How Those Walls are Tottering

And I'm speaking of ed reform walls that are looking like mud caves in Seattle. 

- ALEC (the shadow group American Legislative Exchange Council) is losing its pow.  Who would have thought that a group so powerful - both in money and in legislative power - could be falling so fast.  But according to The Guardian story:

The Guardian has learned that the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which shapes and promotes legislation at state level across the US, has identified more than 40 lapsed corporate members it wants to attract back into the fold under a scheme referred to in its documents as the "Prodigal Son Project".

The target firms include commercial giants such as Amazon, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Kraft, McDonald's and Walmart, all of which cut ties with the group following the furor over the killing of the unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in February 2012.

The Guardian has learned that by Alec's own reckoning the network has lost almost 400 state legislators from its membership over the past two years, as well as more than 60 corporations that form the core of its funding. In the first six months of this year it suffered a hole in its budget of more than a third of its projected income.

There's also "a draft agreement prepared for the board meeting proposed that Alec's chairs in each of the 50 states, who are drawn from senior legislators, should be required to put the interests of the organisation first, thus setting up a possible conflict of interest with the voters who elected them." 

- another ALEC story from a state representative from Wisconsin and her experience attending an ALEC convention.  This from The Raw Story:

She was asked why she attended the convention:



I think it’s so incredibly important for people to understand where these [model] bills are coming from and try to understand the rationale. I was quite blown away by the extent of where [Wisconsin] policy is coming from, because so much of it is coming from this group. 

 It was assumed she was a Republican (she's not) and she said she wouldn't have lied if anyone had asked. 



Comments

Anonymous said…
Sunlight shone on ALEC and the roaches scattered. Shocking. Barely a metaphor. Just barely.

One thing is certain: Whatever creature that replaces ALEC is already learning to walk. Greed is a never-ending blight.

WSDWG

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