In support of their unwise privatization efforts:
The White House on Friday issued a report that said a House Republican plan to revise the Elementary and Secondary Education Act would reduce North Carolina’s federal Title I money for disadvantaged students by an estimated $17 million in 2016 and $220 million over the next five years.
Currently Title I funds are concentrated in schools with large numbers of poor students. The House bill would allow this grant money to follow each low-income child to the traditional or charter public school of the parent’s choice.
The emergence of this legislation during a time when many new charter schools are failing due to fiscal mismanagement is no coincidence. The people behind the curtain in this movement are well aware their "efficiency" leaves something to be desired, so they've been scheming to find various flows of public monies to tap into. And in case you were wondering, yes, this is an ALEC initiative:
Resolution on Title 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Model Policy
Since 1965, the Title 1 programs of the federal Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA) has failed to boost the academic achievement of the students the program purports to serve,
WHEREAS, the federal involvement in education ties the hands of the states with mandates, paperwork, and bureaucracy,
WHEREAS, Congress does not allow states to consolidate the funds in the Title 1 programs of ESEA program to help existing state reforms and in some cases hinders state reform,
Now therefore be it resolved that: the {legislative body} of the state of {name of state} urges Congress to empower {name of state} with the ability to tie Title 1 dollars to students and allow them to carry the money to the school or providence of their choice (depending on the extent of state constitutional law).
There have been efforts recently encouraging D's and R's to open up a dialogue, to maybe better understand each other. Frankly, when I see them worshipping the Koch Brothers from their double-wide trailers and gleefully electing snake-oil salesmen who allow lobbyists to write their legislation for them, I see nothing that I need or want to understand.
Comments
It's the ALEC privatization progression
ALEC is behind the current controversial letter grades assigned to schools. They are behind starving high-poverty schools of funds. And they have a model policy they're floating this year that would allow private education profiteers to simply take over existing public schools if enough parents vote that the school is a failure.
So there it is:
Voila. Schools taxpayers paid for for decades now belong to the Friends of Art Pope, who coincidentally shower truckloads of cash on the tea partiers who made this all possible.
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"I will have a priority on building relationships with the minority caucus. I want to put substance behind those campaign speeches." -- Thom Tillis, Nov. 5, 2014
Next step in the progression
Sue them, sue them, and sue them again. For now anyway, the courts are our best recourse.
Hopefully this bill will die
with a Presidential Veto. The White House opinion/warning referenced above leads me to believe a Veto would be likely, but one never really knows until it's actually stamped.