ALEC grades Wisconsin educational performance? Are they kidding?

This headline, at another one of those conservative whack job think tanks, MacIver Institute, couldn’t have been more appropriate:

Are there any remaining questions about ALEC’s role in formulating the Republican agenda in Wisconsin?  The voter’s spoke in November 2010? They were duped, and are now are remotely controlled by ALEC. Sadly, they seem to like it.

It’s as if they imagine themselves as having a credible standing in the real world, making their think tank recommendations to the breathless waiting masses. The danger of ALEC’s insertion into the process; the media allows this band of lunatics to gain any amount of credibility. The media should denounce this tripe as laughable propaganda.

Here’s a sample, and the opening paragraph

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) recently released their Report Card on American Education, a publication that ranks and grades every state in America when it comes to educational results and policy. Wisconsin ranked 19th in the nation – and third in the Midwest – when it came to educational performance in their public schools.  This was an improvement from the 2010 index, which placed the Badger State 21st overall.  

If you needed more proof, here's a comment from the Thom Hartmann newsletter:

It's been long speculated that Republican state lawmakers are taking their orders from the shadowy right-wing think tank funded by the Koch Brothers and known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) - and now there's proof. It was discovered in Florida - when Republican State Representative Rachel Burgin introduced legislation in the state House back in November that - oops - still included ALEC's mission statement at the top of the bill, reading: "Whereas it is the mission of the American Legislative Exchange Council to advance Jeffersonian principles..."