Over 5000 rally to get more vouchers for private schools in Florida.

[madfloridian]

I wonder if these students and their parents realize that when corporations help them go to private schools....that the corporation gets tax breaks. In fact next year alone this new bill will cost Floridians about 31 million in taxes.

I find myself wondering if these groups were organized by companies who would benefit. I know that charter school management groups form "grassroots" parent groups and pretend they are spur of the moment enthusiasm. Hate to think that.

I find it sad that the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was one of the speakers. His words were rather empty and meaningless.

5,500 rally for more vouchers in Florida

Thousands of people rallied for private-school vouchers in Tallahassee today in what organizers billed as the biggest parental choice rally ever held in the United States. Organizers put the crowd number at 5,500.

Many of the participants were black or Hispanic. And speakers included Rep. James Bush III, a black Miami Democrat who is acting president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the venerable civil rights group.

"I hope that people get that this is not about public schools versus private schools," Bush told the crowd. "This is about reading and writing and diplomas and degrees. This is about finding the place where every single student learns the best. This is about fulfilling that very American promise of equal educational opportunity."

He belongs to a group called the Christian Family Coalition

I wonder if they support the vouchers.

Of course it is about public vs private. Some kids will get to go to private schools on corporate vouchers that will take tax money away from public schools.

The Republican led legislature got 4 of our Democrats on board to vote to expand these vouchers.

In a related development today, the Senate approved the expansion of tax-credit vouchers in a 27-11 vote. Two Republicans voted no: Dennis Jones and Alex Villalobos. Four Democrats voted yes: Al Lawson, Gary Siplin, Chris Smith and Jeremy Ring.

Charlie Crist was there celebrating with the 5500.

Senate passes bill that expands corporate-funded tuition vouchers


Gov. Charlie Crist autographs t-shirts for students Wednesday, March 24, after addressing the "Step Up for Students" rally at the Capitol (Bill Cotterell/Democrat)

"It's all about education, my friends," Gov. Charlie Crist told the throng. "The power of choice in education is unstoppable."

Crist was mobbed by young people and parents, autographing blue T-shirts enscribed "Level the Playing Field," along with some hand-lettered signs that said "Save My Scholarship" or "School Choice Now."

I must admit the voucher and charter movements have organized the parents and students well. They have the money to do so, while public school teachers and students do not have the resources.

FL Senate passes voucher bill for private schools. Will cause state to lose 31 million in taxes next year.

And up to 228 million in coming years.

While most Democrats have traditionally opposed expanding so-called voucher programs, Republican Senate leadership turned to two black Democrats in the chamber who support vouchers to make their arguments on the floor.

“I have fought tirelessly to increase funding for our public schools. I believe teachers in public schools are heroes, but I also believe every child is different,” said state Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, who along with Senate Democratic leader Al Lawson broke with their party and voted for the bill, which passed 27-11.

..."The program allows corporations that make contributions deduct those gifts from their corporate income and insurance premium taxes. Economists expect the expansion would cost the state $31 million in lost taxes next year and as much as $228 million in future years – although those losses would be offset somewhat because taxpayers would pay less for students in the program than if they were attending public schools.

There are other types of vouchers used in Florida, plus much money going with each student who goes to a charter school.

Every penny of those programs will be spent sending students to other kinds of schools instead of building resources to the traditional public schools.

The powers that be love to use the words "throwing money at the public schools"....and they claim it is useless to do so. Yet for years they have been "draining" money from public schools, not giving them more.

I think teachers are starting to catch on.

[saracat]

1. K+R for an important topic

[madfloridian]

2. Thanks, they are destroying public schools quickly in FL

That is what I fear.

[Dinger]

35. Same here

Damn

[bluestateguy]

3. I am all for private schools

and any parent wishing to send their kids to such a school is more than welcome to do so.

With their own money, not the taxpayers.

[madfloridian]

4. That is not what my post is about .

I don't care where parents send their kids, but not with my money. My money sends them to charter schools, public schools lose taxes with vouchers.

[GreenTea]

5. Thanks, you're right on the money & you said it well....

Good thread.

Deplorable republican corporate elitist bullshit.

This is always on my mind...Even though in California it's not really a big issue, but with the republicans who have been trying their best for years to gut our public education system for more corporate privatization while receiving our tax dollars,

Eight years each of republicans Reagan, Dukmajian, Wilson & Arnold may soon make it a major issue here as well...

Republican tactics; gut the programs, trash & blame the programs as wasteful & inefficient, never leave enough money to properly fund the programs and tell all that corporations will do a better & cheaper job - Usual republican lies, (again, what the republicans always leave out, the corporations will be using our tax dollars for massive profits and charging far more, for less, than we pay in taxes and now receive).

[teacher gal]

6. K & R nt

[teacher gal]

7. As you noted,

it would be enlightening to know who funded this "grassroots" organizing.

[madfloridian]

10. Yes, it would. Looks like some religious groups involved.

I know several charter groups that fund the parents group...Green Dot comes to mind at once. I am just not sure who is forming the voucher parents' groups.

Looks like Southern Christian Leadership Conference is definitely involved, and perhaps the Christian Family Coalition as well.

It seems hopeless to stand up for public schools anymore.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. I seriously doubt SCLC was involved

I think they are using this one guy's involvement to attract minority supporters.

[madfloridian]

16. It makes it appear they are involved. That's the problem.

And they will probably be fearful of speaking out against vouchers, so they won't dispel the belief they are involved.

The court said vouchers to kids in low performing schools were unconstitutional, but no one has challenged the other kinds yet.

My tax money goes to private religious schools, and the court did not cover them.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. They're a strong supporter of urban schools

This is just one guy. We have a few crazy ones here too.

[madfloridian]

20. Then they need to speak up about it. He is their president.

If vouchers are not on their agenda, they should say so.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. I agree completely

[Nikki Stone1]

8. They've been sold the idea that corporatized education is "private school"

They don't understand that when the corporations take over, they will lose control over a lot of what happens to their kids.

[madfloridian]

14. That is how Jeb appealed at the start....that they should get special vouchers

to send them to private schools. He used it as an entitlement sort of thing. It has gone on here since he became governor in 1998. He may not be governor, but our party is helping fulfill his dream as he works in the background.

[Nikki Stone1]

30. That was the propaganda.

What they are going to get is the educational equivalent of 7-11, with employees paid only slightly better.

[1776Forever]

9. Morning Joe Scarborough's big time into this movement - had show on last Thursday w/ Ex-Gov Bush on

'Morning Joe' on MSNBC puts Tampa elementary school in spotlight
By Rebecca Catalanello, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Mar 25, 2010

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/tampa-elementary-school-lands-in-television-spotlight/1082756

TAMPA — It's not every day that an elementary school cafeteria is transformed into a television studio for a nationally broadcast cable talk show.

But on Thursday morning Alexander Elementary became the well-lit backdrop for MSNBC's Morning Joe, the show featuring former Florida congressman Joe Scarborough.

The topic of the "town hall" was a no-brainer: education. The panel of guests appearing on the school stage included big names.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was there. So was R&B singer John Legend, who works with Harlem Village Academies, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Los Angeles Urban League President Blair Taylor and longtime newspaper columnist turned commentator Mike Barnicle.

Beamed in from other spaces: former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz......

Bloomberg, a Republican and millionaire who has long been discussed as a potential presidential candidate, said New York's success stories have been built in part around good union relationships and rewarding good teachers with good pay.

"It's one word. Teachers," Bloomberg said, "You have to have a great teacher in front of the child."

In an audience filled with parents, students and educators, Alexander first-grade teacher Rayanne D'Auria, listened with interest.

In her third year of teaching, she said she's becoming more and more familiar with the political interest in what she does every day.

"It would be nice," she said, "if sometimes people would just come and see what we go through day in and day out."

Ashley Danley, 16, a sophomore at the Urban Teaching Academy in Hillsborough, said the charter-heavy panel discussion left out educational programs for which she has a special affinity.

"They didn't really mention magnet programs," she said. "They help out schools more than they get credit for."

......

He has harped on Charter Schools being the answer and of course ex-Gov. Bush agreed! They want control of everything, teachers, students, curriculum - everything.

[madfloridian]

12. This administration is carrying out the Bush education agenda.

That is tragic.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. And Bloomberg is lying about what's happening in NYC

Bastard.

[madfloridian]

23. He is, indeed.

Not telling the truth at all.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. Have you read Ravitch's book yet?

She has a whole chapter on this crap in NYC.

[madfloridian]

27. It's on order.

Finding time to read it is another matter.

[LWolf]

11. K & R nt

[laughingliberal]

17. It's a classic Republican playbook. Underfund a system until it's crippled then scream about how

it's failing. Same thing they do with government. Fail to adequately fund any programs and use the resulting inefficiency as proof that government didn't work. I don't know what to do about the support for this sort of thing from our current administration. What part of Newt Gingrich is running around the country with the Secretary of Education supporting the further privatization of our public school system do people not get? What part of Jeb Bush is in favor of this approach do people not get?


A question I ask those on the right all the time is exactly which formerly government provided service that has been privatized now provides us better service at a better price. In the past the only answer anyone could come up with was the airlines but that isn't even true, now.

[madfloridian]

21. Yes, these are Newt's policies being put into effect. Free market schools, vouchers.

Free market schools and vouchers.

Newt teams up with Arne

Introduce competition among schools and teachers

We should apply the free enterprise system to our education system by introducing competition among schools, administrators, and teachers. Our educators should be paid based on their performance and held accountable based on clear standards with real consequences. These ideas are designed to stimulate thinking beyond the timid “let’s do more of the same” that has greeted every call for rethinking math and science education.
Source: Gingrich Communications website, www.newt.org Dec 1, 2006

...Support charters; insist on change for failing schools

We should encourage the spread of public charter schools--one of the happiest new developments on the education scene--so parents, educators, & students working together can enjoy the maximum freedom to explore options and innovations until every child has a genuine opportunity to learn. As a corollary of this, we must identify the worst schools. We should insist on immediate change for bad schools. To start with, there should be no tenure and no binding contracts in the worst 20% of schools.
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p.208 Jul 2, 1998

Private scholarships for students at hopeless schools

If there were families left without an acceptable public school, scholarships should be available for them to find a private one. I am a graduate of a public school, as are my wife and two daughters. All of us remain committed to the idea of public education. However, if the available public school is one that gives parents legitimate worry for their children’s future, there ought to be alternative to having to stand helplessly watching an incompetent bureaucracy destroy their children’s lives.
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p.209 Jul 2, 1998

[laughingliberal]

22. If we can't stem this tide I fully expect education to go the way of health care

It will, eventually, be turned over to for profit companies and we will see costs skyrocket while quality is driven down except for a fortunate few. Meanwhile, educators within the system will be marginalized and frustrated in their attempts to be effective in their roles. The lack of sufficient funding has already made the jobs of educators difficult. I expect this to get worse as education becomes the next front in the quest for profits over people.

I saw the steps which led to the conversion of our hospital system to a mostly private, for profit system. It has benefited no one. Costs skyrocketed, quality has suffered, and dedicated nurses were driven out of the field which perfectly dove tailed with the goal of more profit. After all, if there's a shortage of nurses, what can they do? Everyone will just have to work harder while the labor costs are lowered and the owners reap the benefits. The parallels are unmistakable.

[MajorChode]

19. Vouchers for private schools is the worst sort of entitlement program

Let's assume for the sake of argument that voucher programs didn't drain money from public schools (even though they do). The argument against them would still defy so-called conservative ideology.

The conservative argument for vouchers is that since the children that go to public schools aren't a liability to educate in the public school, they should get a voucher for the tax money they are "saving". However, this argument makes absolutely no sense. It's like saying that since you don't go to the public library, you should be entitled to money to buy your own books. What it really does is create a completely new entitlement program of the worst sort, because it competes with the existing and well established public education entitlement program. If the conservative argument held any water, childless people should get tax credits because they don't have a liability also. Public schools aren't fee-for-service organizations. Local and federal governments figured out a long time ago that free public education was in the best interests of everyone and as such everyone has a liability regardless of whether you have children or not in the public schools.

[fascisthunter]

25. thank you

[madfloridian]

43. It's a terrible idea.

You make good points. And it pits students against students and parents against parents in the race to be one of the elite to go to private school..and most can't afford the rest of it anyway.

[ddeclue]

26. I know Gary Siplin - he's a local Senator in 19...this isn't his first bad idea pandering to the

African American community which constitutes his base. Last year it was the "droopy drawers" bill.

The real problem is that there should be no such thing as a "private" school anymore than there should be private health insurance. As long as the rich can pay for their services and live behind their gated community walls and ignore the general condition of the world then taxes will stay unreasonably low and the quality of Florida public schools will remain crappy.

The solution is to tax the crap out of private schools and use it to fund public schools for the vast majority of us whom these token vouchers will never help. A couple thousand dollar tax voucher just defunds the public schools it doesn't allow a student to go to private schools which cost much more than the voucher.

[madfloridian]

31. Correct...it is not enough to allow most to go. Just to hurt public schools.

Very true.

[madfloridian]

28. Democratic Senator Al Lawson on the platform leading the voucher cheering.

Gee, I hate that. I hate to see 4 Democrats joining the Republicans to expand vouchers.

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/201003250200/CAPITOLNEWS/3250329



"The Senate voted 27-11 to send a bill by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, to the House, where passage appears highly likely.

Negron and Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, were loudly cheered by the students and parents at a rally on the steps of the Historic Capitol. Crist, a former education commissioner, said the voucher program, which serves about 27,000 young people, has helped raise student test scores by providing competition for public schools.

.."Vouchers are bitterly opposed by most Democrats.

"I respect the right of parents to make decisions about their kids," said Negron. "What I don't want is for politicians in Tallahassee to substitute their judgment for your judgment."

Lawson said "we had a great day today in the Senate" with passage of Negron's bill.

"For corporate America to invest in education of our children, this is a great thing to do," he said. "I've had parents tell me of problems their kids have had in other schools and, because of this program, their kids have turned around."

Those "other schools" are public schools, Senator Lawson. You are taking money from them and putting them down.

[SoCalDem]

29. I'm sure the Storefront Jesus™ schools appreciate the assistance

because the REAL private academies will surely want MORE than a $3-5K "coupon" ...and they are probably full anyway.

Lots of these ever-so pricey academies DO "accept" a few scholarship-students every session, but those are the "poster-children" who are used in ads, to prove their "diversity"...and they are probably interchangeable, if their grades are not up to snuff..

These parents are probably just upset to know how much is spent on their child's behalf (statistical data), and THEY are not seeing the worth..and they mistakenly think that they could do a better job it THEY had the "money"....until they actually go school-shopping..

[teacher gal]

33. K n/t

[sulphurdunn]

34. "Nobody ever went broke

underestimating the intelligence of the American public" H.L Mencken.

Total public expenditures on K-12 public schools averages about $600 billion annually. The hedge fund boys and billionaire venture philanthropists spend tens of millions of dollars annually to get their hands on that money so they can help poor black kids "compete in the global economy."
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[n.michigan]

36. POLITICIANS are responsible- Easy scapegoating of teachers- MILLION TEACHER MARCH!

You are so right. The big$ it is. I posted this before and I am posting it again...


Teachers as foolish sheep. Dupes. Easy marks...like the children-dump on them, steal from them. The education pot is huge. Where else is there real money left to target? Anyway, who works harder than a teacher?

The POLITICIANS ARE RESPONSIBLE for this countries condition. It is they who have created the circumstances of our downfall- in education, in our economy, in our infrastructure, our health care, our seniors insecurity.

They are distracting us from the evils they perpetrate. Corrupt politicians deregulated for the corporations. Laws were installed to facilitate the destruction of consumer protections and the environment. Many immunities protect the "government" from accountability. Wall street looted this country with complicit bankers and corporations. Banks were bailed out and not asked for accountability. We hold illegal wars and misplace billions of dollars and to no account.

Now, health care reform- a new mandated consumer market given to a corrupt corporate health sector, yet no requirements to cap the greed/profit and protect our people. No medical care for all.

Teachers, its a joke-on you. Teachers need to hit the streets and stop this take down of public education- for their own respect. Union leadership is the gateway for the sheep.



TIME FOR MILLION MARCH ON DC. NEA and AFT should start it. We need to stop this while we have respect left to activate- emails, faxes, blogs be damned. This needs action. WAKE UP.

[teacher gal]

37. Yea, iti's going to take a lot of action. Not just complaining. nt

[tonysam]

39. They're afraid of being fired and having their careers stolen

This despite the fact their free speech rights are protected. Small comfort when the assholes who supervise them can do whatever the hell they want to them and get away with it.

Few will risk the psychological rape of a termination hearing and dismissal.

[teacher gal]

41. Yes

I realize this. I was afraid to speak out in my own district so did my thing underground and was a founding member of the Educator Roundtable. Only a tiny handful of teachers in my own schoo. even knew I had a blog. When the petition to dismantle NCLB came out in November, 2006, I did gather up my courage to ask our superintendent if I could use school wide email to get the word out about the petition. Of course I knew there was a slim to no chanace she would allow it as there is a policy against using school property for anything political. Not that my superintendent didn't hate NCLB mind you. Isn't it crazy?? Politics can be used to destroy us but we cannot defend ourselves in our own buildings and districts.

[BrklynLiberal]

38. like lambs going to the slaughter.

They do even realize what they are losing.....

[lostnfound]

40. I don't know how you keep your sanity.

You were a teacher, right? It must be simply shattering to see all this going on. Thanks for continuing to bring this issue up.. (over and over and over and over and.. ;) )

[madfloridian]

42. Over 30 years I taught. This was getting worse when I retired.

It is shattering and shocking the lack of respect for teachers.

[Lorien]

44. You can't save money by privatizing schools

any more than you could if you were choosing a for profit health care system over single payer.

[upi402]

45. Privitization is epic fail. When will we learn? n/t

[Jefferson23]

46. K&R