The Political Money Machine Trying to Buy the WCASD School Board Election

wcasdconstituents
Oct 29, 2021
3 min read

Campaign finance reports show the Nestor/Whomsley campaign is part of a large network of well-funded partisan political groups working to influence local schools. This article contains the campaign finance reports for PACs that have supported the Nestor/Whomsley campaign through direct or indirect contributions or independent support and ads.

Typically non-partisan school board races have become fraught with interference from outside political groups spending large sums of money to influence the outcome of elections in exchange for control over candidate platforms, with a long-term goal of influencing public school policy and steering public funds away from public schools. This very unusual development has become a pattern across the country, as pandemic controversies and anti-CRT false narratives have been used to shake confidence in sitting school boards to create an opening for challengers.

In the West Chester Area School District, candidates Ada Nestor and Stacey Whomsley are the Republican-endorsed candidates who have used pandemic angst and anti-CRT rhetoric to fuel their campaigns. Both Ms. Whomsley and Ms. Nestor are challengers to long-standing WCASD board members. Both have documented histories of extreme views and extreme campaign tactics. Both have embraced the “School Choice” platform, a misleadingly named initiative designed to siphon money from public schools to support private and charter schools, many of which have ties to religious or political organizations.

A Note About How PACs work: Often, political action committees do not donate funds directly to individual campaigns. Instead, they use their funds independently to support candidates and campaigns through advertising, influence campaigns, and voter outreach such as text message and calling campaigns.

Although Ms. Nestor and Ms. Whomsley claim to be bi-partisan, the funding and endorsements behind their campaign demonstrate otherwise. Campaign finance reports behind the pair’s joint campaign show a clear line to the outside groups and large political network of well-funded PACs and donors attempting to influence school board elections statewide and beyond:

Nestor and Whomsley are endorsed by Keeping Kids in School PAC, a Montgomery County pandemic-launched group that has endorsed a slew of controversial candidates and that has ties to anti-teachers union groups and promotes a school choice agenda.
Keeping Kids in School PAC is primarily funded by Paul Martino, a wealthy Bucks County political donor who has supported right-wing candidates and platforms nationwide via his conservative River Horse PAC.
Martino also founded Back to School PA PAC, an initiative aimed at creating Keeping Kids in School PAC-style clones across the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania, seeded with an initial investment of $500,000 from Martino.
Back to School PA PAC has funded local PACs across the state, including local Students First WC PAC, which directly supports the Nestor/Whomsley campaign and has received $14,000 since August.
Back to School PA PAC is funded by the Commonwealth Children’s Choice Fund, a massive $10,000,000+ PAC associated with the Commonwealth Foundation. The Commonwealth Foundation is a right-wing policy group that pushes school choice and anti-union platforms. Current and past presidents of the Commonwealth Foundation are key donors to the Commonwealth Children's Choice Fund.
The Commonwealth Children’s Choice Fund has received large contributions from Students First PAC, a state-wide PAC funded in large part by Haverford billionaire Jeffrey Yass. Yass is a controversial right-wing donor who was one of the top 10 political donors in the US in 2020, with all contributions going to Republican candidates.
The Nestor/Whomsley campaign has also received support from localized partisan groups such as the local Republican Committees as well as Common Sense Coalition, a right-wing PAC spearheaded by William David Magrogan, a conservative Chester County restauranteur and political donor.