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ALEC News

Arizona "Ground Zero" for Koch Attack on Public Education The annual Koch donors summit took place at the five-star Indian Wells Resort and Spa in the California desert at the end of January. The millionaires and billionaires called to the posh resort from all parts of America by the Koch brothers pledged $100,000 or more for a $400 million effort to keep the U.S. House and Senate in Republican hands in 2018. At the same time, the donors pledged to go to war with parents and teachers in Arizona who are fighting to block the state's massive school voucher expansion. Since taxpayer "vouchers" for private and religious schools were first put on the ballot in Michigan in 1978, they have been consistently rejected by voters who remember their roots in the segregationist south and understand that the well-off will take the money and run, leaving community schools without the funding they need and deserve. Read the rest of this item here. The ALEC Emperor's New Clothes ALEC named Republican North Carolina state representative Jason Saine its new national chairman late last year. Saine, who took office in 2011, has co-sponsored many bills held dear to ALEC, including those on charter schools, limits to speech on campus, a constitutional convention and federal preemption of state and local rules governing fracking. (View his voting record here.) For pushing the ALEC agenda, Saine was awarded the 2014 ALEC "Legislator of the Year," an award that seems to be a requirement for its top post. Despite his ALEC accolades, Saine's legislative career in the Tar Heel state has been mired in controversy. Read the rest of this item here. Why Are Railroads Funding ALEC? Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors on state laws that govern your rights. By looking at the task forces on which ALEC corporate members sit, it is not difficult to determine some of the corporate interests putting forth "model" bills, but four railroads are also part of ALEC: CSX, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Gennese & Wyoming, and Norfolk Southern. Burlington Northern Santa Fe was listed as a "Trustee Level Sponsor" at the 2016 ALEC conference; the other railroads funded ALEC in previous years. Their funding makes this industrial sector among the most represented in ALEC, along with energy and utility companies and pharmaceutical companies. Read the rest of this item here.