The campaign to get corporations to divest in the American Legislative Exchange Council took an odd turn today with news that the Gates Foundation would no longer participate in ALEC funding.
Who knew?
Like moving a rock and finding the bugs scurry.
Gates people deny having any interest in the normal right-wing anti-labor, stand-and-shoot legislation that ALEC has become notorious for promoting.
They were simply interested in ALEC’s role in teacher effectiveness legislation and school finance.
Oh. That’s all.
The foundation, run by the co-founder of Microsoft Corp. and his wife, contributed more than $375,000 to ALEC in the past two years and was the target of an online petition launched today by the liberal Progressive Change Campaign Committee that garnered more than 23,000 signatures in a matter of hours.
“We have made a single grant, narrowly and specifically focused on providing information to ALEC-affiliated state legislators on teacher effectiveness and school finance,” said Chris Williams, the spokesman, noting that the foundation was never a dues-paying member. The foundation advocates for global health initiatives and efforts to reduce poverty.
Damn. $375,000. And they weren’t even members.
Fred Klonsky 
But, Gates still gives money to the PIE Network which pushes a similar agenda to ALEC when it comes to education, not to mention their support of other similar organizations.
‘Word’…… see ya Bill
This is not so earth-shattering. Now, if we could get Gates to stop supporting the Gates Foundation, then we’d really have a story.