$900Mill from public schools while WI taxpayers pick up 70% tab to send rich kids to private schools

[mod mom]

I heard this on Ed Schultz last night talking about WI Gov Walker's proposal and went to bed livid! This is simply appalling. Ed also notes that these private schools can pick & chose who they want to take:

transcript from last night's show:

Walker is cutting nearly $900 million from public schools. I have to say that every night -- $900 million out of the public school system. At the same time, he wants to massively expand the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which, of course, is the nation‘s largest and oldest school voucher program for low-income families. Consume that, Americans, please.

For example, currently a family of four is only eligible for the program if they earn less than $39,000 a year. Well, Walker wants to eliminate the income gap, and open it up to programs for rich kids. Get rid of that cap. Just open it up to rich kids.

Now, currently, enrollment in this program we‘re talking about is capped at 22,500 students by the state of Wisconsin. The governor‘s plan, Governor Walker—well, he would make every school kid in Wisconsin eligible to get a voucher. You see—if Walker gets his way, Wisconsin taxpayers will pick up almost 70 percent of the tab to send rich kids to public schools. Got it now?

This is the most dangerous part of Walker‘s budget—private schools, private schools. You know, they don‘t have to let everybody through the door. Mike Langyel, the head of the Milwaukee teachers association, said, quote, “In a time of budget cuts, the governor is going to subsidize the tuition of wealthy families by removing the income caps, so that will be an added burden to state government.” Pretty basic thinking there, isn‘t it?

-snip
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41889358/ns/msnbc_tv-the_ed_show/

and yet our President, who many of us worked to help elect is out today w Jeb Bu$h (whose brother profits from the reform he pushes!):

-snip

Obama has gone out of his way to be bipartisan in the education reform arena, which would be good if the Republicans were right about reform, but they aren’t either. Rather than eliminate the most egregious parts of No Child Left Behind, the signature education initiative of Jeb Bush’s brother, former president George W. Bush, Obama is building on some of them, making them even worse.

For example, instead of using standardized test scores to evaluate only schools and students, they now will be linked to how much a teacher is paid (even though we all know that a teacher isn’t solely responsible for how well a kid does on a test). It’s a bad idea, not championed by assessment experts and not borne out by research, but it’s the reform idea du jour, backed by Gates Foundation money and Obama’s policy agenda.

Breaking bread with Jeb Bush on school reform should be a questionable proposition for a president from a party that has traditionally championed public education (which is not to say it doesn’t need reform) and teachers unions (which is not to say that they should not reform).

-snip
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/school-turnaroundsreform/obamas-questionable-trip-to-mi.html#more

unbelievable!



“If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I’ll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself. I’ll walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America.”

Here's the video of Obama's promise to put on his comfortable pair of shoes:
http://freedomslighthouse.net/2011/02/25/will-obama-walk-the-picket-line-in-wisconsin-as-he-promised-to-do-in-2007-video/

President Obama, you're needed in WI and OH, not making all nice with Jeb Bush!

[pnwmom]

1. So while he's slashing the budget he's adding huge expenditures like that.

I'm against vouchers under all circumstances, but this is truly disgusting.

[tigereye]

2. not only wealthy families send their kids to private schools

that being said, NCLB needs an overhaul, stat. It's a terrible law that has hurt kids, teachers, families, teachers, states, school districts, everyone.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. It should also be noted that private schools can be for-profit

And I'm sure that with this policy in place, there will be additional incentives for more companies to go into the education "business" to make a profit, further depleting the funds available for non-profit "public" education. Once the public education system has been starved to death, the voucher program for lower-income students will be disbanded, leaving education the way it was supposed to be :sarcasm: in the first place -- a privilege of the rich.


TG, TT

[SharonAnn]

5. Even non-profit schools shift a lot of money to their for-profit real estate arm.

It's a scm set up by several companies. Their non-profit schools must lease the buildings from their real estate arm, which charges extremely high rent.

That way, the owners and management can rake in lots of money. Of course, the kids get less but who cares?

[mod mom]

6. Private schools can decide which history books to teach with:

The Relatively Charmed Life Of Neil Bush
Despite Silverado and Voodoo, Fortune Still Smiles on the President's Brother

By Peter Carlson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 28, 2003; Page D01

-snip

In the late '80s and early '90s, Bush embarrassed his father, George H.W. Bush, with his shady dealings as a board member of the infamous Silverado Savings and Loan, whose collapse cost taxpayers $1 billion.

Now Bush has embarrassed his brother George W. Bush with a made-for-the-tabloids divorce that featured paternity rumors, a defamation suit and, believe it or not, allegations of voodoo.

-snip

For the last several years, Bush's main business interest has been Ignite!, the educational software company he co-founded in 1999. To fund Ignite!, Bush has raised $23 million from U.S. investors (including his parents), as well as businessmen from Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, the British Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

-snip

However, Ignite! has been attacked by other educators for dumbing down history. Among its controversial aspects is a lesson that depicts the Seminole Wars in a cartoon football game -- "the Jacksons vs. the Seminoles" -- the animated Indians smashing helmets with animated white settlers. The Constitutional Convention is taught in a rap song:

It was 55 delegates from 12 states

Took one hot Philadelphia summer to create

A perfect document for their imperfect times

Franklin, Madison, Washington -- a lot of the cats

Who used to be in the Continental Congress way back.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35297-2003Dec27?language=printer


DO WE REALLY WANT THE BUSH FAMILY HELPING TO WRITE THE EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE IN BOOKS?

[yesphan]

8. Perfect ! The kids of the poor

that can't attend school can now go to work in US factories making the cheap shit
that we now buy from China. Problem solved !

[mod mom]

10. I'm afraid their plans are even more nefarious than that: soldiers

Uneducated, no job prospects make for higher enlistment. Larger armies, more countries to invade and take "our "oil that lay beneath their land.

[Tatiana]

4. Republicans want to do this across the country.

That's why it pisses me off so much when the President goes on and on about building more charters when we should be supporting our existing public schools.

Republicans have a vested interest in keeping the poor uneducated and uninformed. Public education was supposed to be the great equalizer and a vehicle for upward mobility. Public education was supposed to ensure that not just the very wealthy or privileged had access to quality education. These teabaggers and corporatists want to roll back the hands of time to the 1800s and no one calling themselves a Democrat should condone or associate with that type of thinking.

It is time for the masses to open their eyes and actually THINK about these policies, what they mean, and why Republicans want to implement them. They have a vested interest in a dumb, uneducated, uninformed America. It's much easier to manage the peons that way.

[Bandit]

7. Republicans have to be absolutely Giddy

:shrug: They won, they get to make the rules, Too bad it didn't work that way when Democrats won..

[jwirr]

9. My sister and bil adopted a child from Jamaica. In the process they

learned that in Jamaica education is a privilege not a right. In order to get her into the schools over there while they awaited the finalization of the adoption they had to provide her with the proper clothing and money for tuition. Most children do not have that luxury.

The difference here of course is that all children have a right to at least a high school education.

The repugs want to change our system to the Jamaican way.

[JDPriestly]

11. And Obama likes this. Obama went to private schools as did his

children.

Another grab by the very rich.

This is why Obama is not in Wisconsin. He supports private schools.

This is horrendous. How were we fooled so easily.

This is really about forcing your kids to go to schools where they teach religion. That is what this is about.

The Family. Is Walker a member of the Family?

[mod mom]

12. I think w a lot of Repugs, it private schools not for religious reasons but for class

Also private schools can utilize the type of history books like minded administrators deem fit.