Jan Resseger writes here about gridlock in the Ohio State Senate. The Senate is supposed to review its dramatic expansion of the state voucher program by April 1, but action has been stalled by the coronavirus crisis. Based on faulty data, the state is over-identifying good public schools as “failing” in order to divert public funds to religious schools.
Why don’t public education advocates organize a referendum on vouchers? If Ohio is like every other state that has held a referendum, vouchers would be rejected by at least 65% of voters. In the last state referendum on 2018, voters in Arizona rejected vouchers by 65%-35%. The governor (a Koch stooge) and klegislatire are trying for more vouchers again (this time to give vouchers to students who go to school in other states!), and public education allies are organizing another referendum, using people power to stop money power.
Why not do the same in Ohio?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks, Diane.
Jan Resseger
https://janresseger.wordpress.com/
“That all citizens will be given an equal start through a sound education is one of the most basic, promised rights of our democracy. Our chronic refusal as a nation to guarantee that right for all children…. is rooted in a kind of moral blindness, or at least a failure of moral imagination…. It is a failure which threatens our future as a nation of citizens called to a common purpose… tied to one another by a common bond.” —Senator Paul Wellstone, March 31, 2000
if school choice is such an amazing opportunity for students, why do legislators sneak around and put it to a vote at the eleventh hour of their session? Ohio is playing with fire in opening the door to more vouchers. Their more generous reimbursements will severely drain the public schools. The research clearly shows that most vouchers are wasting public money on an inferior education. Supporting vouchers instead of public schools is reckless public policy.
“…sneak around…” Two words ever more synonymous with school choice
Thank you Jan and Diane.
Jan has a remarkable command of the political maneuvering and consequences of the EdChoice voucher system in Ohio. The legislature is hostile to public education. They are Republicans who really do want to preserve segregated schools while posturing about helping students trapped in failing public schools. The primary beneficiaries of EdChoice vouchers may well be private school students who has never been enrolled in a public school.
Republicans seem to be perfectly fine with bankrupting public schools and bankrolling private schools, especially religious schools.
This seems appropriate to mention: .
How Authoritarianism Short-Circuits the Lizard Brain
https://billmoyers.com/story/how-authoritarianism-short-circuits-the-lizard-brain/
Why not…a group of Senators lined their pockets using advance with unintended tips from the folks at CDC. This was supposed to be a secret epidemic.
The voucher mess in Ohio is inexcusable. Ohio lawmakers got absolutely no input from the 90% of people in the state who send their children to public schools and instead listened exclusively to national ed reform lobbyists.
The plan was to take the funding for private schools directly out of the state allotment for each PUBLIC school student in the state- once again public school students were the designated losers in a national ed reform political scheme.
Hire better people. Throw these bums out and hire some people who expend SOME effort and energy on the PUBLIC schools 90% of families use, instead of people who serve national ed reform lobbies.
They are destroying our schools. They offer NO benefit to public school students at all- in fact, public school students would be better off if all of these public employees stopped showing up for work. They’re a net negative.
Just amazing. The thousands of public employees we’re all paying in Columbus have not gotten one thing accomplished on behalf of the 90% of families and students in this state who attend public schools, but they have endless time and energy to lavish funding on private school vouchers.
Who works for public school students in this state? Anyone know? Can anyone point to a single positive accomplishment this legislative session for the 90% of kids in the unfashionable public schools?
Why are we paying these people? So they can all continue to serve DC ed reform lobbyists?
They’re taking funding from public school students and using it to subsidize private schools:
“The House eventually approved the $39 billion spending plan, which slashes hundreds of millions of new dollars that Lee had earmarked for K-12 education only seven weeks earlier. The Senate approved the budget later Thursday evening, sending the plan to the governor’s desk for his signature.”
Ed reformers have pushed this all over the country. Once again, “the movement” throws public school students under the bus to promote their ideological agenda.
90% of students are sacrificed to their ideological goal of privatization.
They offer absolutely nothing to any public school student or family in this country- instead, they work to actively harm our students and schools.
And they’re all on the public payroll while they’re doing it. You’re all paying them salaries for this.
https://chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2020/03/19/tennessee-house-passes-emergency-budget-as-attempt-to-yank-school-vouchers-fails/
Do you think any of the thousands of people we’re paying in Columbus will find any time to do some actual work for the 90% of students who attend public schools in this state?
They’ve now spent a solid year on vouchers, while accomplishing nothing for public school students. Could we get at least one lawmaker to lift a finger for our schools, or are they too busy serving the ed reform lobby?
Shameful.
Well – what good is a voucher when schools are closed… SO…. since all you have to do is watch the news (real news with integrity) on all the “Here’s how so-and-so is doing this during the shelters-in-place*” and you will see suburban stories, rural stories, and urban stories on internet access, laptops in homes, teachers well versed in using online class platforms and lessons, parents at home vs. how many jobs (and now out of jobs)…
… how about using the vouchers for housing in the well funded neighborhoods! And, for those who don’t like public parks, vouchers for the country club pool. And, for those who don’t like public transportation, vouchers for lyfts and taxis. For those whose public preK and day cares are crowded, vouchers for nannys.
Why are we still having this discussion.