Tag: school choice

Choosing (and paying) for a school is like choosing a gallon of milk

May 29, 2013 at 2:54 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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During yesterday’s school voucher debate, Rep. Bert Jones (R-Casewell, Rockingham) compared the ability to select any school for your child (using taxpayer money) to selecting your favorite milk:

“Just because you support HB 944 would not mean, as the opponents would make it seem, that you are against public education,” said Jones. “That basically means that … just because you purchase 2% milk means that something is wrong with whole milk, or 1%, or chocolate milk, or fat free milk, or all the milks out there now that aren’t even milk.”

Jones’ remarks seemed off the cuff as he spoke in support of the Opportunity Scholarship Act, which would provide $4,200 vouchers to parents wishing to send their kids to private schools. The legislation would take $100 million from the public school system over three years.

However, Jones is not the only person to have likened school choice to milk consumption. In his remarks last year to the Republican National Convention, Florida’s Jeb Bush, arguably one of the highest profile proponents of school vouchers in the nation, also conjured up a bovine analogy when talking about the merits of school choice:

“Everywhere in our lives, we get the chance to choose,” he said in a prepared version of his remarks sent to reporters. “Go down any supermarket aisle – you’ll find an incredible selection of milk. You can get whole milk, 2% milk, low-fat milk or skim milk. Organic milk, and milk with extra Vitamin D. There’s flavored milk- chocolate, strawberry or vanilla – and it doesn’t even taste like milk. They even make milk for people who can’t drink milk.”

“Shouldn’t parents have that kind of choice in schools?” Bush said.

In his analogy yesterday, Jones did not address the issue of how individual milk choices would be funded.

Republican Rep. on school voucher bill: “The money just doesn’t add up” (video)

May 28, 2013 at 5:43 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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As supporters of the Opportunity Scholarship Act voiced the need for school choice Tuesday, Rep. Chris Whitmire told lawmakers that House Bill 944 would damage public school offerings and fail to benefit all districts equally.

The Transylvania County Republican argued the public schools within the three counties he represents have served students well, yet would be punished with less state funding if this bill becomes law.

“When you continually take away, take away, take away… folks, no matter what their political dominion is, their kids end up taking it in the shorts.”

Whitmire warned that a $4,200 voucher would not begin to cover private school tuition, adding that the non-public schools in his area did not have the capacity to serve more than a handful of new students.

“And in the end I have great issues with the transparency of accountability,” explained Whitmire, a former school board chairman.

Only two other Republicans (Reps. Josh Dobson and Jeffrey Elmore) joined with Whitmire in voting against House Bill 944.

For more on the House Education Committee’s debate of school vouchers, read Lindsay Wagner’s blog post here. To hear Rep. Whitmire speak up for his public schools, click below:

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NCAE: Voucher bill will significantly reduce public school resources (video)

May 28, 2013 at 6:24 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Members of the House Education Committee will resume discussion today on the Opportunity Scholarship Act, also known as the school voucher bill.

House Bill 944 would offer $4,200 maximum scholarships to students wishing to attend private schools instead of their local public schools. The program would set aside $10 million in the first year, $40 million in the second year and $50 million every year after.

NCAE President Rodney Ellis weighed in on the voucher bill on News & Views with Chris Fitzsimon over the weekend. Click below to hear why his group opposes the current legislation. (For the full interview, visit the Radio Interview section of the Policy Watch website.)

The House Education Committee meets at 10:00am this morning in Room 643 of the Legislative Office Building.

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Speaker Tillis and PEFNC hold surprise meeting on school choice in House chamber yesterday

April 11, 2013 at 9:57 amCategory:Uncategorized

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Usually, public meetings are announced on the House or Senate calendar. Well, they used to be.

Yesterday, Parents for Educational Freedom in NC’s (PEFNC) twitter page was lit up with tweets coming out of the House chamber, where Speaker Tillis was holding a meeting on school choice. The Speaker had invited many guests from around the state to hear from school leaders and parents about the benefits of school choice.

NC Policy Watch stumbled across the meeting after seeing PEFNC’s twitter feed and noted that a couple of speakers were from Christian academies and spoke of high graduation rates and a superior education for those who choose their schools. The bulk of the invited guests appeared to be African American students. Read More…

The documents behind N.C. lawmakers trip to Miami

May 17, 2012 at 4:22 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Earlier today, we published an investigation I’ve been working on that looked at a lobbying group that paid for 11 legislators to fly down to Florida.

The investigation is here, and I encourage readers to take a look at it.

The group,  Parents for Education Freedom in North Carolina, maintained that the March trip was to educate lawmakers about Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program, an initiative that gives companies dollar-for-dollar tax credits when they donate to scholarship money that sends low-income children to private schools.

But not everyone buys PEFNC’s argument that the trip was to educate, and see it as part of a lobbying strategy to get the controversial program on lawmaker’s radars as they tackle some of the larger questions about what changes should come to the N.C. public education system.

State ethics law is very strict around the lobbying gifts (by strict, I mean gifts aren’t allowed), but exceptions are made for educational meetings and trips. So, the real question is whether the trip to Miami was meant to just educate lawmakers, or to influence or lobby them. That’s generally a judgment call the State Ethics Commission has to make.

In the story, I mentioned a May 3 public records request I made to N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis’ office for records pertaining to the March trip. I haven’t received any of those records, as I reported, but will add here that I spoke with Jordan Shaw, Tillis’ spokesman, yesterday and was told the office is processing the request and would get those records to me soon.

I’ll let readers know when I do get those public records, and what’s in them.

I also should note that part of my initial May 3 request was asking for the identities of any Tillis staffers on the trip and it wasn’t until yesterday (Wednesday) that I was told the staffer on the trip was Jason Kay, legal counsel for the Speaker’s office.

PEFNC had paid for Kay to go on the trip, but didn’t report that in the first lobbying expense reform they filed with SOS’s office. That came in a May 15 addendum.

I wanted to also put up some links to the documents I used, so that readers can judge for themselves what they think about the trip.

So, without further ado, here are some of the documents I used for my investigation.

  • The lobbying expense form filed with the N.C. Secreary of State’s Office (includes May 15 addendum.
  • The ethics memorandum drawn up by PEFNC telling lawmakers the trip was allowable under ethics rules.
  • The agenda for the trip.
  • The campaign donations made by Partners for Educational Freedom (PEFNC’S political-action committee).
  • The podcast interview PEFNC director Darrell Allison gave to an education reform blog, in which he talks about how the Florida trip was to push a plan to bring the tax credit scholarship program to N.C.

As always, let me know what questions or comments you might have. My email is sarah@ncpolicywatch.com, or you can reach me at my desk — (919) 861-1463.