The Real Deal: How the Opportunity School District Campaign to Pull the Wool Over the Eyes of Georgians is Being Funded

Ever since the US Supreme Court agreed with Citizens United, a Political Action Committee (PAC) in Washington, DC, eliminating restrictions on how corporations and groups can spend money in elections, state and Federal elections, amendments, and other ballot initiatives, the political playing field has dramatically changed.

It’s enabled individual politicians the opportunity to raise untold amounts of money to get elected, re-elected, pay for inauguration parties, and so forth.  But one of the shady tactics that is used by individuals and small groups of politicians is to set up (with the help of their friends and associates) Political Action Committees (501c corporations that claim to do social welfare work to avoid taxes, and make contribution tax-deductible), and then hire people to run the PAC that will use media of all sorts to support a piece of legislation, that in most cases was written by said people.

Enter Nathan Deal, Governor of Georgia, and prime instigator of the Opportunity School District, which Deal claims is a moral obligation to save schools that are struggling–that, is struggling to get kids to pass state mandated tests that often have little to do with helping students learn and flourish.

For example, according to an AJC article, Deal has had experience setting up PACs for his re-election campaign (2014 election), called Georgia Leads.  And thanks to Citizens United, the names of the donors can be kept secret.  The AJC reported, however, that it had been able to find the identities of several big spenders ($150,000 or more), and they were special interest groups that had “business” with the state.  But all of this is not transparent.

These social welfare groups (PACs) are not just a sham, but a political device used to put out information for or against a politician, idea, bill, or amendment.  Deal is using this device to fund advertisements and information to convince voters in Georgia to vote “yes” on the November ballot on Amendment 1, the plan for the state to take over and run schools that are on “The List of Chronically Failing Schools,” twenty at a time.  The ballot language doesn’t give you this impression.  It reads:

Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance?
( ) Yes

( ) No

Deal has set up two political action committees, Georgia Leads and Real Georgia.  Each is run by Deal associates, and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions.

Jim Wallas, in a piece on Atlanta unfiltered, followed the money trail in Deal’s PAC called Real PAC, but discovered that Real PAC, even though it raised money, and shared its mailing list with Deal’s re-election campaign of 2014, was nothing more than a way to ask for money for Deal’s election.

Slippery at best, these state PACs seem to be ways to enrich and re-elect and advocate for policy, but offer little in the way of social welfare.  For example, its hard to find out what happens to funds that stay in these PACs.  Wallas writes:

Real PAC renewed its corporate registration in May after reporting a bank balance of just $841 in January. Its account could be much larger, though, if Deal follows the precedent set by former Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Perdue transferred all his remaining campaign money — more than $789,000 — into Perdue PAC in June 2007. The PAC filed regular disclosures of its finances for a while but nothing since 2010, when it reported $118,000 cash on hand. It’s anybody’s guess where that money is now or how it was spent.
Deals campaign, at last report on Oct. 25, had more than $1.1 million on hand. His final disclosure for the 2014 election is due next month (WALLS, By JIM. “Atlanta Unfiltered.” 3 Reasons Why Real PAC Deserves a Closer Look Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2016).

To give you an idea how these PACs co-mingle with “real” campaigns for re-election or to promote a policy, you might want to read these AJC articles, here, here, and here.  It’s clear that Deal is co-mingling with two PACs to influence the November ballot initiative on the Opportunity School District.

Again, without transparency, these two PACs are clearly in Deal’s pockets, and are being funded by corporations that have a big stake in state legislation.  Supporting Deal’s plan to create the Opportunity School District will be a Quid Pro Quo for organizations that contribute to Mr. Deal’s PACs.

Deal’s campaign to create the OSD, lacks support from school districts, professional education associations, Georgia state Universities, the PTA, Georgia School Superintendents Association, Georgia AFL-CIO state Chapter, Georgia Federation of Teachers, Georgia Association of Educators.

I don’t know about the Georgia Department of Education.  Richard Woods, Georgia’s School Superintendent, has been silent, at least publicly. A search of Georgia Department of Education website for “Opportunity School District” results in zero hits.  So, it seems that the DOE is not involved in the Governor’s initiative, although it has its own school turn-around strategies based on Federal turnaround policies.

The Governor is using PACs to put out propaganda that supports a failed system of working with struggling schools.  The fact that this amendment does not have the support of organizations and people who have a direct connection with teaching and learning should set off alarm bells.

But, for people like Nathan Deal, its his legacy, not real devotion to the improvement of education for Georgians.