DeVos and some Republican members of Congress have introduced legislation to convert a federal $1 billion program called Impact Aid into vouchers for military families. Impact Aid was designed to reimburse public schools that educate the children of military families and also to compensate public school districts because of the loss of federal revenues due to large federal facilities that don’t pay taxes.
HR 5199 and S. 2517 were introduced in the House and the Senate about a month ago. Carol Burris, executive director of NPE, wrote about this effort here.
Military families have made clear that they don’t want vouchers. They want good public schools.
The Heritage Foundation is lobbying the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to get the voucher bill tucked into the National Defense Authorization Act (the annual budget for the Department of Defense), and that DeVos herself is lobbying Secretary of Defense James Mattis to get his support.
Please open the link, which makes it easy to contact your representatives.
Don’t let the privatizers pull a fast one. Read this appeal, which contains resources as well as an easy way to reach out to your representatives.
Stop DeVos now!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Shouldn’t it read, the Koch brothers kleptocratic promoting Heritage Foundation … ?
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Who are the members of the Armed Service Committees?
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Senate: https://www.armed-services.senate.gov
House: https://armedservices.house.gov/about/members
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Thank you.
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@LeftCoastTeacher: The proposal is not currently under consideration by the Armed Services Committee. It has been referred to Education and Workforce. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) is the chairman of this committee. For now, the proposal is not referred to Armed Services.
see
https://twitter.com/EdWorkforce
and
https://foxx.house.gov/
(I work at the Pentagon, as a Systems Engineer)
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@LCT: A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate, and referred to Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, there. see
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/2517
The chairman of the HELP committee, is Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who is Diane’s old boss, BTW.
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@LCT: The proposal has a much more difficult path to passage, if the proposal is not included in the Defense Authorization bill. That is why Democratic congresspersons (on the armed services committee) have written a letter to the chairman of armed services, opposing inclusion of the proposal.
Q All Democratic members of the Education and Armed Services committees wrote to the Republican committee chairmen Tuesday to express their “strong opposition” to including the proposal in the defense authorization. END Q
If the proposal is included in the Authorization bill, it will sail right through the congress, and passage is almost a “done deal”.
The best chance of defeating the proposal, is to keep it off of the Authorization bill, and bring it up as “stand-alone” legislation.
Hope this helps.
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The hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me with this woman! Last year she visited an elementary school in Prince William County, Virginia, where 35% of its students are from military families and she praised the school! Now she wants to take their Impact Aid away! Shame! http://www.princewilliamtimes.com/news/betsy-devos-visits-military-connected-ashland-elementary-school/article_de48cf8e-17e2-5084-8088-fe24b81664a9.html
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From the article above:
“More than 35 percent of Ashland students are military kids, the highest percentage of any Prince William school. It is one of seven schools benefiting from two separate grants, totaling more than $2 million, from the Department of Defense to support special programs for military families.
The others are Henderson, Pattie and Old Bridge elementary schools, Porter Traditional, Potomac Middle and Forest Park High School….
For her part, DeVos commended the school staff “for the wonderful job they are doing” to help military families and children. She deflected a question about the protesters outside, saying she received “a wonderful, wonderful welcome here.”
“Just seeing the faces of the children when I got here. That’s the best,” she added. “They’re joyful and excited to be here in an environment that is clearly working for each of the kids I saw. It was privilege to meet them.””
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Here’s a local Wash DC TV news report on DeVos’s visit to Ashland Elementary School in Manassas, Virginia, in September 2017 where she praises it as a model for educating students from military families! And now she wants to take away their Impact Aid money!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Ashland-Elementary-School-Praised-By-Education-Secretary_Washington-DC-420418103.html%3famp=y
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I live in Fairfax County. Could we meet sometime, and have some coffee? I make an awesome cinnamon roll, too. Can I contact you on social media?
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