Education Advocacy Groups in Texas

The New York Times ran an article about education advocacy groups in Texas.  It is helpful to have an idea of who is doing what.  The article is Advocacy Group Wields Charter-Policy Power by Morgan Smith, Sunday, May 12, 2013 (pages 23A and 23B in the paper).  The article is about money, people, and politics. I won't summarize the article, but I will list a few facts from the article.

The group "Texans for Education Reform" will spend at least $645,000 in lobbying contracts this year.  Florence Shapiro, the Plano Republican who was once leader of the Senate Education Committee, is a paid consultant to "Texans for Education Reform."

The group "Raise Your Hand" reports spending an estimated minimum of $350,000 on a lobbying team that includes former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff.   The  chief executive of "Raise Your Hand" is David Anthony, who joined in 2010 after serving as the superintendent of the Cypress-Fairbanks school district for seven years.

I do not know what to make of this, but it is interesting to see the money and the people involved in education. There is no doubt that money is a major factor in 21st century education.

Robert

Here is a link to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/us/raise-your-hand-texas-wields-power-on-charter-schools.html