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More ALEC News

Reporters Guide on the Koch Right to Work Playbook West Virginia is the latest front in a national battle to undermine worker rights bankrolled by the billionaire Koch brothers. The effort in West Virginia to enact a Right to Work law (Senate Bill 1) and repeal the state's prevailing wage (HB4005) is following the same playbook used in Michigan and Wisconsin, involving a similar cast of Koch-backed out-of-state characters to drive the agenda. Read the rest of this item here. "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.