Molly Munger, sister of Charles Munger the Stanford physicist who financed the successful congressional redistricting initiative Proposition 20, is set to fund an initiative to raise money for schools through an income tax increase.
The brother and sister are the children of Charles Munger Sr. of the Munger, Tolles & Olson law firm in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The senior Munger is Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, the diversified investment corporation chaired by Warren Buffet.
Molly Munger is a civil rights attorney. Following a career as a federal prosecutor and business litigator, she centered her practice on equality issues often dealing with education. Through the organization she co-founded, The Advancement Project, Munger won a major lawsuit against the state to secure a more equitable share of state school building funds for urban school districts.
Together with Co-Directors Steve English and Connie Rice, Munger filed a lawsuit, Godinez v. Davis, that won approximately $1 billion for new school construction in Los Angeles and other urban areas – money previously slated for less crowded, more affluent suburban school districts.
Now she is focusing her attention on classroom revenue. Her effort is one of a number of potential initiatives that would seek a tax increase on the 2012 ballot. A number of those measures under consideration are designed to aide education.
How many tax increase measures actually make the ballot remains to be seen. However, like her brother, Munger has the resources to qualify an initiative if she decides to go forward.