Posted on 03/17/2010 1:00:24 PM PDT by rhema
On Capitol Hill, all eyes have been focused on the House, as efforts to pass healthcare reform have grown increasingly dramatic. But a less-watched debate began in the Senate Tuesday, which offered a second chance for the Washington, D.C. private school voucher program that Congress phased out last year. The effort, however, was quickly squashed by a vote Tuesday night, with most Democrats voting against it along with Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised in January that he would allow debate about the program on the Senate floor. And on Tuesday, the Senate began considering a bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, which included an amendment by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., to reinstate vouchers for district schoolchildren.
The amendment was defeated 42-55, mostly along party lines. Lieberman’s amendment would have reopened the program to new students and raised the scholarship awards to low-income parents from $7,500 to $9,000 for elementary students and up to $11,000 for high schoolers. These numbers are still lower than what D.C. Public Schools spend per student each year.
Sens. Robert Byrd (D-WVa.), John Ensign (R-Nev.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), George Voinovich (R-Ohio), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) had signed onto the amendment as co-sponsors.
Feinstein and Bill Nelson of Florida were the only Senate Democrats to join Lieberman in voting for the amendment (Byrd was absent). “What is everybody scared of? Why not reauthorize it?” said Feinstein from the floor Tuesday, citing the positive achievement reports on the program.
“It’s been very rare when I’ve been involved in a debate in the Senate on a matter, where I haven’t felt there were some respectable good arguments on the other side,” Lieberman said from the floor. “But I must say on this one, I can’t think of a single good reason to be opposed to this amendment.”
Though the majority of the chamber voted against the program, only one senator rose to speak against the vouchers from the floor, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. Several in the Democratic caucus, like Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have voiced their opposition in the past.
The Secular Coalition for America, a longtime opponent of school vouchers, sent an “action alert” to its constituents, requesting that they call their senators to oppose the amendment. “By continuing this program, those of us who do not wish to subsidize someone else’s church will continue to be forced to do so through our federal tax dollars,” the alert noted, adding that vouchers are designed to “aid struggling Christian schools” and force students “to attend religious schools or remain in the failing public school system.”
A 2002 Supreme Court decision, however, found that voucher programs are constitutional as long as they do not impose or influence school choices for parents.
The National Education Association, representing teachers’ labor unions, also opposes the program.
Congress closed the program to new students last year, cutting enrollment from about 1,700 students to approximately 1,300 students. And voucher advocates are not optimistic that Congress will renew funding for a dying program over the next couple of years to support students that are still attending voucher schools. The D.C. government has not yet moved to fund the program locally, insisting that it is already dealing with serious budget shortfalls.
Meanwhile, President Obama sent Congress his blueprint to reform President Bush’s major education initiation, No Child Left Behind. Broadly speaking, the administration plans to focus less on annual testing scores and more on raising graduation rates.
“Through this plan we are setting an ambitious goal: All students should graduate from high school prepared for college and a career—no matter who you are or where you come from,” the president said over the weekend. He emphasized that priority last week by donating $750,000 of his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize award to nonprofit groups promoting higher education and scholarship funds.
I simply despise Snowe.
Why do parents send their children to schools that usurp parental authority? Do they truly not know what is going on or do their children go along with the program just to get through the day, laughing all the while and mocking out the teachers and administrators with their crazy ideas about life, not telling their parents because, hey, it’s just some more crap you have to get through and you can have some fun with it?
In my county, a well regarded public school system decided to question middle school students and high school students about their feelings about sex through a survey by an outside agency. The school said they needed the kids’ input to develop curriculum. The kids treated the whole thing as a joke (even though they were threatened if they refused to take the survey or didn’t treat the survey seriously). Long story short, the kids decided to treat it as a joke, one kid didn’t answer the survey and took it home to show her parents, and the survey was a dismal failure, of no use whatsoever. The parents of the girl made a stink and the state legislature got involved saying that parents had to opt in (not opt out) to further surveys.
Kids know when they are being used.
Anybody, go ahead and walk around the Capitol on a Sunday morning.
After church you will see some of the best dressed dummy robots in a parade. All feelin' good and stuff.
Oh most have prayed to Jesus but have heard words from the devil.
Was she bought off?
Maine Allocated More than $41 Million in School Construction Bonds
HAHAHAHAHAH.... no they won't. DC voters, even the ones whose children are screwed over by this vote, will be just as solidly communist as they have been.
So much for the Democrats looking our for America’s children, esp. those in the lower economic stratus.
Guess they have changed the slogan “No Child Left Behind” to “No Leftist Child Left Behind, but as for the others, screw them.”
“The Secular Coalition for America, a longtime opponent of school vouchers.”
I understand the main objection to vouchers is that so many of them are used at religious, especially Catholic schools. After some of the priest scandals, more people are aware of this issue. I think the SCA also works with some religious groups that support the Constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.
Some of those "ministers" live very high on the hog with the tithes from their parishoners.
Come to think of it, the "Reverend"Wright, Obammy's pastor does rather well does he not?
President Obama's speech to students this week got plenty of attention, and many conservatives looked foolish by fretting about "indoctrination." They would have done far more good joining those who protested on Tuesday against the President's decision to shut down a school voucher program for 1,700 low-income kids in Washington, D.C.
"It's fundamentally wrong for this Administration not to listen to the voices of citizens in this city," said Kevin Chavous, the former D.C. Council member who organized the protest of parents and kids ignored by most media. Mr. Chavous, a Democrat, is upset that the White House and Democrats in Congress have conspired to shut down the program even though the government's own evaluation demonstrates improved test scores.
I oppose vouchers for a simple reason. I put my kids through private school for the most part. I did this because I did not want them exposed to a public school environment, or to be honest, public school students.
I also know as someone who’s father made his living primarily off of getting contracts from the state of Alabama that there is always a string when you take any kind of government money.
I think vouchers threaten the integrity of the private school system and on a more base level I simply don’t want my taxes to pay for a child to go to a school that they would not have otherwise gone to especially if they might not fit the mission of the kind of student said school wants to have.
For what must be the thousandth time, THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
For what must be the thousandth time, THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
For what must be the thousandth time, THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
Both the left and right are experts at employing scapegoats to torpedo the whole of any idea which they oppose. In the process a lot of good effective programs and ideas are hacked to and destroyed. The school voucher program is good and effective on so many levels and we should know better than allow the left to push our ideological buttons — e.g. separation of church and state — to get a rise out of us.
...squashed by a vote Tuesday night, with most Democrats voting against it along with Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine... on Tuesday, the Senate began considering a bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, which included an amendment by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., to reinstate vouchers for district schoolchildren... would have reopened the program to new students and raised the scholarship awards to low-income parents from $7,500 to $9,000 for elementary students and up to $11,000 for high schoolers. These numbers are still lower than what D.C. Public Schools spend per student each year... Dianne Feinstein... "What is everybody scared of? Why not reauthorize it?" said Feinstein from the floor Tuesday, citing the positive achievement reports on the program.Gosh, let me think...
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