{"id":415,"date":"2012-10-15T13:03:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T17:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/score-high-on-alec-policy-score-low-on-education.html"},"modified":"2013-08-16T10:51:23","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T14:51:23","slug":"score-high-on-alec-policy-score-low-on-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/score-high-on-alec-policy-score-low-on-education.html","title":{"rendered":"Score high on ALEC policy, score low on education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\nAccording to ALEC&#8217;s own website, states that score high<br \/>\non ALEC&#8217;s education policies score low on education.<br \/>\nRemember,<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/q-why-are-so-many-states-pushing-charter-schools-now-a-alec.html\"><br \/>\nALEC is behind the Georgia charter school amendment<\/a><br \/>\non the November ballot.<br \/>\nIf you didn&#8217;t believe<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/10\/adding-another-charter-school-authorizer-reduces-academic-learning-karen-noll.html\"><br \/>\nStanford Credo&#8217;s study<\/a> that showed<br \/>\nadding a charter school authorizer, as that amendment would do,<br \/>\nreduces academic learning,<br \/>\nhow about ALEC&#8217;s own data?\n<\/p>\n<p>\nBill Simon write for The Political Vine today,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/politicalvine.com\/politicalrumors\/odds-and-ends\/charter-schools-and-alec-the-facts-alec-doesnt-want-you-to-know\/\"><br \/>\nCharter Schools and ALEC: The Facts ALEC Doesn&#8217;t Want You To Know,<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nIf you take the state performance rankings and match them up to each<br \/>\nstate&#8217;s education policy rankings, you come-up with an entirely<br \/>\ndifferent picture of how little (if any at all) a state&#8217;s degree of<br \/>\nconservative education \u201cpolicy\u201d translates into actual<br \/>\neducation performance.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nI did this (<a href=\"http:\/\/politicalvine.com\/2012\/ALEC\/2012ALECReportCard-ByStateRanking.pdf\"><br \/>\nPDF copy available here<\/a>)<br \/>\nand this is what the 2012 Top 10 states in Performance looks like,<br \/>\nand their corresponding Policy ranks:\n<\/p>\n<h3>2012 Performance\/Policy Rank<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.alec.org\/publications\/report-card-on-american-education\/\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017c328bb648970b\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017c328bb648970b-pi.jpg\"  alt=\"ALEC's 17th Report Card on American Education\" width=\"186\" height=\"265\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li> Massachusetts \/ B-\n<\/li>\n<li> Vermont \/ D+\n<\/li>\n<li> New Jersey \/ B-\n<\/li>\n<li> Colorado \/ B\n<\/li>\n<li> Pennsylvania \/ C+\n<\/li>\n<li> Rhode Island \/ C\n<\/li>\n<li> North Carolina \/ C\n<\/li>\n<li> Kansas \/ C-\n<\/li>\n<li> New Hampshire \/ C+\n<\/li>\n<li> New York \/ C-\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nThe numbers are ALEC&#8217;s performance rankings,<br \/>\nand the letters are ALEC&#8217;s policy grades.\n<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nWow. Look at that. Massachusetts has a B- and is at #1&#8230;<br \/>\nVermont has<br \/>\na D+ at #2 on Education Performance. The rest of the Top 10 states<br \/>\nhave mostly C-averages in conservative education policy. Yet, their<br \/>\nkids are smarter in reading comprehension and math than 41 other<br \/>\neducation jurisdictions in the United States.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAnd&#8230; how about Missouri? The state that scored the highest in<br \/>\neducation policy? Look down the page of this PDF to the light blue<br \/>\nhighlight near the bottom: 47th in Performance. Near dead last in<br \/>\n2012.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAnother interesting observation is Minnesota, which was #2 in<br \/>\nPerformance in the 2006 ALEC Report Card, but has dropped out of the<br \/>\nTop 10 states in 2012, and sunk to 18th in Performance&#8230;but, they<br \/>\nhave a B+ in Education Policy.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nHe mentions that Kansas,<br \/>\nlike Vermont, declined to participate in the federal Race to the Top program,<br \/>\nwith its<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/thejournal.com\/articles\/2009\/06\/09\/charter-school-support-is-a-prerequisite-for-race-to-the-top-funds.aspx\"><br \/>\nrequirement for charter schools<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\n<strong><br \/>\nAND&#8230;<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nwhere is the State of Kansas in the 2012 Performance Rankings?<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nAt #8 in Performance and C- in Policy&#8230;<br \/>\n<em><br \/>\nkicking the crap<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nout of<br \/>\nGeorgia (#27 in Performance and \u201cB\u201d in Policy) and<br \/>\nFlorida (#12 in Performance and B+ in Policy), who are both working<br \/>\non getting<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nmore<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\ncharter schools stuffed into their state&#8217;s<br \/>\nrespective school system apparatus.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nSo ALEC&#8217;s own data says ALEC&#8217;s policy of pushing charter schools on states,<br \/>\nincluding through the referendum on the Georgia November ballot,<br \/>\n<em>reduces<\/em> educational performance.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nWhy would ALEC push such policies then?<br \/>\nBecause they&#8217;re not about education.<br \/>\nThey&#8217;re about profit.\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nSo, in effect,<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nALEC acts as a marketing arm of all the pro-charter school companies and organizations<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n(i.e., the Gates Foundation and Walmart&#8217;s various entities who<br \/>\nsupport charter school legislation)&#8230; and ALEC&#8217;s job is to fool<br \/>\nvoters, legislators, policy decision makers, educators, and everyone<br \/>\nelse involved in public school education.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/outside-money-fueling-charter-school-amendment-referendum.html\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017c328bb64d970b\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017c328bb64d970b-pi.jpg\"  alt=\"Alice Walton\" width=\"124\" height=\"150\"  \/><\/a><br \/>\nRemember<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/walton-family-foundation-granted-105-million-towards-ga-charter-schools-in-2011.html\"><br \/>\nthe Walton Family Foundation granted $1.05 million last year<\/a><br \/>\nto organizations now pushing the charter school amendment,<br \/>\nand <a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/walton-family-foundation-granted-105-million-towards-ga-charter-schools-in-2011.html\"><br \/>\nWal-Mart heir Alice Walton chipped in another $250,000 this year.<\/a><br \/>\nFollowed in size of donations by three private charter school companies,<br \/>\nthe first of which (K12 Inc. of Virginia) has<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/class-action-lawsuit-against-second-largest-donor-to-ga-charter-school-referendum.html\"><br \/>\na class action lawsuit against it<\/a><br \/>\nwhile<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/k12-ceo-packard-5m-in-2011-up-36.html\"><br \/>\nits CEO rakes in record compensation<\/a><br \/>\nderived from tax dollars.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/10\/adding-another-charter-school-authorizer-reduces-academic-learning-karen-noll.html\"><br \/>\nStanford&#8217;s Credo says<\/a><br \/>\nadding charter school authorizers downgrades educational performance.<br \/>\nALEC&#8217;s own data says ALEC&#8217;s policies,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.votesmartgeorgia.com\/\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017c326fb38d970b\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017c326fb38d970b-pi.png\"  alt=\"VoteSmartGeorgia.com\" width=\"126\" height=\"176\"  \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/q-why-are-so-many-states-pushing-charter-schools-now-a-alec.html\"><br \/>\nof which increasing charter school authorizers is one<\/a>,<br \/>\ndowngrades educational performance.<br \/>\nOut-of-state foundations and corporations<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/walton-family-foundation-granted-105-million-towards-ga-charter-schools-in-2011.html\"><br \/>\nare pouring money<\/a><br \/>\ninto passing a constitutional amendment that would downgrade education<br \/>\nin Georgia for their private profit at your local tax dollar expense.<br \/>\nDo you need any more reasons to<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.votesmartgeorgia.com\/\"><br \/>\nvote No on amendment 1?<\/a><br \/>\nIf so, you can<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/10\/democrats-to-tea-party-against-charter-school-amendment.html\"><br \/>\nsee two local educators explain in detail<\/a><br \/>\nhow that amendment is about control of local education (and tax dollars)<br \/>\nby an unelected board in Atlanta.<br \/>\nThen maybe you&#8217;ll vote No on the charter school amendment.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; According to ALEC&#8217;s own website, states that score high on ALEC&#8217;s education policies score low on education. Remember, ALEC is behind the Georgia charter school amendment on the November ballot. If you didn&#8217;t believe Stanford Credo&#8217;s study that showed adding a charter school authorizer, as that amendment would do, reduces academic learning, how about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,14,15,49,70,8,21,22],"tags":[8744,1390,1371,8704,8705,8721,8728,8701,1576,8702,12,7,8711,8712,218,1486,60,6,1388],"class_list":["post-415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alec","category-economy","category-education","category-elections","category-ethics","category-georgia","category-planning","category-politics","tag-alec","tag-alice-walton","tag-charter-schools","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-elections","tag-ethics","tag-georgia","tag-k12","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-profit","tag-referendum","tag-tax","tag-valdosta","tag-walton-family-foundation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5170,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415\/revisions\/5170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}