School Choice Bill Moves Ahead – Giddyup!
~And they would’ve got away with it too… if it weren’t for that pesky Constitution!
The question is “school choice.” That’s what they call it, anyway. Anchorage is fortunate in that there is already a great network of 27 charter schools available for those who want a public school alternative. And America is fortunate that for our kids, attending school is a privilege to which everyone is entitled. Yes, education is an “entitlement program,” (oh, the horror) and we ought to be proud of that. It’s one of those instances when “American exceptionalism” really means something.
Republicans in the Alaska State House, like Republicans across the land, have put the institution of public education squarely in their cross-hairs, and the House Education Committee is attempting to usher through a bill known as HB145.
One of those leading the charge is Rep. Wes Keller of Wasilla. Keller was one of the five lawmakers who filed the suit to stop the legislative investigation of the Troopergate scandal, and is also an elder in Palin’s church whom she appointed to his seat.
[Keller] envisions in HB145 a program that would give state funded “scholarships” for students to attend private or religious schools. In testimony before the committee, Keller said the approach would bring several benefits, including giving parents a greater ability to send their kids to private school if they opt for that over public school…
Keller, in his sponsor statement, called his bill “the next critical step in allowing today’s Alaskan children to compete with the world on an equal footing educationally.”
In the world of HB145, your tax dollars can ensure a top-notch religious education for Alaska’s impressionable youth. Then, we’ll be ready to compete with the rest of the world on an equal footing. Oh, those silly other industrialized nations with their “fossils” and their “big bang.” Soon we’ll be able to preach the scientific gospel that the world is 6,000 years old – just like Governor Parnell says it is and stop falling for Satan’s paleontological tricks.
But before you get all excited about these exciting intellectual opportunities, there is one small bump in the road. Democrats on the committee, Sharon Cissna and Scott Kawasaki, and one upstart Republican, Paul Seaton had to go and ruin things. Those party poopers couldn’t resist pointing out that the Alaska Constitution prohibits the use of public money for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.
Can you believe it? What a pain.
So, then Keller had to admit that yes, HB145 would in fact hinge on the passage of a companion resolution that would… you know… just get rid of that constitutional requirement, which would necessitate a vote by the people in a general election.
“We are working on a bill that is currently unconstitutional,” Seaton said in a recent newsletter to his constituents. “The proponents should get the constitution changed before we advance the bill.”
The actual technical unconstitutionality of the bill did not deter the four Republicans who voted to move the bill along (Chair Alan Dick, Vice Chair Lance Pruitt, Eric Feige, and Peggy Wilson). Nor did the fact, as Paul Seaton pointed out, that the bill will end up giving more funding to private institutions than to public ones.
The bill and its companion resolution (HJR16) are now pending before the House Finance Committee.
Remember… it’s all about the little ones.
So today we have :
http://www.adn.com/2012/02/03/2299191/competition-makes-for-better-schools.html
The oft asserted notion that competition makes all things better, the notion that public education is a monopoly…
This narrow minded “business-speak” aligned with parents-know-best-what-their-kids-need stuff is the core of the argument.
IF for some reason, this crap gets passed and we find ourselves having to vote on whether to amend the state constitution, how do we fight back?
What do we say?
How do we draw a simple line back to rights and responsibilities in a democracy, including the responsibilities parents have to their community as well as their children?
I think it will be an impossible battle to get 3/4 of both the Senate and the House to vote to amend the Constitution… I don’t know if Vic Fischer (Alaska’s own Thomas Jefferson) has weighed in on this, but I would imagine he’d have something to say. And then, after that would be a vote of the people. It’s a huge undertaking and I’d like to believe that we’re far from a majority believing this stuff.
I think you are probably right but the passage of this foolishness out of the Education Committee has really stunned me. I hope the Finance Committee looks carefully at the costs of paying out these proposed “scholarships”, not only in dollars lost to districts but in administration as well.
Even passage of a constitutional amendment is problematic too- there is a huge set of issues with what-constitutes-choice in areas outside JNU, ANC, and Fairbanks which would likely end in litigation if it all passed.
I keep trying to find the actual AFN language which supposedly supports this kind of idea as well since proponents keep pointing to it.
Within my small circle of understanding the Native community has deep and abiding problems with how the state manages rural school issues and monies and a growing desire to manage curriculum to reflect realities of life in remote areas, There is a growing desire for schools to reflect local culture in teaching language and life skills as well as to perhaps think about hub schools for secondary education . The state has a miserable history with rural education and sentiment is high against the state- for very different reasons than those posed by folks who want school choice in Southcentral per this discussion.
Are these choice-folks hijacking Native concerns over education in the bush or are they trying to come up with some kind of alliance to push this wackery?
oh jeez.
I’m hyperventilating now.
Hoooooo….!
Thank you for all you and Linda are doing here on this set of issues.
Ok.
Went off to read some other stuff and come back to this with a somewhat settled tummy.
Linda pointed, in her last post, to the Friedman Foundation for school choice thingy.
Reading this :
http://www.edchoice.org/The-Friedmans/The-Friedmans-on-School-Choice/Why-America-Needs-School-Vouchers.aspx
I am reminded of many of my concerns about the underlying notions associated with so-called school choice aside from the religious school dealie.
Who knows whether the reference to 19th century educational ideas in the above is about the profound influence John Dewey had on education or not but I think it likely does.
Dewey’s notions about education are the underpinnings of the movement away from rote learning and toward the democratic ideal that informed, critical thinkers will advance society which most of us here ascribe to and which has been under attack for decades.
In the ’70s the back-to-basics crowd made deep inroads on education per curriculums they deemed useless. Anyone remember the “basket weaving” jokes? And the arguments over money to teach kids anything more than readin,riting,and rithmetic?
In the ’80s folks like the Friedmans and Reagan presided over a fundamental shift in attitude about education- by asserting that it was primarily for obtaining skill sets to get jobs.( Talk about government subsidies of business, eh??!)
The shift in the ’90s towards education as a consumer commodity to be bought and sold gained ground dramatically, along with “financialization” of many other human activities previously held to be part of community life, not business.
In the last 20 years, the liberal argument for a well educated citizen being a necessity of functioning democracy has continued to center on trying to give equal opportunity to all children but is falling on increasingly deaf ears, ears hammered for a lifetime by folks who would have us all buy the notion that all human activities can be financialized, can only be discussed as consumer issues, and that private industry is better set up to do the common business of a democracy.
Well.
Pffft!
It is time to fight not only the religious right but the business right as well.
Our children and grandchildren are not fodder, they are not merely wage slaves in training, their education is not a purchasable commodity, parents have a responsibility to their community as well as their children. Our children and grandchildren will be living side by side with everyone elses kids and it benefits them all to have solid support of society as well as their parents’ support.
Society is all of us.
It is not churches. It is not big business. It’s not the consumer price index.
It’s not jobs.
It’s not any of the horsepunky we are currently pretending can encompass the whole of human experience and interaction.
We are choking ourselves to death with these limited notions of public life.
The attack in the name of choice of education of our children is one more narrow minded scrawny clawed hand on our collective throat.
Hear, hear! Perfectly said, Alaska Pi.
oooh, Alaska Pi, haven’t you heard?
We don’t need no stinkin’ DemoNcracy;
these divided states of A-merry-ca is (sic) a REPUBLIC.
“Democracy” just crawls all over some folks and rubs ’em the wrong way, at least here in the Bible belt. But Business makes their world go ’round.
Power to the people whose intentions are good.
Thank you for the link; I didn’t know how much I needed it last night; so many blessings flow to me and through me here at the ‘flats. Cindy Lauper was staying in the same hotel where our state library conference was held last fall. I never spotted her, but a colleague saw her slip into her room and stood outside her door to hear her warming up. Librarians respect the right to privacy, so that’s as “stalker-ish” as we got…except to leave a note for her at the desk. 🙂
It’s a button, not a refrigerator magnet, but it’s one of my favorites:
“Your library is the answer.
What’s the question?”
WOOWOO! Alaska Pi, my 60s-bra-burning-whatarewefightingfor,I-have-a-dream,fourdeadinohio spirit has been lifted by your stirring statements. May I copy and distribute to like-minded intelligents?
Jeez, Now I am starting to wonder if maybe Jesus was either a Cro-Magnon or a Neanderthal? If there were dinosaurs at the time of Jesus, why not cave men??
think about it.
Please read,
The Pagan Christ
The Jesus Dynasty
How Jesus Became Christian
Yah they do have Jesus’s DNA,form his ossuary box. However the reason it is not released is that it would cause a lot of Religious and Political complications. Like what if 20% of the Palestinian population is related to Jesus? Lordy, Lordy, what would we do then??????
O.M.G. I rarely comment anymore but this just blows my mind. So sad. Our educational system has been infiltrated and commandeered by the RWNJs. (Typing that just cracked me up because my own family think it is the other way around.) My own father accuses me of being a “librul” because I went to college and got a liberal education. I had to remind him that he was a medical doctor and had WAY more “liberal” education than I had. He did not have a come back on that one.
I remain optimistic in that intelligent and realistic minds will prevail in the end. Truth will set us free.
Please shoot an email to all of the the House Finance Committee Members, telling them how you feel about this bill: http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_com_info.asp?comm=HFIN&session=27
Thank you!!!!
e-mail your legislators. Give them your mailing address so they know you are in their district. And also e-mail the finance committee and everyone else you can think of.
(This issue is why I have neglected the ‘flatters for a bit…been spending my time with the state of education in my state of PA)
I posted on the previous column about this. This is an issue that is being brought up in many states. Apparently, many should have been paying better attention during state Governor elections. All of the newly elected GOP Governors are following the same playbook…decimate the public education system in the state by cutting state funding, discredit public school teachers and teachers unions, promote vouchers to give tax money to private and religious schools, transform public schools into “test prep centers” which warehouse special ed kids, minorities, kids with issues, etc.
Keep the rich and talented kids in private/religious schools funded by tax dollars – coincidentally, which DON’T have to “take the test” or comply with ANY of the NCLB federal requirements – and are free, as PRIVATE schools, to deny anyone an education.
Those private/religious schools also – at least in this area – can hire literally ANYONE as a teacher..a local private religious school has a former chef from a defunct restaurant teaching high school English, History, Music and Spanish. It’s understood at local universities that kids from this school automatically start at remedial classes.
Despite this common knowledge, there is a HUGE push in PA to enact vouchers. I can’t tell you how strong the local push is – by our GOP Legislators as well as the religious leaders of churches who sponsor religious schools – to pass voucher legislation. Interestingly, EVERY ONE of the local public schools is EXCEEDING the requirements of NCLB…which, according to what the GOP lawmakers SAY, would mean no vouchers here. BUT, I know from religious school leaders locally that they have been told, “No problem, we’ll make it happen in a year.”
What’s going on in your state? MAKE SOME NOISE!
Hear! Hear!!
and good on you, diva, also, too. Keep up the good work, and many thanks for sharing.
In our state legislature, we’ve actually had someone stand up in favor of Uranium mining at the Grand Canyon and argue, “The earth has gotten along just fine for 5,000 yrs w/out environmental regulations.” And that was before the Stupid Peoples’ Rebellion of 2010. Back then, only 40% of our legislators had no college education – I’m sure that percentage spiked in 2010.
The KochBros/ALEC/Republican battle to defund and privatize schools and steal public education $ for religious schools is going on everywhere. Here in AZ several years ago, the Rs took a different tack to fund scholarships to Christian colleges, and began allowing diversion of state taxes owed into private Christian scholarship funds, w/ the taxpayer receiving an equal tax credit from the state. A taxpayer group filed suit, and after years in various levels of courts, was denied standing to bring the suit by the usual SCOTUS suspects (the K-RATS) last April, citing an ingenious differentiation (that has never existed before in case law or logic) between Tax Expenditures (tax credits) and outright Legislative Appropriations. So far, the program has diverted an estimated $350M in state revenue into Christian colleges, and it will take several more years to get the fight back to the SCOTUS once a new suit is filed w/ by a new plaintiff. Happy times for the fundies.
Hoken
Well said!
OMG…it’s worse than I thought.
Logic flying out the window at the speed of light all over the country!
So is it possible that the Grand Canyon was in reality the quarry that Fred Flintstone worked in on telly? It all begins to make sense now.
It absolutely makes sense – and that’s why The Flintstones was Sarah Palin’s favorite historical mini-series.
The Flintstones – how appropriate for the republicans in congress. Cartoon characters.
My home state, Arizona, is full of modern Stone Age families.
now THAT’S a bill I could REALLY get behind!!!!
Ah, “vouchers” aka “corporate scholarships” for private education using public tax dollars. What’s wrong with this picture? We in Florida feel your pain, having “been there, done that.” It comes back every session, also, too.
If religious institutions want tax dollars for education, then perhaps religious institutions should actually pay taxes, eh? and not be tax-Exempt.
Works for me. If they want tax dollars, they can pay taxes.
Religious institutions are speaking loud and clear about what their adherents’ tax $$ should and shouldn’t pay for….
Well, I feel the same about my taxed money going to support students at private schools that indoctrinate according to narrow religious beliefs.
On the flip side–
Public Education unites us.
(if people think America is polarized now, just think how it would be if more kids go to private schools that teach their own religious doctrine)
BRAINED WASHED!!!!!!
I am thinking yes, just another quid pro quo.
While I don’t like this at all the article is inaccurate about the charter schools. They are all public schools. The private schools, all the christian schools would benefit, not charter schools.
Thanks, Wendy. I know this, and was using Bettye Davis’ characterization from the ADN. But it came out totally wrong. I will make a change to clarify this.
Awesome post AKM! Loved the pics too. That guy Keller is a doofus to say the least.
I fired off a couple of emails to my representatives that I will be watching how they vote, expecting an explaination if they vote for something that will need changing of our Alaska Constitution and then will be basing both my politcal contributions and future votes on that.
We will see if they can figure out how I feel 🙂
I love you Vic!
Jesus rode sidesaddle? Who knew! What a woosie-pants. beth.
They make me sick.
Whenever we see prorams on PBS that say the earth is over 10,00o years old joe and I always chime in.
Oh no, the earth isn’t that old!
dear God! that man in the bottom picture looks like my ex husband! i guess i would be the dinosaur. heehee.
Bubbles! The grin of delight on my face is keeping me from saying more…
Bubbles, if “that guy” is your ex, and you are the baby dinosaur, then is the volcano in the background your kitchen stove? If so, something’s buring!
Cripes! i just burned the lamb chops!……and the %&#@!)(( potatoes. now what?
Come to my place for dinner, bubbles. I’ll make a grilled portobello with gravy, sugar snap peas, romanescu cauliflower, and a ruby yam.
sounds delish Zyx. thanks.
That cute little dino behing held so safely in Jesus’ arms . . . does that look like Cheney?
being held . . . being, being, being. Were did that h come from?
From Hell, you imp of Satan, you!
I thought so, until I took a look at the comment bubbles made at #5, below. It’s her ex!
Wait — bubbles was married to Dick Cheney?
hahahahahacaw Caw CAW CAW!!!!
pretty much ‘cept the ex is better looking. there i was sitting in Washington Square Park. it was 1974. i was enjoying the summer breeze, i looked up and saw this man looked just like Jesus what with the hair like.lambs wool and stuff. i was overcome. i said ” hi Jesus my name is Bubbles” the rest is history.
OMG Bubbles, Russell and I were in Washington Square Park in 1974 (our FIRST trip from lower-podunk PA to the big city). We were meeting a group there, under the Arch, to go to a jazz club. Had no idea where we were, just meeting the rest of the group. Got in the middle of a shoot-out – people running, undercover cops jumping up, ambulances flying over the curbs, typical evening…anyways, we couldn’t go anywhere because we were meeting our group there. Meanwhile, THEY were all in cabs, hearing: “you don’t EVEN want to be in Washington Square Park now!” Anyways, one of the undercover cops, who kept us safe hunkered down beside the Arch, looked just like Jesus..lambs wool hair, just like the stained glass window on the Hastings M.E. Church….anyways,we obviously survived, have a great story….. our “Jesus” didn’t have a dino either (but he was HOT)
What’s with all this Washington Square stuff? You all part of the Village Stompers or sumpin?
Frank Mills started playing in my head when I read this. Do you know it? It’s the song from Hair that has lyrics that don’t rhyme.
I thought it was ET in his arms. Can’t be Cheney, he wouldn’t allow some dude in a robe to hold him, ewwwwwww.
Yes….identical!
Holding the baby dino got me laughing. I would like to see those pictures in the school books. =)
Jesus riding a dinosaur! Priceless drawing. All hail RWNJ’s!
DD
I’ll come back when I can stand to read it all the way through.
Been half sick at my stomach since read this in the paper.
Thanks for staying on the story- you have a constitution of iron, my friend.
Just hope our state one is as strong as yours 🙂
I’m with you….. sick tummy and all.