Don\u2019t look now, but there\u2019s something creepy coming toward you, and it wants to take over your public school system. Sure, it\u2019s connected\u2013through all-important grants\u2013to many of the big names in today\u2019s education reform movement (Gates, Walton, Broad), but most people have probably never heard of it.<\/p>\n
This \u201ceducation reform powerhouse\u201d is the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which goes by the acronym CRPE\u2013or \u201ccreepy.\u201d How fitting. While there are many individuals and organizations on the front lines of the free-market education reform movement\u2013from Teach for America, to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, to the Recovery School District in New Orleans\u2013CRPE has not been publicly outed. Instead, it has steadily carved out an influential role for itself behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
In fact, CRPE operates in a manner that is strikingly similar to ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council), the secretive, powerful group funded by the Koch brothers and a large roster of corporations. Here\u2019s a look at how the two organizations work:<\/p>\n
One difference is that ALEC has been around since the early 1970s while CRPE is a more recent concoction. University of Washington political science professor Paul T. Hill founded the group in 1993, just as the \u201caccountability\u201d movement in public education was taking off, and it is housed at the University of Washington-Bothell. CRPE is affiliated with the university, but Hill explains, \u201cOur work is funded through private philanthropic dollars, federal grants, and contracts.\u201d And, although CRPE describes itself as engaging in \u201cindependent research and policy analysis,\u201d in 2011 the Center for Media and Democracy\u2019s Source Watch website tagged the group as an \u201cindustry-funded research center that . . . receives funding from corporate and billionaire philanthropists as well as the U.S. Department of Education.\u201d<\/p>\n