By Bob Plain in
RIFuture.org
The Post reported Wednesday on the connection between Jeb Bush’s
Chiefs for Change, a conservative education group of which Gist is a member,
and the Foundation for Excellence in Education, which has “strong connections”
with the American Legislative Exchange Council, the shadowy corporate-funded
bill mill widely regarded as one of the strongest and shadiest right-wing
forces in state politics.
A nonprofit group released
thousands of e-mails today and said they show how a foundation
begun by Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and national education reform
leader, is working with public officials in states to write education laws that
could benefit some of its corporate funders.
The e-mails are between the Foundation for Excellence in
Education (FEE) and a group Bush set up called Chiefs for Change,
whose members are current and former state education
commissioners who support Bush’s agenda of school reform, which includes school
choice, online education … and school accountability systems based on
standardized tests.
Gist is a member of Chiefs for Change, and the emails made
public this week indicate she sought the FEE’s help in procuring funding for
local initiatives. You can read
Gist’s emails here.
From the WaPost story:
Donald Cohen, chair of the nonprofit In the Public Interest, a
resource center on privatization and responsible for contracting in the public
sector, said the e-mails show how education companies that have been known to
contribute to the foundation are using the organization “to move an education
agenda that may or not be in our interests but are in theirs.”
He said companies ask the foundation to help state officials
pass laws and regulations that make it easier to expand charter schools,
require students to take online education courses, and do other things that
could result in business and profits for them. The e-mails show, Cohen said,
that Bush’s foundation would often do this with the help of Chiefs for Change
and other affiliated groups.
The Post says, “There are strong connections between FEE and the
conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).” The Washington Post
cites an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy that detailed the
connection:
Aptly named FEE, Bush’s group is backed by many of the same
for-profit school corporations that have funded ALEC and vote as equals with
its legislators on templates to change laws governing America’s public schools.
FEE is also bankrolled by many of the same hard-right foundations bent on privatizing
public schools that have funded ALEC. And, they have pushed many of the same
changes to the law, which benefit their corporate benefactors and satisfy the
free market fundamentalism of the billionaires whose tax-deductible charities
underwrite the agenda of these two groups.
FEE and ALEC also have had some of the same “experts” as members
or staff, part of the revolving door between right-wing groups. They have also
collaborated on the annual ALEC
education “report card” that grades states’ allegiance to
their policy agenda higher than actual student performance. That
distorted report card also rewards states that push ALEC’s beloved
union-busting measures while giving low grades to states with students who
actually perform best on standardized knowledge tests.
Gist’s emails were one of six from conservative state education
leaders across the country. The others were Oklahoma, New Mexico, Maine,
Louisiana and Florida.
Last year, RI Future broke several stories about ALEC’s influence at the State House.
Following our coverage – which prompted many local media outlets to cover the
issue and helped inspire a New York Times op/ed – several legislative members dropped out as did corporate member CVS. Several more ALEC members an supporters were defeated in November’s election,
most notbably ALEC’s biggest booster locally Jon Brien.
Bob Plain is the editor/publisher of
Rhode Island's Future. Previously, he's worked as a reporter for several
different news organizations both in Rhode Island and across the country.
