The truth of school Vouchers is slowly starting to come out and its not pretty. While Scott Walker, Robin Vos, et al. will tell you that they have “reformed” education, they will not be telling you the truth.
Let’s start in Wisconsin where the republican minority have greatly increased the public education money that is going to private schools. Despite the massive public outcry and push back from people all over the state, the ALEC minions in the state Capitol had no choice but to do what they were told and greatly increase private school vouchers.
GREEN BAY – The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) announced on Thursday that of the 2,415 students that have applied for one of 500 available vouchers 75% of them did not a public school last year and over 67% of them are already attending private schools.
According to Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), these statistics show that the voucher supporters have been misleading the public in selling the program statewide.
“These numbers show that the sales job used by those who are peddling statewide expansion of voucher schools is nothing but a bait and switch,” said Hansen. “This program was billed as a way to help poor kids but the overwhelming number of students applying are already attending private schools.”
Looks like Vouchers have been proven to be the scam that we warned you about! We also have been finding out that the more that we ask private schools for results, the more they are going to lie, cheat and steal to get those results!
When an industry is strictly about profits, you should expect problems and there are. All over the country!
The first comes to us from Florida via Indiana:
Florida’s education commissioner resigned today amid allegations that he changed the grade of a charter school run by a major Republican donor during his previous job as Indiana’s school chief.
Tony Bennett announced his immediate resignation at a news conference, saying that he while he did nothing wrong he didn’t want to be a distraction to Gov. Rick Scott’s efforts to overhaul Florida’s education system. Emails published by The Associated Press this week show that Bennett and his Indiana staff scrambled last fall to ensure Christel DeHaan’s school received an A, despite poor 10th-grade algebra scores that initially earned it a C.
David Sirota put it best — Its all about the MONEY!
But maybe the best way to see that profit is the motive of the education “reform” movement is to note that no matter how many kids they harm or how many scandals they create, Bennett, Bush, Rhee and other privatizers continue getting jobs, continue being touted as education “experts” and continue raising huge money for their cause.
Thanks to that dynamic, education politics is spotlighting a fact that should be taught in every civics class. It is a fact that contradicts the pervasive rhetoric about meritocracy, but it is, alas, a fact: If you are backed by enough money, you will almost always retain your status in America – no matter how wrong you are and how many lives you ruin.
If you think its ok that a few people get rich off of public school dollars then keep with status quo Wisconsin, if you think that public schools are in investment in the future and the few dollars we have for it are not to be profited from, then we must change our make-up of Government next year!
Your child’s(grandchild’s) future depends on it!
Don’t forget about the tax credits for the private school students not getting vouchers.