Peter Greene knows the dirty little secret about vouchers: schools choose, families don’t.
Not only do private and religious schools choose their students, they are free to discriminate against students because of their race, religion, sexual preference, disability, or for any other reason. A religious school can exclude students who are not of the same faith. Any private school may exclude gay students or straight students if their parents are gay.
Governor Jared Polis of Colorado is openly gay, but he embraced Trump’s federal vouchers, which subsidizes private schools that discriminate against him and his children.
He is the first Democratic Governor to sign on to the Trump-McMahon voucher plan. They both hate public schools and are doing their best to defund them. Polis is willing to go along.
Now, New York Governor Kathy Hochul is interested in following Polis’s lead. She thinks that she will win the votes of Orthodox Jews by letting the state pay their tuition. This is truly outrageous for two reasons:
- The Orthodox Jews vote Republican. Hochul’s gift won’t change their behavior.
- The Orthodox schools have been called out repeatedly for refusing to teach the state curriculum, for teaching students primarily in Hebrew, not English, and for delivering a sub-par education.
Governor Hochul should be ashamed of herself.
Governor Polis, on the other hand, has a long history of disdaining public schools. He personally founded two charter schools.
And on a historical note, I had a personal encounter with Polis in 2010, when he was a member of Congress. I was invited by Representative Rosa DeLauro to meet with the Democratic members of the House Education Committee and discuss my book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.
When I finished speaking, then-Rep. Polis announced that my book was “the worst book he had ever read” and tossed it across the table at me. He demanded his money back. Another member of Congress pulled out $20 and bought Polis’s copy of my book.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Polis sounds like a rude, unhinged politician. Even if someone disagrees with what is presented in a meeting, there is no excuse for his behavior. If a teacher misbehaved in a similar way, he or she would suffer the consequences of such unprofessional behavior.
The problem with career politicians is that they are generally political animals that can be easily manipulated. Most of them will sellout public education or the working class for a pocketful of votes, and Hochul is no different. Vouchers are a waste of education dollars, and they undermine the schools most families depend on. Anyone that understands the importance of quality public education would not support vouchers.
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From my own experience, I agree that Polis is spoiled and insufferable. He was one of the wealthiest members of Congress.
Hochul is acting without principle. She thinks she will get the votes of Orhodox Jews by handing them this gift. She won’t. And the state will be forever burdened with the cost of tuition for all nonpublic school students.
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When I retired and moved from Indiana to Colorado, I knew my new state was friendly to the charter industry. What I did not expect was that the governor and powerful Democrats would openly support voucher programs. They willfully ignore the costly and discriminatory effects of privatization, allowing Christian Nationalism to flourish here.
With Polis term-limited, we’re now facing the prospect of Michael Bennet becoming our next governor. Like Polis, he’s a good friend of the charter industry. If elected, Bennet undoubtedly will find a reason to support this dangerous federal tax credit scheme. I’m encouraging every Colorado voter to support Attorney General Phil Weiser’s nomination as the Democratic candidate for governor.
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Thank you, Karen.
I’m glad Polis is term-limited, but concerned (like you) that Michael Bennett might succeed him. It’s unbelievable that a blue state does not have a leader who understands the importance of public schools. Even the Mayor of Denver, Michael Johnson, comes from the pro-charter, pro-TFA, plutocrat wing of the Dem PArty. He was TFA, was a legislator (where he took credit for writing and passing the worst, most punitive VAM PROGRAM in the nation. )
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Notice how Democratic governors are slowly latching onto this federal voucher money. Meanwhile, Republican governors are still not expanding Medicaid.
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