A state legislator from Wisconsin speaks out against ALEC's education agenda, having seen it from the inside.

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Mark Pocan is an unlikely firebrand.  The state representative from Wisconsin's 78 ^th Assembly District is slightly on the nebbish side. He speaks with rhetorical flourishes that would not be out of place were he addressing a high school prep rally as the only junior administration representative.  He represents Madison--Madtown--and he sort of talks like it.

   He is also a longtime member of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the rightwing faux 501(c)3 organization that wants to reintroduce "Jeffersonian" principles--whatever they mean by that--into every nook and cranny of the U.S. through cookie cutter state laws written by the special interest groups they represent.

   Most people know this, but what fewer people know is that a core mission of ALEC, going all the way back to 1985, is to dismantle public education.  Mark Pocan knows this, as only a member of ALEC can.  And he says it too, to anyone in the Wisconsin state assembly who will listen.  Some do.  A few do.  But the public, not so much. "

Read the entire article at Open Salon:

http://open.salon.com/blog/steve_klingaman

Authors Bio:
Writer and student of public policy