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By Heath Johnson
Attack on Teachers Unions
Attack on Teachers Unions
Other "model" legislation has ALEC's DNA all over it. Consider SB 312 (Sen. Jim Smith-R) or HB 1334 (Rep. Jeff Thompson and Rep. Woody Burton), which prohibits a school employer from deducting union dues from a teacher's salary.
This piece of legislation was adopted by the Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Force at the States and Nation Policy Summit, December 2, 1998 and was approved by the ALEC Board of Directors January 1999.
Language from this model legislation was reintroduced by Goldwater Institute representative, Byron Schlomach.
2011's HEA 1002 set into motion the establishment of virtual charter schools in Indiana. Some of these schools, by the way, employ teachers in other states. Choice scholarships may now be used to pay student tuition as well as the salaries of these out-of-state teachers. At the same time, the Republican legislature supported huge cuts to the public education budget, leading to the loss of thousands of Indiana teaching jobs. Both the choice scholarship legislation and the virtual school language are ALEC-derived. The choice scholarship is set to be expanded in the 2013 session. While conservative state lawmakers supported the Mitch Daniels budget slashes to public education, leading to thousands of teacher layoffs, those same lawmakers supported legislation to expand virtual schools.
As mentioned earlier, the Virtual Public Schools Act was presented on December 4, 2004. This act provides students and families the choice of using virtual schools to "further the education" of their children. Model legislation was authored by two virtual school companies, K12 Inc. and Connections Academy.
So, how has K12 Inc. performed? Not well here in Indiana and not well in other states. While managing 2 of the 7 failing charter schools sponsored by Ball State University, they have had huge problems in other "education reform" states as well.
This ALEC model legislation was also introduced verbatim in Tennessee. Tennessee’s State Rep. Harry Brooks and State Sen. Dolores Gresham,both ALEC Education Task Force members, introduced the bill to their respective houses nearly verbatim, even using the same title (http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/03/01/kappan_underwood.html).
Tennessee: K12Inc has sponsored school in Tennessee was just caught doctoring grades. They have the internal emails where management directed its teachers to review their grade books and delete assignments that had an abnormally high number of failing grades.
Florida: K12Inc is under investigation in Florida for allegedly using non-certified teachers and instructing certified teachers to sign class rosters that included students they hadn’t taught.
Georgia: K12Inc is under investigation in Georgia for allegedly violating "critical federal special education laws and regulations."
Colorado: "...the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado shows that students at K12 Inc., ....are falling further behind in reading and math scores than students in brick-and-mortar schools" and "are also less likely to remain at their schools for the full year, and the schools have low graduate rates."
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Remember: "It's all about the kids." So, given K12 Inc's shaky track record, how has it managed its finances? K12 Inc's (ticker symbol LRN) corporate revenue and profits are at an all-time high and that annual trend is looking to continue. That makes sense, considering Republican legislatures from around the country passed legislation opening the door for virtual schools.
Balance Sheet
Notice what happens to K12Inc's bottom line right after the nationwide expansion of virtual schools and the use of vouchers to pay for it.
Income Statement
These are but a few examples and, as you've probably gathered, I'm ready for a fight. I want a representative government, one whose legislators understand that they are our employees not one whose legislators are sucking at the corporate teat.
Help Connect the Dots and End the Cigar Parties
In early February, 2013 I engaged Sen. Brandt Hershman and Rep. Heath VanNatter about their involvement with ALEC and ALEC's role in authoring legislation. Sen. Hershman responded by claiming, "the idea that corporations are feeding legislation to us is just silly." -- Refer to the 2/19/2013 edition of the Frankfort Times.
Also, February 2013, I chose to email the Indiana General Assembly about SB 312 and HB 1334, outlining my objections and what I knew about ALEC. I received a reply from Senator Jim Buck (ALEC State Chairman and ALEC Board of Directors), where he insinuated that I was drunk and not qualified to be a teacher. How am I supposed to respond to that? We educate and we fight.
Educate everyone and demand that your legislators be held accountable with respect to their actions with ALEC! Expose ALEC legislators and identify ALEC-authored legislation. I've found that most people have no clue who ALEC is and how they affect their lives. That must change or the corporate-sponsored cigar parties will continue.
Below are some important links which may help get you started.
Commoncause.org has filed a complaint about ALEC with the IRS. They have collected and released over 4,000 pages of ALEC documents. The 35-day taskforce mailers, outlining "model bills" are here:
The ALEC Bylaws from 2007 (the latest I could find)., outlining who gets to vote (corporations and legislators) are here:
NPR's Bill Moyers has produced an incredible documentary outlining what ALEC is doing.
ALEC Explained in 5 Minutes
A list of ALEC Corporations (use this and followthemoney.org to track campaign financing)
ALEC Exposed is a great site to research model bills, ALEC member corporations, and AEC legislators.
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