In GA, SC & NC: ALEC Wants to Indoctrinate High School Students

[Triana]

From an AFSCME email I received this morning. Emphasis mine:

"ALEC’s beliefs are not what I want my child to be taught in school"



The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate front for right-wing “model” state legislation such as the right-to-work scam, is now working to politically indoctrinate America’s young people with a high school graduation requirement that promotes its extremist views.

The “Founding Philosophy and Principles Act,” a bill that ALEC has quietly pushed since 2010, would require high school students to pass a semester-long course on the “founding philosophy and principles” of the United States in order to graduate. That may sound like a harmless civics course, but the measure, which popped up in the legislature in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina (where it passed the Senate), has raised concerns among parents and teachers.

Lisa Lewis, an AFSCME Local 1644 member from Atlanta whose son will be a high school senior next year, says she is concerned about political indoctrination by ALEC. “ALEC’s beliefs are not what I want my child to be taught in school,” she said. “I would not like him to be taught a course on other people’s [political] morals and beliefs and then be held accountable to believe in those morals and beliefs in order to pass high school.

It’s apparently not enough for ALEC to go after the working class, now they’re going after the children,” Lewis said. “That’s not right.”

LINK: http://www.afscme.org/blog/alec-wants-to-indoctrinate-high-school-students

[appalachiablue]

1. K & R. ALEC, ultraconservative ideology devouring the country.

[Rex]

2. Holyshit that group is evil! Someone needs to counter their destruction of state law.

They already have criminal governors like Walker doing their evil work. Going after children is a special kind of vile.

[Triana]

3. They control most of the states - They're going after cities, towns and municipalities next . . .

The American Legislative Exchange Council, founded in 1973, has become one of the most pervasive advocacy operations in the nation. It brings elected officials together with representatives of major corporations, giving those companies a direct channel into legislation in the form of ALEC “model bills.”

Critics have decried the network as a “corporate bill mill” that has spread uniformly-drafted rightwing legislation from state to state. ALEC has been seminal, for instance, in the replication of Florida’s controversial “stand-your-ground” gun law in more than 20 states.

Now the council is looking to take its blueprint for influence over statewide lawmaking and drill it down to the local level. It has already quietly set up, and is making plans for the public launch of, an offshoot called the American City County Exchange (ACCE) that will target policymakers from “villages, towns, cities and counties.”

The new organization will offer corporate America a direct conduit into the policy making process of city councils and municipalities. Lobbyists acting on behalf of major businesses will be able to propose resolutions and argue for new profit-enhancing legislation in front of elected city officials, who will then return to their council chambers and seek to implement the proposals.

THE REST:

http://billmoyers.com/2014/03/07/alec-goes-hyper-local-with-new-nationwide-network/