A new high-powered lobbying group, funded with $900,000 from the Walton Family Foundation, has been formed to push the expansion of charter schools in Florida, and it expects to have an inside track with state officials. The Florida Charter School Alliance’s board of directors includes Jim Horne, a former state commissioner of education; Patricia Levesque, the head of former Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education; Tom Majdanics, the director of the KIPP Jacksonville charter schools; and John Kirtley, who heads Step Up for Students, a group that collects corporate donations to send children to private, mostly religious schools.
A version of this article appeared in the November 09, 2011 edition of Education Week as New Charter-Advocacy Lobby Forms With Walton Funding
