How vouchers and ESAs are fairing and failing in other states
ESA vouchers continue to be a hot topic throughout the entire nation, not just in Nevada. As the Silver State continues to consider jumping on the voucher bandwagon with one of the least accountable programs in the nation, SB 506, the country is watching and waiting.The team at ENN continues to fight back and work with partners across the state to keep Nevada’s private school voucher disaster from unfolding as it has across the nation.
Arizona
The ESA program in Arizona proves there is little accountability. A public records request by the Arizona Republic resulted in a finding that their tracking of vouchers funds “is opaque, incomplete and riddled with errors.”
One supporter of the program even admitted the lack of oversight.
“We don’t know where it’s (the money) going to,” said Rep. Regina Cobb, R-Kingman, who cast one of the deciding votes in favor of expansion. “We have nothing. How do we make decisions as lawmakers, as far as funding a program, when we don’t even know if it’s working?”
What they do know is that it is not going to those who need it most, a report found 75 percent of voucher funds go to families that already live in the wealthiest areas with the highest performing schools.
Even so, Arizona legislators recently passed a voucher expansion and it was signed into law by their governor, allowing more taxpayer dollars to go unaccounted for.
North Carolina
In North Carolina, one former House Representative who voted for the expansion of voucher programs told the Charlotte Observer that he regrets his vote.
“The problem is, now we have clear data that shows, beyond any doubt, that these vouchers programs not only don’t help our students, they actually have worse outcomes,” he said.
This is after the state spent $40 million in public funds for private school vouchers. Ouch!
Vouchers Don’t Work – Stanford says so
A new Stanford study – “Do Vouchers Work?” – resulted in a big NO.
A study over several years of several states with private school voucher programs showed they fail to show positive results. In fact, some students who transferred to private schools actually lost ground and some did worse.
Watch more here: https://vimeo.com/209867086
Vouchers Hurt Special Ed Students
A recent report in the New York Times noted that many families with special education children are caught unaware that they waive their protection of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act – IDEA. Private schools are not required to provide the same level of special-education services that a child would be eligible for in a public school.
In Florida, most of the special education students who took vouchers for private schools ended up back in public schools, transferring out of private schools after 3 and a half years. Additionally, many private schools come with additional expenditures that can catch many families off guard.
Texas says No to Vouchers!
In fact, national trends and data have shown voucher programs and ESAs to be such failures that recently the Texas House of Representative voted NO to any form of voucher by a landslide 103-44.
“Lawmakers in the midst of what promises to be an hours-long slog debating the state’s spending plan for the next biennium voted 103-44 in favor of an amendment expressly stating state money “may not be used to pay for or support a school voucher, education savings account, or tax credit scholarship program or a similar program through which a child may use state money for nonpublic education.”
One Texas representative said, “The House, with the vote today, strongly took a position in support of our public schools, our public school teachers.”
Nevada reps – y’all do the same. Support our public school students and teacher and say NO to vouchers!
#NoSB506 #VouchersHurt #PublicMoneyPublicSchools
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