A reader named JCGrim posted an important fact about vouchers: Voucher schools are not required to comply with the federal law that protects the rights of students with disabilities.
Vouchers are a backdoor scheme to make kids with disabilities disappear. Move them off the books & into unaccountable, unstable, non-transparent places.
The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) oppose vouchers on the grounds that voucher & voucher-like programs fail to comply with IDEA’s provision of a free, appropriate, public education (FAPE).
Position on Use of Public Education Dollars to Fund
School Vouchers and Other Voucher-Type Programs
Approved July 2020
pubpol@exceptionalchildren.org CEC opposes school vouchers and voucher-type programs for all children and youth including those with disabilities. Such programs are contrary to the best interests of all children and youth and their families, the public-school system, local communities, and taxpayers.
Here the link to the full position paper.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t know why this is not emphasized more in the press and in public arguments against vouchers. It’s one of the biggest reasons to oppose them. IMHO. People literally give up rights when they take a voucher.
Lisa, Agreed. Parents of children with disabilities are passionate.
Don’t normally care about moderation, but should you see it, one on Judy Heumann for this post might interest some. Helps explain why those parents have ways of channeling that passion into policy and awareness.
In theory charter schools are supposed to serve the same population as the public schools. In practice charters routinely reject those with disabilities that are expensive to educate. In the South there is a disturbing trend in which public school districts create their own special education charter schools in order to avoid the accountability and costs of implementing the IDEA requirements. Without abiding by accountability mandates districts often skirt the law by hiring cheaper staff and provide fewer interventions for students. Private education is often unaccountable education.
Utah’s new voucher law specifically states that IDEA protections are given up if a voucher is taken.
Thank you letting us know. This is an example of what I mean when the Supreme Court wants to replace constitutional law with contract law. Rather than have inalienable rights, individuals can waive them for specific benefits received. This is also part and parcel of the strategy to create enclaves friendly to certain populations while cleansing or at least substantially marginalizing some through political, legal and economic means where political majorities live. Rather than put people in reeducation camps, give them Las Vegas-like options to decide to move to places that have limited, contained tolerance of political diversity. Or shut up and get along, otherwise you will be excluded from opportunities and benefits. It’s an accumulation of laws and practices like the one you describe above that make it possible.
Frightening vision, but you may be on the right track. It sounds like a way to relitigate The Civil War.
And to add to argument above, this is also an example of both the connections and differences between the past history of fascism and American fascism. One fundamental idea that Naziism incorporated into the ideology was to adapt the idea of American Manifest Destiny and translate it into the concept of Lebensraum, which in turn became the justification to invade the Soviet Union. The idea is about the expansion of an ideology on a new geographic conquest/addition.
Since there really are no new places to conquer, and with glaring exceptions, the idea of one country conquering another to increase space for its people is generally dead. So Bannon/Miller have adapted the idea to create Lebensraum for their exclusive cult within the defined borders of the United States. Rather than add geography, American fascism adds the concept of a mandated identity to geography. The utterances from Greene about “national divorce” are essential to this and bring the concept of Lebensraum into public policy without calling it that. But believe me, when Bannon/Miller feed Greene and others with this rhetoric (you don’t honestly believe she came up with that on her own, do you?), it is a trial balloon that is analyzed to death by them.
I’ve been following American fascists since 1978, when I first became aware of David Duke, before it was fashionable (sorry, couldn’t resist). Understanding how Germany became fascist and the internal resistance and adaptation to it have dominated my amateur “scholarship” (if Success Academy students are scholars, why can’t I call myself one?). I make a point to read at least 4 books a year on the era and related topics. I have never been more scared for our collective futures than I am now and fear we may have already lost. The future will just be generally predictable political and social decline based on an honest examination of our history since 1994. Some of you here seem to be the only people who at least understand where I come from, whether you agree or not.
I quit teaching in 1989-90 because I believed what David Duke stood for to be an existentialist threat to this nation based on what I witnessed in Louisiana and felt compelled to do something about it. Being young, stupid, idealistic and with no real obligations, I could do that then. Unattached youth has a way of doing that to some. Looking back on my life, I can honestly say David Duke won and I lost. Right in the open the whole way.
GregB,
I am scared, too, and have been for a while. And as depressing as it is to read your informative posts, there is some comfort in seeing your well-reasoned arguments and feeling that I am not crazy – what is happening is dangerous.
Back in 2016, we had complicit people who KNEW that there was an open Supreme Court seat with a right wing Republican party completely abandoning the norms of democracy and yet they pushed the narrative that NORMALIZED the Republicans — they were just like the corrupt,.evil Democrats and it was perfectly fine if they won as lo9ng as the Dems were defeated. You STILL see those same people defending what Putin is doing as “normal” (and demonizing Biden for supporting Ukraine).
David Duke was once marginalized even by the mainstream Republican party. Today’s David Dukes ARE the mainstream Republican party and are normalized by far too many on the left who think the real danger is not fascism but those corrupt Dems who MADE those nice white working class folks turn to the guy spewing racist, xenophobic and anti9-LGBTQ tropes. They have more sympathy for a white working class voters who finds racism appealing than they do for the African American voters they despise for not supporting the primary candidate that their supposed “betters” – primary voters in states with mostly white populations – wanted.
They have more sympathy for Putin, who is “victimized” by those nasty Democrats, than they do for the Ukraine people whose homes and towns have been destroyed by Putin’s vicious civilian-targeting attacks.
It isn’t surprising that those are often the same people.
Where is their sympathy for the victims of Putin and the right wing Republicans? It is buried under their deep and abiding empathy and concern for those voters who support Putin and right wing Republicans. The Dems made them do it.
We have folks on the left amplifying and legitimizing that violent bullies are not bullies, they are really the victims of those wicked people who “made” them bully. Gaslighting to enable fascism.
I agree with your thoughts, NYCPSP. And just to add another perspective on gaslighting. We are told that it is intended to distract and fool some parts of the electorate. But in reality, no one is fooled. It’s all a game in which truth is acknowledged not to matter at all anymore. For example, prior to the last election, the accepted narrative was that Republicans had the advantage on “the economy,” whatever that means politically these days. Now that we’ve seen the House republican majority seated, they switched on a dime from the economy to Hunter Biden. And not a peep from their constituents. Or the media. In fact, the only economic agenda they’ve had are badly written bills that only require reports in the future. But in the next election, we will be told again how republicans have an advantage on economic issues even though the record since 1980 as been a mirage of “prosperity.” When people understand the rules of a cynical game and only perpetuate and exacerbate lies to win and it becomes a winning strategy, or at the very least, a paralyzing strategy with no hope for improvement, it’s no longer gaslighting. It’s just the way things are done now. My perpetual moaning of how Ohio only reelects and promotes the people who have and continue to destroy public education is a case study.
The other essential part of this strategy is, as I have also droned on, making language meaningless. Also fits under umbrella of gaslighting. Note that strategy in full force here:
Kevin McCarthy is a spineless wimp without a brain.
Speaking of disability rights, last week Judy Heumann died. Largely unknown outside of this world, Judy was a driving force behind the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I saw her speak a lot and met her once in the early 90s. She was the equivalent of Martin Luther King, Jr. for persons with disabilities. She always made a point that the term “disabled” was limiting and wrong. People with disabilities have disabilities, they are not disabled. It is sad to see that term seep back into our language. She was a giant, an American who made a great difference. She understood every person had abilities that had to be recognized and nurtured.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Heumann
IDEA has been under attack at least since NCLB. When Tom Harkin left the Senate years ago, advocacy for special needs left with him. The ludicrous threshold established for testing students with learning disabilities resulted in a reduction in resources and an excuse to turn FAEP into folly. Once we began to adopt inclusion as the primary model for special education states and localities refused to provide the resources to make it work. Yes, vouchers will mean that states will bleed resources dry for these students, but governments and districts determined funding for special education was no longer a priority a long time ago.
I remember going to band performances when my sons were in middle school and seeing an autistic child in the percussion section with his full-time, taxpayer-funded teacher by his side the entire time helping him along. That was a moment that reminded me why I take pride in some of the taxes I am fortunate to pay.