by David Safier Louisiana has chosen 119 private schools to participate in its new voucher program. The state superintendent won't say how they were chosen. Let me restate that. He hasn't said how the schools were chosen yet. He plans to release the documents sometime in September, after students are enrolled in the schools. According … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Via Steve Benen, Education policy comes into sharper focus:
On education, Romney's stump speech tells voters, "We're going to
make sure our kids and our adults have the skills they need to succeed.
We need to make sure our schools are the best in the world. They are not
now. They will be. We'll make them the best."
How? The answer is one of Romney's biggest vulnerabilities.
The Democratic National Committee unveiled this video this morning,
noting Romney's education plan and the details of the Republican agenda:
slash Pell Grants, cut college tax credits, reintroduce
the loan-system middleman that rewards banks instead of students, and
encourage young people to choose wealthy parents when thinking about
higher education.
And what about students who've worked hard, been
accepted to the school of their choice, but don't have parents with
large amounts of disposable income? Under Romney's vision, these people
are simply out of luck. Higher education isn't an option — young people
who can't afford to go to their college of their choice should "shop
around" for some other institution, because a Romney administration
doesn't intend to help with Pell Grants or student loans.
Video below the fold.
by David Safier
I've never heard any progressives say they're against increasing the amount of money spent per student in Arizona. Everyone knows our per student spending is at rock bottom among the states, thousands of dollars below average. But some progressives oppose the Quality Education and Jobs Initiative which would increase education spending by close to $600 per student — we'd still be at or near the bottom in national per student spending, even with the increase — because it's a sales tax, and sales taxes are regressive, period. End of discussion.
But the discussion shouldn't end there. Our children deserve a closer look at the issue before supporters of education reject our best chance for improving our young people's educational prospects.
Agreed, sales tax is regressive, placing the burden on everyone who buys taxable items regardless of income. Agreed, if it were possible in this state, tax loopholes should be closed and income taxes, which are a third lower now than they were a few decades ago, should be raised — the emphasis should be on raising them on the rich — and a considerable portion of the increased revenue should go toward education. But it ain't gonna happen in the near future, folks, and meanwhile our children are getting cheated out of educational opportunities because our spending on their educations is shamefully low.
So let's see what the one cent sales tax renewal will mean for low income Arizonans, who are the ones progressives are rightly concerned about.
No one in Arizona will pay a penny more in sales tax than they're paying now if the initiative passes since it will kick in when the current one cent sales tax ends. It's a renewal, not a new tax. The only difference is, about 80% of the sales tax revenues will be added to the current spending on education.
So the question is, how much does a one cent sales tax cost people with low incomes? The answer is, if someone makes between $30,000 and $40,000 a year, it will cost about $6.50 to $8 a month. That amount is lower for people with lower incomes. I understand, any amount of money is significant when your income is low, and low income people shouldn't be shouldering the burden which higher income people can and should carry. But we're talking less than $10 a month to add close to $600 per year to each child's education. It may make purists feel righteous to proclaim, "No! Not a penny more in sales tax!" But my feeling is, you shouldn't make children bear the burden of an ideological battle when the stakes are so high for the children and comparatively low for the taxpayers you're trying to protect.
by Pamela Powers Hannley
Last week– thanks to an executive memo by President Obama– millions of "Dreamers" were able to apply for deferred deportation, which will allow them to legally live in the US for two years. Dreamers are young, undocumented adults who, as young children, were brought to the US illegally by their parents. Deferred deportation would allow Dreamers to come out of the shadows to live and work without fear of being sent to a country they have never known.
In true heartless form, once the Dreamers were given hope, Arizona Goveror Jan Brewer set up roadblocks by issuing her own memo. Soon after young Arizonans started lining up to apply for deferred deportation, Brewer announced that in Arizona Dreamers would not be issued drivers' licences or state-issued ID card. One of the stipulations for being able to stay in the US is a clean legal record. Her denial of drivers' licenses sets up these young people. Not being able to a car is a serious burden in Arizona because cycling in the summer is grueling and public transportation is sketchy in the big cities and non-existent in the rural areas.
Brewer's actions quickly earned her the label of "George Wallace in a dress" because her memo clearly focused on pandering to the racists in her base and, furthermore, disregards what's best for our state– allowing Dreamers to integrate fully into American society and the workforce without fear of deportation.
After the jump is a short video by Dennis Gillman: Gov. Brewer's Executive Order vs. Students and Teachers.
by David Safier More than ever, schools live and die by their standardized test scores. So naturally, there's going to be cheating at some schools to raise the scores. But is this a serious problem? The answer appears to be, yes. In Philadelphia a lot of cheating was going on in recent years resulting in … Read more