Did a CA teachers union conduct oppo research on parent groups?

A California teachers union conducted research into parent groups that sued to reopen schools amid the union’s pressure to keep schools closed, according to public records requests obtained by one of those concerned parent groups.

Ann Swinburn, a strategic research specialist with the California Teachers Association, solicited parents for information that could link groups suing to reopen schools to dark money organizations. Swinburn reached out to two San Diego-area parents, lawyer Michele Macosky and data scientist Adam Fischer, hoping they could snitch on other local parents who wanted schools reopened.

“I am a researcher with [the California Teachers Association] and am currently doing some research into the various ‘reopen’ groups around the state,” Swinburn said in email correspondence to Macosky and Fischer.

The duo responded by looping in a third parent, Holly Butte, stating they intended to uncover the “ideological leaning of groups that are funding the reopen lawsuits.” Swinburn and her allies appeared to target the group “The Parent Association,” according to the subject line of their emails.