This post is from Iowa, but we agree with the sentiment. The Kansas House K-12 Education Budget will be hearing HB 2119, an Education Savings Account bill, on Monday, February 8th. We plan to be there to tell them our members believe public money should be for public schools, not private schools. Originally posted to Facebook 2/1/2021....
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Action Alert!
Legislators Fast-Tracking Tax Credit Scholarship (Voucher) Program Our first Action Alert of the 2021 legislative session. The Senate Education Committee and House K-12 Education Budget Committee have passed identical bills SB 61 and HB 2068, the tax credit expansion bill out of their committees. This bill is being fast-tracked. Please contact your House and Senate representatives and urge them to vote NO. This bill would move away from the premise the passage of the program was originally based on and expand eligibility to students on free AND reduced-price lunch rather than just free lunch (free lunch is the...
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Leave a Comment Perspective from Rep. Jo Ella Hoye via the Shawnee Mission Post
“The pandemic has required all of us to improvise, adapt, and overcome. This is a public health emergency. Proposing these extreme policy changes as a reaction to the past year is irresponsible. Students have been and will continue to be impacted by this disaster, and our Constitutional obligation is to ‘provide for intellectual, educational, vocational and scientific improvement by establishing and maintaining public schools…’ The Kansas Supreme Court found the 2019 school funding formula to be adequate, but we will not be fully funding our schools until 2023.” Originally published to Facebook 2/2/2021....
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Leave a Comment Another Warning About Tax Credit Scholarships
Another warning about tax-credit scholarships and other neo-vouchers, this one from Florida. Stories like this are part of why we believe bills attempting to establish or expand these programs need to have standards and accountability provisions. “I recently received a call from a community partner in the south end of Miami-Dade County about a Mom in need of support. Impressed by glossy ads for a small, local private school, she had enrolled her two children a few years ago in a small private school using one of Florida’s many “scholarships.” These vouchers were specifically for low-income parents to...
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