The supporters of vouchers led by Tampa Millionaire John Kirtley have deep pockets, unfortunately they don't want to use that money to pay for vouchers, instead they want to make sure that you do and to facilitate this they have created a group called the Florida Federation of children to further their aims but make no mistake it's not public school children that they care about.
Instead they have pledged to use their considerable wealth to influence school board races and that's despicable. School board races are supposed to be intimate affairs where neighbors pick one of their own to represent them and their schools. Now if the supporters of vouchers have their way then people will be represented by board members who prefer privatization to improvement and school board races which have typically been low budget affairs are the perfect places for them to buy seats because money typically outweighs message.
Message is a problem with voucher proponents too. Instead of answering legitimate concerns about accountability they try and drown them out with money provided by Charter Schools USA and John Baker of Jacksonville a man with close ties to several charter schools who along with Kirtley are the backers of the Florida Federation of Children. Ask yourself, do you want millionaires and charter school owners influencing your school board races, electing board members who are loyal to them not to you?
It's already happening too. Misleading mailers in Miami, John Kirtley bragging about getting school board members not from where he lives defeated and the republican party of Jacksonville threatening board members with political retribution if they don't support vouchers.
You know if these ultra rich individuals wanted to pull their money to provide vouchers nobody would have a problem. They however don't want to do that and instead expect the citizens of Florida to make up the losses to the state treasury that the scholarships incur. Last year alone that was 714 million dollars. Read that again.
People must ask themselves do they want school board representatives to be people who are dedicated to improving our public schools or to be people who are dedicated to replacing our public schools, the voucher group falls into the latter.
To read more, click the link: http://miamiherald.typepad.
Instead they have pledged to use their considerable wealth to influence school board races and that's despicable. School board races are supposed to be intimate affairs where neighbors pick one of their own to represent them and their schools. Now if the supporters of vouchers have their way then people will be represented by board members who prefer privatization to improvement and school board races which have typically been low budget affairs are the perfect places for them to buy seats because money typically outweighs message.
Message is a problem with voucher proponents too. Instead of answering legitimate concerns about accountability they try and drown them out with money provided by Charter Schools USA and John Baker of Jacksonville a man with close ties to several charter schools who along with Kirtley are the backers of the Florida Federation of Children. Ask yourself, do you want millionaires and charter school owners influencing your school board races, electing board members who are loyal to them not to you?
It's already happening too. Misleading mailers in Miami, John Kirtley bragging about getting school board members not from where he lives defeated and the republican party of Jacksonville threatening board members with political retribution if they don't support vouchers.
People must ask themselves do they want school board representatives to be people who are dedicated to improving our public schools or to be people who are dedicated to replacing our public schools, the voucher group falls into the latter.
To read more, click the link: http://miamiherald.typepad.
"... the republican party of Jacksonville threatening board members with political retribution if they don't support vouchers." I figured this is one of the big reasons Char
ReplyDeletelie Crist was ostracized by the Republican Party!