Beau Knows School Privatization
Indiana Republicans have spent a decade-plus gutting Indiana's public schools. GOP mega-donors are making sure that effort will continue - even with a Democrat in statewide office.
Between now and the Indiana state Democratic Party convention, Hoosier Lemon will be making the case that Beau Bayh is NOT the right person to represent the party as nominee for Secretary of State in 2026, nor should be the person to lead Indiana Democrats into the future. A pretty face and a fat bank account are no substitute for leadership — and Beau’s deep connections to the corporations, billionaires, and special interests that play both sides of the aisle should make the delegates who vote on this nomination think long and hard before casting their votes.
Last week’s piece on Bayh’s ties to the Israel lobby can be found here.
Previously, we detailed Beau’s relationship with the private equity industry here.
The $50,000 Question for Beau Bayh
Beau Bayh wants to be Indiana’s Secretary of State and his whole pitch is cleaning up corrupt politics.
Yet on October 20, 2025, he cashed a $50,000 check from a California billionaire who has spent tens of millions of dollars to dismantle public education.
Here’s the problem: Indiana’s Secretary of State has nothing to do with education policy. Nothing.
So why is a Republican billionaire who defunds public schools writing a five-figure check to a Democrat for an office that can’t touch charters?
Either Oberndorf is a terrible investor or Bayh plans to be somewhere else in four years.
William Obern-who?
Beau Bayh’s billionaire benefactor, William Oberndorf is the man who replaced Betsy DeVos as the Chairman of the Board for the Federation for Children, a pro-voucher group at the center of the pro-privatization movement for over two decades. Oberndorf is a leading figure in the school privatization movement and calls Indiana’s “school choice” law—public funding for private schools with no accountability—“the gold standard for America.”
Oberndorf mostly gives to Republicans, however, he’s willing to open his checkbook to any Democrat who pushes charters. In 2008, he and his wife donated to Barack Obama (who promised to double charter funding) and to McCain, Romney, and Giuliani. In 2014, they dropped tens of thousands on Cory Booker. In 2018, Oberndorf gave his largest donation yet: $3.75 million to a pro-charter group supporting Antonio Villaraigosa for California governor.
He chairs the American Federation for Children—the group Betsy DeVos ran before she joined Trump’s first cabinet. He sits on the board of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, whose goals include ending teacher tenure and funneling public money to private and online schools. His own foundation gave $2.5 million to a DeVos-aligned fund in 2021, $1.5 million in 2022, and another $2.5 million in 2024.
This isn’t a dabbler. This is a man who has spent tens of millions of dollars trying to burn public education to the ground.
How the Playbook Works
Wealthy donors use “rewards and consequences” by funding pro-voucher candidates and attacking anti-voucher ones. Political Research Associates documented this strategy in 2012.
In Pennsylvania that year, a pro-voucher PAC outspent teachers’ unions 10-to-1. Most of that money came from just three investment partners. All three sat on the boards of right-wing think tanks: the Cato Institute, the Institute for Justice, and the American Federation for Children.
That same playbook wrote Indiana’s law. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)—a corporate bill mill—holds up Indiana as a model on its website. Oberndorf calls it “the gold standard” because it is their template.
The template’s result? In North Carolina, private schools that take voucher money can legally reject students for being disabled, Black, or gay. And there is zero accountability. None.
Oberndorf’s money never has to answer for that. And why would it? Improving public schools doesn’t generate returns for Voyager Learning, where he was chairman.
Back to Beau Bayh
Bayh is running as a Democrat. On an anti-corruption platform. In a state where teachers are overworked, underpaid, and fleeing.
And he took $50,000 from the guy who replaced Betsy DeVos.
You might think: It’s only $50,000. That’s not a million.
Sure. But Oberndorf didn’t become a billionaire by writing checks that buy nothing. And Bayh didn’t become a politician by cashing checks from people he opposes.
The Secretary of State has no power over schools. So either Oberndorf is confused or Bayh has signaled, privately, that he plans to be somewhere else.
Governor? Senate? Something that actually touches education policy.
Oberndorf has a type: charter advocates.
So if Bayh actually believes in public education and teachers unions, why did Oberndorf write him a check?
The charitable read: Bayh’s team didn’t Google the guy before depositing. Which suggests gross incompetence.
The less charitable read—and the one that fits Oberndorf’s pattern—is that Bayh signaled something. Something that told a billionaire who has spent decades gutting public schools that this was a check worth writing.
The Bottom Line
William Oberndorf has spent tens of millions gutting public schools. He just gave $50,000 to a Democratic candidate for Indiana Secretary of State.
The only question that matters: Why?
Beau Bayh owes Hoosiers a real answer. Not a press release. Not “we accept support from a variety of donors.” Does he support vouchers? Charter expansion? Does he plan to run for higher office where he can act on Oberndorf’s agenda?
Right now, the silence looks like complicity. And in a race built on an anti-corruption platform, a $50,000 check from Betsy DeVos’s successor is the kind of contradiction voters remember in November.
Beau Bayh wants your vote as a clean-government Democrat. But he cashed a check from the man bankrolling the destruction of public education.
So please, dear reader, ask Beau Bayh where he plans to be in four years…
It’s been a lot longer than that. In a closed door meeting, Mitch Daniels was floating reasons to gut Indiana Public Education.
His core message was to stop wasting taxpayer money by looking at CHILDREN for their Return On Investment.
He proposed that “low performing” students be warehoused in separate buildings because they are a drain on other students.
As a disability and Public Education activist for over 30 years I am disgusted that the old guard Dems think this cookie cutter frat boy from the No Labels party is better than the highly qualified woman who was already in the race.