With the support of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) – which serves as a home away from home for ALEC here in Texas – for-profit education companies are attacking Texas public schools, promoting virtual schools, and putting profits ahead of the education needs of Texas children. These virtual schools are largely unaccountable to Texas taxpayers, despite the fact that their students receive the exact same amount of funding as students who attend traditional public schools. In fact, virtual school students are funded at the same level of traditional public school students thanks to a law passed by Republican Senate Education Chair Florence Shapiro, who sits on ALEC's Education Task Force which is Co-chaired by employees of private companies that own and operate virtual schools in Texas.

The virtual school movement is a $24 billion industry with zero accountability. Virtual schools provide unregulated financial windfalls to a few insiders by shortchanging our children’s education. To help combat the enormous influence of these companies, ALEC, and TPPF, Progress Texas has published a new report, titled Invisible Schools, Invisible Success.

The report examines who is promoting virtual schools through ALEC, how those corporations are tied to Texas, the evolution of virtual schools in Texas, and why virtual schools don’t work. The report also contains a point-by-point exposure of the latest virtual school paper published by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, who last week penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal stating their proud support of ALEC, even though 14 corporations and 51 elected officials – Republicans and Democrats – have already left ALEC.

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You can download our full report - Invisible Schools, Invisible Success - here, or view it below:

Invisible Schools, Invisible Success

Related ALEC work by Progress Texas:

• Progress Texas Releases ALEC Exposed in Texas
• ALEC's Stand Your Ground Law Passed in Texas in 2007
• Texas Public Policy Foundation Rushes to Defend ALEC
• ALEC Membership in Texas - Searching for Names in a Secret Group