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Saturday, May 30, 2015

Sens. Cruz and Lee: Expand School Choice For Low-Income Parents

(CNSNews) -- As Congress considers reauthorization of the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), U.S. Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) want to expand school choice by allowing low-income parents the opportunity to send their children to any public or private school of their choice.

Their bill, entitled the Enhancing Educational Opportunities for All Students Act (S.306), which was introduced in the Senate on January 29, calls for a three-fold reform of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) which was passed in 1965 and reauthorized as NCLB in 2002.

“All students should have access to a high quality education. This legislation will empower parents to invest more in their child's education and allow parents to choose what school best meets their child's needs,” Lee stated.

Sen. Cruz concurred. “The rich and middle class have had school choice from the beginning of time,” he said. “This fight is about ensuring that every child, regardless of race, ethnicity, or zip code has the same opportunity to choose the school that best fits their needs and will help them achieve their very best.”

According to Senator Lee’s website, the first provision of the bill would allow federal Title I funds to follow low-income students to any public or private school of their choice. In 2015, the federal poverty guideline is $20,090 for a family of three.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't get it. Does this mean parents get a credit equal to the amount their district spends per public school student, to be used at the private school of their choice? That will work out really well for Baltimore since they spend about twice as much per student as elsewhere in Maryland, and get only a fraction of the results out of them. Those parents would have a bigger chunk with which to send the child to a better school.

I foresee private school tuition dramatically increasing, once a "voucher"' system is in place.

Some of the private schools aren't open enrollment to just anyone who shuffles in off the street with a voucher, they are competitive and require an application to earn admission. Are they going to be required to accept a certain number of "underperforming" and "high maintenance" voucher kids?

And are private schools then going to be forced to operate under government regulations? Such as obama's executive order requiring black kids to receive no more discipline than whites, regardless of their behavior? How is that going to go over, with parents who spend the money on private school to keep their child from having to contend with the ghetto subculture at school?

What happens when six foot tall sixth grader Ra'quise smugly tells the teacher to go f&@k herself, can a private school kick his ass out for repeated disruptive behavior, since public schools no longer can do so?

And finally...how many "underprivileged troubled youths" will the Sydney Friends School allot for a quota?

Anonymous said...

6:30 PM....spot on.

Anonymous said...

630pm, Raquis is expelled back to the Public zoo, who should be equipped these days with a "lock-down" school. You know, the one up for replacement, but instead is renovated into a 24-7 prison where a student is required to learn respect, learning type behavior, and stfu type behavior in an air conditioner- free zone. Since it's such a hell hole, let's use East Salisbury, if it's big enough for all the A-holes we have now, or Bennett Middle if the population demanded it.

Teachers would be in a bulletproof glass cage (A/C included) to instruct the animals on how to behave in class.

Failing students are sent to jail for 5 years, no matter of age.

It's just not worth any more effort!