Republicans in Congress have been pushing a bill to promote vouchers for military families by turning federal Impact Aid—which supports public school districts that enroll military children—into “Education Savings Accounts,” debit cards for private and religious schools.
But the major organization representing military families wrote Congressional leaders to oppose the bill.
“The Military Coalition, a consortium of uniformed services and veterans associations representing more than 5.5 million current and former service members and their families and survivors, writes to express our opposition to H.R. 5199, The Education Savings Accounts for Military Families Act. This legislation would divert funding from Impact Aid in order to provide a voucher for military families living in selected school districts.
“The vast majority of the Nation’s nearly 600,000 school-age military children attend public schools in their local civilian communities. Impact Aid is a vital revenue source for many of the schools serving military families, helping to offset lost property tax revenue when a district includes nontaxable federal land such as a military installation. Using Impact Aid dollars to fund Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) for military-connected students would be financially devastating for many school districts, critically compromising the quality of the education they could provide to military children and their civilian classmates.
”Additionally, we note that relatively few military families would be eligible for an ESA under the legislation – and among those that would be eligible, the majority would receive ESA’s of only $2500. No children of service members in the National Guard or Reserves would be eligible. It is counterproductive to defund Impact Aid, a successful program that has long enjoyed bipartisan support, in order to provide a benefit of questionable value to a minority of military students.
”Military families place a high value on the quality of their children’s education. We urge you not to reduce funding to a program critical to ensuring military children receive the best possible education.”
Thank you to our wise and thoughtful military families, who understand the dire consequences of defunding the nation’s public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
WOW! I hope more and more people stand up to this lunacy of charters and vouchers.
Here’s a statement from a veteran I know re: Public School Teachers:
“I’m glad the teachers are speaking up….Teachers are the backbone of our society.
This giving Vouchers to military personnel is just another BIG RIG to take down public schools and use the military personnel as one of their wrecking balls.
Glad the military personnel aren’t buying this BAD move for them, their children, and this country.
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I served on the Las Cruces BoE. This district maintained an elementary/middle schools at WSMR for the military children on the installation. The federal impact aid received by the district helped to keep that school open. If the schools were not on the military installation the Students would have to be bused into Las Cruces every day for 25-30 miles one way. This would have been through a mountain pass that can be dangerous during the winter months. Vouchers for this children would be absolutely stupid and counterproductive to the education of these children. My wife and I also had three children for which our various districts received federal impact for over twenty years. This is example of DeVos’ stupidity.
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It is going to take a lot of people to overturn this policy of disinvestment in public education. Our current policy is designed to move public money into private pockets regardless of what people want and the poor results of privatization. The people in charge are not considering what is best for young people. They are too busy working on schemes to move public money out of public education and divert it into private hands. This is just the latest attempt to vandalize the public trust.
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Additionally, we note that relatively few military families would be eligible for an ESA under the legislation – and among those that would be eligible, the majority would receive ESA’s of only $2500. ”
But we were told over and over that vouchers make all private schools available to everyone! No one mentioned that you only get 2500.
It’s a subsidy for people who already use private schools, and that’s ALL it is.
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The ultimate goal of ed reform is to give eveyone in the country a low-value voucher to “buy” an education at market rates.
They hope to kill two birds with one stone- gut public spending on education while eradicating public schools.
I knew it when I saw the voucher amount they proposed in Michigan. 5k. That’s a huge cut in education funding and that was the intent.
You know who will be making up the difference? Families, that’s who. This is cost-shifting, from the public sector to the individual. When they’re done net public education investment will be vastly reduced and it will be MORE inequitable.
That’s the win/win and that is why wealthy people back this.
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When’s the last time anyone in Congress did anything at all for the 90% of US families in public schools?
They spend more time and energy with private school funding schemes that affect 3% of people than they do on the remaining 97%.
Why is that? Is it because so few of them attended public schools or send their children or grandchildren to public schools? They go home to campaign. They must PASS several public schools on their way to and from the airport or the fundraiser.
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Your first sentence is a bit wordy. “When’s the last time anyone in Congress did anything at all for the 90%?”
Public schools only one area in which they haven’t done anything for us.
But we keep voting them back in anyway.
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Charles,
No more comments until you describe your visit to your local public school. A real visit. Not just walk in, leave. Meet a teacher. See classes. Learn about their use of tech.
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Message received and understood, I told you I was going to visit the middle school in my neighborhood. How can I verify the visit? May I FAX you a letter from the principal?
Keep in mind, that I completed the orientation at Fairfax public schools, to be a substitute teacher.
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Charles,
Write a report on your visit and post it here.
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See this:
I am a citizen who is interested in public schools. I would like to have the chance to visit your school, and get a short tour, and perhaps visit a class.
I would be more than glad to deliver a talk in one of your classes.
I am a telecommunications engineer, maybe I could give a short talk about engineering.
I have lived in Africa, I could talk about Africa.
I have lived in Saudi Arabia for one year, and I have studied Islam thoroughly. I could give a talk about Islam. (and life in Saudi Arabia)
I am particularly interested in how your school is using technology in the instruction process. Perhaps one of your teachers could give me a short introduction.
Please feel free to email me, and we can also discuss my visit by telephone.
Looking forward to the visit,
I will let you know how it turns out.
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Very good, Charles. Nice that you are offering to do something for the school. Try to spend more than an hour, if possible. Sit in the back and watch. Be sure to see classes for children who are special ed and ELL
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I recently signed two petitions to my Representative Visclosky [D-IN] asking that he not vote for a balanced budget amendment. That would give Congress the right to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This balanced budget is now being pushed by the House since the huge tax cut for the wealthy and corporations successfully was passed by the GOP.
This bit just came from the WH and tells how much the US is spending on the military. I am horrified at this being a priority.
…….
President meets with military leaders
Top U.S. defense and military leaders met with President Trump last night, joining the Commander in Chief for dinner and meeting beforehand to review progress in protecting America’s interests at home and abroad.
The President reiterated his commitment to rebuilding our Nation’s Armed Forces, including through the budget agreement he made with Congress that invests more than $1.4 trillion in defense over the next two years. This budget supports efforts to recover readiness, grow the force, buy more modern equipment, and give our troops a much deserved pay raise.
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This is great news, but beware of fake organizations claiming they represent military voters too. There are fake Democratic organizations and fake minority organization. These fake organizations are legion and their titles always sound impressive but are always misleading when we peel away the thin, opaque veneer hiding the greed beneath the moldy muck to discover where their dark money comes from.
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This makes me sick. If you want a religious school, don’t take my taxpayer money. It is especially bad since public schools need money. “Choice Scholarship’ is a doubly rotten name for voucher.
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Bishop Noll Institute leads Region in school vouchers; use of Indiana Choice Scholarship on the rise, according to IDOE report…NW Indiana Times
Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond was awarded the most money in Northwest Indiana in the 2017-18 school year for students using the Indiana Choice Scholarship.
The program, also known as school vouchers, gives Hoosier parents public school tax dollars to pay student tuition at private schools. Across the Hoosier state, some 35,458 students used Indiana Choice Scholarship at 318 participating schools. That’s an increase from last year’s 34,299 students at 313 participating schools…
According to the report, the state paid a total of $153.9 million in public school taxpayer dollars for Indiana Choice scholarships, up from $146 million in the 2016-17 school year.
In the 2017-18 school year, 4,462 students, or 75.74 percent of students enrolled in private schools, never attended an Indiana public school, something the law allows. At one time, the law required a student to have first attended a public school, but not any longer…
Joseph Majchrowicz, superintendent for the Catholic Diocese of Gary with schools in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, said the voucher program has been helpful to Catholic schools.
“I think it’s been helpful to families and it gives them an opportunity to access quality education that is faith-based,” he said. “I think that’s the cornerstone of the program. It gives students an opportunity at a quality faith-based education that they wouldn’t have been able to pursue without the choice program…
Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association, said more than 94 percent of Hoosier children attend a public school of their choice. He said the state’s K-12 public school systems offer more choice opportunities than found in non-public schools.
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/bishop-noll-institute-leads-region-in-school-vouchers-use-of/article_57245721-74bb-5e9e-a6bf-ee73c99d9a1f.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share
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