Thursday, August 15, 2013

Thank you Scott Walker: Taxpayers Pay the rich to send their Kids to Private Schools.

Big surprise?
jsonline: More than 2,400 students have applied to receive a taxpayer-funded voucher to attend private school and the majority of them currently attend a private school.
Welcome to serfdom folks, while the 1% move forward in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin.

These two comments following story hit the mark:
"Seems more like those who can afford to go these schools have figured out that they can go for free. I'd be willing to bet the parents of most of the kids are against 'entitlements'."

"They will probably have field trips to grocery stores so they can mock people who buy meat with their food stamps."
That’s not all, public schools were given a back seat to kids already in private schools, thanks to legislation passed by Walker, who apparently didn't read the bill. That’s the opposite of giving parents in public schools choices. Walker and the legislature got caught tilting the scales:
Newsobserver: Public schools students will not get preference over those already in private school as they compete against one another for a limited number of taxpayer subsidized vouchers: Proponents argued growth was needed in order to give parents of children in public school more choices over where to send their children. Those who worked closest on the deal were apparently unaware that the final version did not ultimately give public school students preference over those already in private schools.
Amazed? Why are the following people surprised? Legislators read the bill before passing it, and Walker read the bill before signing it, right? This is government incompetence by politicians who say government can’t do anything right. It's was also pre-written by ALEC: 
Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican leaders of the Legislature — Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald — all said Wednesday the intent was to give public school children preference.
But were they surprised, or just caught? We know the answer:
"It can't be fixed," said Democratic state Rep. Sondy Pope, a longtime critic of the voucher program. "It's in place for the fall and once a family is in, they stay there." She said Republicans purposefully wrote the law to not give public school students a preference, even though they said that was their intention. "They got what they wanted," Pope said. "They say one thing and do another. It's like the fox guarding the hen house. There's not a lot we can do about it, as we're seeing right now."
Although it’s perfectly constitutional, many voucher supporters may not know, or don’t care if almost all voucher schools are religious, and parents are sending them there for religious teachings and not because of higher achievement levels and grades:
WSJ: Madison's Lighthouse Christian School is one of 25 private schools in Wisconsin that can enroll students using taxpayer-funded vouchers this fall, the Department of Public Instruction announced Thursday.

1 comment:

  1. Well, not exactly the "rich." You still have to be within 185% of the poverty line to apply for the statewide vouchers.

    However. We're clearly going to be using taxpayer dollars to pay the private school tuition for people who previously were doing so on their own.

    ReplyDelete