Public education is in jeopardy in North Carolina.
Please take action now!
The North Carolina Senate introduced SB 603, a bill creating a new voucher program that would give $9,000 a year to students with disabilities going to non-public schools.
Send an email to tell your house member to vote NO for SB 603.
SB 603 is a bill that:
Expands opportunities for fraud
Costs more to administer than traditional voucher programs
Takes funding from our public schools, with particularly negative impacts for public school programs for students with disabilities
Drains the state budget
Lacks accountability
If passed, parents of eligible students get a debit card loaded with approximately $9,000 per year that they can spend on private school costs, tutoring, technology and even account fees!
In addition, SB 603 would allow parents to double- or triple-dip into North Carolina’s already existing voucher programs. Parents could also receive $4,200 from the Opportunity Scholarship program (for students meeting certain income requirements), an additional $8,000 via the Disabilities Grant Program and $9,000 from this program the new proposed program.
Like the Arizona ESA program on which it is modeled, it is ripe for fraud. Arizona’s program has resulted in parents buying televisions, groceries, cell phones and family planning services. Vendors have also been caught overcharging parents. Monitoring of purchases would rely on self-reporting.
Under the proposed bill, even if an audit uncovers fraud, there is no requirement that the parent be forced to repay the taxpayers.
Worst of all, when a parent misuses these debit cards, their children go undereducated.
This is, in our opinion, just one more attempt to defund and attack public education. And it is shameful.
Send this email today to your representative telling them to oppose SB 603.
We make it easy. Just click here.
Then pick up the phone and call on Monday. You can find their number here.
Then post this link on your Facebook page and share it will all of your friends and family in North Carolina.
https://npeaction.org/2017/05/12/north-carolina-alert-stop-super-voucher/
Thanks for all you do!
Carol Burris
Executive Director
First, Senate included this program (in pared-back form) in its budget proposal, which passed the Senate last week. They aren’t going to run S 603 as a separate bill. If you want to stop the creation of ESAs, you need to call House budget writers and make sure they fight to keep it out of their budget and the ultimate conference budget.
Second, I’m honored that Ms. Burris used my analysis of this bill for her action alert, but I wish she would have linked to my original work: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2017/04/12/senates-poorly-designed-new-voucher-program-expand-avenues-educational-fraud/#sthash.PXUY3Inp.dpbs
Kris,
I linked to your post and so will NPE Action.
Thanks!
Children with disabilities, and learning-disabled children, need additional help and assistance that many (not all) public schools are incapable of providing.
Allow me to correct that statement, Chas:
“Children with disabilities, and learning-disabled children, need additional help and assistance that very few public schools are incapable of providing.”
An a public schools educator and parent of an autistic child, I do not agree that the voucher money for special needs students should be unfunded. Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy is not provided in any public schools in NC yet it is a proven and nationally used therapy for students with autism. ABA therapy in NC is only offered at private schools and can cost anywhere from $25,000 to over $80,000 per year. (Yes, you read that right!) These incredible teachers are highly trained with either special education degrees or psychiatry; most ABA instructors have at least master’s degrees and commonly have Board Certified Behavior Analysis licensure. $9K would offset this tuition cost slightly especially considering it is difficult to find insurance coverage for ABA therapy in NC.
Our family does not receive any voucher funds yet I think that this money would somewhat ease the cost of educating autistic children who need ABA in order to become successful learners.