The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a corporate-funded lobbying group that brings corporations and state legislators together to vote behind closed doors on “model” legislation without any public input. It’s basically Match.com for corporations and the legislators they want to woo.
And while ALEC claims that its education mission is to “promote excellence in the nation’s educational system,” its “model” legislation advocates for policies that defund public services, distort the curriculum and undercut our educators.
It’s time to stand up to ALEC and the damage it is trying to do to public education and our communities. Write your legislators now.
How is ALEC trying to destroy public education, you ask? It advocates for policies that would:
- Increase the use of vouchers and tuition tax credits that sap money from public schools and send it to private and charter schools.
- Establish funding of public virtual schools at the same per-pupil rate as brick-and-mortar schools, despite lower operating costs for virtual schools, with the difference in payments going as profits to the companies that provide these services.
- Require the teaching of anti-scientific, pro-corporate information about climate change.
- Limit college professors' ability to engage in open and honest discussion.
- Roll back the collective bargaining rights of teachers.
ALEC and its corporate “reforms” have no business in education. Tell your state legislators to reject ALEC and send the group packing.
ALEC is not working to reclaim the promise of public education. It supports a series of policy options that would devastate public schools, hurt students and teachers, and move us further and further in the direction of school privatization. ALEC doesn’t love us—it loves padding the profit margins of its corporate members. This Valentine’s Day, urge your legislators to break up with ALEC.
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