Peter Greene writes here about a sneaky effort in the Pennsylvania legislature to push through a voucher bill without public hearings. Republicans following the DeVos script want to raid public school funds and transfer your tax dollars to unaccountable private and religious schools and for a variety of other purposes (in one state in the west, a parent used the “education savings account voucher” to pay for an abortion, another parent bought school supplies, returned them, and bought the family a big-screen television).
If you live in Pennsylvania, contact Your State Senator NOW.
Greene writes:
“Tomorrow morning, the Senate Education Committee will be once again considering a bill to promote vouchers across the state of Pennsylvania, and to pay for them by stripping money from public schools. If you’re in Pennsylvania, drop what you’re doing and call your Senator today.
“SB 2, Education Savings Accounts for Students in Underperforming Schools, sets up vouchers with no oversight and an extremely broad criterion for how the vouchers can be spent. According to the official summary, voucher money may be spent on
1) Tuition and fees at a participating private school;
2) Payment for a licensed or accredited tutor;
3) Fees for nationally norm-referenced tests and similar exams;
4) Industry certifications;
5) Curriculum and textbooks; and
6) Services to special education students such as occupational, speech, and behavioral therapies.
“So anything from private school tuition to buying books for home schooling to sending a child to massage therapist school.
“Money can be carried over from one year to the next, and if there’s still some left at graduation time, the money may be used for higher education costs.”
Districts like Philadelphia, already operating on a bare bones budget, will lose money. So will every other district.
“This bill is bad news, and would have an immediate and damaging effect on school finances across the state. It is an attack on public education. And conservatives really shouldn’t be fans, either– this bill provides zero accountability, and our tax dollars disappear down a black hole where we have no say and no knowledge of how they are spent. A family could decide that it would be educational for Junior to go to Disney World, and your tax dollars would pay for it…
“This is not the first time someone has tried to push a voucher bill, and it won’t be the last. But it is time, once again, for defenders of public education to hit the phones. Even if your senator is not among those who will act on the bill tomorrow, chances are good that he’ll be looking at it a bit later. Let him know that stripping funds from public schools in order to fund unregulated oversight-free vouchers is not okay.”
The research has been accumulating in recent years that vouchers don’t produce better education and often produce worse education. Increasingly, vouchers go to students already enrolled in private schools.
Citizens of Pennsylvania, get active. Stop vouchers! Stop DeVos! Save Your public schools!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good grief!! Can’t these folks see that vouchers violate the state constitution’s Article III, Sections 15 and 29? And aren’t they aware that public opinion does not support the diversion of public funds to private schools, that over the past 50 years voters from coast to coast have defeated all such gimmicks by 2 to 1 in 28 state referenda? Don’t they remember the 1971 Supreme Court ruling in Lemon v Kurtzman, a case that originated in Pennsylvania?
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The constitutional provision you cite, was nullified by the US Supreme Court this year, in the case of Trinity Lutheran School District v. Pauley.
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Wrong again, Charles. The playground case did not extend to tuition.
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I disagree. See Q Article I, Section 7 of the Missouri Constitution states, “no money shall ever be taken from the public treasury, directly or indirectly, in aid of any church, section or denomination of religion.” END Q
This section of the Missouri constitution, is almost verbatim, in the Pennsylvania constitution.
The Trinity decision nullified the “Blaine” amendment in the Missouri constitution. It is also applicable to the Penn. constitution.
Although the Trinity case was about tire chips and safety, the court nullified the amendment in its entirety.
State money can flow to religious institutions, the Blaine amendments, are on the ash-heap of history.
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Poor Charles just salivates at the thought that vouchers mean that we will all be forced by government to support sectarian indoctrination in private schools unfriendly to women’s rights and often to science, oblivious to the fact that for 50 years US voters have rejected such moves by 2 to 1 in 28 state referenda, including 3 in Betsy DeVos’s Michigan.
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Ed,
For the sake of our readers, please list the 28 State referenda
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Q Charles just salivates at the thought that vouchers mean that we will all be forced by government to support sectarian indoctrination in private schools unfriendly to women’s rights and often to science, oblivious to the fact that for 50 years US voters have rejected such moves by 2 to 1 in 28 state referenda, including 3 in Betsy DeVos’s Michigan. END Q
If you mean that I support school choice, you are correct. Your mistake, is referring to school choice/vouchers in the future tense. Already, many states are providing financial support to families who choose to opt out of the publicly-operated schools. Some families redeem their vouchers at religiously-operated schools. This activity has been going on for decades. The Supreme Court approved this, in the case of Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002). Taxpayers in many states, are already compelled to finance the education of children in schools which teach creationism, and other non-scientific subjects. Where have you been living, that you do not know this?
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Re Charles’s Oct 24 comment, yes, some states have been diverting public funds to private schools through vouchers and tax credits — in defiance of public opinion, in disdain for public schools and religious liberty. And the SCOTUS in Zelman sought to undermine and overturn its own precedents in Lemon (1971) and a string of other rulings prior to Zelman. Charles continues to thumb his nose at our public schools, at the religious liberty of all taxpayers, at the strong majority of voters who value our public schools. Charles cannot hide the fact that he is a Trump/DeVos/Pence troll. — Edd Doerr
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“Good grief” is right. These two words entered my mind several times while reading this post by Diane. The criminals are now BLATANT.
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If you do some research, you will see that most Americans are unfamiliar with school choice/vouchers. see
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/americans-unfamiliar-school-choice-poll-finds
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Charles,
Whenever vouchers are on the ballot, they are defeated. Every single time.
If you judge elections by how many people turn out, then you can invalidate all our elections.
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Dubious poll, Charles. The Gallup/PDK annual education poll for 40 years has shown that Americans are familiar with plans to divert public funds to private schools and reject the idea. Moreover, the 28 state referenda on vouchers etc show that there is more familiarity with vouchers than you think. Charles, you are simply obsessed with rerouting public funds to special interest private indoctrination centers and apparently like the idea of all taxpayers having to pay for Catholic, evangelical, Lutheran, Adventist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Quaker, Jewish (several different kinds), Islamic, Scientology, and other sectarian schools.
I am an honors grad of Indiana’s leading Catholic high school, but I would not want my Jewish, Methodist, Sikh, or even Catholic neighbors to have to pay even a dime to support it. My kids, of course, attended public schools.
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I am a former PBS employee (engineering). There are any number of polls, which show different results.
I am not “obsessed” with the idea of school choice/vouchers.
As far as public money going to schools rub by religious institutions, this has been going on for many decades at the university/college level. Students attend Notre Dame, Southern Methodist, BYU, Islamic University of Minnesota, etc. using federal/state money, and no one has an issue. In many states, students attend K-12 schools operated by religious entities, and receive public assistance, to meet tuition (and other ) costs. The Supreme Court has found this constitutional, and I have absolutely no problem with public financing at religiously-operated schools, neither at the university level, nor at the college level.
I do not judge elections by turnout. A valid election is valid, regardless of turnout. The maxim in law is “Quietat es consenteri”, Silence is consent. Non-participation in an election constitutes consent to the results.
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@Edd: Does your objection to public money financing educational costs at religiously-operated institutions stop at the K-12 level, or does it extend to the university/college level as well?
Would you seek to abolish students at religiously-operated colleges from receiving BEOG’s, ROTC scholarships, GI Bill assistance, and so forth?
Or does your outrage apply only to public money assisting students at the K-12 level?
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Q Whenever vouchers are on the ballot, they are defeated. Every single time. END Q
I agree. I have never seen a school choice/voucher proposal (referendum) that has passed by majority vote.
I am opposed to referenda. And I will tell you why. The federal constitution makes no provision for referenda. The framers (wisely) believed that having governmental decisions left to the mob, would result in mob rule. The government (at all levels) is instituted to act as a “buffer”, against the whims of the majority. That is why Wyoming and California, are exactly equal in the Senate. That is why a president can veto legislation passed by a majority. That is why the electoral college can nullify the results of the popular vote for president.
Referenda enable the 51% to urinate in the oatmeal of the other 49%.
In 1969, in my home town of Bowling Green KY. There was a referendum on whether to have Cable TV. The proposal failed, because 51% of the citizens did not want the town to have cable TV.
Q Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots. END Q
-John Adams
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Charles opposes referenda and says that the US constitution “makes no provision” for them. Charles seems unaware that 49 state REQUIRE referenda to amend their constitutions, Delaware being the only exception. Re vouchers, etc., the referendum voters showed good sense in defending religious liberty and public education.
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In addition, Charles repeatedly brings up his claim that the Founding Fathers feared the majority would become a mob. What majority is Charles referring to?
In 2016, there were 231,556,622 eligible voters
46.9% didn’t vote
25.6% voted for Clinton
25.5% voted for Trump
1.7% voted for Johnson
The majority didn’t vote. Is that the mob we should all fear instead of the hate-filled, racists and white supremacists that support their Great Leader Donald Trump?
There has never been a threat to anyone’s freedom from the 25.6 percent that voted for Clinton unless Charles thinks having the freedom to buy military weapons so you have the freedom to mow down people at music festivals or children in grade schools, and/or molesting and raping women and/or terrorizing minorities is a freedom protected by the U.S. Constitution that alleged liberals and progressives might take away from Trump’s largest block of supporters.
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Q Charles opposes referenda and says that the US constitution “makes no provision” for them. Charles seems unaware that 49 state REQUIRE referenda to amend their constitutions, Delaware being the only exception. Re vouchers, etc., the referendum voters showed good sense in defending religious liberty and public education. END Q
I am well-aware, that nearly all states have referendum provisions, to amend their respective state constitutions. 26 states, plus the District of Columbia, have referendum provisions of one sort or another. see
https://ballotpedia.org/States_with_initiative_or_referendum
When the voters in the several states have been presented with referenda concerning school choice, the results (so far) have been in the negative.
The reasons for this opposition, are varied. I can imagine that some people see the religious issue.
There is a referendum coming up next year in Arizona, on the expansion of school choice. I predict that there will be a great deal of money coming into the state, both pro and con.
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John Adams (and other framers) rightly feared the tyranny of the majority. see
Q
“If a majority are capable of preferring their own private interest, or that of their families, counties, and party, to that of the nation collectively, some provision must be made in the constitution, in favor of justice, to compel all to respect the common right, the public good, the universal law, in preference to all private and partial considerations… And that the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of history… To remedy the dangers attendant upon the arbitrary use of power, checks, however multiplied, will scarcely avail without an explicit admission some limitation of the right of the majority to exercise sovereign authority over the individual citizen… In popular governments [democracies], minorities [individuals] constantly run much greater risk of suffering from arbitrary power than in absolute monarchies…” END Q
-John Adams
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The 28 state referenda on diverting public funds to private schools are detailed in my essay “The Great School Voucher Fraud” accessible at arlinc.org. — Edd Doerr
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Edd,
You should update that essay on vouchers. You cite the 2011 PDK poll as the most recent. The 2017 poll is the most recent.
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Arizona is scheduled to have a referendum in November 2018, on whether to expand the current ESA program. see https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona_Proposition_305,Expansion_of_Empowerment_Scholarship_Accounts_Referendum(2018)
I predict that a great deal of money, from out-of-state will flow in to Arizona, both pro and con.
As far as I can determine, this is the first time that an expansion of an existing program, has been placed in front of voters (I may be wrong here).
I am very interested to see how it plays out.
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Isn’t this legislature following the same Tea Party, GOP, ALEC produced script every state is following where the GOP controls the state government – hold meetings in secret behind closed doors and then rush through votes before the people find out what is happening?
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Yes and the head of the Education committee, John Eichelberger, is a complete ALEC lackey.
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From what I’ve read, after Obama was elected, ALEC went into a frenzy of activity spreading money, lies, and misinformation through their own media machine and so-called think tanks, and I think that is responsible for the Democrats losing both houses of Congress, states, and hundreds of seats in state legislatures.
“Under President Obama, Democrats have lost 900+ state legislature seats, 12 governors, 69 House seats, 13 Senate seats. That’s some legacy. That does sound awful! And it is very bad.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/11/04/how-badly-has-the-obama-era-damaged-the-democratic-party/?utm_term=.960e0c738661
It wasn’t Obama that caused this loss as much as the rabid activity of white supremacists led by ALEC that is funded by mostly old white men billionaires to “Make America White Again”.
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Posted the link to Peter’s article directly,
https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/URGENT-Pennsylvania-Legis-in-General_News-Legislators_Money_Money_Peter-Greene-171023-559.html#comment677224
with this comment, which has embedded links at the above address.
What is important to me, is that our people learn what is happening as the privatization goes on I would recommend that everyone who wants to keep afoot of the daily assault on our PUBLIC EDUCATION INSTITUION, not merely our ‘schools,’ get the daily feed from the DIANE RAVITCH BLOG.
Or get the NPE Newsletters – Network For Public Education where you can find out WHAT YOU CAN DO TO ENSURE AMERICA’S FUTURE CITIZENS are educated, and know how to LEARN, and have the skills and know how to do work!
Here is some good reading to familiarize you with the PLOT & THE PLOY to demolish education in America , and with it the road to income equality and our democracy.
FORMER Assistant SECRETARY OF STATE’, DIANE RAVITCH wrote:
How Not to Fix Our Public Schools
Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.
The Trump Devos Demolition of American Education
*Detroit: The Broken Promise of School Privatization
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Thank you, Susan.
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kitchen Cabinets Hints
URGENT: Pennsylvania Legislators Rush to Enact Vouchers, Take Money from YOUR Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog
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