Michelle Drummond's List: general education

• the American Legislative Exchange Council—a free-market, limited-government group
• has had a significant influence in K-12 education through its model legislation and work with state lawmakers to promote such policies as private school vouchers and “parent trigger” laws.
• ALEC opponents argue that in education and other areas, the group undermines states’ democratic process by letting corporate lobbyists vote on model legislation through vacation-type conferences attended by lawmakers who then use that legislation to shape their own bills.
• • Getting stuff on the cusp can mean that there is no peer review or due diligence to see if the methods/policies they are advocating are effective and backed by solid research.
• Those task forces approve model legislation for lawmakers to use as they see fit in their states. The task forces meet as one, but the public-sector and private-sector members each have separate vote tallies for resolutions and model legislation.
• • What progress??

  • Just because they have taken an active role doesn't mean any of what they have done has resulted in improved student achievement.
• all of its progress
• The group’s opponents take sharp aim at what they see as the outsize influence of its model legislation.
• Like the ALEC model bill, the parent-trigger laws on the books in Indiana and Texas don’t require public hearings, while Mississippi follows the ALEC model in not specifically allowing a local school board any authority over how a school is changed.

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