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[W:#2026]School's out forever: Arizona moves "to kill public education" with new universal voucher law

[snip]
Last Friday, while the country reeled from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, Arizona made history of a different sort. Legislators in the Grand Canyon State passed a universal school voucher bill that, once signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, will become the most wide-reaching school privatization plan in the country.

In his January State of the State address, Ducey called on Arizona lawmakers to send him bills that would "expand school choice any way we can," and the Republican-dominated legislature obliged, delivering last Friday's bill, which will open a preexisting program for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) up to the entire state. In practice, the law will now give parents who opt out of public schools a debit card for roughly $7,000 per child that can be used to pay for private school tuition, but also for much more: for religious schools, homeschool expenses, tutoring, online classes, education supplies and fees associated with "microschools"

"Every red state in the country should follow [Ducey's] lead," since the law "gives every family a right to exit any public school that fails to educate their children or reflect their values."

From Rhode Island, anti-CRT activist Nicole Solas, a fellow with the right-wing Independent Women's Forum, tweeted, "You know what happens when you abuse people? People leave you. Bye, public school."

"The Republican universal voucher system is designed to kill public education," tweeted former Arizona House Rep. Diego Rodriguez. "OUR nation's greatness is built on free Public schools. The GOP goal is to recreate segregation, expand the opportunity gap, and destroy the foundation of our democracy."

"I think it's a very serious mistake and the result will be that, within a decade, Arizona will have a very, very poorly educated adult population," added Carol Corbett Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education. "Maybe that's the game."

"One of the things people never fully comprehend is how far privatization advocates want to take things," he said. "They want to get rid of all public funding for education. Eventually vouchers will die off too." What will remain, he argues, will be a self-funded primary education system, funded by a lending market much as colleges are. Or as Lewis says, a "system of haves and have-nots."

[snip]

At this point, every post I put in the breaking news section feels like I'm documenting the rise of Christian Nationalism. It seems like every day...a little piece of our society is stripped away. A little closer to their vision of theocratic fascism. On it's own...this is not a huge deal. But take in the context of current events this is just one more chip away.
Where's the money coming from? Are they just going to close down the public schools?
 
If what you find funny was the only metric by which to judge public education, you'd have a point.
^--aaaaaaaaaaa......HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Public education is there for education and that is THE definitive measure by which you assess it's efficacy. That you know it's shit so you blather on about some other bullshit makes your comment hilarious.
 
I was homeschooled. I don't care if people are homeschooled. But it is very clear this is a concerted effort to defund public schools, and THAT I am strongly against.

The Christian Nationalists are NOT opposed to a one size fits all education. They only dislike the fact that the education isn't a theocratic curriculum.
It only gets defunded if the parents choose not to send their kids to public school. Is that fascism? Is it even a little bit of fascism? Or is it a result of a multi-decade failing of the public school systems, that have only gotten worse. That schools are basically just older kid daycare now while parents go to work. That schools are spending too much effort, time, and money on things like radical gender ideology that most people have rightly rejected?
 
Which is a good thing.

You might want to be introspective about why this happened. You can’t tell the majority demographic to hate themselves and they deserve to be crushed underfoot forever without pushback

There is no impending “theocratic fascism” which is a made up term that means nothing anyway. What you use that term to refer to is neither theocratic nor fascist

There is a strong movement of theocratic facism afoot in this country. Televangelists and their GOP fellow travelers have been fighting to impose their version of Christianity on the rest of the nation for fifty years.

By the 2000’s, soldiers like Oliver North and Stephen Cambone were working the mega church curcuit in uniform.

Trump’s bigotry and white nationalism echo the things being said in right wing “Christian“ world.

If there’s no impending “theocratic facism” afoot, why did the Supreme Court overturn Roe”. That was the direct result of fifty years of campaigning and scheming by religous zealots.

This Arizona thing is an opening salvo in a war against public eduction. It has been peddled for years.

it’s also the opening salvo in a manufactured CRT campaign that is intended to keep bigotry and “white nationalism“ front and center. It’s teh GOP’s 2022 campaign tactic.

They don’t care one whit about how eduction might be affected. All they really care about is the mid term elections.
 
Public schools where religion isn't taught are indoctrination, people. If we become a more Christian country, with fewer public schools not mandated by religious doctrine, there won't be any indoctrination.


Libertarianism, folks.
You're wrong. Religion is most definitely taught in school. It's just radical gender ideology and racial essentialism.
 
Funny how easy that is when you PICK the students..
Parents don't pick their kids and homeschool parents out-perform public schools even when they aren't college educated. That's pathetic.
 
^--aaaaaaaaaaa......HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Public education is there for education and that is THE definitive measure by which you assess it's efficacy.

I say that what he finds funny is not the only metric, he blurts out that it is the ONLY metric by which to judge schools.


That is embarrassing.
 
It only gets defunded if the parents choose not to send their kids to public school. Is that fascism? Is it even a little bit of fascism? Or is it a result of a multi-decade failing of the public school systems, that have only gotten worse. That schools are basically just older kid daycare now while parents go to work. That schools are spending too much effort, time, and money on things like radical gender ideology that most people have rightly rejected?

It isn’t the result of failing public school systems. It’s a way to get taxpayer money into the hands of TV preachers and con men.

Your comments on that reflect the same hoary old right wing stereotype that I heard out of people when I was in school sixty years ago.

Contrary to the myth you’re promoting, charter schools, and home schooling produce no better result than the local public schools do.

It is also a way around de segregation.

But handing out public funds to them comes right out of the funding for public eduction. That will have devastating results on public education.

Of course, the real purpose is to enflame the bigots. The GOP has been building the infrastructure for an anti CRT campaign for a year. It’s being run by right wing operatives and funded by right wing dark money. Pandering to teh inner racist in trump nation is the real objective.

But, as your closing sentence clearly illustrates, you already knew that.
 
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[snip]
Last Friday, while the country reeled from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, Arizona made history of a different sort. Legislators in the Grand Canyon State passed a universal school voucher bill that, once signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, will become the most wide-reaching school privatization plan in the country.

In his January State of the State address, Ducey called on Arizona lawmakers to send him bills that would "expand school choice any way we can," and the Republican-dominated legislature obliged, delivering last Friday's bill, which will open a preexisting program for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) up to the entire state. In practice, the law will now give parents who opt out of public schools a debit card for roughly $7,000 per child that can be used to pay for private school tuition, but also for much more: for religious schools, homeschool expenses, tutoring, online classes, education supplies and fees associated with "microschools"

"Every red state in the country should follow [Ducey's] lead," since the law "gives every family a right to exit any public school that fails to educate their children or reflect their values."

From Rhode Island, anti-CRT activist Nicole Solas, a fellow with the right-wing Independent Women's Forum, tweeted, "You know what happens when you abuse people? People leave you. Bye, public school."

"The Republican universal voucher system is designed to kill public education," tweeted former Arizona House Rep. Diego Rodriguez. "OUR nation's greatness is built on free Public schools. The GOP goal is to recreate segregation, expand the opportunity gap, and destroy the foundation of our democracy."

"I think it's a very serious mistake and the result will be that, within a decade, Arizona will have a very, very poorly educated adult population," added Carol Corbett Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education. "Maybe that's the game."

"One of the things people never fully comprehend is how far privatization advocates want to take things," he said. "They want to get rid of all public funding for education. Eventually vouchers will die off too." What will remain, he argues, will be a self-funded primary education system, funded by a lending market much as colleges are. Or as Lewis says, a "system of haves and have-nots."

[snip]

At this point, every post I put in the breaking news section feels like I'm documenting the rise of Christian Nationalism. It seems like every day...a little piece of our society is stripped away. A little closer to their vision of theocratic fascism. On it's own...this is not a huge deal. But take in the context of current events this is just one more chip away.
What did you expect with the lunacy of democrats and what they want taught to even the youngest kids in our public schools. Parents don't like it and they are showing it. If schools did a better job of education instead of politicization this would not be the problem it is becoming. Teachers who don't want to show up to teach but want to sit on their duff at home and post a lesson. The result in test scores has been very revealing, that system of education was a failure. The public schools are being given an opportunity to fix the problems and keep their students and ultimately their jobs. Do a better job and stop push the extreme liberal social policies in our schools.
 
I don't know why the left is upset. While the right is making small wins like this and in the courts, Democrats are working on the really important issues - like learning everything there is to know about the Oathkeepers.
 
The only thing that's funny here is that public schools get out-performed by every single option out there.
the really funny thing is you are unable to prove that!
 
Outlying my ass. Trump mainstreamed obtuse lunatics like her.
Types like her are not the mainstream of GOP thinking. That's the extreme right. The whole of the Republican party is not calling for "Christian Nationalism".
 
[snip]
Last Friday, while the country reeled from the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, Arizona made history of a different sort. Legislators in the Grand Canyon State passed a universal school voucher bill that, once signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, will become the most wide-reaching school privatization plan in the country.

In his January State of the State address, Ducey called on Arizona lawmakers to send him bills that would "expand school choice any way we can," and the Republican-dominated legislature obliged, delivering last Friday's bill, which will open a preexisting program for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) up to the entire state. In practice, the law will now give parents who opt out of public schools a debit card for roughly $7,000 per child that can be used to pay for private school tuition, but also for much more: for religious schools, homeschool expenses, tutoring, online classes, education supplies and fees associated with "microschools"

"Every red state in the country should follow [Ducey's] lead," since the law "gives every family a right to exit any public school that fails to educate their children or reflect their values."

From Rhode Island, anti-CRT activist Nicole Solas, a fellow with the right-wing Independent Women's Forum, tweeted, "You know what happens when you abuse people? People leave you. Bye, public school."

"The Republican universal voucher system is designed to kill public education," tweeted former Arizona House Rep. Diego Rodriguez. "OUR nation's greatness is built on free Public schools. The GOP goal is to recreate segregation, expand the opportunity gap, and destroy the foundation of our democracy."

"I think it's a very serious mistake and the result will be that, within a decade, Arizona will have a very, very poorly educated adult population," added Carol Corbett Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education. "Maybe that's the game."

"One of the things people never fully comprehend is how far privatization advocates want to take things," he said. "They want to get rid of all public funding for education. Eventually vouchers will die off too." What will remain, he argues, will be a self-funded primary education system, funded by a lending market much as colleges are. Or as Lewis says, a "system of haves and have-nots."

[snip]

At this point, every post I put in the breaking news section feels like I'm documenting the rise of Christian Nationalism. It seems like every day...a little piece of our society is stripped away. A little closer to their vision of theocratic fascism. On it's own...this is not a huge deal. But take in the context of current events this is just one more chip away.

While this may, on the surface, appear to be a good thing promoting choice, including choosing the 'public option' if so desired, it has two critical glaring problems:

1] Will the private schools be teaching or promoting 'religion' with our tax dollars?

2] Will the private schools be forced to accept all comers, as public education does?


--

While #1 seems to be a pretty cut-&-dried issue, I bet few here have thought through the ramifications of #2! There's a lot on minefield, there!
 
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