In the previous post, I pointed out that the Nevada Supreme Court overruled the funding of vouchers.
Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education hailed the same decision as a major step towards educational “freedom,” meaning no more public schools.
Since there is zero evidence that choice produces better education but ample evidence that it intensifies inequity and segregation and destabilizes communities, you can consider the press release either an affirmation of rigid free market ideology or lunacy:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 29, 2016 Contact: Press Office
850-391-4090
PressShop@excelined.org
Nevada Families One Step Closer to Educational Freedom
Today, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that Education Savings Accounts (ESA) are constitutional. Nevada’s ESA program is the most expansive educational choice program in the nation.
Specifically, the court agreed with the state that the primary constitutional arguments brought by plaintiffs against ESAs are without merit. Although the court ruled against the state on a funding issue, it laid out a clear blueprint for addressing the funding technicality so that the 8,000 parents who have applied for an ESA are able to take advantage of greater educational opportunities for their children.
“The court’s ruling that ESAs are constitutional is a significant victory for Nevada families,’’ said Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd) CEO Patricia Levesque.
“I look forward to Governor Brian Sandoval and the legislature addressing the funding mechanism for the state’s ESA program so that all Nevada parents have the right, as well as the resources, to choose the best education option for their children.”
ExcelinEd filed an amicus brief in the Nevada Supreme Court in support of the state’s position in the Duncan vs. State of Nevada case. The amicus curiae was prepared by Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.
Learn more about Education Savings Accounts:
Nevada’s Education Savings Account (ESA) legislation, which passed in 2015, provides parents of up to 450,000 eligible students in the state with the funding to select schools, tutors and other approved education services for their children, including necessary therapies for students with disabilities.
Since the first Education Savings Account (ESA) program was introduced in 2011 in Arizona, this policy has been changing education as we know it.
ESAs place state dollars designated for a child’s education into an account that parents can direct in a manner that is best for a child’s unique needs.
Account funds can cover multiple education options, including private school tuition, online education, tutoring and dual enrollment, and unused funds can be saved for future K-12 or higher education costs.
ESAs create an entirely flexible approach to education, where the ultimate goal is maximizing each child’s natural learning abilities.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What is educational freedom? If legal system imposes and enforces NEW REGULATION that is contradicted to STATE constitutions, then it is NOT educational FREEDOM.
If governmental authority bullies the public by creating bills to allow crooked business owners who loot public education fund for their own gains and who interrupt students’ joy of learning by suddenly close down their operation, then this is NOT freedom or choice for students.
All institutes need or require public fund for their BUSINESSES, these institutes must follow and abide TRANSPARENT rules and regulations THAT ALL PUBLIC INSTITUTES do. Back2basic
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Like!
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Free Market?
In a free market individuals are free to spend their individual funds where they choose. There is nothing free market about any system that depends on the involuntary contributions of taxpayer dollars for support.
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Lobbyists are one thing- they do what they do- but what a shame that no one in Nevada state government is interested in the state’s public schools.
Surely the kids in public schools deserve at least one adult advocate among thousands of public employees at the state level. Maybe public school kids can hold a bake sale and hire one. The people they’re paying don’t seem willing to do the job.
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What does Jeb Bush’s group do for public schools? Nothing?
Then why promote themselves as “public education advocates”? Why not sell this honestly?
They promote charters and vouchers- there should be nothing wrong with saying that unless they’re trying to mislead people. Why bring public schools into this at all?
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I think that part that bothers me most is how ed reformers are ideologically opposed to public schools, yet they are so influential that public schools end up with all their gimmicks and garbage. All of Jeb Bush’s ideas land in Ohio public schools- the same schools he travels the country denigrating.
We get the worst of both worlds.
We get ed reform policy with either no support for our schools or active opposition to the continued existence of our schools.
It seems like we could make a deal- if they oppose public schools they can just stay out of them. They can focus 100% of the their attention on charters and vouchers, which they clearly want to do anyway, and we can hire some people who support public schools.
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I say lunacy.
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Jeb Bush is a no nothing slow motion troll who pretends he is for the working people but would not give a rats ass who loses their jobs
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Huh?
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Jeb Bush is a no energy person who suddenly gets energy when it comes to destroying our public schools and the people who work in them. Does anyone think that Jeb really cares about the people who work in public education?? If it were up to Jeb he would fold all public schools and all the people who work in them and not give a rats ass about the people who are losing their livelihoods that they spent a good majority of their life preparing for. Oh, Jeb says you can go work for a charter school and get paid marbles with no pension, no health insurance and no job protection. This is why this man should be ridiculed.
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Don’t get too upset. They will lose this ideological fight.
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“ESAs create an entirely flexible approach to education, where the ultimate goal is maximizing each child’s natural learning abilities.”
That’s amusing coming from Jeb Bush. He’s responsible for just about every top-down unfunded mandate now operating within Ohio public schools.
I guess there isn’t a lot of concern among ed reformers for “maximizing each child’s natural learning abilities” if those children happen to attend the unfashionable public schools they disdain.
It’s all grim, joyless mandates and punishment for kids in public schools.
Sometimes I think it’s deliberate. If they make public schools horrible enough people will flee for private schools.
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Jeb’s technique:
Load mandates on the public schools. Make them difficult places to teach or learn. Families and teachers flee to escape the schools that the Jebster made unbearable
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I’m wondering if liberal ed reformers also refer to public schools as “government monopolies” privately, when they’re among friends in The Movement.
Is bashing public schools standard practice among “education advocates” or is it limited to the national leaders like Jeb Bush?
I’d like to know if I’m currently paying public employees who are opposed to my son’s school. I don’t think I should have to pay for that.
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Looks like ed reform lobbyists are writing Ohio’s new ESSA law:
https://edexcellence.net/publications/setting-sights-on-excellence-ohio%E2%80%99s-school-report-cards-2015-16
Can we get a state lawmaker who actually listens to the people in this state who fund and use the public schools, instead of national lobbyists?
Especially because we’re the people paying them? I really don’t want another cookie cutter ed reform law where they change the caption and pass it off as their own work. Maybe they could consider doing their jobs?
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The Nevada court is simply wrong. The ESA voucher-like plan runs counter to Article XI, Section 10 of the state constitution: “No public funds of any kind or character whatsover, state, county, or municipal, shall be used for sectarian purposes.” The vast majority of private schools are pervasively sectarian religious institutions. Further, 50 years of state referenda have shown that US voters oppose diverting public funds to private schools by a 2 to 1 margin. — Edd Doerr (arlinc.org)
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In my experience, although “voters oppose diverting public funds to private schools” the fact remains that most voters have no idea that so many “charters” fit into the private school category.
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