“‘It’s not a voucher. It’s a scholarship tax credit,’ a
reader lectured [Fred Klonsky].
“Baloney. If the members of the Illinois General Assembly
agree to what the leaders of their party caucuses negotiated on school funding,
they will put in place a $75 million voucher plan.
“Democratic Party legislators will do what Senator Daniel Biss
told [the Klonsky brothers] on Hitting Left was a red line that Democrats
should or would not cross.
What are tax credit
scholarships?
Businesses or individuals give money to private schools or
to third-party ‘scholarship organizations’ to cover tuition at private schools.
Contributors then get tax credits for the amount they donated or a percentage
of that amount.
How do tax credit
scholarships compare with vouchers?
Vouchers are direct payments from government funds to a
family or a private school to cover private school tuition. Both vouchers and
tax credit scholarships divert public tax revenue to private schools.
What’s wrong with tax
credit scholarships?
They allow businesses and individuals to earmark where their
tax dollars are going by sending those dollars to private, including religious,
schools.
How are tax credits
different from tax deductions?
Tax credits typically decrease your tax bill by more than
tax deductions. Instead of paying a tax bill of $X, you pay $X minus credit. A
deduction decreases the amount of income you are taxed on.
How do tax credit
scholarships hurt other charitable causes?
They make donations to these scholarship funds more
attractive than donations to other causes.
Would donors get a
deduction and a credit for these scholarship donations?
The current Illinois proposal would only
give one or the other. In states where donors get a deduction and a 100%
credit, donors can actually make a profit from tax scholarship credit
contributions.
How do they hurt
public schools?
Illinois already doesn’t collect enough tax revenue to pay
for the things a functioning state needs. Public schools are underfunded and
the neediest schools have the fewest resources. The bipartisan state commission
on Ed funding found that IL needs to spend a minimum of $3.5B more than it
currently spends to adequately fund all public schools.
Who do voucher
programs help?
Voucher programs in other states have subsidized families
who were never going to send their children to public school in the first
place. The proposal in Illinois would include a family of four making up to
$113,000.
Who do these programs
hurt?
Private schools can discriminate in admissions on any basis.
They can exclude children based on disabilities, sexual orientation, religious
beliefs or even just behavior or academic ability. Public schools can’t turn
students away and they’ll have a shrinking pot of funding to educate all
students.
Why worry about a
program that might only cost $25 million?
Similar programs in other states have started small and then
ballooned. Wisconsin’s voucher program began with $700K and is now $245M.
Indiana’s started as $7M in 2011 and is now almost $150M. Illinois’ proposal could grow by 25%
a year to nearly $1 billion in a decade.
“The Institute for Taxation and
Economic Policy calls them neovouchers.
“The deal the Party leaders put together was done behind
closed doors. Unless you live in the districts of those four party leaders,
your State Representative and Senator were not involved and had no voice.
“Like past pension reform legislation it is likely they will
not have read what they will be voting on.
“Constituent contact is now vital. Call your state
representative and senator and tell them you oppose this massive tax scam that
benefits the wealthy and undermines public schools. And that you expect them to
oppose it to. They may tell you it is the best deal to get schools open.
“That is baloney too. Vote no and they can bargain some more
without including a $75 million voucher plan” –Fred Klonsky
Join Wendy Katten, Cassie Creswell, Brandon Johnson and Mike
Klonsky on Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers today, Friday, August 25 at
11am. 105.5 CDT. Streaming live on the internet http://www.lumpenradio.com.
Available later as a podcast: hittingleft.libsyn.com
They will be discussing all this.
Commentary:
What
do we know about vouchers and charter schools?
·
Money intended for public schools will go to private schools
·
This money will be in the bank accounts of private investors
·
Voucher proponents prefer selective admission policies that continue the
inequality, stratification, and segregation of students (race, religion, and
class or income)
·
Voucher proponents “represent the most reactionary elements of our society”
·
Vouchers are not about “saving children” or “improving education.” It is about
destroying public education and making profits
·
Vouchers do not increase “Parental choice and control over tax dollars”
·
“Big money” is financing this campaign
·
Voucher advocates are often referred to as “nonpartisan”
·
Koch Brothers, Eli Broad Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, and other
corporate education reformers are proponents of vouchers (and charter schools)
·
Private schools have no accountability, especially for children with
disabilities
·
Privatizers do not acknowledge the role of poverty that creates educational
disadvantages
·
There are no “reliable data” that prove vouchers and charter schools perform
better than public schools; there is evidence to the contrary, however
·
"We Ask America" poll, commissioned by the Illinois Policy Institute
(an organization deeply invested in charter school chains), is questionable
·
There is no separation of church and state in private schools
·
Vouchers have been “declared unconstitutional” in North Carolina; other legal
debates continue
·
It has been noted there is “rampant fraud and abuse” in many for-profit voucher
programs
·
The latest Gallup Poll (2013) found that “70 percent of Americans oppose the
use of public funds for religious or private schools”
·
“The Milwaukee voucher schools have never outperformed the public schools on
state tests: Read here and here. The only dispute about test scores is whether
voucher students are doing the same or worse than their peers in public
schools. Read here about some very low-performing
schools in Milwaukee that have never been held accountable”
·
“Steve Hinnefeld analyzed Indiana’s growth
scores and found that public schools usually showed greater gains than charters
or religious schools”
·
“Public school students perform as well as or better than comparable children
in private schools” (U.S. Department of Education) Diane Ravitch, Death and Life of the
Great American School System)
·
Some charter operators are opened by “hedge-fund managers, for-profit firms,
and get-rich-quick schemers” (Ravitch)
·
Some charter schools (of choice) have been under “federal criminal
investigation for nepotism, conflicts of interest, and financial mismanagement”
(Ravitch)
·
“Enthusiasm for charter schools far outstripped research evidence for their
efficacy… Too many promises that are only, at best, weakly supported by
evidence” (Ravitch)
"Rhetoric of many charter school advocates has come to sound uncannily
similar to the rhetoric of voucher proponents and of the most rabid haters of
public schooling. They often sound as though they want public schools to fail;
they want to convert entire districts to charter schools, each with its own
curriculum and methods, each with its own private management, all competing for
students and public dollars” (Ravitch)
“The charter movement is
now part of the growing privatization of public education and Wall Street
sees an emerging market. Take a look at this piece published last fall
on Forbes.com. ‘…dozens of bankers, hedge fund types and private equity
investors…’ gathered to discuss ‘…investing in for-profit education companies…’
There’s a potential gold rush here. Public education from kindergarten through
high school pulls in more than $500 billion in taxpayer revenues every year,
and crony capitalists and politicians alike are cashing in…” (Bill
Moyers).
-Glen Brown
