There is a very large Federal program called Impact Aid, designed to provide money to districts affected by federal military facilities, which puts a strain on the budgets of those districts.
Some Republican Senators are proposing to convert Impact Aid into vouchers, removing funding from the “impacted” districts and schools.
We need you to stand up for public schools. Right now there are two voucher bills, both referred to as the Military Education Savings Accounts Act (HR 5199/ S. 2517) in the House and the Senate. Both bills would siphon off the Impact Aid public school districts get in order to fund an Education Savings Account (ESA) program that would allow some students to use a voucher to attend a private school.
This bill will move quickly so send your email here today.
Here is the link https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-the-latest-federal-voucher-scheme-before-its-too-late
Then please call your Senators and your House Member and let them know you are opposed to HR 5199 and S. 2517.
What is Impact Aid and which schools get it?
Impact Aid helps fund school districts that lose tax revenue because their district includes federally tax-exempt land such as military bases, Native American reservations, national parks or federal housing. As of 2016, Impact Aid provided funding for about 1,300 school districts that in total educate more than 11 million students.
Reducing Impact Aid funding for public schools would strain districts with an already low level of local tax revenue–districts where the community already pays higher taxes because of untaxed federal land.
Would this program help most military families?
No.
Most military families are not wealthy enough to use it. The ESA they would get would be $2,500 although the average price of a year of private elementary school is $7,770, and the average annual cost of private high school is $13,030.
The National Military Family Association has already opposed this proposal to divert Impact Aid from schools that educate military-connected students and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) has expressed similar concerns.
The men and women who serve our country deserve excellent public schools for their children–not schools that are drained of funds by those wealthy enough to afford private school already.
STOP THIS DE VOS-SUPPORTED VOUCHER SCHEME.
Send your email by clicking here. (here is the link https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-the-latest-federal-voucher-scheme-before-its-too-late)
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I live close to Eglin Air Force Base. Most of the military personnel and contractors in this area depend on public education for their children. This area is growing tremendously, and new schools are planned. Parents are feeling the pinch of Scott’s numerous cuts to education as increasing class sizes are the most common complaint. This bill would be another nail in public education’s coffin, and it must be stopped.
Scott is running for Bill Nelson’s seat in the Senate. If anyone has family members in Florida, urge them to come out to support Nelson. Recent polls show Scott has a slight lead at this time. Fraudster and privatization puppet, Scott, must be stopped if Florida has any hope of moving forward.
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“Most military families are not wealthy enough to use it. The ESA they would get would be $2,500 although the average price of a year of private elementary school is $7,770, and the average annual cost of private high school is $13,030.”
That’s the big lie of vouchers and I’m amazed more people don’t call them out on it. They say over and over that wealthy people can choose private schools. But the vouchers aren’t big enough to cover the cost of the private schools wealthy people pick. This is obvious and has been obvious for years, yet all of them repeat this boilerplate and it’s never challenged.
Vouchers aren’t just an effort to destroy public education. They’re an effort to offer a cheap subsidy in place of a public education with the understanding that the public will individually pick up the difference.
You know what the proposed voucher amount was in Michigan? 5k. That’s a HUGE cut to education spending.
When ed reformers reach their goal and everyone has their “backpack voucher” what they will discover is they gutted funding for education and they have simply shifted the burden to individual middle and lower class families. Are they innumerate? How can they miss this? It’s how Obamacare works! It’s the model!
The recklessness of this “movement” kills me. They have no idea what they’re doing.
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You can put ESAs in the dumpster with “failing schools” and the “civil rights issue of our times.”
I think they know exactly what they are doing, They are trying to push public education past the point of no return so they will collapse.
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exactly
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Arne Duncan used to rave about certain countries and their performance on test scores.
What Arne Duncan didn’t tell you is those families are paying out of pocket for those test scores, in addition to paying for public schools. They’re hiring tutors. That comes straight of the family budget. He’s comparing apples and oranges and although he went to America’s most expensive private schools he is innumerate in any practical sense.
Betsy DeVos knows darn well elite private schools don’t cost 2500. Yet she runs around the country telling parents they can “choose” any school. It’s a lie.
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“He’s comparing apples and oranges and although he went to America’s most expensive private schools he is innumerate in any practical sense.” So much like the push for endless online/tech programs where those promoting tech simply do not understand that reliable home-accessible tech belongs to the middle and upper classes.
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Done and posted at oped
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Called both Senator’s offices in Washington and our Congresswoman’s office too.
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NPE’s action page made it VERY easy to write! I added this paragraph:
“Having worked in a district with a military base I can assure you that the impact aid is VITAL to the operation of public elementary schools proximate to the base and to the nearby secondary schools children on the military base attend. As should be self-evident from the size of the de facto voucher parents would receive, the impact aid allocation does not fully cover the costs of the public school the children of those assigned to the military base.”
One other thing struck me: this seems to fly in the face of ESSA, which purports to shift responsibility to the STATES. This is a top-down mandate that parallels Race-to-the-Top’s de facto mandate that states adopt VAM.
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