Low-income students used as excuse for vouchers
Time and again, state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Marietta, stressed the importance of adding another $30 million to the state’s private-school scholarship program as a way to help students trapped in failed schools and failed systems.
“It is a quasi-voucher,” he told members of a House subcommittee this week. “I will admit that to anybody. It helps people get out of failed systems.” Critics of the program, he said, need to sit down and talk with the grateful parents and children who have used it to escape bad schools.
“I challenge them to look into the eyes of those parents and children and convince them that they really need to go back to the schools that were failing,” he told his fellow legislators.
There is no question that the tax-subsidized program has helped at least some low-income children move into private schools that their parents could never have afforded. However, there is also no question that the program has been and continues to be abused.
Unlike tuition-tax credits in most other states, Georgia makes no attempt to limit the scholarships to children in failing public schools or to low-income children. There is no means-testing of recipients. As a result, tax-subsidized scholarship money collected in the name of helping students in failing schools is being used to benefit economically comfortable students who have never attended public schools for a single day.
To their credit, some supporters of the scholarship program have taken steps on their own to honor its original intent. Arete Scholars Fund, one of more than 30 Georgia organizations that collect and distribute tax-subsidized scholarship money, gives scholarships only to students who are attending public schools, and it awards those scholarships on a strict, needs-based system. According to data released voluntarily by Arete, the average annual household income of its beneficiaries is $28,000, and 82 percent of those receiving aid are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
Georgia Goal, another scholarship organization, pursues similar need-based policies. Like Arete, it focuses its assistance on lower-income households. According to its data — again released voluntarily — its recipients come from households with an average adjusted gross income of $26,601.
Similar policies adopted into state law would go a long way to correcting the program and allowing it to serve many more students in failing schools. At the very least, state scholarship organizations should be required to release information of the type released voluntarily by Arete and GOAL, detailing how much of the $52 million in tax-financed scholarships awarded annually go to lower-income as opposed to middle- and upper-income families.
Unfortunately, we are not allowed to know such things. State law prohibits the collection or distribution of such data by the Georgia Department of Revenue. So while the plight of students in failing schools is used to generate public support for the program, we have no idea how much of the money actually goes to that cause.
It’s important to note that in its latest form, Ehrhart’s bill does contain one substantial reform. For the first time, those who donate to the scholarship program would no longer be allowed to designate who gets that scholarship, which may at least make abuse of the program more difficult. Overall, however, the program would remain the worst-managed, least transparent scholarship program of its kind in the country.
– Jay Bookman
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453 comments Add your comment
комиссар (Occupation)
February 18th, 2013
9:22 am
“Similar policies adopted into state law would go a long way to correcting the program and allowing it to serve many more students in failing schools”
Why not get to the bottom of what’s causing the failed schools instead?
When we get to the point that we are debating over ways to most efficient pull money from “failing” institutions, in essence abandoning them to their fate, then the corporate looters have already won.
josef
February 18th, 2013
9:23 am
Oh, dear, and now comes the trailer parks one…Jeeze…some folks just don’t know when to quit…
Jay
February 18th, 2013
9:24 am
Put another way, what part of “private” don’t you understand?
In this and similar programs, the public can’t require testing of those schools, because they’re “private”. It can’t object when those private schools discriminate, for example by barring gay students or non-Christian students. It can’t object to curriculum.
But it sure as hell can help pay for these “private” schools, correct?
bookman parrot
February 18th, 2013
9:25 am
we want to keep as many people possible tied to public school, where libs can help make them mindless followers of libville
kayaker 71
February 18th, 2013
9:25 am
Time to fix some crock pot chili. Be sure to make that phone call, Bookman……. 1-770-828-4625. Become enlightened.
alex
February 18th, 2013
9:26 am
Private high school in Atlanta, 20-25,000 per year: I wonder how many “middle income” parents can afford that, they should be allowed to receive money if living in a school district with substandard schools. Are these children less deserving?
The president of the United States socializing with Tiger Woods : embarassing.
@Indigo and GT, ranting already, ….
In the middle
February 18th, 2013
9:26 am
Peadawg, no TYPO. I am paying for Public and Private education of today’s youth. It doesn’t bother except in cases where my dollars are waisted by students and parents that don’t even try a little bit.
Bob
February 18th, 2013
9:26 am
Wow ! A kid that is not from a dirt poor family may receive a break ? How un-American is that ? This is America 2013, the only people we are allowed to help are those at the very bottom and if something does not help those at the bottom then it does not get done. We now cater to the lowest life forms, the hell with helping anyone else. I would rather a kid from a higher earning family get help than a breeder.
josef
February 18th, 2013
9:27 am
BROSEPHUS
She’s absolutely perfect…!
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 18th, 2013
9:28 am
Peadawg, no TYPO. I am paying for Public and Private education of today’s youth. It doesn’t bother except in cases where my dollars are waisted[sic] by students and parents that don’t even try a little bit.
Oh, the irony.
josef
February 18th, 2013
9:29 am
JAY
@ 9:24
Despite the boa drape and drama queen rhetoric you make a good point.
teacher
February 18th, 2013
9:30 am
rb 9:08
tax deduction lowers your taxable income.
tax credit lowers your tax bill dollar for dollar.
example: adjusted gross income on 50 k and owe 7500 in taxes.
a 3000 tax deduction would change it to 47k agi and owe 7050 in taxes
while a 3000 tax credit would change it to 50k agi and owe 4500 in taxes
JamVet
February 18th, 2013
9:30 am
And parrot proves why today’s right wing is so willfully ignorant and woefully uninformed.
Mathematics, history, English/grammar, the arts, the sciences, foreign languages, civics, research and critical thinking skills – these have been ceded by them to the “liberals”.
And honestly, it shows…
Thomas Heyward Jr
February 18th, 2013
9:30 am
First off: French fries.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture wanted to limit the amount of French fries to no more than two servings a week, “and Congress stepped in and said the USDA couldn’t put any limits on any vegetables,” Wootan said. Lawmakers apparently bowed to food lobbyists.
Second: pizza — it’s still a vegetable.
The USDA no longer wanted pizza to count as a vegetable, Wootan said. “Congress interfered with that too.”
The good news is, under the new rules, pizza can’t be the only “vegetable” on a student’s tray. There has to be an “additional side of vegetables with it, and the pizza will have whole-grain crust and be lower in sodium.”
……………….
.
Child abuse.
Peadawg
February 18th, 2013
9:31 am
“ONE THIRD.”
Ya the other 2/3 should be breakfast and dinner with the parents.
MiltonMan
February 18th, 2013
9:31 am
A couple of years back went to one of those “Learn how to find more scholarship money for your college-bound child” crappy seminars. Finally after mutiple attempts to get an answer, the “counselor” mentioned that the “majority” of scholarships being offered were need-based and not merit-based. Could never get an actual number of what “majority” meant but that was all I needed to hear.
Peadawg
February 18th, 2013
9:33 am
Jay
February 18th, 2013
9:24 am
Well said!
*polite golf clap*
Keep Up the Good Fight!
February 18th, 2013
9:33 am
We now cater to the lowest life forms, the hell with helping anyone else. I would rather a kid from a higher earning family get help than a breeder.
Please won’t someone help Paris Hilton. Give your dollars today so that she can buy a new dress for a gala affair. And them underserved Kardashians, how can we taxpayers help assure that they maintain their lifestyles even as they become breeders.
GT
February 18th, 2013
9:33 am
td having a ghetto in both poverty and education is like leaving raw sewage to rot on the street. The right has this historical idea they can isolate their world from the problems outside their door. It cannot be done and in trying the right has put themselves in a bubble that distorts reality and here we find the demise of the Republican Party. The party of Lincoln, honest Abe, who met reality in its ugliest form and didn’t not run to FOX for relief.
joe
February 18th, 2013
9:34 am
So Jay are you saying you would prefer if high-income students received vouchers instead of low-income students? Sure…lets waste some more money while we’re at it…
Doggone/GA
February 18th, 2013
9:35 am
A kid that is not from a dirt poor family may receive a break ? How un-American is that ?”
That kid doesn’t NEED a break. They already have one by virtue of not being born into a “dirt poor” family.
alex
February 18th, 2013
9:35 am
@ Jay, it ( the public) can object by not using the tax credit and thus not funding the school, correct?
In the middle
February 18th, 2013
9:35 am
OMG, are you really bi***ing about “freedom of religion”.
Let’s take you pathetic argument one step at a time..Can’t require testing. Private schools overwhelmingly outperform public schools for a number of reason. Testing is not only unnecessary, it would be a waste of money. In addition -They are PRIVATE.
It can’t object when those private schools discriminate, for example by barring gay students or non-Christian students – Again private. Some parents actually like to have freedom of religion. I know other peoples freedoms really puts libs in an uproar. It is private so that it can offer an education that has a religious component. Christian, Muslim, etc..
It can’t object to curriculum. – Don’t mess with success. If children coming out of private school are outperformimg children in public school, exactly what part of the curriculem do you object to, or maybe I forgot that the left of today has designated themselves the nations thought police.
hiram
February 18th, 2013
9:36 am
td,
As a proud graduate of Newt’s “Renewing American Civilization” COARSE, does this story seem all too familiar to you?
The House report addresses, among other things, a complaint filed against Gingrich in 1994 in regards to a course he taught at Kennesaw State College, now Kennesaw State University, titled “Renewing American Civilization.”
Organizers of the course solicited financial support from individuals and organizations with an understanding that the project qualified for tax-exempt status. But the ethics committee concluded that the course did not qualify because it helped achieve a partisan, political goal.
According to the report, approximately $1.2 million was spent on the project over three years.
“The expense was primarily paid for by tax-deductible contributions made to the 501(c)(3) organizations that sponsored the course,” the report states, also noting that the majority of the funds went toward dissemination of Gingrich’s lectures, which were taped and distributed via satellite, videotape and cable television.
“While the course was educational, Mr. Gingrich intended that the workshops would be, among other things, a recruiting tool for GOPAC and the Republican Party,” the report states.
http://kennesaw.patch.com/articles/kennesaw-state-course-central-to-ethics-investigation-against-gingrich
josef
February 18th, 2013
9:36 am
As a general rule, I’m in favor of just about anything that puts the fear of G-d into the Mamonites slopping at the trough of the public coffer, but in this case, all I really see is just another litter of hawgs rooting for a spot…
Thomas Heyward Jr
February 18th, 2013
9:38 am
Peadawg
February 18th, 2013
9:31 am
“ONE THIRD.”
Ya the other 2/3 should be breakfast and dinner with the parents.
——————————————————————————————————————
.
I’m with you there but………………………..the 1/3 was for a LUNCH only.
.
The least that a government school could do(since the State forces poor parents at the tip of a gun to to send their kids is to……..feed them correctly.).
.
They can’t even get that correct…………….because what more can a Statist prog control freak wish for?
Designing a menu for helpless children.
.
It’s Child abuse.
Lee
February 18th, 2013
9:39 am
@Doggone: re ““Easy. Parent pays $3,000 for tuition. Parent files taxes and gets a $3,000 tax credit that lowers their taxes by $3,000.”
More likely scenario:
Parent pays $12-18k for private school tuition.
Parent receives $3k tax credit.
State saves about $5-7k because they didn’t have to provide public schooling for that student.
Local schools still receive the hundreds, if not thousands, that the parent still pays in property taxes.
Sounds like a good “investment” for the state to make. Even though I detest the use of the word “investment” and government in the same sentence.
Peadawg
February 18th, 2013
9:40 am
“the 1/3 was for a LUNCH only.”
Right. Then 1/3 for Breakfast and 1/3 for Dinner that the parents should provide. Or are you the type that thinks the schools/teachers should be responsible for EVERYTHING?
комиссар (Occupation)
February 18th, 2013
9:41 am
Bob: ” This is America 2013 …. We now cater to the lowest life forms, the hell with helping anyone else”
Very interesting statement. Care to elaborate on that a little for us?
Moderate Line
February 18th, 2013
9:43 am
GT
February 18th, 2013
8:47 am
Ronald Reagan Parkway poor whites in trailer parks and rural areas vote Republican. They are the heart of the Republican Party, vote wise. Maybe it is time for them to demand a little more punch for their vote instead of siding with the manipulating upper class, just for the pleasure of seeing the minorities suffer.
+++++
Maybe if the Dems give them something to vote for instead of attacking them the would vote differently. It was not to long ago that these people were the heart of the Democratic Party. Roosevelt carried Alabama with 84.7% of the vote, Georgia 91.6%, Louisiana 92.8%, Mississippi 96% and South Carolina 98%. His overall percentage of the vote was 54.7%.
Perhaps the reason they don’t vote Democrat is not because they want blacks to suffer but perhaps it is because they don’t like people like you who are constantly calling them stupid and racist.
Thomas Heyward Jr
February 18th, 2013
9:43 am
From USA Today————–
.
“In the past three years, the government has provided the nation’s schools with millions of pounds of beef and chicken that wouldn’t meet the quality or safety standards of many fast-food restaurants, from Jack in the Box and other burger places to chicken chains such as KFC.”
According to the paper, most fast food chains They test the ground beef they buy five to 10 times more often than the USDA tests beef made for schools during a typical production day.And the limits that many of the chains set for certain bacteria in their burgers are up to 10 times more stringent than what the USDA sets for school beef. Grossed out yet? It get’s even grosser…
“For chicken, the USDA has supplied schools with thousands of tons of meat from old birds that might otherwise go to compost or pet food. Called “spent hens” because they’re past their egg-laying prime, the chickens don’t pass muster with Colonel Sanders — KFC won’t buy them — and they don’t pass the soup test, either. The Campbell Soup Company says it stopped using them a decade ago based on “quality considerations.”
GT
February 18th, 2013
9:43 am
alex according to your thought process if you can’t afford a private school at 25,000 you are a loser and deserve the results your sins have brought you. And people who graduate from private schools deserve the fruits of their labor and the entries that brings them. We all fit in this world of God if we just learn our places.
You wonder why the Republican Party can’t find leadership. It is the same reason royalty no longer rules England.
josef
February 18th, 2013
9:44 am
Those putting forth that the private schools produce a “better” product are being willfully naive. Of course, they do. When you can pick and choose your raw material and get only “the best?” The public school takes whatever comes through the front door, no choice in the matter. And all things considered, they do a pretty good job of it…at least in the classroom.
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
February 18th, 2013
9:45 am
Well, we wouldn’t have all this crime and laziness if more kids went to a Christian school. They could learn about God and Adam and Eve and all that stuff and straighten up and fly right. If that didn’t work a good beating might straighten them out.
God & Adam & Eve & beatings—it’s all you need for a 1st class edumacation.
That’s my opinion & it’s very true. Have a good a.m. everybody.
josef
February 18th, 2013
9:46 am
MODERATE
“Perhaps the reason they don’t vote Democrat is not because they want blacks to suffer but perhaps it is because they don’t like people like you who are constantly calling them stupid and racist”
There is that.
JamVet
February 18th, 2013
9:47 am
Speaking of Cobb County schools and if memory serves, wasn’t there some highly embarrassing incident regarding stickers in science books that made them the laughingstock of the entire country not long ago?
Newsflash!
The Scopes Monkey Trail did not turn out so well for you IDers…
William Smith
February 18th, 2013
9:47 am
If we could only be more transparent the problems in our society would be solved. Most people would not check it if they could. We as a people have our opinions so set that facts can’t change them. What we need is honesty more than being transparent. Our education system is run more for the benefit of special interest than the education of our children. The fact that this system benefits the upper income makes people angry. However, any time it is mentioned that tax reform is needed to better help the middle class these same people scream socialism. Don’t let minor things like facts get in way of decision making.
Thomas Heyward Jr
February 18th, 2013
9:48 am
If progs were sincerely concerned about our children’s education …………………..they would hack at the root.
Instead…………from seatbelt laws, to unlawful drone murders and Obamacare, and what rich kid gets more……………………… they are only interested in CONTROL.
.
There are thousands hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Thoreau, Henry David
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 18th, 2013
9:48 am
For chicken, the USDA has supplied schools with thousands of tons of meat from old birds…
Just because the bird is old, that doesn’t make it useless. Big Ag is interested in selling young birds.
weetamoe
February 18th, 2013
9:49 am
Except too many of the WIC vouchers don’t go for milk, bread, and veggies. If you had been paying attention you might have seen those small *stores* with signs advertising that they buy babies.. Translation: cash for your WIC voucher. We will even come to your apartment with the cash. You don’t even need to buy a bottle of milk or can of powdered formula. In fact we don’t even stock any of that stuff. Guess if you live in one of those rich neighborhoods you haven’t had to drive by the baby stores.
Brosephus™
February 18th, 2013
9:50 am
josef
Thanks!!!
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
9:52 am
we want to keep as many people possible tied to public school, where libs can help make them mindless followers of libville
Another nominee
Goody Three Shoes
February 18th, 2013
9:52 am
So many southern whites wish to vote Democrat but don’t because they are called names?
How about picking any given demographic and play the same game with either party?
josef
February 18th, 2013
9:53 am
JAY
I’m not at all trying to be a snarky here, but what is your solution to the failing schools?
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
9:53 am
Speaking of Cobb County schools and if memory serves, wasn’t there some highly embarrassing incident regarding stickers in science books that made them the laughingstock of the entire country not long ago?
http://www.nbcnews.com/ID/6822028/#.USJAC2fqVvE
JamVet
February 18th, 2013
9:55 am
I doubt the segregationist GOP consciously “wants blacks to suffer”. They are just doing what conservatives have always done vis a vis Civil Rights in this country – NOTHING. Or as little as they can get away with. And what tiny concessions they have ever made were only because liberals and progressives forced them to do so.
So now the new age Democrats-turned-Republicans feel sanctimonious when they blame the victims of entrenched, systemic bigotry, inequality and violence for being poor, uneducated and behind the centuries old eight ball.
And feign surprise when minorities of all colors and creeds want nothing to do with them.
But the rest of us know why they are the Lily White Party.
Duh…
Doggone/GA
February 18th, 2013
9:56 am
“Sounds like a good “investment” for the state to make”
Except the “state” is getting MY money and using it to pay for a private education and *I* have NO SAY in whether or not MY MONEY should be used for that. They are taking my money and giving it to someone else, DIRECTLY.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
February 18th, 2013
9:56 am
how come LIBERALS don’t complain that THEIR politicians stick THEIR kids in PRIVATE SCHOOLS instead of the PUBLIC SCHOOLS they so ESPOUSE???
could it be LIBERALS are HIPPOCRITS?
NO NEED TO RESPOND……… IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION
комиссар (Occupation)
February 18th, 2013
9:57 am
bookman parrot: “we want to keep as many people possible tied to public school, where libs can help make them mindless followers of libville”
Rube much?
GT
February 18th, 2013
9:57 am
Moderate Line I would say the wind blows right in the south. If you want to be popular in this part of the world repeating the mindless catechism of the Republican Party is the first step.
Courage in found in the truth, especially in the south which spit in the face of morality by dedicating it’s history to causes of human suffrage.
And what pray tell has the Republican Party allowed for debate? They exist on the platform of no. Their contribution to our nation is sabotage. At what level would you have us join in this game?
josef
February 18th, 2013
9:58 am
UNCLE SAMANTHA
Yep. But they (we?) don’t want to hear that….
JamVet
February 18th, 2013
9:59 am
Heyward, you oppose seatbelt laws?????????
Thomas Heyward Jr
February 18th, 2013
10:01 am
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 18th, 2013
9:48 am
For chicken, the USDA has supplied schools with thousands of tons of meat from old birds…
Just because the bird is old, that doesn’t make it useless. Big Ag is interested in selling young birds.
——————————————————————————
.
Then YOU eat it.
5 days a week.
Eat their eggs too.
.
I don’t think you could.
But you’ll FORCE the children to.
.
child abuse.
In the middle
February 18th, 2013
10:01 am
Once and for all – A tax deduction doesn’t make it YOUR money. If that were the case I should have a say over how you are taking care of MY HOUSE, or how you are raising “MY CHILDREN” or how you are using MY MONEY FOR YOUR IRA. and so on and so forth.
Thomas Heyward Jr
February 18th, 2013
10:03 am
JamVet
February 18th, 2013
9:59 am
Heyward, you oppose seatbelt laws?????????
———————————————————————-
.
Yes.
Don’t strain yourself.
A zombie or a Government mule …………………. can not understand.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 18th, 2013
10:04 am
Then YOU eat it.
It’s not AVAILABLE for purchase, sport.
You missed the POINT, sport.
Doggone/GA
February 18th, 2013
10:04 am
“could it be LIBERALS are HIPPOCRITS?”
Nope. They are at perfect liberty to put their children in any school they can afford. What is at issue here is the tax credit, not the schools people choose.
Stevie Ray
February 18th, 2013
10:04 am
Nobama
February 18th, 2013
8:02 am
“Stevie Ray-What are you wearing?”
Am I missing something here? What are the options?
Jay
February 18th, 2013
10:05 am
There is no single solution, Josef. We just have to keep doing it all better and recognize that it is a slow process.
Early intervention is critical, and I’ve been making this point for years, long before Obama embraced it. If kids show up in kindergarten never having seen a book of any kind, they are already way behind and it takes a lot of expensive remedial work to correct it.
Likewise, I’d take the “graduation counselors” hired by Perdue and put them in elementary school, for one-on-one work with the kids whom we already know are at great risk of not graduating nine or 10 years later. I’d forgive the student loans of high-performing education majors who teach for five or six years. I’d abandon the notion that all kids have to be on a college track, although that does not mean a less-rigorous non-college track. The German model of technical training/internship seems to work well.
A lot of different things, in other words.
Doggone/GA
February 18th, 2013
10:06 am
“A tax deduction doesn’t make it YOUR money”
Not a tax deduction, a tax credit. I suggest you go back and read where the differenct is defined.
josef
February 18th, 2013
10:07 am
JAY
We certainly seem to be on the same page there. But, hey, that makes sense. No place for that in the debate, eh?
zeke
February 18th, 2013
10:08 am
THERE SHOULD NEVER BE MEANS TESTING OF ANY PROGRAM FUNDED BY TAXPAYERS! According to the Constitution, EVERYONE MUST BE TREATED EQUALLY IN THE EYE OF THE LAW, THE GOVERNMENT! Therefore, amount of income or the assets of a person should never be reason to deny benefits!!! Socialists in government can never seem to get their fill of discriminating against those who are successful in order to redistribute wealth to those who have not, and, in most cases have not even tried! The largest discriminator IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!
josef
February 18th, 2013
10:10 am
GT
And, uh, see Jay’s plan? Pretty much what Mississippi put into action.
“We just have to keep doing it all better and recognize that it is a slow process.”
In the middle
February 18th, 2013
10:10 am
Jay- Outstanding point…
I’d abandon the notion that all kids have to be on a college track, although that does not mean a less-rigorous non-college track. The German model of technical training/internship seems to work well.
We are looking at a shortage of skilled trades. Welders, mechanics, plumbers, HVAC, etc.. All good careeers, and all in need of more workers.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 18th, 2013
10:11 am
Wow, there seems to be a dearth of bootstraps among the randroids around here.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
February 18th, 2013
10:11 am
LIBERALS ARE HIPPOCRITS BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT SCHOOL CHOICE!!!!!!!
UNLESS ITS THEIR KIDS THEY STICK IN PRIVATE SCHOOL
MAYBE THE DONKEY SHOULD BE REPLACED WITH AN OSTRICH WITH ITS HEAD IN THE HOLE IN THE GROUND
JamVet
February 18th, 2013
10:12 am
Heyward, you and your living in the pat really do crack me up.
In the middle
February 18th, 2013
10:12 am
What about EIC. This is a “credit”, any problem with this???
Doggone/GA
February 18th, 2013
10:12 am
“LIBERALS ARE HIPPOCRITS BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT SCHOOL CHOICE!!!!!!!”
When you have shout a lie to prove your point, you have no point
Thomas
February 18th, 2013
10:12 am
$8/ hour * 2080 hours * 2 adults working= $33,280.
1 bedroom apartment in a good public school district very doable. No one is “trapped”.
Aquagirl
February 18th, 2013
10:13 am
Yep. But they (we?) don’t want to hear that…
I don’t generally know much about a politician’s choice of schools unless it’s mentioned, and I don’t support pulling kids into the spotlight. If they can afford to send their kids where they prefer, it’s their money and their business.
I can see why a say, a Cabinet member or President would send their kid to private school just for security purposes.
Granny Godzilla
February 18th, 2013
10:13 am
weetamoe
February 18th, 2013
9:49 am
Except too many of the WIC vouchers don’t go for milk, bread, and veggies. If you had been paying attention you might have seen those small *stores* with signs advertising that they buy babies.. Translation: cash for your WIC voucher. We will even come to your apartment with the cash. You don’t even need to buy a bottle of milk or can of powdered formula. In fact we don’t even stock any of that stuff. Guess if you live in one of those rich neighborhoods you haven’t had to drive by the baby stores
.
.
.How much? What are the fraud stats?
Is the fraud any greater percentage wise than in tax returns?
Doggone/GA
February 18th, 2013
10:14 am
“What about EIC. This is a “credit”, any problem with this???”
I suggest you read the title of Jay’s blog and see if you can figure out what the answer might be
Granny Godzilla
February 18th, 2013
10:14 am
UNCLE SAMANTHA
February 18th, 2013
10:11 am
LIBERALS ARE HIPPOCRITS BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT SCHOOL CHOICE!!!!!!!
UNLESS ITS THEIR KIDS THEY STICK IN PRIVATE SCHOOL
MAYBE THE DONKEY SHOULD BE REPLACED WITH AN OSTRICH WITH ITS HEAD IN THE HOLE IN THE GROUND
.
.
.
.
.
Poppycock
josef
February 18th, 2013
10:15 am
THOMAS
Okay, take that 10:12 to Atlanta. Where are the “good” schools and what are the rents for the most modest lodgings in those districts?
Thomas
February 18th, 2013
10:15 am
http://www.asianweek.com/2012/04/28/introduction-to-basic-asian-values
josef
February 18th, 2013
10:17 am
UNCLE SAMANTHA
As I said, “we” don’t want to hear that.
Me? I don’t trust anybody who’s selling a product they won’t buy themselves.
St Simons - he-ne-ha
February 18th, 2013
10:19 am
just speaking as a parent of 5 public school age little wild indians here-
(and they ARE by-god publicly educated)
if I was gonna make a shameless unconstitutional attempt to
control the curriculum, and sneak it by voters, and cheat
the system to do it – if it meant THAT much to me to control
the curriculum, I would make SURE that curriculum made my
children smarter & better prepared for the 21st century, not
make them more ignunt and backwards, like these
supply-side-jaysus-rode-the-dinosaur-fer-profit scams
But that’s a Georgia Republican for ya.
Bernie
February 18th, 2013
10:21 am
This School Choice scheme and planned Voucher Plan being peddled by the Republican establishment is nothing but a thinly veiled attempt to undermine and destroy the current Public School Education system and its funding across the Nation. The ultimate end result of such a scheme, will introduce a return of an old established process of institutionalized segregation of the educational process of America’s children. This time RACE will not be the only determining factor, economics will make it an equal opportunity discrimination.
For the millions of children who are left behind in this scheme, they will become America’s permenant underclass of UNDESIRABLES. Abandoned and without hope or any chance of becoming a productive member or contributor of this Great Nation. Unfortunately, this occurrence remains a popular acceptable consequence which they so gleefully and wildly support.
Isn’t it strange how the Republican and Tea Party supporters, claim they are the most GOD Fearing, family values, pro life, patriotic supporters of America, when all of their actions prove just the opposite. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!
Cheesy Grits is gone but not forgotten
February 18th, 2013
10:22 am
I’d abandon the notion that all kids have to be on a college track
This is most important thing I think
I remember high school being a joke.
The kids that were going to college weren’t challenged because the curriculum was “dumbed down” so kids who had no interest could pass.
The kids that weren’t going to college just wanted training and find a vocation. They should have been allowed to do this instead of reading Beowulf which they didn’t understand anyway.
We did have some vocational schools and such but it wasn’t nearly comprehensive enough.
josef
February 18th, 2013
10:23 am
He ne ha…
And as far as “us” controlling the curriculum, I daresay those making that charge don’t have any little semi-savages to re-educate once they get home…
In the middle
February 18th, 2013
10:24 am
This is obviously become a case of “more envy” Other than not being able to control other peoples money what is the issue. Who cares as long as the kids get the benefit. Shouldn’t the whole argument be about improving education and less about somebody using a tax credit. Who cares really, other than those consumed with a control complex.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 18th, 2013
10:24 am
UNCLE SAMANTHA
As I said, “we” don’t want to hear that.
Meh.
This has been addressed countless times on threads of this topic. If my representative wants to send his kids to private school and can afford it, then fine.
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 18th, 2013
10:26 am
This is obviously become a case of “more envy”
And there’s the same sign.
Stevie Ray
February 18th, 2013
10:26 am
Jay
February 18th, 2013
10:05 am
The German apprenticeship model is something we desperately need.
In my experience, the parents involvement in PTA defines the quality of education for any elementary school. Unfortunately, the quality is also negatively affected by the number of transient (apartments etcetera) families sending kids to a particular school.
Some of those factors will not change. Also, I’m not sold on the idea that comparison for our educational outcomes to the other countries “ahead” of us are appropriate.
Every administration sells education reform or whatever…yet things don’t change. Why do we keep doing the same things and expecting different results?
MiltonMan
February 18th, 2013
10:27 am
“…and cheat
the system to do it – if it meant THAT much to me to control
the curriculum, I would make SURE that curriculum made my
children smarter & better prepared for the 21st century, not
make them more ignunt and backwards, like these
supply-side-jaysus-rode-the-dinosaur-fer-profit scams
But that’s a Georgia Republican for ya.”
Yes, it is a great thing that we have the democrats in charge of the APS, DeKalb & Clayton school districts – all “stellar” education areas shielded from the evil cons.
weetamoe
February 18th, 2013
10:27 am
Jay @ 9:24
If you had kids at Friends’ School, Paideia, or Galloway you would not say that.
josef
February 18th, 2013
10:28 am
CHEESY
I was taught Beowulf in a company mill town public school in Mississippi (in the sixth grade, btw). Didn’t understand it? Ah, not with Miz Jodie Aaron teaching it. The transformation of the Anglo Saxon into Modern English being an objective…
Oh, yes, and what was Grendel’s mother’s’s name? That was the 5 point bonus question on the final. Guess what? Three of us got it, and two were mill hand’s children one of whom went on to law school, and the other who became a saw sharpener.
td
February 18th, 2013
10:28 am
GT
February 18th, 2013
9:33 am
“td having a ghetto in both poverty and education is like leaving raw sewage to rot on the street.”
The “ghetto” in both poverty and education is there by CHOICE and until we (Nation) decides to hold parents accountable for their children’s education or force the unaccountable to sterilization then we will always have a problem no matter the amount of money that is thrown at the problem. This country has spent trillions of dollars since the 1960’s on the great society and education for the poor and the results are we still have the same % of “ghetto” poverty and education today as then.
Oscar
February 18th, 2013
10:29 am
Escape a failed system – Why don’t we fix the failed system. Seems like a better idea – for everybody. Not just the one that gets out to a private school
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
February 18th, 2013
10:29 am
Oh, yes, and what was Grendel’s mother’s’s name?
That’s easy. Angelina Jolie.
Stevie Ray
February 18th, 2013
10:30 am
Doggone/GA
February 18th, 2013
10:12 am
Everybody is a hypocrite at some point. Isn’t that one of the main purposes of this and other forums to point that out about one who doen’t share your opinion?
UNCLE SAMANTHA
February 18th, 2013
10:30 am
funny how LIBERALS use the word WE
when it should be the word I
apply the analogy to INCOME
for liberals your income is OURS
their income is MINE
barking frog
February 18th, 2013
10:30 am
Does not this tax credit come from tax revenue and not school
funds and if stopped does not increase school funding but goes
back to the pot to be spent by the governor and his cronies.
alex
February 18th, 2013
10:31 am
Jay, show us the long term data on early pre K school, You’ve read my posts on the “german model”, this has been around for decades. Great example is the “apprentice School” in virginia…
Common Sense is Uncommon
February 18th, 2013
10:34 am
This article is an admission the public schools are a failure. The solution is to close the public schools and out source all education to private enterprise. It wiould probably be less than half the cost with a ten fold improvement in educating our youth.
td
February 18th, 2013
10:35 am
Jay
February 18th, 2013
10:05 am
“Early intervention is critical, and I’ve been making this point for years, long before Obama embraced it. If kids show up in kindergarten never having seen a book of any kind, they are already way behind ”
And in todays society that is child abuse. Why are these parents not being held accountable for abusing their children and wasting the taxpayers money for remedial education, special ed money ect…?
Doggone/GA
February 18th, 2013
10:35 am
“Who cares as long as the kids get the benefit.”
Why should kids who already have the benefit of parents who are doing well benefit even more from MY money?
комиссар (Occupation)
February 18th, 2013
10:35 am
josef, jay: “I’m not at all trying to be a snarky here, but what is your solution to the failing schools?”
Has there been a single mention this morning of the teachers and the conditions they labor under?
It seems that BOTH sides, rube and lib ilk alike, fall into the habit of speaking of education as though the work does itself.
But what about the teachers?
Jay, you mention Germany, but of course the union-driven industry-education alliance that country has would be difficult to reproduce here. Not impossible, but difficult. But generally, northern European countries with far better educational outcomes are generally cultures in which the teaching profession is not only not discounted as it is here, but is in fact quite prestigious. Until we start valuing the profession of teaching – at all levels – more, we are not going to see real improvement in educational results.
josef
February 18th, 2013
10:35 am
K’CHAK