ALEC is still at it, Julie Underwood, dean of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, cautions in “
School Boards Beware,” a commentary in the May issue of
Wisconsin School News.
The
model legislation disseminated by the pro-free market American
Legislative Exchange Council’s national network of corporate members and
conservative legislators seeks to privatize education and erode the
local control, Underwood says.
“The ALEC goal to eliminate school
districts and school boards is a bit shocking — but the idea is to make
every school, public and private, independent through vouchers for all
students. By providing all funding to parents rather than school
districts, there is no need for local coordination, control or
oversight,” she writes in the magazine of the
Wisconsin Association of School Boards.
Underwood, who says that Wisconsin public schools already face
unprecedented change,
last year co-authored a piece about ALEC’s grander plans, a
“legislative contagion (that) seemed to sweep across the Midwest during
the early months of 2011.”
In her recent piece,
Underwood argues
that a push to privatize education for the “free market” threatens the
purpose of public education: to educate every child to “become an active
citizen, capable of participating in our democratic process.”
School Boards Beware
Influential National Network Calls
for Elimination of School Boards
An organization with nationwide influence is working hard
to negate the decision-making and leadership authority of each school
board in Wisconsin and across the country.
According to the Report Card on American Education, 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.
What is ALEC?
ALEC is a national network based in Washington, D.C.,
which has had strong impact on legislation in Wisconsin. ALEC describes itself
as a membership organization for those who share a common belief in “limited
government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberties.” Its goal is to
create and enact model legislation, which they develop.
Although identified as nonpartisan, ALEC’s members skew to
the conservative end of the political spectrum and include corporations,
foundations, and “think tanks.” The corporations (profit and nonprofit) pay
large annual fees and pay the additional costs of sponsoring meetings.
Corporate members pay to serve on their taskforces, and provide the funds for
the state legislators to attend ALEC meetings.
Model legislation is developed through the ALEC taskforces
(e.g., health, safety, education), each co-chaired by a corporate and
legislative member. In order to pass a model bill out of the ALEC task- force,
both the public and elected sides of the committee must agree. The elected
officials then submit these proposals to their own state legislatures.
Members of the taskforces have an interest in the topical
area of the taskforce. For example, education taskforce members include
representatives from the Friedman Foundation, the Charter School Association,
the private school associations, and corporations providing education services.
The proposals cannot move out of the taskforce without the
approval of the corporate interests. The corporations involved have an interest
in the areas and thus typically stand to profit financially from the proposals.
For example, two large for-profit corporate providers of
virtual education, Connections Academy and K-12 Inc., had heavy involvement in
the development of the ALEC model Virtual Public Schools Act. At the time it
was drafted by ALEC, the chair of the education committee was Mickey Revenaugh,
a principal employee of Connections Academy. Connections Academy and K-12 have
reaped huge financial benefits in the states where the Virtual Schools Act has
been passed.
In Tennessee, K-12 Inc. received the state contract for
virtual schools shortly after it passed their legislature as a no-bid contract.
For this contract they received more than $5,000 per student from the state
during the 2011- 2012 school year. Currently, the legislature is auditing this
contract due to low student performance in the program.
ALEC in Wisconsin
ALEC’s effect in Wisconsin has been significant. The
original Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, enacted in 1990, was championed by
Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, an early ALEC member.
“Myself, I always loved to go to these [ALEC] meetings
because I always found new ideas, and then I’d take them back to
Wisconsin, disguise them a little bit and declare that it’s mine,” Thompson
said in
a 2002 interview with National Public Radio.
True to Thompson’s word, the outline for the Milwaukee
Choice Program can be found in ALEC’s 1985 Education Source Book. Also
see sidebar “ALEC Legislation in Wisconsin.”
One of the key goals of ALEC is to privatize education
through vouchers. Milton Friedman argued vouchers would foster competition and
improve students’ learning. Experience has not borne this out.
The research indicates that voucher schools do not
outperform their public school counterparts. The children in voucher programs
should in fact be doing better because they represent the “easier” to educate
segment of the public school population.
I say “easier” because, first, there are far fewer students
with disabilities served in private voucher schools. Second, even though they
receive public funding, private schools retain the right to select, reject, and
expel students through admissions and disciplinary rules. Finally, children in
voucher schools come from families who are engaged enough in their children’s
education to have actively moved them to the private system. Education research
is clear that children with actively engaged parental or home support will
clearly outperform students who do not have that support in their lives. With
“easier” student voucher schools should clearly outperform the publics. Doing
almost as good can hardly be called success.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (AlEC) is
working to, among other goals, reduce the role of school boards in education.
here is a listing of bills (and enacted statutes) from the 2011-2012 Wisconsin
legislative Session that mirrored AlEC model legislation (see
www.alexexposed.org for database of ALEC model legislation).
Voucher advocates argue that even if the academics are not
up to par, at least the cost for the state is lower. Sad, and not true. First,
if you are not attracting public school students to switch to private schools,
the state just ends up paying tuition for those students already enrolled in
the private school — this just shifts private costs to taxpayers. Second, the
local schools district pays for more than the cost of the voucher; typically
paying for transportation, special education and support services. Vouchers
have neither shown success academically nor financially.
Reducing the Role of School Boards
The ALEC agenda in education is ambitious. Model bills
seek to influence teacher certification, teacher evaluation, collective
bargaining, curriculum, funding, special education, and student assessment.
Common throughout the bills are proposals to decrease
local control of schools by local school boards while increasing control,
influence, and profits of the companies in the education
sector. Privatization is consistent with the interests of the corporate ALEC
members.
The ALEC goal to eliminate school districts and school
boards is a bit shocking — but the idea is to make every school, public and
private, independent through vouchers for all students. By providing all
funding to parents rather than school districts, there is no need for local
coordination, control or oversight.
Personally, I believe there is a purpose for public
schools and the local public oversight necessary to support and guide them.
Public education was created to serve the needs of the public — ensuring that
every child had access to an education that would help him/her become an active
citizen, capable of participating in our democratic process.
What happens to our democracy when we return to an
educational system where access is defined by corporate interest and divided by
class, language, ability, race, and religion? In a push to a free market
education do we lose the purpose of public education?
Underwood, J.D., Ph.D., is a
professor and the dean of the School of Education at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison.