Category: School Choice

Stories about school choice, vouchers and Pennsylvania Improvement Educational Tax Credit or IETC

Pa Leadership Panel Provokes Tea Partyers On SB1

Statements made regarding conservative skeptics of SB 1, the pending school choice legislation in the Pennsylvania legislature, at the 2011 Pa. Leadership Conference has those skeptics seeing blue.

An email blast sent by Lisa Esler of the Delaware County Patriots notes that critics of SB1 were not represented on a panel aimed at discussing the bill and that those on the panel were insulting to the critics and painted a false picture of their motives.

Mrs. Esler, in her email, said that Matt Kibbe of Freedomworks called the critics “bedwetters” while State Sen. Jeff Piccola (R-15), who is one of the authors of the bill, implied that racism was what was driving them.

The truth is that the Tea Party groups who are criticizing SB1 are for the most part strong supporters of school choice. Their objections to the bill are not that it helps kids from destitute families in failing school districts but that it fails to help struggling families in overrated suburban districts who may have a child stuck for a year with one of the many incompetent, union-protected teachers that fill those districts.

These Tea Party groups are filled with people who strongly supported helping destitute “inner-city” kids escape bad schools when it “wasn’t cool” so it is a rather serious smear to accuse them of racism.

Mrs. Esler also noted that unlike other panels, questions regarding SB1 were  pre-screened.

The conference, held April 9, brought A-list conservative speakers to the Radisson Penn Harris Hotel and Conference Center in Camp Hill including Dr. Charles Krauthammer, Sen. Pat Toomey, columnist John Fund and activist Herman Cain.

SB1 Tea Party Support Claim Disputed

A claim of support for SB1, the  pending school choice bill in the Pennsylvania Senate, is causing consternation among some Tea Party activists.

The Facebook page of  Ana Luiza Lannes Puig, who is a prominent Bucks County Tea Partyist,  says that “18 local Tea Party groups came together in Pittsburgh  to support SB1” at Tuesday’s Freedom Works event.

A screenshot of the page is being circulated among other prominent Tea Partyists, with other emails saying that SB1 was not the focus of the event and that many of the groups have yet to decide where they stand on it.

The Tea Partyists who are objecting to SB1 generally want a much more comprehensive bill with the state aid following all students, not just those  below a certain level of income or in particularly bad school districts.

For those who want to bandy about the word “racism”, please note that those who fall below a certain level of income or are in particularly bad school districts would not be left out by the changes these Tea Partyists seek.

Endorsements Pile On For Pa. School Choice Bill

A number of respected organizations ranging from the Black Alliance For Educational Options to Citizens Against Higher Taxes to the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association to Eagle Forum have added their endorsements to SB 1, the school choice bill winding its way through the Pennsylvania legislature.

It is expected that many of the school choice proponents who have been giving the bill a cold shoulder will come aboard as amendments to their liking are made when the bill gets to the State House as indicted by State Rep. Curt Schroder (R-155) during a March 6 debate at Independence Visitors Center in Philadelphia.

Hopefully, those in the House who care about children can make the state reimbursement follow every child regardless of income and residence.

Also it should be noted that changes made to the bill in the Senate Education Committee as reflected in Printer Number 721 aren’t likely to please the Choice-Yes/SB1-No crowd. The new limit for the tax credits under the Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program was lowered from $100 million to $92 million (the present limit is $75 million); the reimbursement to the school district for the pupil has been subtracted from the daily average revenue calculation for school districts, which will mean smaller scholarships;  and “nonpublic school” has been defined to mean “nonprofit entity exempt from federal taxation.

Less controversial changes include  expanding the eligibility for the scholarship in the second year of the phase-in  all “low-income children who will reside within the attendance boundary of a persistently lowest achieving school during the 2012-2013 school year” rather than just those  have already been enrolled in a non-public school.

Also a restriction has been added to prevent the recruiting of athletes.

Also a requirement that non-public schools make available its written polices upon request to those seeking enrollment has been added.

Also clarifications have been made about transportation reimbursement and how the scholarships can be used with other financial assistance to non-public schools.

Here is a list of the organizations whose endorsement of SB1 was announced March 22:

The American Council of Christian Churches, Pennsylvania Regionals
Advocates for Catholic Education in Pennsylvania (ACE-PA)
American Federation for Children (AFC)
American Grassroots Coalition
Association of Independent Baptist Churches of Western Pennsylvania
Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI)
Association of Independent Baptist Churches of Western Pennsylvania
Baptist Bible Fellowship of Pennsylvania
Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO)
Business Leadership Organized for Catholic Schools (BLOCS)
Center for Education Reform
Central and North Central Pennsylvania Fundamental Pastors Association
Children’s Jubilee Fund
Christian Family & Children’s Center
Christian Schools International
Citizens Against Higher Taxes
Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania
Commonwealth Foundation
Concerned Citizens of Western PA
Council on American Private Education – National
Eagle Forum
Faith First Education Assistance
52nd Street Business Association
52nd Street Community Development Corporation
Freedom Works
Fundamental Baptist Fellowship of Pennsylvania
Harrisburg Area Independent Baptist Pastor’s Fellowship
Hebron Vision Human Resource Center
Interchurch Holiness Convention (Pennsylvania)
Keystone Christian Education Association
LaSalle Academy
Let Freedom Ring
Lincoln Institute
Orthodox Union
PA Family Institute
PA Manufacturers Association
Pastor’s Fellowship of North Eastern Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Association of Regular Baptist Churches
Pennsylvania Catholic Conference
Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools (PCPCS)
Pennsylvania Council on American Private Education
Reach Foundation
Right To Work
Students First
Talk Magazine
The American Council of Christian Churches
The Foundation for Educational Choice
The Kitchen Table Patriots

Hat tip Bob Guzzardi.

Answering Tea Party Objections to SB 1


Ed Note: According to Tea Party activist Teri Adams, the question and answers noted below were from the newsletter of the Unite PA, Lancaster and are not intended to reflect a “Tea Party” consensus.
 

Citizen’s Alliance for Pennsylvania has written a response to the objections of some Tea Party groups to SB 1, which is the pending school choice legislation in Pennsylvania.  After Sunday’s debate hosted by The Independence Hall Tea Party Association, however, it seems many of the concerns are moot matters as there is very little Tea Party opposition in principle to school choice and that the objections to SB 1 involve simply scope and mechanics which are likely to be addressed when the bill gets to the House.

 

For instance, Chris Freind, one of the most vocal and articulate critics of SB1, said Sunday that he didn’t think the bill — even as is — would be found to be unconstitutional and would likely save the taxpayers money.

 

So let’s get the bill out of the Senate and into the House, and shine it into a gem and save all the children from the burning building to use Pastor Joe Watkins analogy.

 

Anyway hat tip Bob Guzzardi for  the CAP response which follows:

 

 

Answering TEA Party Objections to SB 1

Several TEA Party groups in Pennsylvania have banded together
to declare opposition to SB 1, listing their grievances with the
legislation.  While their heart is in the right place, their reasons for
opposing SB 1 have flaws. Herewith, a point-by-point refutation:

1. TEA Party Objection: Is SB 1 constitutional?
PROBABLY NOT but the state will find a way to subvert the constitution
by funneling money through the General Fund and using case law to defend
its premise.  Article III, Sec 15.

Rebuttal:  To which constitutional attorneys should we turn to
answer this question: PSEA labor union attorneys or the premier
conservative/libertarian public interest law firm, the Institute for
Justice, and their Pennsylvania partners?  The latter have directly
testified to the constitutionality of Senate Bill 1.   

In short, the Pennsylvania State Constitution states, “No money
raised for the support of the public schools of the Commonwealth shall
be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school.”
State General Fund revenue does not meet this definition as it is not
raised for the purposes of funding public education.  School district
property taxes are raised for this purpose and that is why Senate Bill 1
involves only state funding for private schools, and not local tax
property revenue.

Pennsylvania case law
permits the transfer of funds to parents for the purposes of exercising
school choice.  In other words, because scholarships are given to
parents who then makes school choices, this money is not being given
directly to private schools. Furthermore, Pennsylvania’s General Fund
already includes line items directly funding private school students.

Finally, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will have jurisdiction
over any legal issues or concerns of constitutionality, though voucher
programs have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

2. TEA Party Objection: Does SB1 increase the size
and scope of government?  YES, there will be a new department acting
independently, hand picked by the Governor and accountable to
themselves.

Rebuttal: There is no new “department” being created, nor is it
unaccountable.  It will be an unpaid “Educational Choice Board” within
the Department of Education tasked with the responsibility of
implementing, administrating, and overseeing the $75 million EITC
program and the $25 million voucher program.  This neither increases the
size nor expands the scope of government but provides the vehicle
through which more choices will be given to more children trying to
escape the public school system.

3. TEA Party Objection: Does SB1 take property ($) from one person and give it to another without their consent? YES, ‘Vouchers’ will be provided to only low income families, of whom generally do not pay school tax.

Rebuttal: Do you currently “consent” to the $26 billion we spend
on the public schools today?  How about the $19,634 the taxpayers pay
for a public school kid in Pittsburgh?  And how much do families in
these failing school districts pay in taxes today for this massive
education subsidy?  Unless the TEA Party is advocating abolishment of
public education altogether, money is going to be taken from you for
that purpose; at least with SB 1, your tax money will bear portability
and flexibility, which will result in more efficient usage of it, which
in turn will result in savings to you.  

The reality is that taxpayers are already footing incredibly
expensive bills for failing schools and subsidizing low-income
families.  The question then is how do we stop funding failure and start
leaving that money with its rightful owners.  SB1 does this.

Not only does SB1 allow kids to use a voucher to find a better
school, it costs on a fraction of what we are currently paying for
failure.  In Harrisburg, where the taxpayers are paying $17,675 per kid
for failure, the voucher would be worth $8,498.  So a kid uses only half
as much taxpayer money to attend a better school.  This is good news
for the taxpayer.  Of course, it is now incumbent on the Harrisburg
school board to return the remaining $11,136 to its rightful owners—the
taxpayers.  And there is a much better chance of getting nine school
board members to return that money to its citizens than there is in
getting the 253 members of the General Assembly to do it.

SB1 is truly the antithesis of the concern inherent in this objection. 

4. TEA Party Objection: Is SB1 transparent and provide oversite? 
NO, the Education Opportunity Board reports directly to the Governor,
is appointed by the governor and accountable to themselves.

Rebuttal: Where is the lack of transparency and oversight?  The
Educational Choice Board is simply the manager of the legislatively
created program.  Where else and how would you do it differently?

5. TEA Party Objection:  Will SB1
cause a reactionary increase in the cost of non-public
schools?  YES. SB1 will necessarily cause “bloated and more expensive
private education”.  How much does PA spend on higher education?
“State government spends nearly $2 billion annually on higher education. For the 2010-11 fiscal year, state spending is being maintained with the help of $249 million in federal stimulus money. But that spigot will be turned off in June 2011.”  Funding for Grants to Students has increased $55.7 million or 16 percent since 2002-03.   Higher
education provides a cautionary tale of how public subsidies can drive
up the cost of education. State legislatures and the federal government
have provided increasing subsidies to both public and private
universities for decades. The universities then use the subsidies to
spend more on salaries and programs, ultimately raising university
expenses and the call to raise tuition, generally answered with more
subsidies. Wringing their hands about a politically induced college
affordability crisis, politicians have continued to increase subsidies.
Lawmakers should be concerned that the same phenomenon could occur in
K-12 education. (In other words, the non-public schools would have NO
restraint in raising their tuition fees, making it more expensive for
EVERYONE – Why would they leave the money on the table – they won’t!).

Rebuttal: This is an “apples and oranges” analogy that ignores
what happens in a marketplace.  Higher education does not operate on a
portable voucher system and colleges do not have publicly elected school
boards that can control costs.  

Kids using vouchers in private
schools will make up only a fraction of the student body.  This means
that many more parents will be paying some level of tuition.  Any
“reactionary increase” would drive out paying customers—many of whom are
already subsidizing others who may be getting tuition assistance.
Indeed, if low-income students use vouchers—and are no longer in need of
receiving subsidized tuition by those paying the full tuition
rate—tuition could actually go down, rather than up.

6. TEA Party Objection: Does the
SB1 Voucher Program treat all citizens of the Commonwealth equally?  NO,
only low-income families will benefit from the voucher program.

Rebuttal:  The current system doesn’t treat all citizens equally,
but SB1 does make sure that those who need immediate assistance most
get it.  A family of four, earning less than $29,000 would qualify.
Should the voucher be made available to everyone, regardless of income
or school district?  Absolutely.  But no bill has been introduced that
makes the voucher universal.

But SB1 also includes an important increase in the Educational
Improvement Tax Credit scholarship program, whereby a family of four
earning $84,000 would qualify to receive scholarships to attend their
school of choice.  This income level is nearly the double the statewide
average, and clearly benefitting a majority of school-age children.

7. TEA Party Objection:  Does SB1
invite government intrusion into the Private Sector?  YES, Section 2502,
(2) the non-public school is in full compliance with all Federal and
State laws.

SB1 does not require any private school to participate and submit
to any new rules included with the law.  It should be noted that the
Christian, Catholic, and evangelical schools have all been involved in
the crafting of SB1.  There is nothing that prevents the government form
intruding on private schools today.  Eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty, so we must always keep the wolves at bay.

8. TEA Party Objection: Does SB1
address the root cause of the problem or identify the anticipated result
of the solution? NO, there is no mention of what is prompting this
bill.

Rebuttal: The root cause of the problem is the union monopoly of
public schools, kids and teachers.  The union runs our Communistic-type
system and it cannot be dismantled in one election cycle.  It would be
great to do this overnight, but the power and wealth of the unions is
too great today. We must undermine them piece by piece until we the
people can reclaim our tax money, our kids, and our schools.

School choice, even in small bites, is the key to prying off the
unions’ grip on our kids and schools.  They know it, and it’s why they
are spending millions to defeat SB1.  It is troubling, to say the least,
that liberty-loving folks don’t see this and aiding and abetting the
enemy in this fight.

9. TEA Party Objection: Is the
General Assembly providing for the maintenance and support of a thorough
and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of this
Commonwealth?  APPARENTLY NOT because they have introduced SB1 to put a
Band-Aid on a corpse  This is a Big Government solution using tax payer
money reaching into the private sector, where zip code and economics are
being used to determine eligibility.

Rebuttal: So your solution is to keep funding the “corpse”?  As
demonstrated above, SB1 actually begins to REDUCE spending in the
government school system.  Instead of giving the failing system in
Harrisburg $17,675 per kid, the taxpayers would pay for a voucher of
only $8,498 to actually give the child an education.  We then have to
demand that the school board returns the remaining $11,136 to its
rightful owners—us.  How is this a “Big Government solution”?

10. TEA Party Objection:  Is
SB1 Vulnerable to lobbyists and special interests: Any system in which
the government rather than the consumer pays the bills is susceptible to
capture by special interests. Just as teachers’ unions consistently
(and successfully) lobby for higher educational spending to raise
teachers’ salaries, so government-funded vouchers would lead
private school organizations to band together and lobby for larger
vouchers. Since the school organizations would be organized on this
issue, and since parents and other taxpayers are generally not
organized, it is likely that vouchers would increase over time. How
these increases would compare to the rapid growth we have already
witnessed in public school spending is impossible to say. It is
worthwhile to note that when consumers are responsible for paying
their own way, lobbying is no longer possible: the only way you can
lobby your own customers is to offer better services. This is why
competitive market prices are generally lower than public (government)
costs for similar services–existing private versus public schools are a
case in point.

Rebuttal: Government is always vulnerable to lobbyists and
special interests.  That’s why we need limited government and less
wealth redistribution.  SB1 moves us in that direction, not away from
it.  This is also why the lobbyists and special interests are OPPOSED to
SB1, not for it. 

11.  TEA Party Objection:  Is this a bailout for the
NON-public Schools?  YOU DECIDE. The Catholic School System has been
suffering from enrollment decline for over 10 years.  The Archdiocese of
Philadelphia has lost 34,462 students or about 34 percent of its total
school enrollment since 2001, according to figures provided by the Catholic Church.  Private school enrollment down:   http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/09/private_school_enrollment_stat.html

Catholic School Enrollment down:  http://www.ncea.org/news/annualdatareport.asp

Rebuttal: A bailout? Hardly.  The overwhelming majority of
private schools are guided by a mission to serve, not make a profit.
It’s the unions who are profiting from the current system that pays high
salaries, unaffordable pension benefits, and premium health care
programs—all at the taxpayers’ expense. By not enacting SB 1 and thus
allowing the current public school monopoly to continue, it is the
public schools and their unions we are propping up and bailout out.

12. Is there a Constitutional financial benefit right now in
SB1 for low to middle income Pennsylvania citizens for
homeschooling/cyber schooling/non-public schooling. Homeschool/Cyber
Schools are not included in the bill.  However, non public schools are.
If a family qualifies under the generous EITC program (Education Improvement Tax Credit) it
is possible to receive financial aid.  However, aid varies based on
the number of children in your household, your income and the non-public
school financial aid requirements that you are applying for.

Rebuttal: SB1 expands educational options for many, many
families.  It may not include everyone.  But it certainly isn’t
contracting anyone’s educational options but is an incremental
improvement that will begin busting up the labor unions’ monopoly of
school tax money, kids and teachers.

13. TEA Party objection: Is it the role of government to create competition in the private sector or public sector?  NO

Rebuttal: The problem is that competition is lacking in the
government education system.  SB1 brings more competition into the
current monopoly situation.  Again, this is why the PSEA/PSBA hegemony
is so vehemently opposed to SB1.  Government hates competition and this
is we the people imposing competition on it.

 



Freind Provides More Details On No-Tony SB 1 Debate




Chris Freind has generously provided permission to publish his column regarding yesterday’s school choice debate hosted by The Independence Hall Tea Party Association.


The Great School Choice Debate , hosted by The Independence Hall Tea
Party Association on March 6, was a passionate discussion of Senate Bill
1, the school choice bill currently in the state senate. At issue was
whether SB 1, a limited scope bill granting a voucher to low-income
families (in which the state subsidy would follow the child, not the
school) is the only legislation achievable at this time, or whether a
broader, more comprehensive bill can be passed.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the healthy debate that it should have been
because Senator Anthony Williams, one of the bill’s prime sponsors and a
confirmed panelist, arrived well after the event had ended.  It seems
he was misinformed of the time, despite everyone else getting it right. 

Although mistakes happen, it is curious that this is the second time
in one month that the senator committed to a school choice discussion,
and failed to show.  Some may chalk that up to bad staffing, but others
who have been around politics don’t believe in such coincidence.

Regardless, the discussion was lively, civil and productive, with all
the participants in agreement that school choice was crucial, the only
measure that would bring competition and accountability to our failed
school system. The panelists were:

-Reverend Joe Watkins, former Lt. Gov. candidate, MSNBC commentator and Executive Director of the Students First organization;

-Dom Giordano, talk-show host extraordinaire on 1210 WPHT, the
region’s largest talk-radio station.  Giordano was slated to be the
moderator, but sat with Watkins so the discussion wouldn’t be lopsided.

-State Representative Curt Schroder, a proponent of statewide school
choice. Schroder was a House member in the mid-90’s when a comprehensive
school choice bill barely missed passage;

-Yours truly, author of numerous columns and participant in several
television segments advocating school choice, including why SB 1 is
flawed legislation that will most likely fail if it is not amended in
the House to expand choice.  I was also Executive Director of the REACH
Alliance, the preeminent statewide school choice organization, during
the school choice battles in the 90’s.

Questions were offered by Teri Adams, President of the Independence
Hall Tea Party, Sharon Cherubin, Executive Director of UNITE PA, a
grassroots organization based in Lancaster County, and the audience.

***

Before the Pennsylvania dialogue began, New Jersey state senator
Michael Doherty discussed his state’s efforts to pass education reform. 
Doherty explained that, while more expansive tax credit programs and
school choice would be ideal, they simply weren’t possible given the
sizable Democratic majorities in that state’s House and Senate. He said
that they had to settle for what was politically possible.

And that’s exactly why the defeatist attitude of some SB 1 proponents
is so incomprehensible.  To say that a bill limited only to low-income
families is the best we can hope for is simply inaccurate. 

Which is why something doesn’t pass the sniff test. 

Rational political observers have stated that, if they didn’t know
better, it would seem, for some reason, there has been undue influence
to kill any effort to expand the bill.

Either that, or legislators don’t want to do the work necessary to come up with better legislation.

I had the opportunity to speak with Senator Williams after the
non-debate, and while I came away with some good news, I also left with a
lot more skepticism.

Williams claimed that the legislation for comprehensive, statewide
school choice failed in 1995 by a single vote, a point on which I
wholeheartedly agree.

I then asked him if he would support a more expanded version of
school choice than is currently offered in SB 1, and he stated that he
would (great news), but that “it would not pass,” (a perplexing
statement).

And therein lies the problem.  There is absolutely nothing on which
that assumption can be made, and, in fact, the opposite is undisputedly
true.

Let’s forget our biases for or against school choice, and focus just on the political realities between 1995 and now.

Despite the Republican wave of 1994, the State House remained
Democratic by one vote. It took a party switch to give control to the
GOP — and the ability to push school choice in that chamber.

In the time span since, the legislature has experienced a turnover of at least 70 percent.

Fast forward to the wave of 2010, when thirteen seats flipped and the
GOP gained a ten seat majority.  And not only are there more
conservative legislators, but the public is much more accepting of
school choice.

As an added benefit, Williams will most likely bring several more
Democratic legislators with him who were previously “No” votes.

So let’s follow this logic.  Fact: the statewide school choice bill
fell one vote short in 1995, when the House had a one seat Republican
majority.  Fact: the House now has a 10 vote GOP majority.  Fact:  the
electorate is much more understanding of the need for this legislation. 
Fact: the Republican Governor has stated his support for statewide
school choice.  Fact: Williams brings additional Democratic votes.

Given these facts, the passage of comprehensive school choice legislation should be a slam dunk.

Instead, with no actual vote count having been taken, the white towel has been thrown in before the fight has begun.

The “we can only get school choice incrementally” argument is based
on a number of false assumptions, such as the House and Governorship
remaining in Republican hands over the next several cycles, the
legislature actually agreeing to take up such a controversial issue year
after year while facing the wrath of well-funded teachers unions, and
that a limited program will produce noticeable improvements. And if a
limited program is judged to be only a marginal improvement, the entire
program could be jeopardized, nullifying the one-slice-at-a-time
argument.

Here’s the bottom line: the forces standing in the way of progress by
deliberately ignoring all the political signs need to stop being part
of the problem. 

Pennsylvania cannot improve its economic position by graduating
functional illiterates, which is exactly what we are doing.  Half of the
state’s 11th graders cannot read or write proficiently.

It’s time, once and for all, to take our heads out of the sand and do
the right thing for our children — all of them. Failure to do so will
simply waste another decade and forsake our future.

And what a terrible “choice” that would be.



Amendments To SB 1 Expected In Pa. House


Today’s debate at the Independence Visitors Center in Philadelphia, hosted by the Independence Hall Tea Party Association wasn’t so much between supporters and opponents of SB 1 , the pending school choice legislation in Pennsylvania, but between the play-it-safers and the go-for-the-fencers.

And when the rather collegial affair ended, there seemed to be a consensus that the bill did have room for improvement.

The only disappointing facet of the afternoon was the failure of State Sen. Anthony Williams (D-8) to show up to defend the bill he authored, despite being on the playbill to do so.

Williams did appear long after the debate ended and was seen having an intense, quasi-private discussion with SB 1 critic Chris Freind

It would have been nice to put your cards on the table for all of us to see, Tony.

With regard to the debate, defending it as per the status quo were Rev. Joe Watkins, who is executive director of Students First, and WPHT 1210 AM radio host Dom Giordano, who had been scheduled to moderate but jumped in at the last minute to fill in for Williams. Tea Party activist Don Adams was drafted to  take Giordano’s place as moderator. Squaring off against them were Freind, who is a columnist and a former executive director of the school choice advocacy group REACH Alliance, and State Rep. Curt Schroder (R-155) of Downingtown.

All are strong supporters of school choice. Watkins best summed his side’s position by comparing public schools to a burning building and saying if one couldn’t rescue all the children one should at least rescue the ones they can.

Freind in his rebuttal compared the matter to a sale of a house and said one should never start negotiations with the lowest offer one would accept.

Freind wants a voucher program that would cover far more than just families whose incomes are at or below 130 percent of the
federal poverty level — $28,665 for a family of four — as per SB1 after three years.

He, true to his word, would not say what would be the “lowest offer” he would accept despite some needling from Giordano.

Freind and several others noted that middle class families often find their children trapped in inadequate schools.

He said SB 1, as is, would  let the teacher unions maintain almost all their power.

One point of discussion involved  whether there were enough votes to pass a broad school choice bill. Freind insisted yes because the last school choice attempt failed by just a handful of votes with the GOP having just a one-vote majority in the House and the Black Philadelphia Democrats being in opposition. He noted that many of the Black Democrats are now supporters and the Republicans have a 12-vote House majority.

Giordano and Watkins both insisted that the votes were not there.

Schroder, the insider on the stage, would not guess as to how the votes would fall and said nobody has counted them.

Schroder made the biggest news of the day when he said SB 1 would likely be amended in the House to something more palatable to Freind’s faction. Both Watkins and Giordano expressed approval.

So much for contention.

Freind noted that IBEW 98 President John Dougherty, whose union endorsed SB 1 , told him he would be quite happy if the number of students who would eligible for vouchers were increased.

Several interesting points were made during audience feedback time. A homeschool mom pointed out that homeschoolers saved the state’s taxpayers $286 million last year and asked if assistance to homeschoolers could be part any House amendments to SB 1.

Schroder said he was amenable to that.

Lisa Esler of the Delaware County Patriots passionately pointed out that it was not just about test scores but saving children from being indoctrinated into values their parents believe to be wrong.

A woman who described herself as a former Philadelphia School District principal said she began a charter school after retirement whose students now show a 70 percent competency compared to 30 percent in the competing public schools.

Freind noted that school choice is not necessarily a panacea for non-public schools. He said many of the Catholic schools closing are not doing so because of demographics but simply because they are bad schools.

Freind made it clear that critics of the bill must shun the racist opponents of it, who he recognized existed.

The questioners for the debaters were Sharon Cherubin, executive director of Unite PA and Teri Adams, president of the Independence Hall Tea Party Association.


Electricians Union Backs School Choice Bill

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 has again showed its willingness to break ranks with the publicly funded leeches in the PSEA by endorsing a school choice bill.

Activist Bob Guzzardi is reporting that IBEW 98, which covers Philadelphia, has given its blessing to SB1 which was reported out of the State Senate Education Committee, Tuesday,  in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote.

The bill, if it should become law, would eventually allow the parents of any needy child in the state to take the state subsidy — about $9,000 — that would have gone to their home school district and apply to the public, private or parochial school of their choice.

Schools, even public ones, would not be required to accept voucher students or change traditional entry requirements.

IBEW 98 supported the school choice bill, Senate Bill 1405, in the last session.

Electricians Union Backs School Choice Bill

Electricians Union Backs School Choice Bill

Chris Freind’s View On SB 1


Chris Freind was the speaker at last night’s screening of The Cartel by The Delaware County Patriots . Chris is a strong supporter of school choice while at the same time being a harsh critic of SB 1 which is the pending school choice legislation in Pennsylvania.

He has given permission to run his column explaining his reasoning and it appears below.

My view is that you have to deal with the cards on the table and  the only thing on the table regarding choice is SB1, and since Daylin Leach and the PSEA are both against it, it is certainly far more good than bad.

Anyway, Chris’s column:

WHAT’S WRONG WITH PENNSYLVANIA’S SCHOOL CHOICE BILL?

Pretty much everything. Here’s how to fix it—and get it passed

The school choice bill in the Pennsylvania Senate is significantly flawed legislation which should never have been introduced. Rather than craft a new bill to reflect the positions of the current legislature and Governor—both far more receptive to comprehensive school choice than their predecessors—the prime sponsors didn’t do their homework and jumped the gun by dusting off outdated legislation. As a direct result, Senate Bill 1 is effectively dead-on-arrival.
Since SB 1 was introduced a mere week after the new legislature was sworn in, no preliminary vote count was conducted during those seven days. Therefore, statements that SB 1 is “the best we can hope for at this time” and “school choice can be expanded incrementally in the coming years” are fallacies based on the musings of out-of-touch ivory-tower proponents naively setting the bar artificially low. Incomprehensibly, they are throwing in the towel before the fight has even begun. [SIGNUPS]
Here are the facts that show why statewide school choice is needed, and suggestions on how to accomplish that goal:
1) Pennsylvania students are 42nd in SAT scores, and rank low in literacy, graduation rates and rates of students continuing to college. Their performance on the National Assessment of Education Progress exam has not improved. And most startling, nearly half of all 11th graders are not proficient in math and reading. This cannot be attributed to just the poor-performing urban schools pulling down scores, but is a testament to an across-the-board educational failure.
Advocating school choice for only low-income students results in the default perception that education is adequate everywhere else, which, based on the results of PSSA standardized test scores, is not remotely accurate. We cannot afford to waste another decade, forsaking our children—our future—because some choose to ignore the widespread failure occurring on a daily basis.
2) Pennsylvania spends $26 billion per year on education—more per student than 39 other states—an amount which has doubled since 1996. Despite a drop of 27,000 students over the last 10 years, the public school system had added 33,000 employees in that time. Therefore, by definition, increased funding, added personnel and decreased class size have not improved student achievement.
3) Teachers’ salaries and benefits rank among the highest in the nation, yet Pennsylvania leads the nation every year in school strikes—more than all other states combined.
4) The components in SB 1 were derived during a prior legislative session with a Democratic House and an anti-school choice governor (Rendell). But the current legislature has 13 more House Republicans than last session, giving the GOP a 10-seat majority. While education should never be partisan, it is no secret that Republicans are much more favorable to choice than Democrats. And Governor Corbett made school choice a cornerstone of his campaign. Combined with the pro-school choice positions of several Democrats, including Senator Anthony Williams, passage of comprehensive choice is eminently obtainable. (And if Williams and his colleagues won’t support statewide school choice, but only a program only for low-income families, their motivations will be questioned and their credibility severely undermined).
5) With a legislature approximately 80 percent different (and one clearly less open to choice), no votes from the Black Caucus, and only a one-seat House Republican majority, the statewide school choice effort in 1995 failed by a mere three votes. Given the night-and-day differences between then and now, it is indisputable that political will from Governor Corbett and legislative leaders could, should and would result in the nation’s most comprehensive and inclusive school choice program, one which will save taxpayer money.
6) The argument that school choice will take money away from the public schools is not just wrong, but irrelevant. The only thing we should EVER be concerned with is the children. Schools don’t get jobs and lead nations; people do. The funding should follow the child, not the system—a brilliant aspect of SB 1, where parents designate the school to which the state subsidy will be applied.
Following are the steps necessary to ensure that meaningful school choice is passed in Pennsylvania:
A) SB 1 must be rewritten and introduced as a new bill or a separate bill needs to be introduced in the House. Grassroots organizations cannot support flawed legislation with the hope or “promise” that it will be amended at a future date.
The bill must make school choice available to all students, regardless of family income. This type of comprehensive program is the only way to bring accountability and competition to all schools, public and non-public alike. Our dire situation demands no less.
C) The provision for public schools to “opt out,” as is permitted in SB 1, must be stricken. Opting out will result in the public school establishment’s “Good Old Boys” network to kick in, guaranteeing that the vast majority of schools won’t participate. If that occurs, school choice is meaningless.
D) The bill should contain strengthened language that no additional regulations may be imposed on non-public schools. Current government requirements are adequate and unobtrusive, such as core curriculum and length of school year. Vouchers or subsidies do not lead to additional regulation, as the highly successful post World War II GI Bill attests, but eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so such language will alleviate this issue.
E) While government should not impose tuition mandates on non-public schools, the possibility of inflated tuition costs at these schools is an area of concern. Language can be written that limits the subsidy (which cannot exceed tuition cost) to a maximum two percent increase per year, based on the tuition charged in the first year that school choice is enacted. This common sense solution would keep tuition inflation in check while keeping government out of private school decision-making.
F) Expanding the Educational Improvement Tax Credit is a positive step, as the program has seen positive results. But to be clear, the EITC is not school choice since parents do not control their tax dollars; the scholarships, which average $1000, are doled out by organizations and schools. Parental control is significantly limited, unlike a true statewide school choice program.
Like any controversial issue, the school choice debate lends itself to misinformation, half-truths and personal attacks. Pennsylvanians should not be hypnotized by the complexities of education reform,
but rather focus on what is indisputable: our government-run public school system is a monopoly with no incentive to change, and only competition can begin to reverse decades of educational failure.
Comprehensive school choice provides that free-market solution, and, when passed, will be a model for the nation. Failure to do so will destroy another generation’s chances for success.
UPDATE: The Archdiocese of Philadelphia just announced that it will be closing seven more schools, a trend that has been occurring for decades. Despite some disingenuous critics who label any choice program as a “bailout of the Catholic Schools,” it is no secret that non-public schools would significantly benefit from comprehensive school choice legislation. And the more non-public schools there are, the more competition there is.
These school closings — four of which are in Philadelphia –reinforce Freindly Fire’s earlier-stated position that Senate Bill 1’s effectiveness will be extremely limited, not just because it caters only to low income families, but for the simple reason that fewer and fewer schools remain as alternatives to the current monopolistic system.
And to repudiate yet another fallacious argument that school choice costs taxpayer money (when in fact it would save it), consider the following:
The seven schools had a cumulative projected enrollment of 857 students next year. Based on dwindling number of non-public schools, assume that half will attend public schools. At an average cost of $15,000 per student, per year to educate one student in the public schools, these 428 students will cost taxpayers an additional $6,427,500 per year. If each student has, on average, six years of grade school remaining, the cost rises to over $38 million.
And of course, that figure does not reflect inflation, nor the huge costs of hiring more teachers, funding additional pensions, building more classrooms, buying more textbooks, and increasing busing.
Pennsylvania can’t afford NOT to enact school choice.

Chris Freind is an independent columnist, television commentator, and investigative reporter who operates his own news bureau, www.FreindlyFireZone.com. Readers of his column, “Freindly Fire,” hail from six continents, thirty countries and all fifty states. His work has been referenced in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, foreign newspapers, and in Dick Morris’ recent bestseller “Catastrophe.” Freind, whose column appears regularly in Philadelphia Magazine and nationally in Newsmax, also serves as a frequent guest commentator on talk radio and state/national television, most notably on FOX Philadelphia. He can be reached at CF@FreindlyFireZone.com.

Education Expose Screened By Delco Patriots


The March 1 screening of The Cartel by the Delaware County (Pa) Patriots was followed by a question and answer session with Chris Freind on matters regarding school choice in Pennsylvania. This was especially relevant as S.B. 1 , the first significant school choice legislation to be considered in the state in 15 years, was  reported out of the Senate Education Committee that afternoon on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote.

The three-hour event held at the Marple Public Library started at 6:30 and drew a crowd of about 80.

The Cartel is a 2009 expose by Bob Bowdon of the plight of students in New Jersey public schools. It describes the corruption, incompetence and blinding greed of those charged with running them that would be inconceivable to those who attended them a generation ago. It also describes how school vouchers would help set things right.

Freind, now a popular columnist, helped lead the unsuccessful fight for vouchers in the 1990s. He is, however, a harsh critic of S.B. 1 , albeit he did end up defending aspects of it in the face of some hostile questions such as his belief that it would be ultimately found to be constitutional if it should become law; that the expansion of the state’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program provided by the bill would be of great benefit; and that S.B. 1 could  very well end up saving tax dollars.

Freind’s biggest objection is that S.B. 1 does not help enough children and that not pushing for a more comprehensive choice bill at this time would be a tragically lost opportunity.

And he’s right.

The point that must not be overlooked, however, is that S.B. 1, as of now, is the only girl at the dance and that regardless of its flaws the status quo would still be improved if it should pass.


SB 1 Clears Committee With Strong Bipartisan Vote


S.B.1, the proposed law that would give hope for thousands of children suffering in horrific schools, was reported out of the Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee this afternoon with only two dissenting votes — Democrats Jim Ferlo of the 38th District and Daylin Leach of the 17th District which includes Radnor and Haverford townships in Delaware County.

Those voting for it, however, included Democrats Andy Dinniman of the 19th District and Anthony Williams, whose 8th District includes 12 towns and boroughs in southeast Delaware County.

All Republicans voted for the bill.

A ray of light just got a little brighter for education in this state.

Hat tip Bob Guzzardi.