Reply #91: 2004 article on ALEC's role in school voucher legislation in Wisconsin

[highplainsdem]

http://fightingbob.com/article.cfm?articleID=193

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The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is one place a state legislator can turn. According to the organization, it is "a bipartisan membership association for conservative state lawmakers who share a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty." In fact, a recent study found that 85 percent of its more than 200 members in "senior leadership positions" are Republicans. ALEC promotes policies such as "free market environmentalism" and the privatization of services like education, prisons and health care.

Wisconsin's "school choice" programs, among the first in the nation, were staked out early on by ALEC. The Milwaukee program has been making headlines since its inception -- most recently for the use of one voucher school's public monies to purchase luxury cars. The role of ALEC in the history of voucher legislation is not as well known, however.

School vouchers came of age during the gubernatorial reign of Tommy Thompson. ALEC and the right wing foundations that it partners with -- among them the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) -- worked to transform the image of voucher programs from a desultory privatization scheme to a "progressive" policy that gives students from low-income families a chance to get a better education.

"The strongest link comes from ALEC itself, which held out Wisconsin Works and PAVE (People Against a Violent Environment) as models for the rest of the country," said Erin O'Neill of Public Trust Partnership. Public Trust is a nonprofit collaborative of public interest advocacy organizations that seeks to alert citizens to the influence of right-wing and corporate interests in state policymaking. "They have had model legislation on the issue for years."

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