's endorsements, and on which dates those endorsements will be published, well ahead of time; a friend of mine suggests it's clairvoyance.
If you read yesterday's note, you know what I found and how newsworthy it is. I suspect there's enough evidence there of wrongdoing to keep a couple of lawyers busy for several days, not to mention the Journal-Sentinel's crack team of four -- count 'em, says quartet member Alan Borsuk -- education reporters.
I've come up with several thoughts that I thought I'd run past you for input.
Possible Reason 1: When the Journal-Sentinel gets scooped on a compelling news story, it ignores the fact that news actually occurred. That way, no one will realize it was scooped.
Lisa Kaiser of the weekly Shepherd Express is the only reporter who has consistently covered the activities of ASA, the only one who has asked ASA's treasurer any tough questions about the Citizen Action complaint against the group, and the only reporter thus far who has acknowledged the existence of the ASA Yahoo group that I found and summarized yesterday.
ASA Goes Rogue
Thought that the controversial anti-incumbent, anti-union "reform" group Advocates for Student Achievement (ASA) was up to more than they were letting on? Well, according to the e-mails they posted on their Yahoo Group, they were. The unidentified yet highly resourceful and entertaining blogger SixandSevens has posted some of them online at DailyKos.com.
The gist of the e-mail correspondence thus far is that ASA—which supporters say is divided into the nonpolitical ASA-MKE and ASA-PAC, the political, fundraising arm—was launched in 2007 to field and train candidates for the April 7, 2009, election.
As the Shepherd reported back then, supporters listed at the time of its first fundraiser included pro-voucher MPS board member Bruce Thompson and voucher supporters Joe Dannecker and Kevin Ronnie. Other supporters, including former legislator Dennis Conta didn’t seem to fit the pro-voucher profile, but ASA said they were only concerned about fielding candidates that were interested in raising student achievement, nothing more. Well, there was a lot more going on.
Much of the correspondence dug up by SixandSevens involves Anne Curley’s and Kevin Ronnie’s discussions of recruiting a candidate to run against MPS Board President Peter Blewett. That candidate turned out to be ReDonna Rodgers, although at least one other person expressed interest in the race. Ronnie, in case you forgot, ran against Blewett and lost in 2005.
But Curley and Ronnie are also highly concerned with fundraising for candidates they trained, keeping Bruce Thompson—a lightning rod for voucher opponents—away from ASA’s public events, and its dissatisfaction with the $12,000 push poll it commissioned earlier this year to raise the organization’s profile and sow doubts about current board members, Blewett specifically. The good folks at MMAC are mentioned here and there.
It’s entertaining stuff. But is it more than that?
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What’s more, ASA-PAC treasurer Joe Dannecker told me yesterday that the PAC hasn’t filed any campaign finance forms because there hasn’t been any activity. Well, according to these e-mails, he’s got some explaining to do.
I admit that I’m not an expert on campaign finance laws, but I suspect that ASA should have reported these activities back in February, since they’ve been going on for some time. I’ve been in contact with the City Election Commission and I haven’t been able to find any financial forms submitted by ASA. I have, however, found the PAC’s registration forms from 2007.
If anyone’s got those forms, I’d love to see them and find out exactly how much money ASA has raised, from whom, and where it’s going. If anything of note is revealed before the election, I’ll post it here.
Click the link for Kaiser's whole story.
Even before posting yesterday's notice at the Shep Express's website, Kaiser was tracking this story.
According to the complaint, ASA is "illegally providing contributions to three Milwaukee School Board Campaigns": Friends to Elect ReDonna Rodgers, Annie Woodward for Education, and Voeltner School Board. Those contributions include candidate orientation sessions, issue papers for candidates, continuing candidate education, volunteer recruitment, fund-raising, express advocacy via e-mail and possible express advocacy through a "push poll." State law requires political action committees (PACs) and candidates to report of their contributions that are of value.
Non-monetary contributions are labeled "in-kind" for reporting purposes. Robert Kraig of Citizen Action said that lack of disclosure runs counter to the "very important public purpose of campaign finance laws." ASA has registered as a PAC with the city of Milwaukee, but as of this writing no ASA campaign finance disclosure forms have been filed at the Milwaukee Election Commission.
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ASA representatives say there are two sides of the organization: ASA-MKE, which is nonpolitical and seeks to raise awareness of the issues plaguing MPS, and ASA-PAC, the group’s political arm. Former MPS board member Joe Dannecker, treasurer for ASA-PAC, said the organization did not file any reports with the election commission because it didn’t spend any money before the pre-primary reporting deadline. He said the PAC would report its activities by March 30. Dannecker said he was not aware of an e-mail sent on Feb. 19 from the "ASA Executive Committee," which asked for donations to the three candidates or to the Milwaukee Fund for Public Education, a pro-voucher group that dumped $50,000 into voucher-supporting incumbents’ races just before the 2003 board elections.
It also requested volunteers to work on the campaigns’ door-to-door and phone bank activities. "I can’t say that I’ve seen that particular e-mail," Dannecker said. "People send e-mails all the time. But certainly ASA- MKE should not be engaging in partisan activities. ASA-PAC has not been doing a whole lot. But if there’s a pre-primary report [due], then that’s my mistake, although if the PAC didn’t spend money in the pre-primary period I’m sure there’s nothing of consequence."
He said the PAC has raised a few thousand dollars "and that’s it."
If you had time to read through those 340 or so messages at ASA's Yahoo group before it was taken down, there doesn't seem to be much differentiation between a non-partisan ASA-MKE and a political arm called ASA-PAC. All the characters are the same, they share information back and forth among themselves and with candidates and campaigns, so it appears that Dannecker's distinctions-on-paper are only that: distinctions on paper. In practice, all seemed it would be fair unless and until they got caught.
Possible Reason 2: When coverage of a story will lead to embarrassment for the Journal-Sentinel, it will choose not to cover the story -- particularly if media-savvy (and critical) bloggers might seize upon it for their amusement.
I'm not the only one who's curious about the Journal-Sentinel's choices for coverage. The Brew City Brawler has had the Journal-Sentinel's number for quite some time and added his thoughts to the developing question yesterday:
The Advocates for Student Achievement -- a pro-voucher group that's trying to unseat Peter Blewett -- has been a source of much unintentional comedy of late. From their dubious polling to their getting sued for hinky activities to their discussion of hinky activities in a secret forum that was in plain view ... these guys are a hit machine that rivals Air Supply at their peak.
But for the Brawler, the biggest chuckle came when he saw that this gang that couldn't shoot straight was communicating with Alan Borsuk, the not-at-all self-righteous education reporter who'd be exactly the last guy you'd turn to if you wanted to understand shortcomings in the Milwaukee voucher regime.
From One Wisconsin Now's coverage:
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From: "Anne Curley"
Date: Mon Feb 2, 2009 10:29 pm
Subject: Update on Journal-Sentinel story
Alan Borsuk says he doesn't plan to do a story for tomorrow's paper...not that excited about the poll results...seems to feel they are compromised by the allegations of push-polling. Wants to see all the questions, in the order in which they were asked, so he can judge for himself whether it was a biased or otherwise inappropriate survey. And he's only willing to look at this information on an on-the-record basis.
I have a call in to Mark Kass at the Business Journal to see if we can get a good spread on this there.
Other suggestions on how we should leverage the poll results while they're still fresh?
Trust me: If Borsuk and Kass have any shame they are blushing at the revelation that the little achievers viewed them as marks.
But the thing that strikes the Brawler is that, while Borsuk feels free to incite outrage against MPS, or manufacture controversy around potential stimulus spending (this defense against Gretchen Schuldt's takedown is positively pathetic), he has managed to completely ignore controversy around ASA's hijinks despite having reason to believe something was amiss...for quite some time. Borsuk stood silently by as Patrick McIlheran approvingly quoted the poll (without noting some of the questions around it, naturally) and, hilariously, subsequently described ASA as "an organization whose leaders include people with ties to the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, as well as some with ties to labor organizations."
"I wish it weren't so, but here's a fact: There is no one in the Milwaukee area who can say, 'I am a news reporter who focuses on covering education,' who does not work for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel," Borsuk recently self-righteously declared in the JS. "We have four people who do that, and the benefit shows."
Except when it doesn't!
Thanks, BCB. So long as the Shep Express is outpacing the Journal-Sentinel in coverage of potential criminal wrongdoing by political action committees seeking to take over the MPS Board, I think Borsuk should revise his math somewhat.
Potential Reason 3: If developing news conflicts with, or suggests a flaw in, the Journal-Sentinel's editorial position on a major issue, then that news will be ignored. That way, no one will realize that the Journal-Sentinel is fallible.
It's hardly a secret that the Journal-Sentinel is pro-voucher. There are days when it might better be called the Voucher-Sentinel, a newsletter of allied voucher advocates, rather than the Journal-Sentinel, Milwaukee's daily newspaper. But on the day AFTER the Shep Express managed to post coverage of ASA's potential criminal wrongdoing on its website, the best that the Journal-Sentinel could muster was a major report concluding that there's little difference between the achievement levels of students attending voucher schools and traditional public schools, which somehow means that voucher schools are better (because they're cheaper) and that the existence of voucher schools has forced Milwaukee's public schools to do better. Really -- I don't know enough about it to be able to make this stuff up, so here's Borsuk's explanation:
By Alan J. Borsuk of the Journal Sentinel
The first research since the mid-1990s comparing the academic progress of students in Milwaukee's precedent-setting private school voucher program with students in Milwaukee Public Schools shows no major differences in success between the two groups. The long-awaited report, along with a half dozen other research reports related to the voucher program and conducted by researchers mostly from the University of Arkansas, will be released Thursday at a breakfast hosted by the Public Policy Forum.
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On the other hand, one of the studies being released uses a formula that factors in the number of school choices available to MPS students to conclude that, by a small margin, MPS results are better now than they otherwise would be because of the presence of voucher schools.
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To summarize several of the studies, they show that the voucher system is educating children at less cost than MPS, that parental satisfaction with both MPS and voucher schools is quite high, that Milwaukee continues to bear the brunt of the cost of the voucher program while the rest of the state actually saves money because of it - and that academic results aren't much different.
I especially appreciated the disclaimer that Borsuk tucked away in the text:
The research is privately funded, primarily by a set of major foundations with interests in education, including some generally considered pro-voucher.
Sometime when I'm bored, I'll check online to see which "major foundations" funded that University of Arkansas research, and whether any of their leaders might coincidentally have contributed to ASA. But wait! ASA doesn't file campaign finance reports, so it's a moot question.
Possible Reason 4: If the coverage of developing news might serve to bolster the case of MPS Board President Peter Blewett, who has never collected the Journal-Sentinel's recommendation even once, then the Journal-Sentinel will ignore that news, perhaps until after the election, and then may refer to it only in passing.
This is a little nuanced, but only a little. ASA has downplayed its focus on vouchers throughout its public pronouncements and has instead tried to make Blewett's record as board president the big issue. But Blewett's record as board president is pretty good, particularly on the improvement of graduation rates. A blogger at One Wisconsin Now posted a note about that point just this week:
Many supporters of Milwaukee’s private school voucher program, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have been on a never ending crusade against MPS. They have worked very hard to convince the public that nothing good is happening at MPS. While it is true that MPS is an underfunded urban school district that faces tremendous challenges, there has been real progress that these opponents of public education refuse to admit. In fact, since the 2000-2001 academic year, the MPS graduation rate has risen by 38%. This is a very positive development that is the result of real improvements in MPS during the last 8 years.
However, even when confronted with facts, the right wing voucher movement attempts to distort the truth. A right wing blog, the North Shore Exponent, has taken Citizen Action of Wisconsin to task for reporting the 38% graduation rate increase. However, according to MPS’ own Annual Report Cards - available on their website - the facts are clearly on Citizen Action’s side.
Fact: During the 2000-2001 School year MPS had a graduation rate of 50%.
Fact: Last year (2007-2008) the MPS graduation rate was 69%.
Fact: As those of you who can successfully pass a math proficiency test know, a 19% increase on a 50% rate is a 38% increase in the graduation rate.
This graduation rate increase of 38% is both real and important. The graduation rate may be one of the most important measures of success for our students. Peter Blewett should be commended for this accomplishment especially given the difficult financial times MPS has endured.
See, to report that ASA may have engaged in criminal wrongdoing might serve to draw attention to ASA's private agenda, its talking points, and ultimately to Blewett's record as school board president. And if that happened, Blewett might get some positive attention. From the Journal-Sentinel's perspective, that might be a net loss for the effort.
And Possible Reason 5: If the leaders of ASA have special mental powers, like clairvoyance, the Journal-Sentinel may be afraid to offend them. More realistically, if the Journal-Sentinel is in practical collusion with the leaders of ASA, then it's unlikely to publish any coverage that harms ASA's mission.
I offer this final reason only because it appears that ASA leaders ARE clairvoyant, or that they ARE in collusion with the Journal-Sentinel. The last note posted at the page before it was taken down was a report that the Journal-Sentinel would endorse Mike Mathias -- who was NOT an ASA-supported candidate, since he "declined to associate" with the group. More significantly, the note declared that the Journal-Sentinel would likely publish its endorsement of Redonna Rodgers, the challenger to MPS Board President Peter Blewett, in today's edition.
Are ASA's leaders clairvoyant? Maybe not so much, since today's edition doesn't include the endorsement of Rodgers.
But did/do ASA leaders have a back channel to the Journal-Sentinel's editorial board? Let's wait and see who gets the endorsement, and then we'll know for sure.
On a personal note, I have to say that I'm sad to see the ASA Yahoo group closed down. It made my week to find it, and I'd hoped its sponsors would leave it up through the election. If it's any consolation to the ASA leaders who created and maintained it, at least I, for one, enjoyed reading it. I'll keep my eyes on the Shep Express to find out how the cliffhanger is resolved.