The Constitution of the state of Florida bans the transfer of public funds to religious schools or any religious institution. The ban is unequivocal. It says: “No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution.”
In 2012, the state voted on a referendum to permit vouchers for religious schools. The proposed Amendment 8 was misleadingly called “the Religious Freedom Amendment.” Voters turned it down by 55%-45%.
Despite the explicit language of the State Constitution, despite the defeated state referendum, despite the body of research that shows that voucher schools are mostly inferior to public schools, despite the number of religious schools that openly discriminate in admissions and that use textbooks that are racist and sexist, Florida’s Republican governors and legislature have steadily expanded its multiple voucher programs, which currently sends about $1 billion to mostly religious schools. These schools are not subject to the same standards and accountability as public and charter schools. Now Florida legislators want to combine its several voucher programs and expand them.
If you live in Florida, say no to this degradation of public education and waste of public funds.
From: Network for Public Education Action <carol@npeaction.org>
Date: Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 8:16 AM
Subject: [test] Urgent: Stop the Florida Mega-Voucher Bill Today
To: <burriscarol@gmail.com>
 Florida SB 48 merges and expands the multiple voucher programs that already exist into two large programs.If passed, this bill would also reduce the frequency of audits to detect fraud from every year to once every three years, increase the yearly growth rate of voucher programs, and via ESAs, expand the use of public funds for parents to “shop” for private schools or homeschool services. Here is what to do. 1. Pick up the phone today and call:(Sample Script) My name is (name). Please tell Senator (name) that I strongly oppose SB 48. I support public education. SB 48 is one more attempt to fund private schools and destroy our public school system. Chair, Sen. Joe Gruters (850) 487-5023gruters.joe.web@flsenate.govTwitter: @JoeGruters Vice Chair, Sen. Shevrin Jones (850) 487-5035jones.shevrin.web@flsenate.govTwitter: @ShevrinJones Senator Lori Berman(850) 487-5031berman.lori.web@flsenate.govTwitter: @loriberman Senator Jennifer Bradley (850) 487-5005bradley.jennifer.web@flsenate.govTwitter: @jenn_bradley Senator Doug Broxson(850) 487-5001broxson.doug.web@flsenate.govTwitter: @DougBroxson Senator Travis Hutson(850) 487-5007hutson.travis.web@flsenate.govTwitter: @TravisJHutson Senator Kathleen Passidomo(850) 487-5028passidomo.kathleen.web@flsenate.govTwitter: @Kathleen4SWFL Senator Tina Polsky (850) 487-5029polsky.tina.web@flsenate.govTwitter: @TinaPolsky Senator Perry Thurston, Jr (850) 487-5033thurston.perry.web@flsenate.govTwitter: @PerryThurstonJr2. Get on Twitter and tweet: Don’t destroy Florida public schools. #SayNotoSB48 @PerryThurstonJr @TinaPolsky @Kathleen4SWFL @TravisJHutson @DougBroxson @jenn_bradley @loriberman @ShevrinJones @JoeGruters @NPEaction @pastors4flkids Stop the mega-voucher bill. I love Florida Public Schools. Stop defunding them. #SayNotoSB48 @PerryThurstonJr @TinaPolsky @Kathleen4SWFL @TravisJHutson @DougBroxson @jenn_bradley @loriberman @ShevrinJones @JoeGruters @NPEaction @pastors4flkids Stop the mega-voucher bill. #SayNotoSB48 that outsources Florida’s $1 billion voucher program to private organizations for profit.. @PerryThurstonJr @TinaPolsky @Kathleen4SWFL @TravisJHutson @DougBroxson @jenn_bradley @loriberman @ShevrinJones @JoeGruters @NPEaction @pastors4flkids 3. Send an email to the senators above, using the email addresses under their names (click the address and cut and paste text below): I oppose SB 48 because it contains no standards, no transparency, and only tri-annual accountability. It gives to the few while ignoring the needs of the many children in public schools. Please vote to oppose SB 48. Don’t wait. Thanks  Carol Burris, Executive Director  Donations to NPE Action (a 501(c)(4)) are not tax deductible, but they are needed to lobby and educate the public about the issues and candidates we support.Please make a donation today.Sent via ActionNetwork.org. To update your email address, change your name or address, or to stop receiving emails from Network for Public Education Action, please click here. |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have already contacted my so-called representatives on this issue. The fact is Florida does not care to hear from the people. Even when placed on the ballot, which is a rare occurrence, the legislature finds a way to enact a law that will pervert the intention of the voters. When voters passed a referendum on restoring voting rights to felons, the legislature made felons pay hefty fines before they voted, and many of the felons lacked the money to repay the fines. The only way to enact any change in the state is to challenge the bill in the courts. They will continue to enact top down anti-democratic policies unless they are stopped by the courts. DeSantis and the majority of the legislators are autocrats, and they will continue to manipulate by hook or crook.
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They are trying to do that with minimum wage now.
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Yup. We here in Flor-uh-duh have the country’s most lawless lawmakers.
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Would those be “lawlessmakers”?
Lawlessyers?
Unrepresentatives?
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Send lawyers guns and money
DeSantis hit the fan
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https://npeaction.org/urgent-stop-the-florida-mega-voucher-bill-today/
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A superb article on this horrendous change in the Florida voucher legislation, which would allow families making up to $80,000 a year to use taxpayer funds to pay for private religious schooling: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-edit-florida-voucher-schools-20210202-t7eunnz47vcezlzqys4ex6dfq4-story.html
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Note the self-dealing on the part of the sponsor of this bill described in the Sun Sentinel article. Also note, again, that these religious school vouchers are in direct violation of the state constitution. However, the state Supreme Court is now packed with Federalist Society members appointed by Trump Mini-Me Governor Ron DeSantis, so forget about them giving a hoot about the actual law despite styling themselves as originalists.
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Literalists on the Bench
What “literal” means
takes on a sheen
and slides about
when there’s green
to be seen.
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These vouchers are in direct violation of the state constitution, but they will enact them anyway unless the courts step in. No amount of complaints or protests will stop them. They are determined to dismantle public education.
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RT: We have a packed Federalist Society Supreme Court in this state, so, the voucher program is a done deal. Originalists. Literalists.
Lots more jokes where those came from.
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Akashic Kakistonics, or Opening Heaven’s Gate to Every Child
Tired of those failing public schools? Want to send your child a true Akashic Academy where he/she/they can receive nourishment for the mind AND the soul?
Then enroll him/her/them in Enlightened Master Bob’s AYAHUASCA SCHOOL FOR LITTLE COSMIC VOYAGERS (ASLCV). It’s absolutely FREE because you can use your Flor-uh-duh State Scholarship Voucher to pay for it!
Here at Enlightened Master Bob’s private boarding school for PreK-12, your Indigo Star Child in the making will learn how he or she can skip breakfast, lunch, and dinner and draw nourishment directly from Father Sun in our Solar Temple! Think of the savings on Fruit Loops and PB&J!
We offer complete holistic health guided Visioning (TM), following our proprietary textbooks on the Quantum Ethereal Body, to
purge Karmic blockages and
uncap and align children’s Chakras
so they/theyem can download DIRECTLY from the Mother Ship the Cosmic Light necessary for the Transformation necessary for the Next Stage Evolution (TM) of Earth-bound Homo sapiens into Integrated Higher-dimensional Beings who can join in the coming cosmic battle (see below).
In our history classes, students will learn all about Atlantis, Lemuria, Camelot and Glastonbury, the Black Rock Desert, and other places of Places of Power throughout the Ages and how to channel those powers via Casmir Time Tunneling (TM).
Students will also learn how to protect themselves against the forces of the Evil Galactic Emperor Xenu and his band of sometimes invisible, sometimes shape-shifting reptilian aliens from Alpha Draconis.
But don’t delay! Soon, as our galaxy moves into proximity to the Pleiades, the vibrational tone of the entire planet will rise to such a pitch that we will either undergo Ascension or be destroyed by the reptilians who seek the Blue Orb of Destiny, so everything—the FATE OF THE PLANET– depends on how many young Lightworkers we can bring into Alignment and Cosmic Consciousness before then!
Now, let me ask you, isn’t that alone reason enough to use your Flor-uh-duh Educational Scholarship to send your child to ASLCV? You bet your collection of healing crystals and smudging sticks it is!
And best yet, all classes are taught by the Spiritual Wives of Enlightened Master Bob himself!!!!
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I so wish someone would read this into the record of the legislative debate on the massive privatization-by-voucher bill, which will drain vast amounts of taxpayer money from out public school system to fund these bs religious private schools.
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Of course, this being Flor-uh-duh, more people would try to sign their kids up than would laugh at this, and the rest of them would call for Enlightened Master Bob to be expelled by Executive Order as an instrument of Satan.
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Done.
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Wayul, over hear in the Westurn part o the state, we rights it Flor-uh-duh, but were a tad slower then yall out East in Coco or whirr-ever.
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Mental acuity also drops off as you head to the middle of the state and then North toward Tallahassee, where it falls off a cliff.
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Bob,
I have a sibling who lives in the Florida panhandle and I can attest that your evaluation is 100% correct.
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Flor-uh-duh is that place where to get to the South, you head north.
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I spent the greater part of my teens and 20s in New Orleans and free time in the Florida panhandle. It’s the main reason I settled in snowy Ohio.
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Ah. Ohio. Home to that premier nonprofit Education Reform organization, the Fordham Institute for Securing Big Paychecks for Officers of the Fordham Institute. The place where, at the 4th of July fireworks concession in Marysville, a couple years ago, I saw my first vendor selling plates decorated with Jesus holding an AR-15. In other words, I thought Ohio was just where Trump supporters lived before the first warrants for their arrests were issued, at which time they fled to Flor-uh-duh.
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As Donald Rumsfeld famously said about Florida
“Stupidity* is in the area around Orlando and east, west, south and north somewhat.”
*A Weapon of Mass Destruction if ever there was one
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And by “somewhat” he meant “within a thousand miles”
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Ed reformers in Ohio just lobbied for and got a huge expansion of vouchers too.
It’s voucher-mania in ed reform this year. They’re lobbying for vouchers all over the country.
Nothing at all accomplished that benefits or is even relevant to public school students, but massive new funding for the schools and students they prefer- private.
We have thousands of public employees at the state level who are ideologically opposed to public schools and refuse to serve public school students or families- they simply perform no work unless it’s to increase funding to charter and private schools.
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Reading the ed reform echo chamber online is interesting- there’s no discussion or debate of the huge voucher push at all. It’s as if it isn’t happening.
They’re debating how to punish public schools for not holding in person classes, while the political arm of the “movement” lobbies frantically for more funding for private schools.
It’s lockstep too, as usual. There are no dissenters on the voucher issue. All of ed reform now act as voucher cheerleaders. There’s not even a debate or any effort to regulate the vouchers or even plan for them. Anyone can set up a voucher school and get public funding with little or no oversight. It’s going to be a feeding frenzy for contractors.
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When ed reformers conducted the last successful political lobbying job in Florida for public funding of private schools, they tacked on public school funding at the end.
Public school students got an increase of 300 dollars. That’s the level of advocacy the echo chamber does for students in public schools- public school students are reluctantly addressed only AFTER the charter and voucher lobby get all their demands met.
Once again public school students were an afterthought. They got one line in the huige ed reform bill.
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The ed reform echo chamber are now demanding Biden condition aid to public schools on all public schools reopening:
https://www.educationnext.org/condition-covid-aid-on-opening-schools-or-else-let-funding-flow-directly-to-parents/
Are they planning on conditioning aid to private schools on anything? Or is it only public schools who have to meet ed reform demands before they’re permitted funding?
Once again, completely and utterly incoherent. They’re all lobbying for massive funding to go to private schools with no conditions, but at the same time they argue public schools should be punished for not meeting ed reform demands.
They disfavor public schools. They treat our schools differently, and worse, than they do the charter and private schools they support. This harms public school students.
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It should be interesting to watch ed reform treatment of publicly funded private schools going forward.
The punishments they levy against public schools are predicated on public funding. They can demand our schools be punished because taxpayers fund them.
Will this apply to the private schools they prefer, now that private schools are publicly funded?
Don’t expect consistency or even coherence. Ed reform is a political belief system. They oppose public schools because they oppose “public” anything.
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