DeSantis on the stump lying about education

Republicans in Tallahassee have gerrymandered districts, and suppressed voters and as a result they have dominated Tallahassee. Now DeSantis, who has bragged about packing the supreme court, not that it wasn’t already very conservative, is now straight up lying to people about school choice.

From the Palm Beach Post:

 Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Thursday that pours state taxpayer money directly into private schools for a new Family Empowerment Scholarship, which critics say violates the state constitution.

On a three-city tour of private schools, DeSantis touted the new program, which is expected to cost $136 million and be used by 18,000 lower-to-middle-income students in the coming year.

“Your success shouldn’t be limited by family income, what zip code you live in,” DeSantis said at Potter’s House Christian Academy in Jacksonville. “It should be based on you working hard and getting the most out of your God-given talents.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20190509/desantis-signs-bill-creating-school-voucher-program-court-challenge-looms

DeSantis uses that zip code line a lot, as do others who seek to privatize education but as you can see below most of the children taking vouchers aren’t coming from zip codes mired in poverty where most of the schools blamed as poor performing are and more than a few come from some of the most affluent zip codes around.  

I am sure the zip code line was market tested to death and it’s also a straight up lie and DeSantis either knows that and doesn’t care or he’s ignorant which is just as bad.

Furthermore, this latest voucher program isn’t targeting families in the poorer neighborhoods, it’s looking for those squarely in middle class ones. Also from the Palm Beach Post,

 While the tax credit scholarships are used by about 100,000 lower-income, mostly black and Hispanic students, the Family Empowerment Scholarships targets a new market.

Under the legislation, a family of four earning as much as $77,250 annually could qualify for the scholarships, which equals 300 percent of the federal poverty level, although lower-income families would still get a preference.

If DeSantis really cared about kids in poor zip codes, instead of starting another voucher scheme which will hurt many of them by siphoning away resources, he would say, we are going to do whatever it takes to mitigate poverty, but that's not what he has done.

Friends I don’t like it when politicians lie to us or use cherry picked self-serving and or distorted facts and sadly that’s just about all the pro privatization politicians in Florida have.