Posted on 08/06/2012 5:08:12 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
A Louisiana teachers union is threatening private schools with legal action if they accept money from a new voucher program – and the threat has already forced at least one school to put its participation in the program on hold.
The demand was sent a few weeks ago by law firm representing the Louisiana Association of Educators and several other interests, and it argues the state-approved program is illegal because participating schools would be receiving an unconstitutional payment of public funds.
The two-page letter further states if schools don’t agree, then the law firm has “no alternative” than to take legal action.
“Our clients have directed us to take whatever means necessary to prevent the unconstitutional transfer of public money,” wrote Brian Blackwell, of the firm Blackwell & Associates.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Sorry. I did not expect anyone here to be pro NEA and public school loving.
You also forgot to mention that the public school teachers bring in Gay Speakers, pass out condoms, etc., and fill our kids with visions of tree hugging eco-nazism.
See, that’s what public skoolz do for spellin and gramah.
Yes, I can see how that is unfair the true middle income people who struggle to send their kids to private school. Unless they offer vouchers for ALL kids (including the kids currently in private school) and make sure those vouchers are free of government strings, then no one should get them.
I’ve seen it, and I would agree that it is worth watching.
And I’m sorry. I misunderstood the tone of your post. I thought you were justifying their argument.
My sincerest apologies!
I can see the points you are making. I guess in some ways it’s a catch 22. I know when one of my children attended a private school here in La. the private school she attended would stay very strict to their standards and would not hesitate to boot anyone out who acted up and became a problem.
This is one more example of why we need to get rid of the single payer socialized schooling industry and replace it with a free market capitalist system. It will be hard to get people give up having their lifestyle subsidized by this “entitlement”, but it needs to be done.
Socialized schooling was the nation’s biggest entitlement until Social Security caught up either last year or this year. Converting to a capitalist schooling system would go a long way toward balancing local and state budgets and set the precedence for eliminating other federal handouts.
http://www.schoolandstate.org/home.htm
It’s time for A RICO suit against the union. This is a SLAP suit at best.
scratchin my head, wondering the same thing...
it would seem that the union should be suing the state, as theyre the ones dispersing the cash...
Not if it's a refund to the State taxpayers.
The burden is on the plaintiff to establish that the payment is unconstitutional, and it doesn’t appear that it is.
The state has the legitimate power to determine who will be paid to educate its students.
I’m certain, based on experience with govt funded entities that at some point in future the private school will have to go through an elaborate, lengthy fair hearing type process to boot any of the voucher kids from it’s school. Just wait till some dem like Blanco gets into office. This will become a socialist dream program. Handouts for the beholden dem voters and a hammer to bash the religious schools.
Other than the military and law enforcement, nothing good comes from govt money. Remember, the roads in front of your business were built by government, therefore “you didn’t build that” and need to be beaten into paying more taxes.
Government money(our confiscated dollars) is always used as a weapon to subjugate regardless of what stranger is offering you the candy.
44th out of 57 ain't bad!
Socialism is inherently unfair to all those forced to use it, pay extra to avoid it, and pay for it. Getting out of it will be unfair, as well to many, specifically people like you.
I **cautiously** support voucher, tax credits, and charters but am wary for all of the reasons you stated.
On the negative side:
** private schools become defacto government schools due to “strings”.
** Tuition creep as seen with college tuition.
** Vouchers are unfair to those responsible parents who have sacrificed mightily to ransom their kids from the godless socialist schools and, now, fail to financially qualify. In fact, they are unfair to all who fail to qualify.
On the positive side:
** They can immediately reduce the pressure on state budgets. In my state, government socialist-entitlement schooling is more than %50 of the state budget ( not including college and university budget expenses).
** They can help begin the process of building a private infrastructure.
** Wherever instituted the crush to get a voucher and abandon the government schools is overwhelming. This means reduced teachers union members and less influence on elections.
** In every study where children were accepted to a charter or voucher school by lottery, those winning the lottery do significantly better academically than those who did not get in. This is the “gold standard” to use when determining if privatization works. Even the highly “massaged” studies done by those defending the socialist government schools prove that voucher and charter schools do better but not worse than government socialist schools.
Conclusion: If vouchers, tax credits, and charters can be used to make the transition to complete separation of school and state, then I support them. If they are a means to make private school defacto government schooling, then I don't.
“Not if it’s a refund to the State taxpayers.”
It’s not going back to tax payers. The $8,500 is going to the people who pay no taxes yet consume most of the govt services. This is redistribution dressed up.
“Conclusion: If vouchers, tax credits, and charters can be used to make the transition to complete separation of school and state, then I support them. If they are a means to make private school defacto government schooling, then I don’t.”
I appreciate your thoughtful post, but when has government money lead to a separation of anything from government? No, politicians use those dollars as a fulcrum to grow their power. The pursestrings come with great power that no politician will give up.
Our youngest just graduated from a very conservative private christian school. 5-6 years ago, our school began seeking inner city kids (families, really) to come out to our white bread suburban campus for their education. Every inner city kid is fully scholarshipped so there are no $$’s out of pocket for these families.
Huge, unqualified success!
One of these young guys ended up being close friends with my son. We got to know him well over a few years. He is now in college and on his way to breaking the cycle and becoming a responsible citizen.
Just a few things make this work. We have the ability to carefully screen which families are invited to participate - character matters. We self fund the program. We entered into the program with eyes wide open and full support....literally unanimous....of our board and our parents. Our families do a lot to love on these kids.
The net: Strong, well defined guardrails can alleviate many of your concerns. Strong, well defined families will make a difference in a few lives.
Good luck FRiend.
I support your arguments against vouchers, but not this one.
Government owned and run socialist-entitlement schooling **IS IS IS ** redistribution disguised under the euphemism of “public school”.
There isn't much good about vouchers but this is good. It reduces the redistribution to the child's tuition-free schooling by **many** thousands of dollars.
By the way...What ever the state claims that it costs to educate a child in a government owned and run socialist-entitlement school, **DOUBLE** or **TRIPLE** that amount. Government school accounting practices would make an Enron accountant blush!
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