The American Education Reform Council (AERC) was a pro-voucher organization that has since merged with Children First America to form the Alliance for School Choice. As a 501(c)(3), AERCs political advocacy was restricted and it could not endorse political candidates and only did a minimal amount of lobbying on legislation. However, AERC ran “informational” advertisements during the Colorado and Michigan voucher campaigns in 1998 and 2000. AERC spent $500,000 on the Michigan initiative (source). John Walton, the heir to the Wal-Mart fortune and a strong proponent of school vouchers, contributed $2 million to the Michigan voucher campaign through AERC.
Its lobbying arm, the American Education Reform Foundation, has run a variety of issue ads in elections in support of school vouchers.
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