across the country. That sort of widespread introduction of cookie-cutter bills is exactly what ALEC's model legislation is designed to facilitate. Which of course is why Heartland took the bill to ALEC. (It would be interesting to see how a list of Heartland's donors compares with ALEC's private-sector members.)
And while you believe that "the Parent Trigger was formed rather organically" in California, what you consider "rather organic" could also be called (and has been called) astroturf, given the involvement of Green Dot charter schools. The changes made by the Heartland Institute make the bill even more damaging to education, IMO.
But I know you see things differently at the Heartland Institute, and we'd never reach any sort of agreement on this.
FWIW, I think Linda Darling-Hammond is correct and we could learn a lot from Finland:
http://www.nea.org/home/40991.htmBut again, I wouldn't expect someone employed by the Heartland Institute to agree. :)
Most DUers are already familiar with the Institute, but here are a few links for those who aren't:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute(I believe the
Water policy section there would be especially interesting to DUers not already familiar with it.)
http://motherjones.com/environment/2009/12/dirty-dozen-climate-change-denial-06-heartland-institutehttp://mediamattersaction.org/transparency/organization/Heartland_InstituteDUers should also be aware that although the Heartland Institute is supposedly independent and not affiliated with any political party, it offers a slew of helpful little booklets for the Tea Party, described on this website
http://sttpp.wordpress.com/library/heartland-institutes-teapartytoolbox-library/as the Heartland Institute’s TeaPartyToolbox Library, and including
The Patriot’s Toolbox, described as "a guide to public policy for patriot-activists in the Tea Party movement as well as for candidates for public office, incumbent office holders, civic and business leaders, and journalists assigned to cover the movement." The link for that is
http://www.heartland.org/article/28512