In this illuminating podcast, Jennifer Berkshire (formerly known as EduShyster) and Jack Schneider (historian of education) explain how the tax credit programs work. They are proliferating as a way to adopt vouchers without using the V word.
Schneider gives a thumbnail history of the state Blaine amendments.
Then the pair introduce tax policy expert Carl Davis to explain how tax credits are a poorly disguised way of laundering money to religious schools that the state constitution forbids. Since no state has ever approved a voucher referendum, the voucher advocates have been forced to come up with euphemisms and backdoor ways to implement what they want: Public money for private and religious schools. If they were honest, they would put the question to voters and ask them to change the state constitution, but they know the public is not on their side. Thus, the ruse.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I read a harrowing article this morning:
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-gorsuch-court-impact-20170409-story.html
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Perhaps because I have two hearing aides, I do not like podcasts.
All of the same story elements are presented in the text version from Mercedes Schneider, including links. (See below)
Mercedes and Jennifer show how voucher schemes represented as “scholarships” become a tax rip off. Tax advisors are showing rich people how to raid the entire state account for vouchers before any of it can leave the door for the benefit of students and their parents.
And the same ripoff scheme lets the rich person do a federal tax deduction in addition to the state deduction. This double dipping can produce a profit for the wealthy person who has a savvy CPA.
Every member of Congress who voted for this scheme should be subjected to some old-fashioned public ridicule and denial of future support.
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Please tell the pres, Devos, and the rest of the 1% cabinet that Obama, John King, Arne Duncan, Bush, Kennedy,and the Clintons all favor some degree of choice including and vouchers.
Tell them that all of Clinton’s wealthy donors would benefit from their tax credit scheme. AND
Tell pres they sought alternatives to the public schools
AND that they all favored excessive state testing.
AND that none of them could make all the public schools successful.
HE WON’T be able to resist the challenge
Pres ego is the #1 motivation for everything so just to get at them, (what was his first reaction to syria – blame Obama) he’ll flip flop to supporting public schools determined to prove he can fix the, he’ll elminate heaavy duty testing, and find a different aproach to 1%er exemptions just to prove he’s better than they are.
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