Common Cause Reports on Political Spending to Influence Education Policy

Common Cause NY has released a report titled “Polishing the Apple: Examining Political Spending in New York to Influence Education Policy,” which analyzes political campaign spending and lobbying spending in New York State form 2005 to 2014.

The report compares political and lobbying spending by education unions and education reform groups (which it calls “privatizers”). While education unions spent more during that period ($205 million to $93.3 million), the education reform groups have significantly increased their spending over the last five years.

Read some of the report’s highlights in this Gannett article and this Capitol Confidential blog post.

With the state’s 2015 ethics and lobbying reforms expanding the Lobbying Act to apply to the lobbying of all of the state’s nearly 700 school districts, we can expect to the amount of education-related lobbying to grow moving forward.