Jeb's vouchers...almost 30,000 still unaffected by court ruling. A win?

[madfloridian]

I am still a little confused on this issue, so I am posting the article from the Ledger's Tallahassee Bureau. Sounds like they are already calling the judges "judicial activists", and sending out the word for the faithful to contact them.

Only a little over 700 vouchers are affected by the ruling, and if I am reading this correctly about 30,000 vouchers are not affected. That is a lot of my public tax money going to private schools or for vouchers for private schools.

Since I am no lawyer, and I realize that this guy is quite capable of skewing it to sound good for Jeb....here is the important part that jumped out at me. I could be misunderstanding.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060106/NEWS/601060377/1039

Unaffected by the decision were two much larger voucher programs.

The "McKay Scholarships" provide money for more than 16,000 children with special needs or disabilities to choose a private school with specific programs.

The Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship program gives tax breaks to businesses that donate money to private scholarship groups. Currently, nearly 14,000 low-income children are involved in the program.

And the court was careful to note that the voucher ruling only applied to K-12 public schools.

That seems to spare the popular Bright Futures program that pays for tuition to private universities as well as the new pre-K program that pays for 4-year-olds to attend church-run programs.

The 5-2 decision avoided taking any position on the argument that public money couldn't be spent on religious-based curriculum or in church-owned schools.

Instead, the majority ruled that the voucher program can't take money away from public schools for use in private schools with different standards and guidelines.

If our 4 year olds can still go to private religious schools on my tax money....then please tell me where did we win? Is it just a beginning?
Am I misunderstanding the ruling?

[madfloridian]

1. Jeb says we should just change the state constitution.

"Bush has suggested lawmakers could ask voters to change the constitution this November. He said other legislative or legal remedies may be available, including an effort to have private businesses pay for the Opportunity Scholarships, either independently or via an expansion of the existing corporate voucher program.

"I don't think any option should be taken off the table."

And his cohort Dennis Baxley of the Terri law fame, the shoot first gun bill, and the "liberal professors" silencing said:

"Rep. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who chairs the House Education Council, said voters may not rubber-stamp the retention of justices who voted to kill the voucher program.

Only three justices are up for retention this year, and all voted in the majority: R. Fred Lewis, Peggy Quince and Pariente.

"A lot of the justices are going to get a look from the public as to their policy setting," Baxley said. "It's clear if you look at who voted how, you'll see very quickly where the line is."

Bush's Democratic predecessors appointed all five justices in the majority. The dissenters were Bell and Raoul Cantero, both Bush appointees."