Link to Petition against Senate Bill One - private school vouchers

[Divernan]

The GOP Senate has given pride of place to this private school voucher program, by making it the first Senate Bill of the session, ie SB ONE.

http://novouchertax.org/?gclid=CPGrybvI_acCFUx95QodnRPiqg

Truth About SB 1

• SB 1 will raise your property taxes. The public schools aren’t going away, and if the state takes billions away from local school boards, your local property taxes will go up.

• SB 1 creates a new Harrisburg bureaucracy. The bill creates a brand-new agency in Harrisburg, with staff, offices and equipment.

• SB 1 is unconstitutional. Article III, Section 15 of the PA Constitution states: “No money raised for the support of the public schools of the Commonwealth shall be appropriated or used for the support of any sectarian school.”

• SB 1 is a huge unfunded liability for taxpayers. Cost estimates for SB 1 are based on just 10% of low-income families. Dr. Woodrow Sites of the PA Association of Rural and Small Schools testified that the real price tag could be more than $4.5 billion a year.

• SB 1 has no accountability. SB 1 would send taxpayer dollars to private school operators with no requirement that they do a good job teaching kids. Isn’t that what’s wrong with education already? Even worse, there are numerous reports of financial fraud and other scandals in private school operations.
We said NO in November to runaway spending, higher taxes and Harrisburg bureaucracy!