Rick Perry Pushes ALEC-Backed Education Policies To Turn Texas Universities Into Businesses

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http://thinkprogress.org/education/2011/08/04/287851/perry-alec-universities-businesses/

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), a potential presidential candidate, has been quietly pushing initiatives that would transform the state’s public university system into a business-style model driven by “efficiency and profitability,” The Washington Post reported today. The reforms Perry is seeking to implement are favored by one of his top campaign donors and the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), an affiliate of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

ALEC is a conservative public policy organization that often drafts model legislation for use in state legislatures across the country, and Republicans in several states have used its model legislation directly.

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Both ALEC and TPPF have established a close working relationship with Perry, donating around $2 million and $1.5 million, respectively, to his campaigns. Perry, who accepted ALEC’s highest award last August and spoke at its December conference, has benefited “far and away the most of any candidate” from its corporate donations. In turn, he donates the proceeds from his latest book to TPPF, which he describes as “a quality outlet.” Since becoming governor, Perry has appointed three TPPF board members to high-profile positions and can count on TPPF’s president as his former Deputy General Counsel and Policy Director.

But while Perry follows the legislative outline provided for him by ALEC and TPPF, higher education leaders have criticized the policies roundly. Distinguished Texas A&M alumni, the American Association of Universities (AAU), the chair of the state Senate Higher Education Committee, and other higher education groups urged Texas A&M and Perry to resist the “ill-conceived reforms,” and AAU president Robert Berdahl, a former president of the University of Texas-Austin, called the reforms “a crazy set of proposals.” Upon receiving a letter from Berdahl asking him to reconsider the policies, Texas A&M Chancellor Michael D. McKinney — Perry’s former chief of staff — threw it in the trash.

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The July article at TexasWatchdog.org on ALEC's funding of Perry and other Texas Republicans:

http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2011/07/corporate-money-from-american-legislative-exchange-council/1311281958.column

American Legislative Exchange Council members have given more than $2 million to support Gov. Rick Perry and a total of more than $3.8 million to 21 Texas elected officials, all Republicans, according to an analysis by the National Institute for Money in State Politics.

How the contributions study came to be might be more interesting than its findings, which establish conclusively that conservative corporate members of the Exchange Council give lots of money -- $516.2 million over the past 20 years -- to conservative legislative members of the Exchange Council, conservative ballot initiatives and conservative state party organizations.

It has pretty much been this way since 1973 when conservatives founded the non-profit to provide a forum or exchange, if you will, between public and private conservatives. The Exchange Council claims more than 2,000 members with a website touting limited government, free markets and federalism.

The Center for Media and Democracy, a liberal activist group based in Wisconsin, has spurred a revival of interest in the ALEC. Center organizers posted about 800 model bills it said were leaked to them on a site called ALEC Exposed. The Center contends these bills are proof that conservative legislative and corporate leaders are covertly hijacking the American lawmaking process.

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This hijackinging of our democracy isn't quite as covert now, which is why ALEC security reacted so negatively to journalists trying to cover its New Orleans conference this month:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1672256

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1677479


More on the harm this influential group does in the long compilation topic on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

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