I can 'vouch' for some of you

Some of you I don't know

Surprise! This was not on the list of what I sent earlier because I did not know I was weighing in.

This past week or so it seems the voucher debate is really picking up after some school districts were snitched on for…idk posting online about something pertinent to their survival.

This got the interwebs all atwitter when the “School Choice Evangelist” decided to play Karen and make a fuss.

Wah--

So first I’ll start with the words of our short lived VP Candidate, Andy Beshear

“He Ain’t From Here”

But like, really not from here. He is inserting himself into the matters of a Kentucky school district from way down yonder in Texas. So obviously this is of top concern in San Antonio.

But it kept going. Other people have talked about it and I don’t have to rehash it all. But I will throw in my two cents— which as a proud public school grad—I am able to do so.

If you were paying attention in class, you know my stance on vouchers. Actually not even my stance, my historical walk through of how they were LITERALLY created to defund public schools due to racism. If you don’t have your notes handy— read it here!

But don’t just take my word for it. The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy did a great rundown of how it would be not the best move.

Here is a small piece of what they concluded:

This report estimates the impact, including by school district, if Amendment 2 is approved and the General Assembly enacts legislation to subsidize private schools using public funds. It models the impact of voucher legislation similar to recent expansions in several states. For Kentucky, establishing a program proportional to what Florida, the largest state program, has in place would cost $1.19 billion annually from the Kentucky state budget. That equals the cost of employing 9,869 Kentucky public school teachers and employees.  

Further, it confirms what we already know regarding hitting poorest schools the hardest and supplementing already thriving private schools.

If we want to go nationally— since Texas wanted to weigh in so bad— evidence of these ridiculous schemes hurting the poorer and/or rural schools can be found all over the place from reputable organizations.

Like HERE (Brookings)

Or HERE (ProPublica)

Or if we want to localize it elsewhere and closer to Texas— HERE.

I could go on and on but Google is free and these educational pyramid schemes are well documented. So have fun.

The last thing to discuss is the alleged impropriety or ‘law breaking’ that districts may engage in.

By the letter of the ‘law’ it can easily be argued that they are in violation. But that is also how law and lawyers work— you get to argue the interpretation. For example what constitutes use of tax dollars? What if I post at home on the school facebook page that I also set up at home both in my free unpaid time on my personal computer?

If a president can debate the meaning of ‘is’ then surely we can interpret this.

And this ‘law’ was enacted only because the Kentucky republicans wanted to try to prevent schools from crying foul when they were being attacked. They learned their lesson when teachers overwhelmingly went at their necks for trying to sneakily screw over their futures. So there’s that.

Basically— they created a rule in preparation for this moment to try to quell efforts to slow down their attacks on education. Literally rigging the game and then having billionaire funded advocates help their cause, who need I remind you—ain’t from here.