Following Kraft, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Intuit, another influential sponsor of ALEC has withdrawn its support from the right-wing corporate front group. Roll Call reports:
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation today became the latest backer to withdraw financial support for the American Legislative Exchange Council.
A foundation spokesman told Roll Call that it does not plan to make future grants to the conservative nonprofit, which has come under fire from progressive activists for its support of voter identification laws and other contentious measures.
The Gates Foundation said it supported ALEC on issues regarding “teacher effectiveness and school finance.” Lee Fang reports the funding could potentially have benefited “Microsoft as privatized charters adopt more technology in the classroom.”
Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Color of Change, among others, had targeted the Gates Foundation for giving more than $375,000 to ALEC over the past two years. PCCC garnered more than 28,000 signatures in a matter of hours.
Update:
The Gates Foundation tells Ben Smith that it does not plan to withdraw the funding already promised to ALEC for this year. “We have already paid out a significant portion of it,” a spokesman said.