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| <h3>[http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13024/national-school-choice-week-fueled-major-right-wing-funders-and-corporate-lobby "National School Choice Week" Fueled by Major Right-Wing Funders and Corporate Lobby Groups]</h3> | | <h3>[http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/02/13030/koch-fueled-groups-launch-offensive-against-wv-working-families Koch-Fueled Playbook against WV Working Families Exposed by CMD]<h3> |
| [[Image:Charter_Schools_chalkboard-dollars270px.jpg|270|center]]With 32 governors proclaiming this week "School Choice Week," and more than 16,000 scheduled events listed on the promotional website, #NationalSchoolChoiceWeek has become a big deal, and not by accident. | | [[Image:koch_playbook_symbols-chalkboard270px.jpg|270|center]]West Virginia Senate President Bill Cole's spokesman [http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160201/wv-senate-president-bill-cole-speaks-at-retreat-organized-by-koch-brothers said] Monday that Cole "will travel throughout West Virginia and beyond...." to talk about his legislative agenda that limits workers' rights. |
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| Launched five years ago by the Gleason Family Foundation—which spent more than $4.3 million on the project in 2014—the week has grown rapidly through the backing of advocacy groups and deep pockets of funders focused on promoting charters, vouchers, and tax credits that aid private schools, including religious and for-profit ventures.
| | And, boy, did he go beyond, according to David Gutman of the Charleston Gazette-Mail. |
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| In federal and state budgets, "school choice" policies often divert or reduce Americans’ tax dollars available for traditional public schools that educate our most underserved students or for investment in sustainable and innovative community schools that are truly public. Read the rest of this item [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13024/national-school-choice-week-fueled-major-right-wing-funders-and-corporate-lobby here].
| | Cole flew to a world far away from West Virginia when he traveled this weekend to the luxurious Esmeralda resort, which describes itself as creating [http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/pspsr-renaissance-indian-wells-resort-and-spa/ “an atmosphere of luxury and relaxation unmatched”] in Palm Springs, California. Read the rest of this item [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/02/13030/koch-fueled-groups-launch-offensive-against-wv-working-families here]. |
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| <h3>[http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/11/12982/alecs-rich-states-poor-states-paints-happy-face-failing-state-policies ALEC's "Rich States, Poor States" Paints a Happy Face on Failing State Policies]</h3> | | <h3>[http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/02/13029/2016-ALEC-local-control Corporate Interests Take Aim at Local Democracy]</h3> |
| [[Image:I_heart_ALEC_austerity270px.jpg|270|center]]Yesterday, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) rolled out another edition of its "Rich States, Poor States" publication. The publication annually slaps a fresh coat of paint on the flawed fiscal and economic austerity policies favored by the group and its corporate patrons. | | [[Image:Stop_ALEC_backed_HB20-270px.jpg|270|center]]Across America, corporate interests are taking aim at local government. |
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| It's going to take a lot of paint this year.
| | With Congress gridlocked and a majority of state legislatures controlled by right-wing interests, cities have become laboratories of democracy for progressive policies like a higher minimum wage, LGBTQ protections, or parental leave. |
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| The poster child for the ALEC anti-tax, low-wage policy agenda is Koch Industries' home state, Kansas, which has been plugged by Governor Sam Brownback as a "[http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/kansass-failed-experiment/389874/ real live experiment] in supply side economics. But Brownback's tax cuts have thrown the state into fiscal crisis, saddling the state with a projected budget deficit of $190 million for the next fiscal year, [http://www.kansasbudget.com/ no reserves], [http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/05/19/3660279/kansas-extra-session-tax-cuts-repeal/ slashed public services], and [http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article29761057.html lagging job growth]. Although wealthy taxpayers and businesses have reaped big benefits, it's an [http://www.thinkncfirst.org/research/kansass-tax-cut-disaster-explained-in-five-charts economic disaster] for working families. Read the rest of this item [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/11/12982/alecs-rich-states-poor-states-paints-happy-face-failing-state-policies here].
| | In response, corporate interests and groups like the [http://www.alecexposed.org American Legislative Exchange Council] (ALEC) have increasingly been turning to state "preemption" measures—some of them unprecedentedly aggressive--to override an array of progressive policy gains at the city or county level. Read the rest of this item [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/02/13029/2016-ALEC-local-control here]. |
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| <h3>[http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13021/ALEC_Exxon_climatedenial_california CMD Submits Evidence of ExxonMobil Funding ALEC’s Climate Change Denial to CA Attorney General]</h3> | | <h3>[http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/02/13031/reporters-guide-koch-playbook-right-work Reporters Guide on the Koch Right to Work Playbook]</h3> |
| [[Image:ExxonMobil-ALEC-logo270px.jpg|270|center]]he Center for Media and Democracy has submitted [http://www.prwatch.org/files/01-21-16_cmd_letter_to_ca_ag.pdf evidence] to California Attorney General Kamala Harris showing how ExxonMobil has promoted climate change denial through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). CMD believes this information is relevant to her office's [http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-exxon-global-warming-20160120-story.html investigation] into whether ExxonMobil deceived its shareholders and the public about the impact that burning fossil fuels has on climate change. | | [[Image:Koch_Playbook-cover270px.jpg|270|center]]West Virginia is the latest front in a national battle to undermine worker rights bankrolled by the billionaire Koch brothers. |
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| CMD has identified at least $1,730,200 in funding from ExxonMobil to ALEC between 1998 and 2014, based on publicly available disclosures, although the actual total is likely higher. CMD has documented Exxon funding for ALEC at least as early as 1981.
| | The effort in West Virginia to enact a Right to Work law (Senate Bill 1) and repeal the state's prevailing wage (HB4005) is following the same playbook used in Michigan and Wisconsin, involving a similar cast of Koch-backed out-of-state characters to drive the agenda. |
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| This funding makes ExxonMobil one of ALEC's biggest financial supporters as ALEC has promoted legislation, resolutions, presentations, and publications seeking to stop efforts to address climate change, and has indoctrinated thousands of state legislators with the idea that "a great deal of scientific uncertainty" surrounds the science of climate change and that carbon emissions "may even be beneficial." Read the rest of this item [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/01/13021/ALEC_Exxon_climatedenial_california here].
| | Read the rest of this item [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/02/13031/reporters-guide-koch-playbook-right-work here]. |
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