Investigating Power
The Wisconsin-based Center for Media and Democracy has issued data showing that since 2000, 491 of 1,091 Florida charter schools have closed their doors. That’s 38 percent, which is 7 points higher than the national average.
In his 2015-’17 budget, Walker eliminated the Wisconsin Idea — a commitment to public service to better society — as part of a bigger assault on the UW System. Caught, he tweeted on Feb. 4, 2015, that it was a “drafting error.” He stood by that lie while both PolitiFact and The New York Times challenged him on it. Then, he was forced in court by the Center for Media and Democracy and The Progressive to reveal documents with the truth: There was no drafting error. The elimination of the UW mission came from Walker.
For the context, we’ll go back to 2013 when the liberal group Center for Media and Democracy requested records from a number of Republican lawmakers of their communications with the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC. The group helps draft and support largely conservative legislation.
ALEC, or the American Legislative Exchange Council, says it is nonpartisan, but is known as a powerful and secretive collaboration between big business and conservative politicians. Approximately 22 legislators in the North Dakota House of Representatives have ALEC ties, including representatives Al Carlson, Jim Kasper, Ben Koppelman, and Randy Boehning. Seven state senators are also listed as having ties to ALEC, including West Fargo’s Judy Lee by the Center for Media and Democracy.
It was an uncomfortable moment. Taylor [State Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison)] went on to call out Horowitz and ALEC in a column for the Center for Media and Democracy.
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Taylor hired attorney Lester Pines to defend her against the threat. In an Aug. 31 letter, Pines wrote: “Were your client to bring a suit for defamation against Rep. Taylor or [the Center for Media and Democracy], it would be dismissed as frivolous and they would seek attorneys’ fees and expenses, and other sanctions.”
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) writes model bills siding with its insurance company members, and Vukmir sits on ALEC’s board of directors as chairman emeritus of the rightwing, corporation-funded group. The Center for Media and Democracy shed light on her actions after winning a 2013 open records lawsuit against Vukmir. The documents showed ALEC wrote model legislation given to Vukmir on “how to thwart Medicaid expansion” in states, including a script to “parrot.”
ALEC is considered “shadowy” and “secretive” because it does not disclose the source and use of its funds and because bills introduced by state legislators are not identified as ALEC bills. Vukmir is directly implicated in this secrecy. In 2013, the Center for Media and Democracy asked her in a lawsuit for records relating to her work for ALEC. Vukmir resisted disclosure and ultimately settled, charging the taxpayers $15,000 for her legal fees and damages.
According to Mary Bottari, the deputy director at the Center for Media and Democracy, the “echo effects” of voter ID laws from state to state were no accident — they were based on a “model bill” from the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.
Some more background information about the IPI [Illinois Policy Institute] is provided by the Center for Media and Democracy. The center reports the IPI has received over half a million dollars in donations from Bruce Rauner.
When Rauner fired his chief of staff in 2017, he replaced him with the IPI President and COO Kristina Rasmussen. The center also reports IPI has ties to the right wing Koch Brothers and also to the conservative Bradley Foundation.
Sudden closure of charter schools is not unusual. The Center for Media and Democracy found that about 2,500 charter schools closed between 2000 and 2013. Some of them closed at the end of the school year, some never opened in the first place, and some closed abruptly in the middle of the year. Charters can close for a variety reasons; this week’s closings appear to be due to financial problems because of low enrollment.