PRO-CHARTER SCHOOL GROUP FINED
Baker officials among hidden donors
A New York group that poured $15 million into last year’s failed pro-charter school ballot question campaign was hit with the largest penalty in state campaign history yesterday, after officials said the group improperly shielded wealthy donors from public disclosure, including two high-ranking Baker appointees.
Families for Excellent Schools — Advocacy, or FESA, will pay $426,000 under a settlement with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, which determined FESA broke campaign finance laws when it funneled millions into a committee pushing a failed ballot question to lift the state cap on charter schools.
The group’s donations to Great Schools Massachusetts were “intended to disguise the true source of contributions,” according to OCPF, which released a list of donors to the New Yorkbased group.
They include Paul Sagan, Gov. Charlie Baker’s chairman of the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, who gave $496,000, and Mark Nunnelly, Baker’s newly appointed technology secretary, who donated $275,000.
Sagan’s half-a-million-dollar contribution came on top of another, previously disclosed $100,000 donation he made to a different pro-charter committee. When that contribution surfaced in the fall of 2016, Baker dismissed the controversy surrounding it as a “nothing burger.”
Baker, who personally campaigned for the ballot question, also reiterated yesterday that Sagan had filed a conflict of interest disclosure about the donations. The disclosure, dated Sept. 2, 2016, did not specify to whom and how much he donated, according to a copy provided by Baker’s office, and it came about a month after he made his donations to FESA on Aug. 4 and Aug. 5, according to records.
“I’m glad they did the investigation. I’m glad that the matter has been settled,” Baker told reporters yesterday. “OCPF did an investigation, concluded (FESA) violated the law and fined them appropriately on that. But that’s on the group.”
Baker added, “It’s not a secret that any of us were supporters of charter schools.”
Baker aides also said Nunnelly’s donation was made in “full compliance” with the law.
“For 25 years, my wife and I have been dedicated supporters of Massachusetts public schools and all they do to maintain our position as the national leader in public education,” Nunnelly said in a statement.
FESA was Great Schools Massachusetts’ primary contributor, accounting for 70 percent of the $21.7 million it raised, OCPF said. A spokesman for Families for Excellent Schools said the group had sought legal advice on how to comply with campaign finance laws, and it did not earmark or “take direction from donors” about how the donations would be used.
“Though we believe we complied with all laws and regulations during the campaign, we worked closely with OCPF to resolve this matter so we could move forward with our mission of working alongside families desperate for better schools,” Jeremiah Kittredge, CEO of Families for Excellent Schools, said in a statement.