The Federal Impact Aid program was intended to relieve the fiscal burden in districts where there are large numbers of military families or other federal programs or facilities that reduce their revenues. Right wingers want to convert the money into vouchers. This in turn would cut the budgets of the public schools now receiving impact aid.
Question: Why do these right wingers hate public schools?
Politico Morning Education reports:
“HAPPENING THIS MORNING: The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, hosts a conversation with Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on legislation he is pushing to create Education Savings Accounts out of a federal program that boosts funding for districts that are home to wide swaths of public land or reservations. The bill is modeled off a Heritage proposal and would offer Education Savings Accounts to military families to pay for expenses like private school tuition, educational materials and contributions to college savings accounts. It would be paid through the $1.3 billion federal Impact Aid program, which provides a financial boost to districts that lack a large tax base because of a national park, military base or Native American reservation within their boundaries. The event kicks off at 9 a.m. at 214 Massachusetts Ave., NE. in D.C.
– Groups representing military families and the school districts that serve them have come out in opposition to the legislation, however. “These bills are a bad deal for families, students and taxpayers,” National Association of Federally Impacted Schools Executive Director Hilary Goldmann said Thursday. “Diverting Impact Aid funding from public schools will undermine the education and support systems for federally connected students.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I live in a growing mostly conservative, military community. Other than a few charters in minority areas and a few private Christian schools, I have not seen any big move to privatize, It may be because the military parents seek strong public education for their children, but the schools have been compromised by the state’s reckless policies. Many parents remain unhappy, and teachers are fleeing in large numbers.
In yesterday’s Pensacola newspaper, the lead story was about an ex-public school principal that was sued by the ACLU because he led school wide prayers. He now has his own private Christian school. Although he charges tuition, I can’t help but wonder where he is getting the $7.5 million needed for his big expansion project.https://www.pnj.com/story/news/local/education/2018/03/07/frank-lay-leads-lead-academy-toward-new-school/393626002/
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They don’t hate them. They hate paying for them. From what I have seen the vouchers do not cover the full cost of education.
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In the Pensacola area there are some Christian schools with tuition under $5,000 dollars. If enough people sign up, it could further harm public schools. Right wing Christians are using vouchers and ESAs to further undermine public schools. Every bit of misguided education legislation provides increased financial drain on public schools in Florida.
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Will you agree, that when a student opts-out of a Florida public school, that the losing school loses both the student, and the per-pupil expenditures? The money is lost, and the student is also gone.
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Charles, you are demonstrating the point made here many times. Choice for the few who leave for a religious or private charter school robs the great majority who attend their public school.
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How is anyone robbed? The per-pupil expenditures for the students who remain in the public schools are unchanged. In fact, when parents are able to have more control over their children’s educational spending, is it not natural to assume that parents will be more agreeable to tax increases and revenue bond issues?
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OMG, the deformers NEVER cease. This is unbelievable. I sure hope those military families don’t see this as something “special being done for them.” It’s another scam job.
Why do right wingers hate public schools?
I truly don’t know. I can’t get into the head of a right winger.
Nevertheless, I entertain this answer: Could it be that public schools are democratic institutions and right wingers don’t want and/or don’t understand the importance of a democratic society?
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This is the year of vouchermania in ed reform. They’re all pushing vouchers, everywhere.
Still contributing nothing of value to public schools, though. Oh, well, Maybe next year.
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It still amazes me that public schools have no one at the table. It’s really incredible.
They aren’t represented in DC. No one cares at all what happens to the public schools 90% of families attend. They’re rarely even mentioned, other than for ridiculous political stunts like arming teachers.
They could close every public school in the United States and federal lawmakers wouldn’t even notice. Heck, they DID close every school in West Virginia and it wasn’t even a blip on their radar.
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When you have a bunch of free market billionaire oligarchs running the country, the result is a disinvestment in all things public.
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Who elects these numbskulls? Do their voters know they hate public schools?
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“It still amazes me that public schools have no one at the table. It’s really incredible.” YES. Oh, that it has finally become the time when SOMEONE, hopefully many someones, will become that candidate who gets elected simply because she/he “gets” what you are saying.
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Whatever happened to the schools on the bases themselves? Last I heard they did a great job, slightly better than public schools, at educating kids, in part because even though military families are poor, they do get better “wrap around services” than the poor in the civilian world get. I also recall that they solved the itinerancy problem of families getting moved aroun by the simple tactic of using common instructional materials system wide and common record keeping as well.
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Here’s one link, and if you search “DOD schools do better than public schools you’ll find more articles that discuss this. Once again, blind eyed right wing ideology ignores the cold hard facts. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/education/military-children-outdo-public-school-students-on-naep-tests.html
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DOD schools have a very good reputation. No homeless. No dire poverty. Parents are there. Controlled environment.
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Where I live near NAS Pensacola and Eglin Air Force Base, we have many young families from the military bases that use the public schools. They are concerned about the increased class sizes in their schools. One of the seniors from the local public school just got accepted at West Point. The schools do a good job, which is becoming more difficult each year. Most of the military vote Republican even though they support public schools. If public schools here lose the military impact money, it would have a huge negative impact on the schools in Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties.
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I don’t think it is true that most of the military vote Republican. Rather, I think we represent society at large. I also don’t think that “Right Wingers” necessarily hate public schools per se, I just think they LOVE money and, having the rest of us have little say in how we are governed. Here’s a post I wrote a couple of days ago on this same topic: http://restorereason.com/2018/03/08/yet-another-scheme-to-raid-school-funding/
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One of the reasons Trump loves Pensacola is due to the conservative Christians and the military that votes heavily Republican. He has held three rallies here. I have never seen a political ad for a liberal. In fact, politicians always mention they are “true” conservatives. Trump had a large majority vote here.
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Remember that “true” conservatives = regressive reactionaries. Why do we continue to call a spade a pitchfork?
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The GOP wants EVERYTHING to run on market principles… that way they can shrink the government and lower taxes to facilitate profit-making and “creativity”… alas some of the greatest creativity we’ve witnessed of late is the ability of huge corporations to find loopholes that prevent them from paying ANY taxes.
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I live a few miles from Arnold Engeneering and Development Center (AEDC as it is locally known). The town associated with AEDC is Tullahoma. It was dramatically changed twice in the last century. It’s first change was when Camp Forrest became one of the major training centers for the European Theater operations in World War II. Not only were half a million or so basic trainees there, but a good chunk of the 4 million soldiers participating in the war games that were held in Middle Tennessee (it had geography like Alsace and Loraine) came through there as well. After the war, the area was turned into a research facility and the engineers came. A wind tunnel, the Space Institute, and the thousands of engineers and their families who came from all over the world changed this sleepy little Highland Rim community into a diverse and dymanmic spot.
It’s education changed as well. The public school there mirrors the commitment to the idea of serving all of the people. Its support was this funding from the federal government, which lived up to its responsibility in those days. That was the fund we are discussing here. At one time, the school there produced many times more outstanding scholars than its size would predict. It is difficult to imagine that their rich tradition could have ever been developed without federal support.
The modern conservative rejection of anything public is hurting society in every way. This one is another blow against the ideals of our country.
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“The modern conservative rejection of anything public is hurting society in every way.”
Remember that “modern” conservative = regressive reactionaries. Why do we continue to call a spade a pitchfork?
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This “idea” would be devastating for my small-in-land-size-but-not-in-population district, where a huge chunk of land is an Air Force base. That money is vital to my district, because so much of the land here is either bedroom community or the base, and we have almost no business/industrial tax base to speak of. And there are no real private schools in the district, meaning that fly-by-night crap would come in to vacuum up the, as Peter Greene puts it, “Sweet, sweet tax money.” No quality, put great PR. Especially hard hit would be the poorer areas around the base, who already get the worst of everything from the district.
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