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#TNaintReady for Vouchers!

2/8/2016

 
Why take a child out of a "failing" public school and pay his way to a school that does not provide the same testing accountability?

MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION: If private schools don't go toe-to-toe with tax payer accountability, just like public schools; then, how will taxpayers ever know if vouchers are working?  Or is that the point?

From: Lee Harrell
Date: February 5, 2016 at 5:18:34 PM CST
Subject: Please Support Amendment #10 to Voucher Legislation

Dear Members of the Middle Tennessee Delegation:

On Monday evening, you are scheduled to hear HB 1049/SB 999 (school vouchers) on the House Floor. The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce opposes this legislation due to its lack of true accountability by not requiring participating private schools to administer state mandated assessments. This discrepancy will not provide a transparent, consistent analysis of the program for the taxpayers.

The Chamber has typically supported school choice options, but there has been true accountability. With charter schools, students are given the same state mandated assessments. With online virtual schools, students are given the same state mandated assessments. The choice of a voucher should include this requirements as well. Louisiana and Indiana require the administration of state exams in their voucher programs. While critics claim that such a requirement will deter schools and students from participating, last year 30,000 students participated in the program in Indiana.

Representative Charles Sargent has filed Amendment #10 to HB 1049 which would require participating schools to administer state assessments. This amendment as well as the bill itself will both be items on the Chamber's Annual Scorecard this year. The Chamber urges you to support this amendment [#10] which will ensure accountability for this new taxpayer funded program. Thank you for your service to this State, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Lee Harrell
Vice President, State Policy Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

Say Yes to Amendment 10 to HB1049
If you believe schools who accept public voucher money should be held to the same accountability standard as public schools, contact your legislators and tell them to support Amendment 10 to HB1049. Shouldn't every school that accepts taxpayer dollars share in the TNReady fiasco experienced this morning by thousands of public school students across Tennessee?

Oh, and if someone gets the wise idea of limiting vouchers to Memphis or Nashville. They should read this 
article from 2012 where Federal District Court Judge Samuel "Hardy" Mays struck down the municipal schools law as being unconstitutional since it applied to only Shelby County. 

You win, voucher supporters!

2/5/2016

 
The following letter was too good to keep to ourselves, we had to share...

Dear True Believers,

Y’all got to be excited! Here you sit on the cusp of making history in Tennessee, despite a few pesky parents, educators, newspaper columnists, members of the Tennessee County Commissioners Association, school board members,students, and community members, who can’t appreciate all you do, by this time next week, you’ll be celebrating Tennessee joining the forward-thinking states who have provided a pathway out  for all those trapped kids in failing schools. Never mind that vouchers have never worked anywhere else, we all know Tennessee is different. So ignore the haters, this has been a long time coming, and Lord knows, you’ve worked hard for it and deserve it.

Legislators, I have got to say I am really impressed by your willingness to stake your political reputation on the idea of vouchers for the sake of those poor, poor children. Some may say otherwise, but I take it as evidence that you care about all children. Seeing as, for the most part, you will never even interact with these children. People don’t appreciate how expensive running for office every two years is and out-of-state education lobby groups have been extremely generous over the last several years. Heck, last year alone they dropped 260K on your campaigns. A million bucks over the last two years is a lot of cabbage. Especially now that some of you are drawing challengers. Your willingness to make this sacrifice shows that this truly is about the kids.

Now maybe all those lobbyists won’t go away, but just in case they do, one area that you might want to look at for recouping some of your financial losses is in the school building industry. Hear me out, now. We all know that once you take away thereligious-affiliated schools, that there are not enough private schools to handle the demand of all these new voucher-carrying students. Luckily, there are already some lobbyist groups ready to step into the void. Now, that may mean sharing some of ourchildren’s personal information, but you knew that was going to happen anyway. How else would we be able to decide who gets a voucher life boat and who doesn’t?

You rural folks, who have done a lot of the heavy lifting on this bill, might be a little worried that you might not get to benefit from this voucher bill. Fear not, I know you are being told that this bill is primarily for those poor kids in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, but let’s look at that a little closer. A lot of people don’t realize that just a couple of students can have a profound effect on a school’s overall grade.

Look at Williamson County, arguably the home of the best schools in the state, and specifically at Fairview Middle School. A few transfer kids with special needs threw off their results enough for them to get classified as a “focus” school. So, if a couple of priority schools in Memphis get rid of 100 or so kids each with their vouchers, then they’ll no longer be in the bottom 5% of schools. But there will always be a bottom 5%. So be on the lookout – Fayette, Maury, Grundy, Hardeman, Hancock, Roane, Sevier, and other counties – any one of you could come off the bench and suddenly become eligible for vouchers.

Do you know what the best part is? Let’s say Swiss Elementary School students were eligible for vouchers, but the parents disagree with the rankings. They believe in their school, and they don’t want to use vouchers to enroll in a private school. Well, that would then mean that any student in Grundy County could now get their private school tuition paid for with taxpayer dollars. Sweet! If those poor kids don’t want it, then it’s yours! Pretty good deal, huh?

Sure the schools in question may lose out on that needed cash to keep the lights on when they lose students because of these vouchers, but as Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville) says, “In the end, the adults in (the schools), they’ll be OK, but the kids in them can’t wait.” So if a district loses a school or two to financial hardship brought on by lost funding, or if a great school has to scale back, it is all for the greater good according to Rep. Dunn. I’m assuming that’s why a State Representative from East Tennessee and a few from Williamson County are fighting so hard for a plan that won’t even affect them and runs counter to conservative beliefs, while those who itwill affect voted against it. Hey, I saw Waiting for Superman. I know how all this works. Tennessee has spent enough on our schools with limited results, we need to take action.

It does my heart good to see so many putting the needs of so few first. Like Representative Dunn says we need to focus on creating new opportunities for children, not on finances.Now we just have to find a way to get some of that Title I money to follow the kids as well. Maybe we could even move Tennessee up from number three to number one nationally in Charter School growth. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, right? And I wouldn’t let it bother me that Governor Haslam didn’t even mention you in his recent State of the State speech. Probably just slipped his mind. I also wouldn’t worry whether any of this is constitutional or not,because who’s going to ask? Besides, whats one more potential law suit?

So lets inflate the balloons, strap on the party hats, and crank up the Kool and the Gang, because its time to celebrate. Unless, of course, some of those pesky parents, educators, county commissioners, school board members, African American State Representatives from Memphis, students, and community members who can’t appreciate all you do raise too loud of a fuss and stop this bill come Monday. But that will never happen…. or will it? The choice is ours.

Sincerely,

​A pesky parent
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If you are concerned and/or furious about our elected officials voting on Monday to abandon public schools in TN, click the button below to contact your legislator.  They need to hear from constituents before Monday's House vote.  There is still time to stop this from happening.
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Public Outrage Over Vouchers

2/2/2016

 
The public isn't fooled.  They are following the money trail that leads right to the legislators who vote "Yes" for vouchers, and they do not like what they are finding.

For example, Representative Susan Lynn, who received thousands from pro-voucher, out-of-state organizations, wrote an opinion article for her local newspaper.  But the public isn't buying it.  People are speaking out, like this woman from Tennessee who commented on that article:
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She has an excellent point: why aren't legislators FIXING those schools?  Why aren't they fully funding them?  This commenter knows that private schools are not the answer, that private schools will cherry-pick students, and are not the moral choice.  Fix public schools for every child!

People are doing research, too, and realizing things like this about the pro-voucher supporters who testified in the House Committee last week:
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And people are researching and uncovering where the money is coming from and who it is going to:
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Tennessee Education Report says that nearly $1 million has been given to legislators from pro-voucher organizations since the 2012 election cycle.  The biggest recipients have been House Speaker Beth Harwell ($43,000) and Senator Dolores Gresham ($28,500).  The money has come from StudentsFirst, an organization headquarted in California, and American Federation for Children, a shady ALEC organization that seeks to privatize and profit from public schools and prisons.

​And people are watching votes closely.  This lawyer in Shelby County was so upset about his legislator, Rep. McManus, voting for vouchers in the House Finance Committee, that he went the next morning and pulled a petition to run against Rep. McManus in the next election.
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People have serious concerns about vouchers...
  • In every state that has implemented vouchers, the vouchers started small as a reason to "save poor children trapped in failing schools."  But the vouchers expanded, serving upper class students, and further exacerbating the starving of public schools and denying poor students their right to an excellent education.
  • The bottom 5% of schools is ever-changing and endless.  Logically, there's no way to get every school in the state out of that bracket!  There will always be a bottom 5%.  Furthermore, the smaller schools that serve high populations of foreign students are at a severe disadvantage against affluent districts.  
  • Rural and suburban legislators who think their districts are safe, beware... all it takes is one school in the bottom 5% and your district will be ripe for voucher-picking. Once the poor kids from Memphis are "lifted out" with a voucher, all eyes will be on rural and suburban schools to take their place at the bottom of the rankings.
  • Public money funding private religious schools hard to discriminate against once the Pandora's Box has been opened.  What if extremist religions such as Westboro Baptist Church(that garners media attention by protesting at the funerals of American soldiers and even at the funeral of a child of a politician) wants to open a private school?  What about churches of Scientology?  Satanic Houses of Worship?  Schools of Witchcraft (not Hogwarts, of course)?  Who gets to decide if they get public voucher money to educate children?
  • Court and legal fees to battle vouchers could be better spent to fund and strengthen schools that serve the poorest areas.  In other states, courts have ruled that vouchers are unconstitutional.  This will happen in Tennessee, too, if vouchers are passed.
  • Vouchers have not increased educational outcomes in other states that have implemented them.  Vouchers have been proven to have harmed students in Louisiana.  The studies that pro-voucher supporters share with legislators are funded by those pro-voucher organizations and are not accurate. 

Contact your legislator to tell him/her to vote against vouchers.  It is too late in the TN Senate, but the TN House of Representatives votes on the voucher bill on Monday afternoon.  So, HURRY!!!!  
Click below to find your legislator:
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    real parents & real teachers
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