Investigating Power
Charles Koch’s fleet of organizations spent a combined net total of $833 million in 2023 to influence public policy, elections, and certain charitable causes — marking its highest spending total to date.
A Center for Media and Democracy review of KIPP’s fiscal year 2023 IRS filings reveals that its schools in the U.S. reported more than $52 million in unexplained spending under the category “all other expenses.”
The Freedom Foundation, a notorious anti-union advocacy group, has launched a new organization, the Teacher Freedom Alliance, which the foundation’s CEO describes as “an alternative for pro-America educators who seek to restore traditional values in the classroom and provide students with the high-quality education they deserve — free from political influence and union control.”
A constellation of donor vehicles established by Charles Koch poured $90.8 million into 127 university and college recipients in 2023 to promote his business and policy interests, a Center for Media and Democracy analysis has found.
ALEC state politicians, corporate lobbyists, and right-wing operatives are gathering at the four-star Grand Hyatt Washington to discuss and vote on model policies and resolutions to further climate delayism and preserve the use of fossil fuels, alter state election codes, protect purveyors of misinformation, privatize education, and push their extremist agenda in other ways.
On Election Day, voters in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska rejected efforts by right-wing school privateers to support and expand school vouchers in their states.
DonorsTrust — the donor conduit favored by the Koch political network — funneled over $152.5 million to MAGA groups, right-wing national and state think tanks and litigation centers, hate groups, youth groups, and more in 2023, according to an analysis of its latest IRS filing obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy.
Hundreds of pages of materials obtained and reviewed by the Center for Media and Democracy demonstrate how Heritage has weaponized state superintendents to ramp up culture war divides, move education policy to the Right, and promote the privatization of schools.
American Legislative Exchange Council state lawmakers, right-wing operatives, and corporate lobbyists are descending on Denver this week for the pay-to-play group’s 51st Annual Meeting to hear presentations and vote on model policies and resolutions that impact the environment, education, elections, fundamental human rights, and more.
A recent white paper by Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, details the ongoing culture-war backlash against higher education in America, largely in response to the grassroots activism of Black Lives Matter in 2020 and increasing LGBTQ+ visibility.