The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is a prominent right-wing think tank that produces reports across a number of issue areas, including education, and is considered one of the countrys main bastions of neoconservatism. Recent AEI research on education reform has focused on education philanthropy, higher education reform, federal education legislation, and early childhood education, with articles defending vouchers in Tennessee and advocating for online education programs for school choice in rural areas. The Center for Individual Rights (CIR) is a nonprofit conservative legal organization known for its work on federal and state court cases dismantling affirmative action and civil rights protections. CIR attorneys declined to argue the case in lower courts, instead pushing for the courts to issue decisions that would allow the case to move exceptionally quickly to the Supreme Court. The NRTWLDFs stated mission is to eliminate coercive union power and compulsory unionism abuses through strategic litigation, public information, and education programs. The NRTWLDF is an associate member of the State Policy Network of right-wing think tanks, and its legal actions work in concert with the National Right to Work Committee to push and defend right to work model legislation created by the American Legislative Education Council (ALEC). K12 Inc. calls itself a proud member of the corporate-driven bill mill American Legislative Education Council (ALEC), which has pushed virtual schools legislation that would create greater demand for products like those produced by K12, and has contributed financially to the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a pro-privatization think tank that also frequently touts digital learning tools in its policy recommendations. The court's decision in the case, Twitter v. Taamneh, No. But each has something distinct in mind. But it does mean that it is now incumbent on us to make education-policy debates less technocratic, and thus more suited to the particular kinds of challenges that America confronts today. In 2014, it was reported that BRI held a $100,000 contract to develop social studies curriculum for the state of North Carolina, following the 2011 passage of a state law generated from corporate-backed American Legislative Exchange Council model legislation that added a requirement for all high school students to pass a course on the founding principles of government.. The foundations website points media, researchers, policymakers, and parents and educators to pro-voucher research, explainers, and news releases. Education Next executive editors include leading scholars at conservative State Policy Network-affiliated think tanks, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the American Enterprise Institute. Libre is one of many groups in this guide to back events for National School Choice Week in recent years, encouraging legislators to expand privatization-focused policies. The foundation is a policy partner of the conservative-fueled National School Choice Week campaign, an associate member of the State Policy Network (SPN) of right-wing think tanks, and a sponsor of SPNs most recent annual meeting. Jeb Bush and Rod Paige, the former secretary of education under George W. Bush. Author: Sarah Crain Created Date: 12/14/2021 11:57:25 AM Author: Sarah Crain Created Date: 10/22/2021 1:13:44 PM Spending on education is, in constant dollars nearly 10 times what it was in 1945 - $1,200 . The Charles Koch Foundation has supported the Daily Caller News Foundation with more than $160,000 in grant funding since 2012, and The Daily Caller News Foundation is currently listed as a partner organization of the Charles Koch Institute. ConnCAN is a strategic partner of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Education Options, and 50CANs Pennsylvania chapter is a policy partner of the right-wing-fueled National School Choice Week campaign. In 2015, former journalist and teachers union opponentCampbell Brown launched non-partisan education news website The 74, which purports to challenge the status quo, expose corruption and inequality, and champion the heroes who bring positive change to our schools. The website, which co-hosted a GOP presidential candidate forum in 2015 where Brown questioned six candidates about their views on education reform, is funded by staunch proponents of charter schools. Tax documents from the groups list more than $23 million in combined support for the Franklin Center since 2012, often earmarked for conservative journalism projects in targeted states, such as a nearly $107,000 grant from DonorsTrust in 2013 for Pennsylvania education reporting. The AFC website also lists state allies, many of which are also members of the State Policy Network. All but one of the staff attorneys are listed as members of the conservative Federalist Society. In 2014, the foundation gave a total of more than $24 million for use in educational programs, educational grants, and general operating support at these schools and organizations, including more than $11.8 million in 2014 to George Mason University, which hosts the Mercatus Center. Though the group does not disclose its financials, it was reported to have raised more than $3 million in 2014, and received $200,000 from the Bradley Foundation in 2014. The PEJ, formerly known as All Kids Matter, is a nonprofit legal advocacy group that primarily works to challenge teachers union protections in courts and currently is party to a lawsuit filed in New York that attempts to weaken teacher tenure laws. When we began building the network, some of our friends inside the beltway wondered whether we could really find more than a couple hundred serious-minded, right-leaning people with a professional interest in education policy. Tucker Carlson, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller, joined the Koch-founded Cato Institute in 2009 and is currently listed as a senior fellow there. By Juan Perez Jr. 09/30/2021 11:01 AM EDT DETROIT Education Secretary Miguel Cardona fretted in the back of a tour bus rolling through Detroit's rain-soaked suburbs about the future of. Some reformers on the right would argue that full-bore school choice itself was put aside to make some bipartisanship possible. Many Americans are alienated from our core institutions and distrustful of them, and we seem to have less and less recourse to any foundation of mutual commitments. An emphasis on character has been important to the success of some of the most prominent choice experiments and charter programs serving disadvantaged students, for example. Textbook imprints owned by Pearson include Scott Foresman, Prentice Hall, Addison-Wesley, Harcourt, and Adobe Press, among others. Conservatives tend to see the human person as a fallen and imperfect being, prone to excess and to sin, and ever in need of self-restraint and moral formation.1 This fundamentally gloomy conception of humanity sets conservatives apart from libertarians and progressives alike, and sits at the core of most conservative thinking about society and politics. The foundation is closely tied to the corporate-driven bill mill American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Koch brothers philanthropic foundations. We have also leveraged our membership to produce the Sketching a New Conservative Education Agenda series, which has grown steadily to provide 48 concrete ideas that could improve American education. According to the Center for Media and Democracy, the Friedman Foundation has collaborated with the American Legislative Education Council (ALEC) and the Alliance for School Choice to draft model legislation expanding voucher programs, and has attended at least one ALEC annual meeting. At the same time, an epidemic of isolation and estrangement is breaking down the lives of millions, leaving them disconnected from sources of belonging and meaning. Evidence of the anterolateral thigh fascia lata (ALTFL) rescue flap technique's safety, effectiveness, and long-term outcomes is needed. Sign up for AEIs EdExpress your weekly digest of news, research, and views from AEIs Education Policy Experts, Senior Fellow and Director, Education Policy Studies, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Education Policy Studies. You will assume, as has also been well said, that man is born free but is everywhere in chains, and will look at politics as a struggle to liberate individuals from structures of oppression. SPNs education policy agenda substantially centers on digital education expansion, which corresponds with corporate-backed ALEC model legislation pushing the same policies, and school voucher expansion. Pearson is an international company, and itsdominance of the education market extends beyond U.S. borders. This points not so much toward different curricular choices in character and civic education as toward a far greater emphasis on both of those disciplines on the right and an inclination to discount or avoid them on the leftor to replace them with an ideal of education as liberation from injustice. Some, such as academic transparency, have caught fire across the country. The Mercatus Center has received more than $9 million from the Charles Koch Foundation, and a combined $9.3 million from dark money ATM DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund in recent years. The network draws on policy research and advocacy support from national organizations to assist its state members. The foundations education focus areas are education savings accounts (ESAs), which operate similarly to traditional vouchers; the Common Core state standards; and areas for federal and state legislative reform. Bellwether frequently places policy op-eds in national media outlets, and it launched the education news aggregating site RealClearEducation in late 2013 in partnership with RealClearPolitics. The Cato Institute has received more than $1.6 million in grants from the Charles Koch Foundation since 2011, $130,000 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation to support domestic policy programs since 2012, more than $660,000 from the conservative dark money ATM DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund combined to support general operations since 2012, $75,000 from the Coors Foundation in 2012, at least $25,000 from the Bradley Foundation in 2012, and at least $130,000 from the Gleason Family Foundation since 2012. These conservative-backed policies aim to weaken labor unions by attacking teachers job protections and to push state-level education legislation that makes way for greater private profiteering -- while leaving traditional public schools further behind. But a failure to initiate the next generation of children into the ways of our civilization would not only delay or derail innovation, it would put into question the very continuity of that civilization. The American Center for School Choice is a small conservative think tank focused on private vouchers and faith-based schooling under the guise of parental and family choice. Frederick M. Hess is the director of Education Policy Studies at AEI. But schools are an exception to this pattern. Nor is it to suggest that character education has been altogether absent from the national debate. Briefly (and, so, no doubt crudely) summarizing these could help us think more clearly about the role of education. Whether we like it or not, the next phase of conservative education-policy thinking will need to be willing to do thatnot to the exclusion of emphases on core math and reading competencies, on school choice, and on accountability, but alongside them. 50 State Campaign for Achievement Now, widely known as 50CAN, is a network of state-specific organizations pushing for pro-voucher and free-market education policies across the country. Current members of AFCs board of directors include chairwoman Betsy DeVos; teachers union opponent and former CNN anchor Campbell Brown of the Partnership for Educational Justice and education website The 74; and chairman emeritus William Oberndorf, a prominent private donor to many education reform causes. It is an associate member of the State Policy Network (SPN) of conservative think tanks, and is listed as partnered or allied with other SPN affiliates American Federation for Children and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Click here to return to the Table of Contents. But in putting accountability, achievement gaps, and international competitiveness at the forefront, the reform coalition has deemphasized the formation of students as human beings and citizens. Indeed, among the 400-plus pages of research, news articles and affidavits included with the parents' lawsuit is an assertion by the Conservative Education Reform Network that "it should go. The Institute for Justice was an early member of the corporate-driven model legislation mill American Legislative Education Councils (ALEC) education task force, along with Connections Academy (now owned by Pearson), the Alliance for School Choice, and K12 Inc., which pushed virtual schools, voucher, and scholarship tax credit model legislation. Betsy DeVos, US Secretary of Education in the Trump Administration, stated, "Empirical evidence finds school-choice programs lead to more integrated schools than their public-school counterparts." [ 15] We ommitted funds that were specifically earmarked for programs unrelated to education policyin calculating totals. Stand Togethers executive director is a longtime Koch operative and former tea party congressional candidate who previously spearheaded the anti-Affordable Care Act group Generation Opportunity. Unless otherwise noted, funding totals in this guide include general operations or generalized program support, funding for which a purpose was not specified, and/or funding earmarked specifically for education policy. Beth Cope and Timothy Johnson contributed research and editing support for this project. StudentsFirst is a lobbying organization founded by former D.C. public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who imposed a series of controversial teacher firings and school closings as head of the D.C. public school system. The Institute for Justice is a Koch-funded libertarian public interest law firm currently litigating five high-profile state school voucher cases. Together, these organizations have long been a national leader in the effort to destroy public and private sector unions, with the NRTWLDF participating in litigation to harm unions since the late 1960s, including several major cases that advanced to the Supreme Court. Margaret Spellings was famously willing (even eager) to leave private-school choice behind in her negotiations with Democrats early in the George W. Bush years. The American Federation for Children (AFC) is a school choice advocacy organization affiliated with the nonprofit Alliance for School Choice and the AFC Growth Fund. Among the foundations grant recipients from 2011 to 2013, according to its IRS filings, are the American Legislative Exchange Council, the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, the Center for Individual Rights, DonorsTrust, the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, the Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Institute for Justice, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, the Reason Foundation, and the right-wing State Policy Network and several of its members and associate members.The Coors Foundation is also heavily involved in Colorado philanthropy across a number of issue areas, including donating substantial funding to local and state-based school choice groups. The foundation also gives to a number of education privatization and Koch-affiliated groups that oppose unions. Tax documents show that HCREO was granted $100,000 by the conservative Bradley Foundation in 2014 and at least $5,000 from the DeVos Family Foundation in 2013. 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