Pro-Voucher Tea Party Group Admits It Wants To ‘Shut Down Public Schools

[cal04]

Pro-Voucher Tea Party Group Admits It Wants To ‘Shut Down Public Schools And Have Private Schools Only’
http://thinkprogress.org/education/2011/07/11/265663/voucher-tea-party-go-away/

As ThinkProgress has documented, a tightly-knit group of right-wing Political Action Committees (PACs) and corporate foundations have unleashed an assault on public education, pushing school voucher schemes nationwide that would funnell taxpayer dollars away from public schools and toward private schools instead. In doing so, many of these voucher advocates claim they simply want to expand school choice and improve the quality of education for all.

Yet one group that has been influential in the school voucher push — the Independence Hall Tea Party, which has run a major PAC that operates in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania — is finally admitting that its true goal is to abolish public education.

In a series of e-mails and interviews, Teri Adams, the president of the Idependence Hall Tea Party Association, explains that her organization is involved in its voucher advocacy because it believes “public schools should go away.” Adams said that their ultimate goal is to “shut down public schools and have private schools only“:

“We think public schools should go away,’’ says Teri Adams, the head of the Independence Hall Tea Party and a leading advocate — both in New Jersey and Pennsylvania — of passage of school voucher bills. The tea party operates in those two states and Delaware. They should “go away,” she says, because “they are hurting our children.’’ Adams says the current voucher program “discriminates” against wealthier students by providing public subsidies only to inner-city children in allegedly failing schools. Her group’s e-mails pushing vouchers caught the attention of James Kovalcin of South Brunswick, a retired public school teacher who asked Adams for clarification. She responded via email: “Our ultimate goal is to shut down public schools and have private schools only, eventually returning responsibility for payment to parents and private charities. It’s going to happen piecemeal and not overnight. It took us years to get into this mess and it’s going to take years to get out of it.”

http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2011/07/braun_goal_of_education_privit.html

[Somawas]

1. The Tea Party should go away.

[valerief]

2. Oh, those poor discriminated-against wealthy families. How will they put food on the

table? Oh, wait. They never have to worry about that. Inner city families do. And yet, it's the wealthy who truly suffer.

[Maccagirl]

3. Public education has always been "the great equalizer"

This group's saying that a voucher program aimed at lower-income children is discriminating against wealthier children sounds like a racial dog-whistle to me.

[maxrandb]

4. The entire fabricated Tea-Bagger "movement" is nothing but

"A GIANT RACIAL DOG WHISTLE"

[spanone]

5. it's in the teafuckers interest to keep america ignorant

[Reader Rabbit]

6. They don't want their children going to school with brown people.

That's pretty much what it's all about.

[Frustratedlady]

11. Absolutely. Their interest in public schools increased after the segregation issue.

Now, immigration is bringing in the wrong "kind" and the only thing they have left is to close the public schools and, shall we say, be selective in what school their little precious attends.

I wonder if they've ever watched children playing on the playgrounds at school. I never see the children grouped by color/white. They all seem to play together quite well. Too bad they can't do the same when they grow up.

[HockeyMom]

7. What makes them think people WANT private schools?

I myself went to private school. I freely CHOSE to send my kids to public school. We had families in this district who were VERY WEALTHY and could have sent their kids to "the" most expensive private schools. They DIDN'T. Their kids went to the same public schools are everyone else.

Plus at an average of $25,000 a year per child how do these morons think vouchers are going to pay for private school for the average American family? The RICH will get a few extra dollars given to their favoriate private school, which they can pay for anyway, and everybody else will be forced to HOMESCHOOL themselves, regardless of the parents educational level. Can you say DUMBING DOWN, and another way to ELIMINATE, the middle class.

[Historic NY]

8. My town in NY had its own public school in 1750 & its on the 1749 map....

DeWitt Clinton a native son was responsible for the founding & improvement of the NY public school system. The Clinton's were very big on education, his father James was on the Board of Regents University of New York 1784.

Our post-revolutionary war founders would be disturbed by this tea party group which seeks to undue the advances they fought for.

[toddwv]

9. Wow...

they really do want to return us to the 19th century.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Perhaps they know the history

Of public education. Credit, where credit is due.

But this little revelation should help in the fight to shutter them...the voucher that is.

[Starry Messenger]

12. All attacks on public education are right-wing.

No matter what party they come from.

[KamaAina]

13. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

One of my best friends is named "Teri Adams"! :loveya: Mine, however, works in higher education and is anything but a teabagger.

[KamaAina]

15. Teri Adams replies:

"OMG, how unfortunate to share a name with that right wing nut."

[Odin2005]

14. Translation: "We don't our kids being around n***er kids"

[dembotoz]

16. stupid before their time