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Galraedia

(5,026 posts)
Wed Jul 17, 2013, 08:18 PM Jul 2013

Schools Across The Country Are Considering Education Bills Crafted By Corporate Frontgroup

School privatization laws crafted by corporate interests have been introduced in nearly every state in the first half of 2013, according to the Center for Media and Democracy. 43 states and the District of Columbia are considering school legislation developed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the umbrella organization that pushes state laws catered to business interests on a myriad of topics.

CMD’s report, “Cashing In On Kids,” details 139 separate ALEC-designed bills promoting for-profit education in the states and D.C. this year alone. Three states have considered school voucher programs, and 10 have taken up another ALEC measure that funnels public dollars to private schools via tax credits. Three states have considered the “Virtual Schools Act,” which spends taxpayer money on an online education model “few educators think is appropriate for young children.” So-called “Parent Trigger” laws designed by ALEC and the conservative Heartland Institute have come up in 12 states.

School vouchers do not generally raise student achievement, according to a Center on Education Policy review of years of research. CEP noted that even though most of that research has been funded by the for-profit education industry, it fails to make a convincing case for the superiority of privatized education. If kids are not benefiting, who is?

“Cashing In On Kids” notes that Wisconsin taxpayers have sent nearly two billion dollars to for-profit, religious, and online schools since Milwaukee became the nation’s first school vouchers city in 1990. School voucher programs in Florida, Georgia, and Oklahoma have sent taxpayer money to schools that teach creationism. In Louisiana, almost none of the private schools receiving voucher funds have maintained the separate accounts for public dollars which the law requires, making it impossible to audit their use of the funds. Just two schools have been properly audited, and one of them relies on uncertified teachers and “plopping students in front of televisions to watch lessons on DVDs.”

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/education/2013/07/17/2316921/education-laws-written-by-for-profit-schools-considered-in-43-states/

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Schools Across The Country Are Considering Education Bills Crafted By Corporate Frontgroup (Original Post) Galraedia Jul 2013 OP
NO! tblue Jul 2013 #1
k&r for exposure. n/t Laelth Jul 2013 #2
There is a nut case legislator in Utah montanacowboy Jul 2013 #3
obama`s buddy duncan did this in chicago madrchsod Jul 2013 #4
Well this doesn't surprise me mstinamotorcity2 Jul 2013 #5
Ah, yes, the Dumbing Down chervilant Jul 2013 #6

tblue

(16,350 posts)
1. NO!
Wed Jul 17, 2013, 08:25 PM
Jul 2013

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!! My gosh, we'll have to send our kids to Mexico or China or Iran so they can get an education! I think we're on the upswing in California, but who knows for how long? “Cashing In On Kids"?

montanacowboy

(6,098 posts)
3. There is a nut case legislator in Utah
Wed Jul 17, 2013, 08:36 PM
Jul 2013

who is proposing "the end to compulsory education"

next stop - the workhouse for all children - an ignorant uneducated population working for the 1%- that is their wet dream for America

mstinamotorcity2

(1,451 posts)
5. Well this doesn't surprise me
Wed Jul 17, 2013, 10:02 PM
Jul 2013

after all its not that they are de-funding public education for the purpose of making it extinct and an illiterate workforce, its the teachers they just can't teach. The unions have teachers who are no good. The teachers union has made teaching bad, bad, bad.

chervilant

(8,267 posts)
6. Ah, yes, the Dumbing Down
Wed Jul 17, 2013, 10:05 PM
Jul 2013

of our children continues unabated , as the corporate megalomaniacs determine additional strategies for "education" profits, even as they guarantee a new crop of factory fodder and service industry drones. (And, our kids will have to pay a LOT more if they want the higher degrees that MIGHT net them a higher salary...)

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