Michigan Teachers’ Unions’ Desperate ‘Dark Money’ Fearmongering

H ow do you know you’ve won a policy debate? When your opponents attack your funding sources instead of the merits of your argument. Just look at Michigan, where advocates of educational choice face criticism over their supposed “dark money” backers.

Educational choice is top of the mind for many Michigan families. Public-school bureaucracies and teachers’ unions continue to lose support as choice programs march forward in other states. Last year saw new or expanded private-school options offered to families in 18 states, and Michigan narrowly missed out on becoming number 19. In October, the Republican-led state legislature approved a plan to give thousands of families access to dollars that could pay for tuition at a private school, or a host of other educational services. Parents of most public-school students could also have received funds from scholarship organizations — whose donors would receive tax credits — to supplement their children’s educations. But following a predictable partisan script, Governor Gretchen Whitmer vetoed the proposal.

In response, a group of citizens has begun collecting signatures for a ballot measure that would revive the plan, known as Let Kids Learn. If petition organizers collect enough signatures and the ballot measure succeeds, the Michigan constitution would allow the legislature to repass the plan, and Governor Whitmer would not be able to veto it a second time.

The prospect of Let Kids Learn becoming law has teachers’ unions and the anti-choice crowd sweating. They know that polls find strong support for school-choice policies. They also know that research overwhelmingly shows school-choice programs force conventional public schools to improve. Instead of opposing school choice on the merits, though, they’re focusing on the movement’s funding sources.

In a recent Detroit Free Press op-ed, Maurice Cunningham, the author of the book Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization, raised questions about who’s funding the Let Kids Learn campaign. He also sought to alarm voters and policymakers with the claim that collecting 340,000 signatures to override Whitmer’s veto would “bypass a vital check and balance of democracy” — even though ballot initiatives are quite literally democracy in action. The Michigan Education Association, representing most of the state’s public-school employees, amplified Cunningham’s column.

Teachers’ unions and other school-choice opponents are obsessed with who has provided the money, reportedly around $1.7 million, to fund the campaign. They think that shouting “dark money” will scare people into opposing the ballot measure. But if “dark money” is what they really want to talk about, they should be prepared to justify the tens of millions of dollars that public-school districts waste every year, often outside of public view.

Take the Detroit Public Schools Community District, which is relying on a huge influx of Covid-relief cash to spend more than $26,000 per pupil this year, and essentially closed classrooms for the month of January. Or take the Flint school district, which has shut down in-person instruction indefinitely even as it takes in an astounding $50,000 per student in federal Covid-relief funds. More than six months into the fiscal year, the district still has yet to post its budget online, in violation of both state law and the public trust. This is the real “dark money” that people should worry about.

Unions also claim that Let Kids Learn would siphon money away from public schools. Yet most of the dollars individual and business donors could redirect to scholarships under the plan would come from the state’s general fund. This fund is projected to keep growing, far beyond any revenue donors could redirect to scholarships. Dollars collected specifically for public-school aid are also expected to grow substantially. Teachers’ unions and bureaucrats simply don’t want to share even a small portion of that growing bounty with families, perhaps out of fear that they would flee failing school systems.

Will this fearmongering stop the ballot measure from moving forward? Will teachers’ unions succeed once again in killing the Let Kids Learn plan? One thing is certain: They’ll continue to try, and their screaming and stomping about “dark money” will only get louder. These tactics smell of desperation. But many parents are just as desperate to secure educational opportunities for their children, and it will take much more than silly political distractions to deny them.