Since the 2010 elections, when Republicans took control of many states,
there has been an explosion of legislation advancing privatization of
public schools and stripping teachers of job protections and collective
bargaining rights. Even some Democratic governors, seeing the strong
rightward drift of our politics, have jumped on the right-wing
bandwagon, seeking to remove any protection for academic freedom from
public school teachers.
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This outburst of anti-public school, anti-teacher legislation is no
accident. It is the work of a shadowy group called the American
Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. Founded in 1973, ALEC is an
organization of nearly 2,000 conservative state legislators. Its
hallmark is promotion of privatization and corporate interests in every
sphere, not only education, but healthcare, the environment, the
economy, voting laws, public safety, etc. It drafts model legislation
that conservative legislators take back to their states and introduce as
their own "reform" ideas. ALEC is the guiding force behind state-level
efforts to privatize public education and to turn teachers into at-will
employees who may be fired for any reason. The ALEC agenda is today the
"reform" agenda for education.
ALEC operated largely in the dark for years, but gained notoriety
because of the Trayvon Martin case in Florida. It turns out that ALEC
crafted the "Stand Your Ground" legislation that empowered George
Zimmerman to kill an unarmed teenager with the defense that he (the
shooter) felt threatened. When the bright light of publicity was shone
on ALEC, a number of corporate sponsors dropped out,
including McDonald's, Kraft, Coca-Cola, Mars, Wendy's, Intuit, Kaplan,
and PepsiCo. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said that it would
not halt its current grant to ALEC, but pledged not to provide new
funding. ALEC has some 300 corporate sponsors, including Walmart, the
Koch Brothers, and AT&T, so there's still quite a lot of corporate
support for its free-market policies. ALEC claimed that it is the victim
of a campaign of intimidation.
The campaign to privatize the schools and to
dismantle the teaching profession is in full swing. Where is the
leadership to oppose it? |
Groups like Common Cause and colorofchange.org
have been putting ALEC's model legislation online and printing the
names of its sponsors. They have also published sharp criticism of
ALEC's ideas. This is hardly intimidation. It's the democratic process
at work. A website called alecexposed.org has published ALEC's policy agenda. Common Cause posted the agenda for the meeting of ALEC on May 11
in Charlotte, N.C. The National Board for Professional Teaching
Standards has dropped out of ALEC and also withdrawn from the May 11
conference, where it was originally going to be a presenter.
A recent article in the Newark Star-Ledger showed how closely New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's "reform" legislation is modeled on ALEC's work
in education. Wherever you see states expanding vouchers, charters, and
other forms of privatization, wherever you see states lowering
standards for entry into the teaching profession, wherever you see
states opening up new opportunities for profit-making entities, wherever
you see the expansion of for-profit online charter schools, you are likely to find legislation that echoes the ALEC model.
ALEC has been leading the privatization movement for nearly 40 years,
but the only thing new is the attention it is getting, and the fact that many of its ideas are now being enacted. Just last week, the Michigan House of Representatives expanded the number of cyber charters that may operate in the state, even though the academic results for such online schools are dismal.
Who is on the education task force of ALEC? The members of the task force as of July 2011 are here.
Several members represent for-profit online companies, including the
co-chair from Connections Academy; many members come from for-profit
higher education corporations. There is someone from Jeb Bush's
foundation, as well as right-wing think tank people. There are charter
school representatives, as well as Scantron. And the task force includes
a long list of state legislators, from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas,
Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina,
North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and
Wyoming.
Quite a lineup. Common Cause has asked why ALEC is considered a
"charity" by the Internal Revenue Service and holds tax-exempt status,
when it devotes so much time to lobbying for changes in state laws.
Common Cause has filed a "whistleblower" complaint with the IRS about ALEC's status.
The campaign to privatize the schools and to dismantle the teaching
profession is in full swing. Where is the leadership to oppose it?
© 2012 Education Week
Source: Common Dreams