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Eye on ALEC. Representative Chris Taylor is a Democrat elected to the Wisconsin legislature in 2011. Last week, she attended the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual conference in Chicago. Writing about her experience at The Progressive magazine’s website, she describes her experience inside the “ALEC universe” and writes: “ALEC members have been quietly working out of the public eye to develop their agenda so that when given the opportunity, they are ready to start creating an ALEC nation. That time has come. And they are ready.” We caught up with her by phone back in Wisconsin to talk about what she found out about the conservative policy-making machine. Riley: Why did you want to attend the conference? What did you hope to achieve there? Taylor: I’m very new in the legislature.

I think it’s so incredibly important for people to understand where these [model] bills are coming from and try to understand the rationale. Taylor: No. Riley: What was the presentation like? ThinkProgress. Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com. The Surprising Truth Behind Tax Day: Where Your Taxes Go | Blog, Smart Charts. This post first appeared at the Campaign for America’s Future blog, OurFuture.org. If you groan about tax day, you’re certainly not alone. But what if tax day was something we could be proud of as members of a democracy? Would you feel differently about paying taxes if you knew they were going to support public services that you, your family and your community rely on — such as public safety, roads and bridges, schools, health care, social services and national parks? Millions of Americans file their federal income tax returns in April each year with no idea what the government actually does with all that money.

This is surprising, considering that individuals are our nation’s primary bill payers. Income taxes paid by individuals account for 47 percent of all federal tax revenues, which are projected to be $3.18 trillion in 2015. That’s why the National Priorities Project (NPP) has done the work for you. ThinkProgress (thinkprogress) Cascadia Now! Cascadia Now! When an adult took standardized tests forced on kids - The Answer Sheet. Update 12/12: QUIZ: Take part of the test that the local school board member took in the story below: Reading Quiz | Math Quiz.

Questions come from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) for 10th grade. Update 12/6: Revealed: The school board member who took standardized test Original post: This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author. By Marion Brady A longtime friend on the school board of one of the largest school systems in America did something that few public servants are willing to do. By any reasonable measure, my friend is a success. He called me the morning he took the test to say he was sure he hadn’t done well, but had to wait for the results. “I won’t beat around the bush,” he wrote in an email. He continued, “It seems to me something is seriously wrong. “I have a wide circle of friends in various professions. Here’s the clincher in what he wrote: There you have it. But maybe there’s hope. He’s wrong. Oregon | Cannon gets the connection between reading and crime right.

We’ve haven’t seen much of former Rep. Ben Cannon down in Salem since he accepted a position as Gov. John Kitzhaber’s main education adviser. So when his name popped up in a recent Portland Monthly article, we paid special attention. In the article, he helps talk up the state’s new approach to K-12 education, which focuses, in part, on specific benchmarks in a child’s education that research shows are reliable predictors of future success. "If we raise the number of third-graders who read at a third-grade level, we affect everything, from graduation rates to incarceration rates," Cannon told the magazine.

Somewhere in the back of our heads, we’d remembered hearing a claim not unlike this one -- we also remembered hearing it wasn’t true. We started with a basic Google search and came across the claim we’d kept hearing: Prison officials use third grade reading scores to predict the number of beds they’ll need. Even so, he said, the third-grade benchmark is an important one.