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More ALEC News

"National School Choice Week" Fueled by Major Right-Wing Funders and Corporate Lobby Groups With 32 governors proclaiming this week "School Choice Week," and more than 16,000 scheduled events listed on the promotional website, #NationalSchoolChoiceWeek has become a big deal, and not by accident. Launched five years ago by the Gleason Family Foundation—which spent more than $4.3 million on the project in 2014—the week has grown rapidly through the backing of advocacy groups and deep pockets of funders focused on promoting charters, vouchers, and tax credits that aid private schools, including religious and for-profit ventures. In federal and state budgets, "school choice" policies often divert or reduce Americans’ tax dollars available for traditional public schools that educate our most underserved students or for investment in sustainable and innovative community schools that are truly public. Read the rest of this item here. ALEC's "Rich States, Poor States" Paints a Happy Face on Failing State Policies Yesterday, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) rolled out another edition of its "Rich States, Poor States" publication. The publication annually slaps a fresh coat of paint on the flawed fiscal and economic austerity policies favored by the group and its corporate patrons. It's going to take a lot of paint this year. The poster child for the ALEC anti-tax, low-wage policy agenda is Koch Industries' home state, Kansas, which has been plugged by Governor Sam Brownback as a "real live experiment in supply side economics. But Brownback's tax cuts have thrown the state into fiscal crisis, saddling the state with a projected budget deficit of $190 million for the next fiscal year, no reserves, slashed public services, and lagging job growth. Although wealthy taxpayers and businesses have reaped big benefits, it's an economic disaster for working families. Read the rest of this item here. CMD Submits Evidence of ExxonMobil Funding ALEC’s Climate Change Denial to CA Attorney General The Center for Media and Democracy has submitted evidence to California Attorney General Kamala Harris showing how ExxonMobil has promoted climate change denial through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). CMD believes this information is relevant to her office's investigation into whether ExxonMobil deceived its shareholders and the public about the impact that burning fossil fuels has on climate change. CMD has identified at least $1,730,200 in funding from ExxonMobil to ALEC between 1998 and 2014, based on publicly available disclosures, although the actual total is likely higher. CMD has documented Exxon funding for ALEC at least as early as 1981. This funding makes ExxonMobil one of ALEC's biggest financial supporters as ALEC has promoted legislation, resolutions, presentations, and publications seeking to stop efforts to address climate change, and has indoctrinated thousands of state legislators with the idea that "a great deal of scientific uncertainty" surrounds the science of climate change and that carbon emissions "may even be beneficial." Read the rest of this item here.