Blog

Florida expands corporate tax credit scholarship by tacking it on unrelated bill final day of session

Here’s the latest on Florida’s corporate tax credit scholarship. Note to Kansans: in the future, even if the program is fraught with problems, ALEC legislators will press for expansion of the program beyond the original limitations. The procedure for passage sounds similar to what happened here in Kansas. “Joanne McCall, vice president of the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers’ union, said she was disappointed. ‘The members of FEA are chagrined by the continued march to expand voucher schools that are largely unregulated, don’t have to follow the state’s academic standards, don’t have to hire qualified teachers and...
Read more Leave a Comment

New report shows charter school vulnerabilities to waste, fraud and abuse; Kansas not on list of states profiled

Note that Kansas is not on this list. Why? Because we keep tighter controls on opening charters. If we do not change some attitudes or faces in the 2015 legislature, that will no longer be the case. The ALEC legislators had two major education agenda items-corporate tax credit scholarships and massive expansion of charters. They got their tax credit scholarships, so now we will have the full court press for expanded charters, despite the fact they generally haven’t led to improved academic results and have resulted in a great deal of fraud and abuse. Read this for a...
Read more Leave a Comment

Women for Kansas urging women to get involved politically

We recommend this new group! Some of us will attend their rally and convention Labor Day weekend in Wichita. Join us!  Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/05/04/3439157/newly-formed-group-urging-women.html. Find their website here: http://womenforkansas.org. Find them on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/WomenForKansas....
Read more Leave a Comment

ALEC bills promote private, for-profit education model without public support

“When the ALEC’s cash-for-kids model is put before the voters, it is resoundingly rejected. In 27 statewide referenda on the topic, voters rejected vouchers on average 2-1. But as long as ALEC ‘models’ continue to garner bipartisan support facilitated by corporate campaign contributions or are slipped into state budgets in the dead of night — ALEC will have continued success with the ‘transformation’ of the American educational system into a profit-driven enterprise. The ALEC Education agenda not only ‘converts a public good into something private, says [chair of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin...
Read more Leave a Comment