The ALEC Connection: Where the real damage gets done
It long has been the opinion of the blog that the elite political press is missing the real political action in this country because, for the most part, it concentrates either on what's going on in Washington, or in the horse race aspects of whatever election is next. But the real action -- and all the real damage -- is being done out in the states, especially in those states in which the 2010 elections brought in majority Republican legislatures and majority Republican governors. This is part of what we play for laughs every Thursday when we survey what's goin' down in The Laboratories Of Democracy. But what's goin' down is highly organized, tightly disciplined, and very sharply directed. By now, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and what it's about, is an open secret. Everybody covering politics knows about it. Everybody covering politics knows where the money for its activities comes from. Everybody in politics knows what its political aims are. And yet, when we have retrograde laws and policies pop up in state after state -- most notably in recent days, in the newly insane state of North Carolina -- it is always treated as a kind of localized outbreak.
Luckily, however, we also have Bill Moyers around to make sure that we don't have any alibis about not knowing what's really going on.
Moving west to South Dakota: The Aberdeen News reports that the South Dakota legislature's executive board has signed off on using taxpayer funds to pay for some state legislators to travel to ALEC conferences where corporate lobbyists and legislators talk policy. The board also approved of the state paying ALEC's $100 membership dues for each of South Dakota's 105 legislators. Every single one of them! To recap: ALEC hosts a conference at a fancy hotel; corporate interest groups welcome their legislative friends with open arms - and wallets - and the citizens of South Dakota foot the bill. On to education: Among ALEC's 2013 legislative priorities is a call for "improving education" - a goal that, conveniently, can also improve corporate bottom lines. In 2011, Tennessee passed an ALEC-inspired bill allowing taxpayer money to be spent on for-profit education. K12 Inc., an online education company, pounced immediately - and landed a multi-million dollar deal to provide online education to Tennessee students. K12 is one of ALEC's corporate members and a member of its education task force. The company helped to craft the ALEC model bill that inspired Tennessee's for-profit education law. And the legislators responsible for introducing the bill? That's right: they're ALEC members too.
And what do you get for it? Really bad -- and corrupt -- public policy.
<snip>
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_ALEC_Connection
= new reply since forum marked as read
