For years, corporations have joined the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for the opportunity to develop legislation that diverts public dollars into their corporate coffers. A new report by In the Public Interest, “Profiting from Public Dollars: How ALEC and Its Members Promote Privatization of Government Services and Assets,” exposes ALEC’s extensive privatization agenda. The report details how private prison corporations, online education companies, health care corporations, and major industry players pay large membership fees to ALEC in exchange for valuable and unfettered access to state legislators. Corporations are able to work with ALEC lawmakers to craft bills that allow private control of public functions, and guarantee a steady stream of tax dollars to enhance profits.
Corporate and legislative ALEC members work together to jointly develop pro-privatization model bills, and then legislators introduce and push these bills in their state legislatures. These bills make it easier to create virtual public schools, encourage states to privatize vital health programs that help vulnerable populations, force state governments to sell public prisons to prison corporations, and help other industries take control of public assets and services.
In 2011 and 2012, ALEC model bills that sought to privatize core public functions were introduced in states across the country, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. Many ALEC bills fail their first time, but examples of success expose their real goal: enhancing corporate pocketbooks with lucrative government contracts.
- Virtual Public Schools: The K-12 online learning industry is profitable – estimates predict that this market will grow by 43% between 2010 and 2015, with revenues expected to reach $24.4 billion. K12 Inc. and Connections Academy, companies that have both served as corporate chairs of ALEC’s education task force, used ALEC to move legislation authorizing virtual public schools. In 2011, HB 1030/SB 874, which is almost an exact copy of ALEC’s Virtual Public School Act, passed in Tennessee. Shortly after, K12 Inc. won a no-bid contract from Union County School District to create the Tennessee Virtual School Academy.
- Private Prisons: In 2011, Ohio passed HB 153, which contains similar provisions as ALEC’s Private Correctional Facilities Act. Specifically, HB 153 allows corporations to purchase state correctional facilities, which was one of the defining features of the ALEC model bill. Shortly after this bill passed, Ohio became the first state to actually sell a correctional facility to a private company. The Lake Erie Correctional Institution was sold to Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a long-time corporate member of ALEC.
It’s evident that corporations use ALEC and its vast network of state lawmakers to push for privatization. By increasing the number of government functions that are contracted out, these corporations can grow their profits with taxpayer dollars. And the effects of this ALEC-sponsored legislation are clear – we stand to lose control over public services and assets and, ultimately, we risk a weakened democracy.
The new study underlines how corporations use ALEC to promote private interests and goals that trump the public interest. For a complete list of ALEC model legislation, please visit www.ALECexposed.org. To download a copy of In The Public Interest’s report, “Profiting from Public Dollars,” and learn more about ALEC’s privatization agenda in the past and what we can expect to see in upcoming legislative sessions, click here.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
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