“Al Frisby, a member of Move On and a retired Shawnee Mission biology teacher, said the public school rally was organized in response to the school-choice event. He said champions of public education were concerned about state tax dollars flowing to private schools. “’There’s no transparency with these private schools,’ Frisby said. ‘They don’t have oversight by the school board. We give them public money…and then they just go do what they want to do.’ “David Dorsey, a policy analyst with the conservative-leaning Kansas Policy Institute, said expanding options for educating Kansas children was beneficial to all. “’Well,...
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Concerns about vouchers from Indiana
We should be learning from other states that have more experience with tax credit scholarships/vouchers/etc. Indiana is facing an expansion of their voucher program, though there’s no proof it’s effective. “Instead of approving two voucher expansion bills, lawmakers should instead call for a comprehensive and independent study of Indiana’s five-year-old entitlement program. Do they truly believe support of private schools is an effective use of tax dollars, or do they fear that data on Indiana’s program will reveal the same results as voucher evaluations elsewhere? “’No voucher study anywhere has ever shown academic gains; not in Milwaukee, not...
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Leave a Comment School Choice Week led by Koch network organizations
In honor of school choice week. “Launched five years ago by the Gleason Family Foundation—which spent more than $4.3 million on the project in 2014—the week has grown rapidly through the backing of advocacy groups and deep pockets of funders focused on promoting charters, vouchers, and tax credits that aid private schools, including religious and for-profit ventures. “In federal and state budgets, ‘school choice’ policies often divert or reduce Americans’ tax dollars available for traditional public schools that educate our most underserved students or for investment in sustainable and innovative community schools that are truly public… “‘The National...
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Leave a Comment Battle lines being drawn over district consolidation
We’re hearing that this bill is already generating quite the public response and some legislators are already saying they’ll vote against it. Keep it up. We hope to see similar public reaction and similar legislative responsiveness on other bills, such as the tax credit scholarship bill which will be heard the day before the consolidation bill. The tax credit scholarship bill is an ALEC bill, takes money out of the state general fund and is part of the ALEC agenda to erode support for public schools, while failing to meet the needs of the children of Kansas. Your...
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