Thursday, July 16, 2015

Dumb Ron Johnson trying to block, or at least muck up investigation into Voucher abuse of Children with disabilities.

It’s oddly funny how the Republicans continue their dogged pursuit of the IRS and Hillary emails, trying to uncover wrong doing no matter what the cost, for momentary red meat for the waiting throng of rabid conservative voters.

But when the Obama administrations justice department investigates voucher school abuse and discrimination of students with disabilities, at the request of Disability Rights Wisconsin, the ACLU and the concerned parents of 3 children, well, that’s an outrage and they’d better stop:
jsonline-Erin Richards: U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is trying to use the authority of a key Senate committee he chairs — Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs — to get to the bottom of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Wisconsin voucher schools ... stressed his concern that the department's investigation into whether Milwaukee voucher schools discriminated against students with disabilities is driven by policy opposition to the private, mostly religious schools that receive taxpayer dollars. He said the department has failed to justify its role in the continued monitoring of the Milwaukee voucher program … A DOJ spokesman on Thursday declined to comment about Johnson's most recent letter, "due to the ongoing investigation."

The federal investigation ... contended that voucher schools were not complying with the federal Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act.
Not complying with laws on the books? Not a problem for elitist Republicans who think they're above the law. But taxpayers are getting ripped off by private schools who have a distinct advantage; they don't have any accountability, even when they admit they aren't complying with the law because they can't afford it:
They do not have the same legal requirement as public schools to serve the students' needs. Voucher advocates point out that they get less total funding per pupil than public schools and would not be able to afford, say, a full-time nurse for a student with severe physical disabilities. Proving anything with records is difficult because the voucher schools are private and not subject to open records requests like public schools.
Can you imagine a Democratic program, running as long as vouchers, never having any taxpayer accountability? Good luck with that. 

Despite being told it's an ongoing investigation, Dumb Ron Johnson is in desperate need of appearing busy, that he's doing something and engaged, and that he's aware of what's going on around him. We're not fooled:
In his follow-up letter this week, Johnson asked Lynch for those items again, as well as for factual evidence of the basis for the department's "lengthy investigation" into the schools. He stressed that his committee would consider the use of "compulsory process" to obtain the materials if the Justice Department declined to produce the materials.
Of course, because he knows he can milk this thing for as long as the investigation continues. 

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