Steven Singer writes about what is wrong with Speaker of the House Mike Turzai’s bill to authorize vouchers for the underfunded public schools of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: In a word, everything!
He writes:
The best way to help a struggling public school is to cannibalize it.
At least that’s what Betsy DeVos thinks – and so does her Pennsylvania puppet Mike Turzai.
The Republican Speaker of the state House is expected to propose a school voucher bill Monday that will treat Harrisburg Schools as nothing more than carrion fit for plunder by school privatization vultures.
But instead of helping the school and its students get back on their feet, Turzai proposes siphoning away as much as $8.5 million in state funding set aside for the school’s aide. Alternatively, that money would go to help offset some of the cost of sending Harrisburg students to private or parochial schools if they so desire.
However in lieu of any safeguards to make sure these children fleeing from the public system receive the same quality of services required by state law, Turzai’s bill goes out of its way to protect the vultures!
Under House Bill 1800, private or parochial schools won’t be held as accountable for how they spend the money they plunder from Harrisburg nor will it force them to enroll all comers like authentic public schools are required to do.
Specifically, non-public schools would be allowed to take public tax dollars but refuse any students they wished – based on gender, race, religion, even special educational needs.
It’s bad policy and bad politics.
Essentially Turzai is proposing we swoop in and tear the district to pieces – for its own good.
The bill would force state taxpayers to pay for half the cost of the voucher program – essentially making us shell out our hard earned money for two parallel education systems.
It’s unclear where the other half of the money would even come from that the state is supposed to match.
Thinking people know this is nonsense on so many levels. If the public schools have problems, there’s no reason to believe school vouchers hold the answer. After all, the best way to save yourself from drowning is to patch up the boat you’re already on. You shouldn’t jump to a lifeboat willy-nilly with no assurance that your escape craft is more seaworthy than the one you’re already sailing on.
And in fact, there is no evidence that voucher schools are better than authentic public schools.
Singer proceeds to review the evidence against vouchers. It is overwhelming. Vouchers do not help students or schools. They harm them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This the “GIG” economy at work.
https://www.naco.org/featured-resources/future-work-rise-gig-economy
Love Singer’s blog … Gadfly on the Wall.
Thank you Steven Singer.
In this insightful post Singer examines all the mashugana beliefs that that the right wing is using to undermine the common good. Singer does not mince words. He calls them out for their hypocrisy, bias, racism and despicable mission to destroy public education.
As Singer notes, public schools are politically neutral. Public schools do not indoctrinate, a widely held notion among the Christian right. Public schools strive to teach critical thinking. Religion and politics are only mentioned when discussing history, literature or some other content driven instruction.
The public is largely unaware that DeVos and Trump intend to transfer five billion federal tax dollars into private, parochial and other religious schools. If the public understood better, there would be a lot more outrage. Singer describes some of the nonsense, bias and factually wrong content taught in some Christian right schools that truly intend to indoctrinate young people. I agree with Singer. We tax payers should not be forced to pay for this disinformation and prejudice.
“if the public understood…” — so many teachers trying so HARD to spread truth: may 2020 see a skyrocketing public interest in facts over fiction
Posted this at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Pennsylvania-Legislature-S-in-General_News-Education-Funding_Education-Laws_Education-Vouchers_Educational-Crisis-191116-789.html with this comment (which has links at the above address)
Read “The Perfect Storm [Disaster] of Education Reform”and also Maurice Cunningham: The Waltons Create a “National Parents Union” to see how the billionaire power elite are creating the organizations to promote the demolition of public schools so education, like heath care, can be privatized .
To learn more about national efforts to fight private school vouchers, check out the new Public Funds Public Schoolscampaign supported by Education Law Center, Southern Poverty Law Center and the SPLC Action Fund.
Look at how public money is used in DC to train the lobbyists to end public schools. Laura Chapman: The New Line on Private Charters as Spelled Out by the D.C. Establishment”article is an example of the relatively new strategy for selling ideas, marketed by Frameworks Institute.org with a focus on inventing stories, and forwarding narratives calculated to distract attention and elicit favorable responses to hidden-from-view power players. Many of the same “philanthropies” who have promoted failed policies for schools in the last two decades are still at it with Dintersmith trying out a refreshed story line.”
If you see this as the system being overcrowded and suddenly being able to educate twice the number of children without building new schools for them, it makes sense. The trick is to reduce the density for a thousand reasons, both teachers and students. The plan will work, so chip in a few more bucks and make it happen. Numbers matter. You need more schools and higher pay/standards for your teachers.