Gaggle of StudentsFirst lobbyists no match for Alabama voters
Just Like Michelle Rhee's Students first only BETTER
Astroturf lobbying refers to political organizations or campaigns that appear to be made up of grassroots activists but are actually organized and run by corporate interests seeking to further their own agendas. Such groups are often typified by innocent-sounding names that have been chosen specifically to disguise the group's true backers
Written by Larry lee for AL.com. Read the entire article here.
“Another number I kept thinking about was six. As in six lobbyists registered with the Alabama Ethics Commission working on behalf of StudentsFirst, an organization headquartered in Sacramento, Calif. One was a contract lobbyist from Montgomery, one was from Birmingham and the other four had a Sacramento address.
This organization was started by Michelle Rhee, who was chancellor of the Washington, D.C., school system from 2007 to 2010 and is one of the more controversial figures in education these days. According to the StudentsFirst website, “Under her stewardship, D.C. schools experienced increases in student achievement, a rise in graduation rates.”
However, there is no mention of the fact that a New York firm has been hired for $236,000 to investigate allegations of cheating on standardized tests in D.C. schools while Rhee was chancellor. Or that only 58.6 percent of all D.C. graduates in the class of 2011 got their diplomas in four years.
“Another number I kept thinking about was six. As in six lobbyists registered with the Alabama Ethics Commission working on behalf of StudentsFirst, an organization headquartered in Sacramento, Calif. One was a contract lobbyist from Montgomery, one was from Birmingham and the other four had a Sacramento address.
This organization was started by Michelle Rhee, who was chancellor of the Washington, D.C., school system from 2007 to 2010 and is one of the more controversial figures in education these days. According to the StudentsFirst website, “Under her stewardship, D.C. schools experienced increases in student achievement, a rise in graduation rates.”
However, there is no mention of the fact that a New York firm has been hired for $236,000 to investigate allegations of cheating on standardized tests in D.C. schools while Rhee was chancellor. Or that only 58.6 percent of all D.C. graduates in the class of 2011 got their diplomas in four years.
