Time to take a good look at whether the changes we’ve endured — mass privatization, real-dollar funding decreases, high-stakes testing, and loss of local school board authority — gets us closer to carrying out our constitutional duty to our children.
privatization
Party On: Flagler Beach Commission Approves Policy For Private Events on Pier, 4-0
The Flgler Beach City Commission Thursday voted 4-0 to approve a new policy regulating how the Flagler Beach pier may be rented out for private parties–and closed to the general public–up to six times a year.
Don’t Privatize The Postal Service.
Build On It.
Blaming deficits created by a bogus retirement-fund requirement, the USPS is closing distribution centers, cutting worker hours, eliminating delivery routes, and slashing jobs. It needn’t be that way, argues Katherine McFate.
Lawsuit Opposing School Voucher Expansion Is Thrown Out Again, Likely Ending Challenge
A judge rebuffed claims by a teacher and two parents who joined the new lawsuit that the expansion of the Tax Credit Scholarship Program hurt them because it could lead to reduced funding for their schools.
Judge Throws Out Union’s Challenge of School Voucher Expansion, But Only on Technicality
The judge gave opponents of the law 15 days to try to amend their complaint and come up with another way to challenge the legislation after ruling that the plaintiff in the challenge, teacher Tom Faasse, doesn’t have the legal right to file suit.
Voucher Scams: Floridians Should Be Fighting the Privatization of Public Schools
We’re decades into a war waged by shadowy business interests and religious groups, working through “cooperative” legislators and governors to gradually undermine most of the state’s public schools and ultimately privatize them, argues Daniel Tilson.
“Opportunity Scholarships”: Lawmakers Revive Vast Expansion of School Vouchers By Riding Coattails of Students With Disabilities
The House Education Appropriations Subcommittee voted 8-4 to introduce the measure, which would bind together a program aimed at students with disabilities and the voucher expansion. Senate leaders last week pulled their counterpart to the House voucher bill, but the measure for students with disabilities remains alive.
The Problem With “Step Up for Students,” Florida’s Voucher Jockey
Step Up For Children CEO Doug Tuthill is shameless about the way his organization–the administrative agent for Florida’s school voucher program–spends lavishly on political races, which may explain why a Senate proposal to vastly expand the voucher program this year foundered.
Bill Vastly Expanding School Vouchers Dies As Questions About Accountability Mounted
The decision represents a defeat for the GOP’s Will Weatherford, who was home schooled as a child and strongly pushed the expansion of the system, which gives companies tax credits for donating to scholarship funds that help children attend private schools. Under the bills, retailers would have been allowed to divert sales-tax payments to the system.
Florida’s Corporate Step-Up Scheme: 51,075 Students Now Enrolled in Private Schools at Taxpayers’ Expense
Under the program, corporations are allowed to take tax credits for money that they contribute to Step Up for Students, which then uses those funds to essentially provide private-school vouchers.