Taxpayers throw all their voucher money into Christian Religion Schools! These aren't "Choice" schools, they're Sunday Schools.

This Northwestern Oshkosh news story failed to mention the most important issue:

A total of 78 students are getting state-funded vouchers this year to attend private schools in the Oshkosh area.

All 78 students are going to Christian schools, and most of that voucher cash is ending up in the pockets of those who already have kids in those schools.

Scott Walker's promise to expand the program statewide will by default, which would create a separate parallel publically funded religious based school system. The government would then be establishing a religion, in this case Christianity. We've always assumed the Constitution prevented the establishment of "a" religion. But nothing in the 1st Amendment prevents the establishment of a number of religions.  

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...

No one seems to have a problem with that?  

Public on to Voucher Con, taxpayer support of Religious Teaching.

The following recent poll results reflecting public's dissatisfaction over voucher laws being passed nationwide by Republicans, is not good news coming into the midterm elections. It is good news for Democrats who have reflected the public mood for years. Maybe this time parents will have had enough;  

Ed Week: This year's annual PDK/Gallup Poll on American attitudes toward public

schools found that while charter schools enjoy (70 percent) broad support, many of those surveyed—70 percent—oppose vouchers for private school tuition … 70 percent opposed allowing taxpayer dollars to cover families' private tuition costs, the highest proportion of opposition to vouchers in the history of the survey and an increase of 15 percent points from last year alone. 

So of course opponents trashed the results, because it didn't fit into their extensive “parents know what’s best” campaigns to exploit the insecurities many families feel about being "good parents." Marketing, by the way, that aims to turn our kids into customers and profits. 

Flimsy excuses about “poorly designed questions” abound as privateers worry that buying off Republicans legislators, who end up passing voucher schemes without public support, is now working against them. Big surprise. Funny, conservative whiners aren’t saying the same thing about the “poorly designed questions” regarding ObamaCare, which has wider support than vouchers.   

The Friedman Foundation for Education Choice said in an email statement to Education Week that "compared with findings from other recent surveys on school vouchers, the PDK/Gallup poll is an outlier.” 

They’re welcome to the Bizarro World opinion, but that doesn't change the polling results. Perhaps they can explain why another group pushing vouchers opposed the poll even before knowing the results?

Before the survey was even officially released, the Center for Education Reform came out in opposition to the survey itself. The center's president, Jeanne Allen, said she "expects that the 2013 poll will again feature poorly designed questions, potentially leading to a misrepresentation of how the public feels about school choice, charter schools, and other issues related to education reform."

Judging by all the Wisconsin communities that oppose vouchers in their neighborhoods, I’d say the poll was right on the money, wasted taxpayer money.

In many ways it’s also turning out to be a life saver for religious schools struggling to stay open. I've been holding onto the following clip about our own statewide voucher program, that proves it’s not really about test scores or graduation rates; it’s all about religious teaching. Who wants to use taxpayer money supporting someone else’s religious beliefs on what are basically weeklong Sunday schools? 70% know have the answer. WISC: