Voucher Truth Squad Warns Florida to Beware

[proud2BlibKansan]

Representatives of People For the American Way, Milwaukee clergy, and the Institute for Wisconsin's Future traveled to Tallahassee today to deliver the news that publicly funded private and religious school vouchers are a failed experiment.

At a press conference at the Florida Press Center, the Rev. Rolen Womack of the Progressive Baptist Church in Milwaukee said vouchers have done nothing to help Milwaukee's public schools - and in fact will drain them of approximately $24 million this year alone. "Voucher proponents, including right here in Florida, are like people arguing over whether to give aspirin or Tylenol to a person stricken with a stage two carcinoma," Rev. Womack said. "The way to improve public schools is not through phony competition. True education reform is possible only through smaller classroom sizes, all-day kindergarten, more teachers, new computers, new classrooms, new textbooks and research resources."

Lisa Versaci, Florida director of People For the American Way, said voucher proponents deceive the public when they claim sending money to private schools will improve public education. "Voucher supporters They want us to think that vouchers will be a lifeline for poor students in struggling inner-city schools," Versaci said. "But time and again, what the sellers say they are selling - in order to get us to buy into their plan - just doesn't match what's actually being delivered. It's a classic game of "bait-and-switch" and Florida taxpayers should beware of putting their money down.

Barbara Quindel, a Milwaukee parent and advisory board member of the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, presented evidence that shows that Milwaukee public schools are being hit with an economic double whammy under the voucher plan. While the schools are losing over $24 million in revenues to pay for the almost 6,000 voucher students this fall, only one out of every six of those students were even in the public schools to begin with. About 4,550 of the students receiving vouchers this year were already attending private schools while some 450 were just entering kindergarten.

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=14460

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Great Job!

Wonderful news. From this Floridian, thank you Milwaukeans!

[Frustratedlady]

2. The School Systems Have Lost

5 years and countless millions of dollars, due to the ridiculous No Child Left Behind fiasco, which was designed more toward closing down the public school system to make way for corporate charter schools than educating our children. That does not include the 5 years lost of the children's learning process, which will never be recovered. Add to that the number of new teachers who threw up their hands in frustration and went into some other line of work, because of the overwhelming amount of pressure to achieve and paperwork during their probationary period.

With all the damage this administration has done to its citizens and the world, NCLB has to be one of the most asinine programs of all, because GW put money before children's minds.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Yep NCLB sucks

and is just a way to promote vouchers.

[nvliberal]

4. That's what happens

when you let politicians and not professional teachers dictate what is to be taught in public schools.

Politicians don't know anything about teachers and education.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. An interesting unknown fact

is that when NCLB was originally conceived back in the 80s, teachers WERE involved in writing the standards that were to be included. But 20+ years and a couple presidential administrations later, what emerged was a piece of legislation that was not only NOT written by educators, but has turned out to be one of the worst education laws ever to come out of our federal govt.