Republicans offer more reckless education bills
Mississippi Democratic Trust Press
Contact: Sen. Hob Bryan (601) 359-3237
February 12, 2014
Democrats
in the legislature are opposing bills that would take tens of millions
of dollars away from public schools and place the money in bank accounts
managed by the parents of students.
House
Bill 765 sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Crawford (R-Pass Christian) and
Senate Bill 2325 sponsored by Sen. Nancy Collins (R-Tupelo) would
require the state to send money directly from the state treasury to bank
accounts set up by parents, instead of sending these funds to public
schools.
These bills
purport to give additional options to special education children but are
drafted so broadly that they would apply to any child who could get a
doctor to say he or she had trouble paying attention in school. Once
diverted, these funds could be used to pay for private school tuition,
purchase computers, shop online, or pay management fees to private
firms.
"Most
Mississippians, indeed most Republicans, support public education, and
they do not support the extremist legislation being promoted by the
Republicans in the legislature," said Sen. Hob Bryan (D-Amory). Bryan
added, ”Although these schemes involve vouchers, they are worse than
most voucher systems because they put tax money directly into checking
accounts with no real supervision.”
Sen.
Robert Jackson (D-Marks) said, “These bills would devastate funding for
public schools, and create enormous opportunities for fraud. If
Republicans have their way, irresponsible parents could take their
children out of school and then use these funds for themselves."
Rep.
Bobby Moak (D-Bogue Chitto) said, “These bills are out of touch with
the real world, and out of touch with Mississippians. It is crucial
that friends of public schools from across Mississippi contact their
legislators to make sure these extreme proposals do not become law.”
###
NOTES:
H.B. 765:
S.B. 2325:
Brandon Jones, Executive Director
Mississippi Democratic Trust
Mississippi Democratic Trust
15 comments:
The sad thing is that they are right. I wish the GOP was sincere in helping the disabled, but I'll bet you lunch that some tea party faction is just chipping away on an agenda. Why discriminate against the non-disabled? Give everybody a voucher.
Wow, that's not a misleading headline at all.
Took the time to read one of the bills. Perhaps 3:43 and 4:16 should too. Its interesting. Would have been nice if we could have had a discussion.
Terrible headline, KF.
I love the fact that Kingfish believes that because children have an IEP they're 'disabled'. Truly, truly, dumb.
Crazy Check heaven. Just go to any doctor and get your kid certified as being ADD, speech delayed, or any of one thousand other potential conditions and you get SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR, UNTIL THEY GRADUATE! And if you don't spend the money you can put it into a savings account to pay for their college!
For a kid that spends 13 years in school that's $78,000. But why would you let your kid graduate in 13 years if you get $6,000 per year? You would encourage them to go until they can't go anymore until they are 20. So that would be an additional $12,000. A grand total of $92,000. You could pay for your kid's college tuition by taking them out of school and saving the money up.
I know those legislators love to pander but this is beyond wrong.
The problem is that many of these public schools do not want to help a "special needs" child. Private schools are not able to fully help the "special needs" child. If the Mississippi Department of Education would get more involved, these kids would have a chance in the public schools. My child is a "special needs" student and is now in the 3rd grade. We first enrolled him in private schools, but the assistant headmaster kicked him out. We then enrolled him in the public school and had a lot of support from his teachers, but not the administration from their central office. We had to fight tooth and nail to get him want he deserves. Finally we were allowed to withdrawal him from that district and were welcomed with open arms to another public school district.
The facts is, parents with "special needs" children need MDE to get involved and make these public schools do what is required by law!!!!!
To "Crazy Check Heaven"
No parent is going to be making money on this. The $6,000 won't cover the cost of the private school education that the parent would then be required to provide. And why do you assume that the Government cares more about a child than the parents do?
I think it will come close to covering tuition at Magnolia Speech School.
If this thing passes there is a good chance that the number of children with "special needs" will be increasing.
I have a 15 year old son with Autism. He attended a JPS school for about a month during which time he learned to color and grunt. Since we didn't want to grow up to be institutionalized we moved him to a private school that costs $7,000 a year. He is now able to read up to his grade level and last week they taught him how to fill out a job application. You big government types will be amazed to know we accomplished all of this without the MDE standing over our shoulder telling us what to do.
I also spend an additional 8 to 9 thousand a year in medical/nutritional cost related to his disability. I pay taxes in Jackson on a small business, a home, and 5 automobiles (I'm not rich the newest car is 4 years old and the oldest one is 16 years old) plus I have 2 daughters.
If the legislature decides to "give" me back some of my own money I bet I can figure out what to do with it.
The bill calls for oversight by Mississippi Department of Education. Somehow I don't think MDE would allow this to become the "get out of jail free" card the Dems are painting. Children with disabilities are born to families of all race and across all strata of our socioeconomic spectrum. They deserve the opportunity to receive REAL and specialized educational opportunities that many are not getting in so many of our failing school districts.
My family has been blessed with healthy children and grandchildren. Many have not been so lucky. I think this is a very good and compassionate effort.
It worked better for ALL children before we started " mainstreaming"!
I'd rather see money go to schools and programs geared to the needs of the exceptional child.
Neither public nor private schools are capable of meeting the needs of exceptional children and never were!
It was bad research that while politically popular, is part of why our educational system keeps slipping further and further behind.
While I am sure there are excellent parents who would spend the money well, when it comes to education, parents are not objective about their children. Love blinds them more often than not.
You parents who are complaining....what is it that your child 'needs' that is not being provided by the school? Help me understand your angst. What should the schools be doing that they are NOT doing?
Meanwhile, over at the State Department of Education, there are 85 people classified as Department Head who have no Department.
Excellent comment, 9:18
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