For other education-related legislative news from The SCEA, visit www.thescea.org.
THE SCEA SUPPORTS ANTI-VOUCHER CAMPAIGN
Teachers join administrators, school boards and parents in opposing vouchers
COLUMBIA—The South Carolina Education Association is supporting the newly-announced campaign against vouchers and tuition tax credits by the S.C. School Boards Association (SCSBA), S.C. Association of School Administrators (SCASA) and the S.C. Congress of Parents and Teachers (SCPTA), says The SCEA President Sheila C. Gallagher.
The coalition of administrators, school board members and parents announced their effort in a press conference this morning.
"The primary obstacle to meeting state and federal expectations is a lack of commitment by lawmakers to consistently fund their mandates, their obligations and their promises to students, parents and teachers," Gallagher said. "In 2004, Governor Mark Sanford and his legislative allies demonstrated their contempt for public schools when they proposed to pay parents to enroll students in private, parochial and home schools."
"To snatch funding from the hands of schoolchildren, then condemn those children and their schools as failures is worse than hypocritical, it's criminal," she added. "Likewise, to divert public dollars into the coffers of private, parochial and home schools is criminal, when our state Constitution clearly says our government won't do that."
The SCEA began airing anti-voucher advertisements on television in 2002 and has continued those ads on radio, Gallagher noted. The ads are part of the association's ongoing "Keep the Promise" campaign, which urges lawmakers to fully-fund their statutory obligation to public schools.
"In 1998, the legislature declared that accountability was paramount, and our state's teachers have more than demonstrated their commitment to accountability. Just look at the rise in PACT test scores and the improvement in scores on national and international standardized tests," she explained. "The voucher plan offered by Sanford and company in 2004 abandons accountability in favor of ideology. They should be ashamed of themselves."
Gallagher notes a host of developments nationwide that continue to cast doubt on a variety of vouchers and tuition-tax-credit models as implemented in other states:
In Washington, D.C., the families of 290 students, or more than 20 percent of those who received vouchers to attend private schools there, returned those vouchers to the foundation that administers the program. Most would not discuss their reasons, or were not reachable by the foundation. Private schools participating in the D.C. voucher program may employ their own admissions procedures, meaning students with vouchers might have discovered that they nevertheless would not be admitted to the school of their "choice." Parents may also have discovered, as parents in Milwaukee, Cleveland and Florida have discovered, that vouchers do not pay for many of the additional costs of attending a private school, such as books, transportation, and fees, or that private schools do not necessarily offer compensatory programs for students who are below grade level, bilingual education, or programs and services to accommodate children with other special needs. As of September 3, an additional 46 students had not yet been placed in a private school, but their families had not yet given up on the program and returned the vouchers.
In Maine, the Superior Court has upheld a state law that prohibits the inclusion of religious schools in Maine's "tuitioning" program, which authorizes local districts that do not have a high school to pay for students to attend public high school in another district, or a qualified private school. The court cited the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Locke v. Davey in rejecting plaintiffs' claims based on the free exercise and establishment clauses of the First Amendment. With regard to plaintiffs' equal protection claim, the state submitted five rationales for treating religious schools differently. The court relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bollinger decisions on affirmative action to find that one of them, the state's interest in encouraging and protecting diversity, was sufficiently substantial and compelling to justify the disparate treatment. Plaintiffs, who were represented by the pro-voucher Institute for Justice, have indicated they will appeal.
In Florida, a three-judge panel of the First District Court of Appeal finally ruled, seventeen months after hearing argument, that the A+ voucher program violates the Florida constitution. The next step, in a process that may ultimately return vouchers to the U.S. Supreme Court, will be a re-hearing by the entire appellate court, rather than a direct appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.
(Florida school districts must now verify that students for whom a voucher is issued are not enrolled in public school, to prevent payment for "phantom" students. The diversion of staff who could otherwise conduct these verifications to hurricane relief efforts has led to delays in the issuance of voucher checks. Although the program theoretically requires participating schools to demonstrate fiscal viability, some operators claim they will have to close if they aren’t paid by November. During a lull in the hurricane activity, staff that was able to return to verification efforts discovered that enrollment records for Academic High School Inc, in Boca Raton, contained the same names as Academic High School for the Arts, which also employs the same principal. Checks to both schools have been halted pending an investigation.)
In Wisconsin, the state withheld the first round of checks from four schools participating in the Milwaukee voucher program because they failed to meet new reporting requirements. Earlier, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction rejected the applications of 21 schools that had applied to participate in the program.
In Tennessee, Sen. Lamar Alexander has introduced a bill in the 108th Congress that would provide a $500 voucher to every low- and middle-income child entering kindergarten and first grade, at a cost of $2.5 billion in new funds. As proposed, the program would add an additional grade each year, financed by holding Title I funding constant at FY04 levels. During a hearing on the bill held in July, Alexander proposed to hold "listening sessions" over the ensuing six months, and reintroduce the bill in the 109th Congress. Voucher-watchers speculate that the revised bill may offer federal matching funds to incentivize state voucher programs rather than a stand-alone voucher. It also probably won’t be named for Sen. Claiborne Pell, who in a statement opposing a voucher amendment, said that "our emphasis should be upon those schools that serve the vast number of students in our Nation, namely, the public schools."
In Utah, an organization called Parents for Choice in Education received more than $187,500 in donations between January and September 15, and spent $170,260 of it lobbying for vouchers, tuition tax credits, and charter schools. Most of the donations ($102,000) came from Michigan-based All Children Matter, founded by AmWay heir Dick DeVos. Although the voucher PAC had only $17,250 on hand after the primary elections, Parents for Choice executive director Elisa Clements Peterson had no doubt she would have "enough money to meet all our general election needs."
In New Hampshire, Gov. Craig Benson proposed a kindergarten voucher program that would provide $2,000, which would be valid in state-approved public or private schools. The annual cost of $6 to $10 million annually would be financed by cutting other programs. Opponents questioned which programs could be cut, since the state already faces a $300 million deficit.
DATELINE OCTOBER 11, 2004
For other education-related legislative news from The SCEA, visit www.thescea.org.
TOWN MEETINGS ON SCHOOL FUNDING BEGIN TONIGHT
The first in a series of town hall meetings on South Carolina's system of funding for public schools will be held tonight at Francis Marion University in Florence, and it features former S.C. Governor and U.S. Secretary of Education Dick Riley. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. and is open to the public.
Each event in the series is co-sponsored by a consortium of organizations that first collaborated for the March for Education Equity in May, 2004. While meetings are still being planned, events have already been scheduled on the following dates:
October 12: Tri-County Technical College, Hwy 76 (Anderson, Pickens, Oconee region), featuring Gov. Dick Riley.
October 28: Sullivan Middle School, Rock Hill.
November 9: Guilliard Auditorium, Charleston.
November 11: Trenholm Road Methodist Church, Columbia, featuring Wofford College President Bernie Dunlap.
According to Jean Norman, executive director of the S.C. School Improvement Council, each of the town hall meetings will have the same format: a one-hour program of information regarding school funding, including a speaker and an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the ongoing school funding equity trial in Manning, and a one-hour small-group program wherein participants can discuss common questions related to school funding. Participants' responses and suggestions will be compiled, summarized and shared with others attending the town meetings as well as policy makers, Norman said.
DATELINE OCTOBER 12, 2004
For other education-related legislative news from The SCEA, visit www.thescea.org.
SANFORD AGENDA ABANDONS PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Governor Mark Sanford effectively abandoned support for South Carolina's public schools this morning in a press conference to announce his legislative agenda for 2005. Sanford's reiteration of support for his voucher/tuition tax credit proposal was attended by more than 70 parents and students of private, parochial and home schools, many wearing lime-green t-shirts supporting the voucher plan.
The press event was scheduled at 11:30 a.m. on a school day, which unfortunately prevented public schoolchildren from attending to support full funding for their schools.
In nearly 14 minutes of remarks, Sanford identified "increasing the educational freedom index" and promoted "more choices for parents" but offered no support to public schools, which have been under-funded (according to the state's own funding statute, the Education Finance Act) since 2000.
Sanford also identified income tax relief, tort reform and government restructuring as his goals for the next session.
Several lawmakers and candidates for office stood with Sanford as he outlined his agenda, including Sen. Glenn McConnell of Charleston, Sen. John Courson of Columbia, Sen. Billy O'Dell of Anderson, Sen. Larry Grooms of Berkeley County, Sen. Greg Ryberg of Aiken County, Rep. George Bailey of St. George, Rep. Bill Cotty of Columbia, Rep. Ken Clark of Lexington County, and Steve Parker, a candidate for S.C. Senate from Spartanburg.
The SCEA has opposed, and will continue to oppose, Sanford's voucher plan, which unconstitutionally diverts public funds from public schools for the purpose of subsidizing private, parochial and home school education.
Without noting the irony of his comment, Sanford defended his voucher proposal by arguing, "Can we afford incremental change in something as important as education?" While Sanford and his legislative allies have celebrated incremental increases in state funding for public schools, they have defeated measure after measure proposing to fully fund the Education Finance Act, the bedrock of school funding in South Carolina.
We will continue to seek full funding of the Education Finance Act, which has been consistently under-funded since 2000, now at a rate of almost $400 per child.
Rounding out Sanford's agenda is an effort to change Senate rules to allow less dissent by members of that body's legislative minority. While several of Sanford'a agenda items were approved by the House in 2004, the legislature's more deliberative body rejected or avoided debating most of them. The governor complained to this morning's gathering that the Senate served as "the graveyard to some of our ideas," and he has recruited its legislative leadership to change its rules in January, effectively granting more power to its majority.
TOWN MEETINGS ON SCHOOL FUNDING CONTINUE TONIGHT
Former Governor and U.S. Secretary of Education Dick Riley, who is renowned nationally and internationally for his support for public schools, speaks again tonight at the next in a series of town hall meetings on South Carolina's system of funding for public schools. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Tri-County Technical College in Anderson County and is open to the public.
Riley addressed a gathering of nearly 150 educators and parents at Francis Marion University in Florence, where he reviewed the need for a revival of commitment to public schools by the present administration and legislature.
"I'm really fearful for our future," Riley said. "You can only go so far with reduced opportunities and reduced support. We're falling behind in basic operations and critical programs. For the past four years, the legislature has under-funded the Education Finance Act and has raided the Education Improvement Act by about $100 million."
"Vouchers for private education at the expense of funding for public schools will not work," the former governor declared. Riley, who staked his reputation on a commitment to improve public schools in the 1970s and 80s, leading the state to change its constitution and becoming the first governor to serve a second term, offered two predictions for the state's public education program if funding continues at present levels.
"All of the great gains we've made will stop, leaving us to fall behind the rest of the country and the world, and we will shortchange the futures of our children," Riley said. "If this becomes our legacy, it will be a legacy of neglect, a legacy of failure."
Riley was followed by Steve Morrison, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the ongoing school funding equity trial in Manning, who delivered a moving presentation that described a present state of two South Carolinas, divided by economics and race. The division is due, Morrison said, to consistent, institutionalized under-funding of public schools by the state in 35 school districts where African-American students comprise the majority of public school enrollment.
Each event in the series is co-sponsored by a consortium of organizations that first collaborated for the March for Education Equity in May, 2004. More than 100 educators and parents attended the meeting in Florence last night, where Riley reviewed the need for a revival of commitment to public schools by the present administration and legislature.
While meetings are still being planned, events have already been scheduled on the following dates:
October 28: Sullivan Middle School, Rock Hill.
November 9: Guilliard Auditorium, Charleston.
November 11: Trenholm Road Methodist Church, Columbia, featuring Wofford College President Bernie Dunlap.
Each of the town hall meetings will have the same format: a one-hour program of information regarding school funding, including a speaker and an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the ongoing school funding equity trial in Manning, and a one-hour small-group program wherein participants can discuss common questions related to school funding. Participants' responses and suggestions will be compiled, summarized and shared with others attending the town meetings as well as policy makers.
