Remember that special education voucher program that was supposed to help children with special needs? Well, here’s the truth about that hoax (and keep reading to see what Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves is proposing now)… The voucher program rules stack the deck against children with special needs, giving all the power to private voucher schools to […]
Reeves Threatens Voucher Expansion Read More »
Mississippi’s PEER* Committee has issued a damning report of our state’s ESA voucher program, which uses public funds to pay private school tuition for children with special needs. Findings include: • Since the program’s implementation in 2015, 43% of funds appropriated have not been spent • Of 776 new vouchers assigned prior to December 2018, only 346 were
PEER Review of Vouchers: Fraud, Lack of Accountability, Unspent Funds Read More »
Privatizers are sending out mailers intended to trick public school supporters into backing vouchers. Their direct mail pieces claim that Education Savings Accounts (their fancy name for vouchers) “provide families freedom” and “provide teachers flexibility to foster and nurture students.” Both claims are patently false. ESAs are designed to benefit private schools, not students. Here are
The Voucher Hoax in Your Mailbox Read More »
More than a third of Mississippi’s voucher funds are not being used. A recent public records request revealed that more than a third of the funds that the Mississippi Legislature appropriated for private school vouchers last year was not spent. In fact, so few of the students who were assigned special needs vouchers were able
Mississippi Voucher Funds Go Unused Read More »
Lawmakers were given misinformation during the first round of the voucher debate. As legislators were being urged to pass a bill allowing vouchers for private school tuition, they were told repeatedly that the state’s largest school district, DeSoto County, has no program to serve students with dyslexia. DeSoto County students, it was claimed, were desperate
Misinformation at Play in Voucher Debate, Budget Woes Worsen Read More »
Yesterday, Speaker Gunn told Capitol reporters that the House would hold the MAEP appropriation for FY2018 (next school year) until they take up the rewrite of the MAEP formula. This morning, the House Appropriations Committee passed a K-12 funding bill that funds the Department of Education and special programs like literacy but omits MAEP funding for public
Curious Turn on MAEP, More Vouchers to Fight Read More »
Virtually identical bills for vouchers and other “school choice” initiatives show up regularly in state legislatures across the country. They are the work of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – a corporate bill mill that is funded by large for-profit corporations that want to make a buck (many, many bucks) off of taxpayer dollars.
ALEC – Out-of-state, Corporate Interests at Work in Mississippi Read More »
House Bill 33 amends the existing special education voucher law to expand the time period in which a student can have had an active Individualized Education Program (IEP) from 18 months to five years to be eligible for a voucher. A troublesome development with this bill occured when Education Chairman John Moore proposed an amendment adding a reverse
Troublesome Development with HB 33 – Vouchers Read More »
The House Education Committee has passed House Bill 943, a voucher bill that would send your tax dollars to private, virtual, for-profit, and home schools to cover the cost of tuition and other expenses. The bill would provide some students, even some without disabilities, more funding than is allocated for each student attending public schools, and could cost
Voucher Bill Headed to House Floor Read More »
The very out-of-state voucher lobbyists that are peddling bills to funnel your child’s Mississippi public school dollars into private academies and for-profit schools just had a set-back in Tennessee. When they tried their tricks in the Volunteer State, Tennessee moms and dads weren’t having it – and their legislators listened. Now it’s our turn, Mississippi! The same lobbyists that funded
Big-Dollar Voucher Lobbyists in Mississipppi Read More »
