ALEC Aims to Destroy Local School Boards, Turn Education Into a Corporate, For-Profit Wasteland
ALEC is spreading its pro-corporate, pro-privatization agenda into the education space with greater abandon than before. ALEC-style “education reform” includes a push for the complete removal of school boards which would effectively block public input from decisions about schools.
The Voters Legislative Transparency Project recently highlighted the work of professor Julie Underwood, a researcher who has exposed how groups like ALEC are affecting public schools in her home state of Wisconsin. Underwood is a professor and the Dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Underwood’s findings include:
The education agenda of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) calls for:
• Reducing the influence of, or elimination of, local school districts and school boards.
• Privatizing education through vouchers, charters and tax incentives.
• Increasing student testing and reporting.
• Introducing market factors into schools, particular the teaching profession.
In short, ALEC seeks to undo much of the work and power of school boards.
Underwood explains what many readers of this blog already know about ALEC’s approach to undoing