Teachers Suspect End Run By Perdue For Vouchers

[CShine]

Gov. Sonny Perdue said Wednesday he is not advocating state-paid vouchers for private schools in his push for a constitutional amendment that would spell out the rights of religious organizations to provide taxpayer-funded services.

But Perdue's stance did not stop teacher groups -- who feel they helped Perdue win the governor's office last fall -- from preparing for battle over what they fear would open the door to public funding of private schools.

"No matter how it's dressed up, it's still a thinly veiled attempt to remove any barriers to putting vouchers into place," said Mechuria Chase Williams, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, one of the state's two major teacher groups. "That is a slap in the face to public educators. We will be talking to our legislators."

Tim Callahan, spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, said: "We're curious about the motivation for this. To me, it's a straw man to provide choice. I think the governor is solving a problem where a problem doesn't exist."

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/1003/09faith.html

[patdem]

1. Okay the teachers want the Confederate flag...but the rest of the

republican agenda they are against? Which is more important to the teachers in GA? How can teachers promote a racist liar to govern their state? What goes around comes around.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. Teachers were upset with Barnes and voted against Barnes,

not really "for" Perdue. Besides, with computer voting being introduced in 2002, we don't know if Perdue really won. He backed down on his promise about a referendum to settle the state flag issue, BTW.