The ALEC -- Teach for America Connection

The ALEC -- Teach for America Connection

Last summer, quite by accident, I met a group of about six young adults on the MAX here in Portland who were traveling from the airport to train for their new jobs.  They were talking about having just finished their teaching jobs and how happy they were to be done with it. Being an unemployed teacher myself,  I listened for a while and then struck up a conversation.  They identified themselves as Teach for America corps members who had just completed their obligatory two year stints in the classroom.  They were headed to the Stand for Children offices to be trained in writing education policy.  Most had been hired to work as legislative assistants in state houses around the country. I asked a few probing questions about their education expertise, especially in policy.  Turns our none of them had any education credentials.  Some had worked on their masters degrees during teaching, but none had studied education or education policy.  They really didn't get my point. The arrogance was palpable.  I finally asked one of them point blank, "Don't you think you should have some education and experience before writing education policy?" They assured me that over the next two weeks (I think, anyway, short time) they would be trained to do it.

I hadn't thought about that encounter much since. But when I read Diane Ravitch's latest article in the Answer Sheet, Ravitch: A Primer on the Group Driving School Reform,  it occurred to me that Stand for Children could be the conduit to the uniformity in education legislation using Teach for America "leaders" as the delivery system. Last summer ALEC was barely a blip on my radar so I hadn't make a connection back then.

Could Stand for Children be training former Teach for America corps members to write ALEC policy for state legislatures? I know Oregon legislators aren't savvy enough to develop language and coordinate ideas that mesh with those in other states, but their Teach for America, Stand for Children trained assistants may well be.  With a little help from a persistent friend, this is what I found out.