SUBSCRIPT: Crowns and Pritzkers aren't the only members of the Chicago Billionaire Boys and Girls Club adding to union busting war chest of Stand for Children
Although their families gathered more than $1 million towards the creation of the $3.4 million Stand for Children PAC that was reported earlier in Substance and elsewhere, the Pritzker and Crown families of Chicago (and adjacent northern suburbs) were not alone among the billionaires who poured their money into Stand for Children in the waning days of 2010, before it became illegal under Illinois law to add such large amounts. More than a half dozen Pritzkers (led by former Obama campaign finance chief Penny Pritzker) and a half dozen Crowns (led by Henry Crown) put in amounts ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 for the Stand for Children war chest. Stand for Children is the sponsor of the so-called "Performance Counts" proposal (it never became a bill during the lame duck session of the Illinois General Assembly because it didn't get a sponsor) is aimed at crippling teachers unions in Illinois. It is part of an all-out assault on teacher unions and teacher pensions being bankrolled by the wealthiest people in the USA across the country as 2011 begins.
Billionaire Ken Griffin (above center) of Citadel gave ten times as much to Stand for Children's union busting legislative campaign than billionaire Margot Pritzker (above left) during the December 2010 rush to beat the new Illinois laws limiting donations to groups like Stand for Children that try to purchase legislators and legislation like the union-busting "Performance Counts" thing. The Pritzker donations were each $50,000 to "Stand," while Griffin gave $500,000 according to Illinois records. Margot Pritzker is a trustee of The Aspen Institute, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Governing board of the University of Chicago's Urban Education Initiative, the International Board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School. She is also a Director of the Pritzker Early Childhood foundation and on the Advisory Board of America Abroad Media. Margot chairs the Zohar Education Project Inc. But if the Pritzkers and the Crowns represent "old money" in the world of 2011 billionaires (they are now in the fourth and fifth generations of being the wealthiest families in the USA, according to listings of rich people compiled and published annually by Forbes magazine), they are not the only Chicago plutocrats bankrolling Stand for Children and its union busting agenda. One Chicago Hedge Fund billionaire, Kenneth Griffin of Citadel, wrote a single check for $500,000 to Stand for Children at the end of December 2010. A week later, it would have been illegal for him to do so.
