conservative education reform networkconservative education reform network

Both civic education and character education were sometimes pushed to the side for the sake of more technocratic notions of the purpose of schooling, notions more in line with the economic logic of our meritocracy but less in line with the civic ideals underlying our republic. This major essay by Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute and National Affairs comprises one of the concluding chapters in our new book, How to Educate an American: The Conservative Vision for Tomorrow's Schools. The reform era that lasted from the early 1990s through the beginning of the 2010s is therefore effectively over. In March, 50CAN and StudentsFirst announced in an exclusive at The 74that they would merge and begin operating under the 50CAN name nationally, although state chapters of StudentsFirst will, for the most part, retain their names. Meanwhile, the resurgence of the teachers unions as a force to reckon with in Democratic Party politics undermined the reform coalition from the left. Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Yet at universities across the country, leftwing activists and administrators have decided to borrow the idea that political dissent is best handled via relentless monitoring, reporting, and if necessary, discipline. We have sought to platform leading reformers through our Ed the Right Way public event series, featuring leaders like Chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee Virginia Foxx, former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, and Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera. The Manhattan Institute is a conservative think tank that produces research on a number of topics, including education and urban policy. We launched CERN a few years ago hoping to address a few persistent challenges that have confronted conservatives who are intent on improving American education. Tax filings show that AEI has received millions from reliably right-wing donors, including more than $1.6 million from the Charles Koch Foundation since 2011, just over $5 million from conservative dark money ATM DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund since 2012, at least $1.7 million total from the Sarah Scaife Foundation since 2012, $480,000 from the Bradley Foundation since 2012, and $425,000 from the Coors Foundation since 2011, to support general operations and education-related research. 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. But the era of the reform coalition also exacted some real costs. These two different sets of concerns suggest that left and right begin from different assumptions about the human person and societydifferent anthropologies and sociologies. This leaves conservatives not only resistant to the lure of utopias, but also far more concerned about the prospect of social and cultural degradation than they are confident about the prospects for enduring progress. A vision for conservative education is premised not on government programs and ever-expanding budgets but on the belief that the conditions of human flourishing are best found and nurtured in civil society. This tendency has only grown more acute since then, so that one crucial way to understand the social crisis many Americans confront is that the institutions that have provided us with moral formation and social connection as their secondary purposes have been robbed of their primary purposes, and so are struggling to function. As Media Matters first noted in 2013, SPN-affiliated groups purport to be independent, but they frequently share reports and resources with one another and are aligned across many policy issue areas, including education, and with the corporate-funded bill mill American Legislative Education Council (ALEC). The AFC website also lists state allies, many of which are also members of the State Policy Network. If we organize our schools around the premise that math and reading scores are what education is about, we effectively tell our children that math and reading are the essence of what the civilization they are inheriting has to offer them. 06/02/23 4:49 PM EDT, Article The fallen character of man means that, left to itself, the default condition of the human race is more likely to be miserable than happy, and that failure in society is more likely than success. March 5, 2020. The first is a more dramatic version of the school-choice movement, a shift toward educational pluralism in which more public money is made available to private alternatives, enabling. Other organizations listed in the SPN directory apart from members and associate members include 17 local chapters of Americans for Prosperity, the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), the Charles Koch Foundation, the anti-LGBT hate group Family Research Council, and 10 state chapters of FreedomWorks. But there is one particular approach that can help highlight the implications of these differences for education. This means solutions to problems are best found in local communities. 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. Parent Revolution was and remains instrumental in the push for American Legislative Education Council-modeled parent trigger laws in several cities in California, which allow for the takeover and transformation of traditional public schools, typically resulting in closures or conversions into charter schools with fewer accountability mechanisms. 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. 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. 2020 The Thomas B. Fordham InstitutePrivacy PolicyUsage Agreement, 1015 18th St NW, Suite 902 The foundation also lists a number of other education technology and textbook companies and major corporations as donors, primarily in support of their annual national summit, including GE, McGraw-Hill Education, Amplify and Joel Klein, Scholastic, ACT Aspire LLC., Intel, ETS, ExxonMobil, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The Franklin Center has itself funded several members and associate members of the State Policy Network (SPN) of conservative think tanks, and its work often reflects the agendas of both SPN and the American Legislative Education Council (ALEC). Media should know that the education reform movement advocating for these policies often relies on the backing of corporate and right-wing funding. Stand for Childrens board of directors is comprised almost entirely of venture capitalists and hedge fund managers. It operates a network of three dozen online public schools. He hosts the Glenn Beck Radio Program, a talk-radio show nationally syndicated on . Education Society and Culture. Character formation, civics, and the inculcation of the best of our traditions are inseparable from any meaningful idea of education. Although little is known about Stand Togethers funding priorities, its first project indicates it will involve pushing a free-market ideology; the group will partner with Bob Woodson, a prominent conservative poverty guru who is notably opposed to federal welfare and disability programs. Tax documents list a $200,000 grant in 2014 from conservative dark money ATM DonorsTrust to support general operations at the Libre Initiative Institute. Democrats and teachers' unions are doing their darndest to make sure they fail. Its board of directors includes Charter Schools USA CEO Jonathan Hage, the executive counsel to the American Federation for Children (AFC) -- the center is listed as a national allied organization of AFC -- and several CEOs of for-profit education companies. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1993), 143144. Education Next is listed as an allied organization of the pro-privatization state advocacy group American Federation for Children. The left wants to be sure we do not take injustices in our society for grantedthat we see the ways in which the strong oppress the weak, that we take them seriously, that we never walk by them and pretend they dont exist. The institute calls these controversial laws that pave the way for transformation of public schools -- often in the form of closures or conversion to charters -- the most powerful education reform policy since Milton Friedman advocated the school voucher." You will assume, as has been well said, that man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward, and will see politics as a struggle to sustain institutions that might make us capable of some balance of freedom and order in a hard world. Through our briefings and newsletters, we provide opportunities for our members to connect with each other and some of Americas leading conservative education policy figures. In addition to grant support from the Gleason Family Foundation totaling $200,000 in 2012 and 2013, the NRTWLDF has also received funding totaling more than $386,000 from dark money ATM DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund combined since 2012, $50,000 from the Scaifes Carthage Foundation since 2013, and $250,000 from the Bradley Foundation since 2012 to fund general operations. 01/27/23 10:49 AM EST, Here Are The Corporations And Right-Wing Funders Backing The Education Reform Movement, American Federation for Children/Alliance for School Choice, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (HCREO), National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTWLDF), Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network, Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity/Watchdog.org, Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, In 2015, former journalist and teachers union opponent, Tax filings show that the Bradley Foundation has, The Daily Caller is one of several right-wing media outlets, Pearson is an international company, and itsdominance of the education market extends beyond U.S. borders.

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. Questions featured in the conversations focused on candidates support for vouchers andopposition to teachers unions, and the perceived federal role in incentivizing state governments to expand school choice policies. Its Time for a Great Rethink, Unfair Attack on the Legal Case Against Bidens Student Loan Cancellation, Adam Mastroianni on Strong- and Weak-Link Problems, Why Its Time for Legacy College Admissions to Go, Education Freedom and Work Opportunities as Catalysts for Increasing the Birth Rate Among Married Couples, A Conservative Solution for the Student Loan Crisis: Nudging Students Toward Practical Degrees, The American Universitys Path to Illiberalism, Do These Books Belong in Public School Libraries? The Washington, D.C., chapter of BAEO is also listed as an education partner of the right-wing-fueled National School Choice Week campaign. Spending on education is, in constant dollars nearly 10 times what it was in 1945 - $1,200 . When they are available, we have provided links to publicly accessible 990 forms or reports that list an organizations specific grants. According to tax filings, the group has been granted at least $520,000 from the Bradley Foundation since 2012, $310,000 in general operational support from the Sarah Scaife Foundation since 2012, at least $240,000 from the Coors Foundation since 2011, $30,000 from the Roe Foundation since 2012, nearly $1.7 million from the Gleason Family Foundation since 2012, and nearly $1.2 million from conservative dark money ATM DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund since 2012. They are questions that could hardly be more important to the right in the age of Trump, but that dont come naturally: What really is conservatism? BAEO frequently cites research from the right-wing State Policy Network-affiliated research groups, and itself is listed in the SPN directory but does not appear to have membership or associate membership. And for each camp, the concerns that were put aside for the sake of working together in the reform coalition seem likely to be those that now come to the fore. And in the wake of the collapse of the education reform coalition, conservatives are well positioned to help it become less impoverished. The current president of the Fordham Institute, Michael Petrilli, is also an executive editor of Education Next, and the Fordham Institute co-sponsors Education Nexts publication. ALEC has received more than $350,000 from the Charles Koch Foundation since 2012, $150,000 from the Allegheny Foundation (one of several Scaife Foundations) to support programs since 2012, $50,000 from the Coors Foundation in 2011, $225,000 from the Gleason Family Foundation since 2012, and $323,300 from conservative dark money ATM pair DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund since 2012 to support general operations costs, including $17,500 in 2012 earmarked for SPNs membership. ALEC is also identified as an ally of the American Federation for Children, and a partner of both the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the right-wing-fueled National School Choice Week campaign. This difference of expectations is at the center of a lot of our most divisive political debates. Jeb Bush and Rod Paige, the former secretary of education under George W. Bush. 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 Koch-funded Libre Initiative also backed a number of NCSW events in 2015 and 2016. Bellwether Education Partners is a nonprofit educational consulting organization that works primarily with charter schools and education companies to provide strategic support, hiring and organizational services, and policy research. 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. Members of SPN include at least one group in each of the 50 states, often vaguely titled state policy centers and policy institutes. Associate members of SPN include the Alliance for School Choice, the American Enterprise Institute, ALEC, the Koch-founded Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Center for Education Reform, DonorsTrust, the Foundation for Excellence in Education, the conservative nonprofit FreedomWorks, the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, the Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, the Reason Foundation, and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

The Heartland Institute is a policy partner of the right-wing-backed National School Choice Week campaign and an associate member of the State Policy Network of conservative think tanks, and is heavily funded by Donors Capital Fund and the Bradley Foundation. American conservatism has always consisted of a variety of schools of social, political, and economic thought. Scott Walker and former ArkansasGov. 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. During 2016 National School Choice Week, ALEC pushed for a revolutionary voucher bill introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). BRIs board includes a Koch Industries senior vice president, the Charles Koch Foundations director for higher education, and a senior scholar at the Koch-founded Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The resistance to critical race theory, building on traditional priorities like school choice, is driving a revitalized conservative education movement. The State Policy Network (SPN) is a network of affiliated independent, non-profit, market-oriented, state-focused think tanks, partly funded by Charles and David Koch, that produces and pushes research backing free-market policies in state and local media outlets. The company was founded by a former Goldman Sachs executive, Ron Packard, and former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, a controversial conservative media figure. NCSW also lists the Alliance for School Choice, ALEC, the Kochs Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, the conservative group FreedomWorks, the Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, PennCAN, the Reason Foundation, and a number of SPN members among its policy partners. 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. She also serves on the boards of 50CAN, Love Your School and The Trinity Forum, is a member of American Enterprise Institute's Leadership Network, Faith & Public Life Ideas Council and Conservative Education Reform Network, and is an active supporter of Opportunity International and International Justice Mission. The institute produces education news commentary through a weekly newsletter and a well-known blog called Flypaper, and it pushes its original research through opinion pieces placed in various state and national media outlets. The centers Watchdog.org oversees state-based investigative reporters in more than 40 states and aims to expose government waste, fraud and abuse of power, publishing articles online and placing them in state newspapers and on partner sites. T he . ALEC archives show thatThe Institute for Justice,Connections Academy (now owned by Pearson), the Alliance for School Choice, and K12 Inc., were early members of itseducation task force, which pushed virtual school, voucher, and scholarship tax credit model legislation. Yet despite the loss of these manifest institutional functions, we continue to expect them to perform adequately the implicit psychological or symbolic functions in the life of the individual.2. It advises principals. These include donations from the Sarah Scaife Foundation to support general operations at the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for Individual Rights, the Heritage Foundation, the Institute for Justice, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and the Reason Foundation; and to support domestic policy programs at the Cato Institute and journalism programs at the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. But in the states and at the local level, the movement for parental control saw real progress. And what does it have to offer? 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. In it, Levin brilliantlyand soberinglyexplains what conservatives have forfeited in the quest for bipartisan education reform. 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.

HCREO lists several conservative State Policy Network-affiliated groups as strategic partners including the Black Alliance for Educational Options, National School Choice Week, the American Federation for Children, the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, and ConnCAN, as well as StudentsFirst. But that perspective may itself be a function of the intellectual inhibitions engendered by the reform coalitionit is effectively a way of seeing education policy as a set of questions about modes of accountability. The center collaborates with Tuthills organization to produce a Florida-focused education blog called RedefinED, which aims to re-focus discourse about public education away from whether [an education program] undermines traditional neighborhood public schooling. The organizations 2014 tax filing indicates that its activities in 2014 focused largely on providing analysis of an offensive legal strategy for the school choice movement, and identifying possible states where charter schools might eventually be able to operate as religious schools. The American Center for School Choice has received at least $60,000 from the conservative Bradley Foundation since 2012, and is listed as a national allied organization of the right-wing-backed voucher advocacy group American Federation for Children. It currently has affiliates in Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, and fellowships in California, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, and Wisconsin. Pearson would like to become educations first major conglomerate, serving as the largest private provider of standardized tests, software, materials, and now the schools themselves, reporter Anya Kamenetz wrote in Wired in April. These are obviously connected problems, and they relate as well to the tendency of all of our major institutions to shirk the task of moral formation in favor of moralistic performance and virtue signaling. The right, on the other hand, wants to be sure we do not take social order for grantedthat we see the ways in which our civilization protects us, enriches us, and elevates us, that we never imagine that this is all easy or natural, and never forget that, if we fail to sustain this achievement, we will all suffer for it. BAEO was instrumental in defending an embattled D.C. voucher program found to be lack[ing] oversight by the Government Accountability Office and in pushing state legislation creating and expanding private school vouchers. Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility, How Can We Liberate Students From Drudgery? It shapes how conservatives and progressives understand the nature and sources of the problems that American society confronts. That doesnt mean that all conservatives could agree on a precise curriculum in these areas, or that they need to use state power to impose it. It lists the Commonwealth Foundation (a member of the State Policy Network of conservative think tanks) and StudentsFirst among its partners, and is identified as a partner of right-wing think tank the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and of the Policy Innovators in Education Network, where ConnCANs former CEO sits on the board of directors. It has received general and education-specific support from a substantial list of reliably right-wing donors, including $1.8 million from the Sarah Scaife Foundation from 2012 to 2014, $125,000 from the Bradley Foundation since 2012, $375,000 from the Roe Foundation since 2012, $350,000 from the Coors Foundation from 2011 to 2013, at least $250,000 from the Gleason Family Foundation, and at least $15,000 from the DeVos Family Foundation from 2012 to 2013.