National charter schools organization behind McCravey | Letter

Published 7:40 am Monday, November 5, 2012

During the past weeks, Stand for Children PAC has been campaigning hard against State Senator Rosemary McAuliffe, sending out materials opposing her and supporting her opponent, Dawn McCravey. Their campaign literature also supports charter schools, an issue that has failed every time it has come to the ballot over the past ten years.

Does Stand for Children even come from this state and should we even trust their opinion? According to their website, they are a national organization with offices in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, Oregon and Washington state.

While they claim an office based at Eastlake Ave., according to their board filings with the Washington Secretary of State they not even from Seattle. According to their annual reports they are based in Portland, Ore. Their 990 says they’re a 501(c)3. According to the IRS, 501(c)3 organizations may not campaign for, or against, individual candidates.

In particular, their president, secretary and treasurer are the same person, Julie Mikuta. It turns out that Julie Mikuta is the name of a partner with the NewSchools Venture Fund, an organization that supports charter schools and “entrepreneurial education.” She also serves on the board of directors of Pacific Charter School Development, an organization based in Los Angeles that supports the development of charter schools.

So if they’re not even from Washington, how can we expect they would know what’s best for us? It seems to me that they’re more interested in promoting charter schools, and this agenda includes taking out legislators who oppose them.

For more information, please visit:

http://stand.org/washington/about/leadership

http://standleadershipcenter.org/national/about-stand-children-leadership-center/leadership

http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=602924971

http://www.newschools.org/teamhttp://pacificcharter.org/about_us/board.htm

Thanks for your consideration,

Matthew Benuska, 1st District voter