Because I was traveling in Texas over the weekend, I didn’t see Bill Moyers’ report on ALEC. I watched it last night, and I hope you will too.
If you want to understand how we are losing our democracy, watch this program.
If you want to know why so many states are passing copycat legislation to suppress voters’ rights, to eliminate collective bargaining, to encourage online schooling, to privatize public education, watch this program.
ALEC brings together lobbyists for major corporations and elected state officials in luxurious resorts. In its seminars, the legislators learn how to advance corporate-sponsored, free-market ideas in their state. Its model legislation is introduced in state after state, often with minimal or no changes in the wording.
Watch Moyers show how Tennessee adopted ALEC’s online school bill and how Arizona is almost a wholly owned ALEC state. Watch how Scott Walker followed the ALEC template.
Moyers could do an entire special on ALEC’s education bills. ALEC promotes the parent trigger, so that parents can be tricked into handing their public schools over to charter chains. ALEC promotes gubernatorial commissions with the power to over-ride the decisions of local school boards to open more charters. ALEC promotes vouchers. ALEC, as he noted, promotes virtual charter schools (Pearson’s Connections Academy and K12 wrote the ALEC model law). ALEC has model legislations for vouchers for students with special needs. ALEC has a model law to allow people to teach without credentials. ALEC has legislation to eliminate tenure protection. ALEC has model legislation for educator evaluation.
It is all so familiar, isn’t it?
ALEC wants nothing less than to privatize public education, to eliminate unions, and to dismantle the education profession.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I watched this and what I found most disturbing was the “behind closed doors” method they use to push their agendas. Having special seminars, designed for legislators, on how to push through legislation. And to actually have a lawyer tell them that yes, we can help you make changes so that it’s not exactly the same (language). The whole money-changing-hands approach was sickening to me. And I don’t think many in this country would be very happy about it.
I respect PBS and Bill Moyer for their expose. However, in order for the American populace to have an understanding, I’d like to see this re-exposed via another avenue, i.e. 60 Minutes.
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Reblogged this on Crazycrawfish's Blog and commented:
ALEC owns Louisiana too. This is a good post to see a summary of their education “reforms” and some good links to see the breadth of the problem this organization poses to our states and democracy.
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So I watched–Bill Moyers is aghast that lobbyists write state legislation!
Then I checked the Moyers-touted alternative, ALICE. I'[m confused about the threat to democracy I should find here. Is it corporate lobbyists doing their job (Gasp!), or teachers’ union lobbyists playing politics and protecting the interests of the union staffers rather than protecting schoolchildren and teachers?
In any event, here’s what I found on ALICE, sourced from Maryland–with friends like these, you don’t need enemas.
“Within this model, it is important for each school system to have an articulated strategy for enabling students to achieve standards, but it is not important for all school systems to use the same strategies. The State, on the other hand, must establish clear statewide standards that apply to all student groups, measure performance based on the standards, and enforce consequences for students, schools, and school systems that fail to achieve standards. The State’s responsibilities do not change until a school has been provided adequate funding but fails to make sufficient progress towards meeting standards. In this situation, the State has a responsibility to take affirmative steps to improve the school’s performance, including the imposition of restrictions on school system ‘inputs.'”
Note there will be no “consequences” for central office staff, teacher preparation programs, or the aforementioned teachers’ union staffers.
So who is writing model legislation for the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators?
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Reblogged this on My Principal is a Douchebag and commented:
Bill Moyers-always on the cutting edge of investigative journalism-weighs in on the alarming trend to relinquish democracy to corporate interests known as privatization. Be sure to read my theories on this in my most recent blog, No Unhomogenized Educational Space Left Behind.
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