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The Kentucky Education Digest is a collection of ideas focused on five general themes:
We invite your input and feedback because we know that healthy debate is the mechanism that produces the ideas that ultimately work.
An ambitious federal school choice tax-credit bill is being sponsored by Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis.
Modeled after legislation in Arizona, Florida and Pennsylvania, the SCHOOL Act model would offer individual taxpayers a maximum $3,000 tax credit for donations to scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs). The federal proposal would allow corporations to receive a tax credit of up to 5 percent of their regular tax liability or $20,000, whichever is less.
The bill requires SGOs to be nonprofit groups, obtain approval of the Secretary of Education and devote a major portion of the funds they receive to school-choice scholarships for low-income children based on county demographics. For example, if 50 percent of a county’s children come from low-income homes, half of the available scholarships for that county must go to poor students.
Perhaps this federal legislation will give Kentucky’s parents the educational liberty that state lawmakers have failed to provide. During the 2006 Kentucky General Assembly, two tax-credit bills offering school choice to the commonwealth’s families were left to die in committee.
Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who cast the deciding vote for school-choice legislation while serving as a U.S. congressman, did not support the bills offered to help Kentucky’s families because, according to his staff, “no one called him about it.” Hopefully members of the current U.S. Congress can succeed where Fletcher and Frankfort’s lawmakers have failed Kentucky’s families.
School-choice tax credits will bring more accountability and competition to the educational marketplace by allowing parents to send their children to schools that will benefit them the most.
Sources:
“Federal Tax Credit Legislation Introduced” by Kate McGreevy, Heartland Institute, Apr. 1, 2006.
“Where is Gov. Fletcher when Kentucky parents need him the most?” by Joel Peyton, Bluegrass Institute, Mar. 29, 2006.
Editor’s note: Each month, the Kentucky Alliance for School Choice Digest features a look at school choice from a parent’s perspective. This month’s testimony is from Murray resident Sandy Morgan.
I encountered the fight of my life during the 2004-05 school year while trying to convince the Calloway County School District to continue an open-enrollment agreement that has for years allowed mine and many other children to attend the Murray Independent School District.
Since the victims of ending the open-enrollment policy were our children, I initially thought Calloway County school officials would consider our appeals and want parents to play an important role in finding a compromise. However, I soon learned that our kids are only pawns in a money struggle.
They had become “property” worth $3,240 of state Average Daily Attendance (ADA) funding – the amount given by the state to the Calloway County schools last year for each student enrolled in the district.
The county district simply considered parents’ opinions as being unworthy of discussion. We were ignored and pushed aside. I felt incredibly insulted. In one meeting, Calloway County Superintendent Steve Hoskins actually told us, “Your children belong to me.”
We petitioned Commissioner of Education Gene Wilhoit and the Kentucky Board of Education, but were incredibly disappointed when they did not even try to help us.
It turns out Hoskins is right. He owns our kids and has the legal right to take choice away from us simply because we live in his district’s zip code.
Through this battle, I have learned that parents have no legal rights in Kentucky with regard to school choice. And I was naive to think education officials would do what’s in the best interest of our children.
Kentucky law must change in order to protect our children from officials whose only concern is for the dollar value associated with per-pupil attendance. Our children are not a commodity! As parents, we must reclaim our right to choose the best schools for our kids.
Parents interested in contributing their story can e-mail it to jwaters@bipps.org.
Arizona has become the latest state to approve a scholarship tax credit. The Grand Canyon State’s new policy will allow combined business donations of up to $5 million per year to a school tuition organization (STO).
The Goldwater Institute sums up the benefit of the legislation nicely:
“More valuable than the fiscal savings is the plan’s promise to infuse the state education system with dynamic, competitive forces. When families have the ability to choose schools … educators respond by improving their services to attract and retain students. That process raises the quality of education in all schools – whether public, charter, or private – thereby improving educational opportunities for all students.”
Kentuckians could also reap similar benefits from similar legislation. Unfortunately, the political forces in Frankfort seem arrayed against any additional educational liberty beyond what meager amount parents across the commonwealth now enjoy. Such opposition to school choice in Kentucky was displayed during the 2006 General Assembly, as scholarship tax-credit bills proposed by a few courageous lawmakers in Frankfort languished in committee.
By keeping these bills from a vote by all lawmakers, legislative leaders ensure that Kentucky remains without school-choice legislation that provides an escape for children in failing schools.
No support for these bills was expressed by Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s office, even though past statements by the governor indicate he understands how critical school choice is, especially for minority students. In 2001, then-Rep. Ernie Fletcher told the House Committee on Education and the Workforce: “Leaving minority students in a failing school is unconscionable. We have a moral obligation to ensure that no child in Kentucky … is left behind at the onset of the 21st Century."
Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida are fulfilling their moral obligation with new tuition tax credits. Kentucky should do the same.
Sources:
“Education Scholarships: Expanding Opportunities for Students, Saving Taxpayers Money” by Darcy Olson, Goldwater Institute, Mar. 26, 2002.
“Fact sheet for S.B. 1499” State of Arizona Senate Research, Mar. 10, 2006.
“In Kentucky, Education Reform Panel Discuss H.R. 1, Ensuring Educational Opportunities for Minority Children” U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, May 1, 2001.
Many parents have contemplated home schooling their children but hesitate to pursue the venture because they don’t consider themselves qualified.
Some find the prospect of home schooling unthinkable because they don’t have a degree. Others consider teaching their children at home during the elementary years but do not feel confident teaching high-school courses.
Fortunately there are many options that lend support to parents who want to home school their children but doubt their ability to succeed. The fact that many companies cater specifically to home schoolers by providing resources previously available only to professionals indicates many parents are looking for such help.
A newcomer to home schooling might choose to use a correspondence school that offers textbooks and materials, tests and answer keys, an essay grading service and teachers who are on call to answer parents’ questions. Diplomas and transcripts are usually awarded to graduates of these schools.
Textbook manufacturers now offer prepackaged curriculums online and through catalogues that include textbooks, workbooks, lesson plans, tests and study guides. Usually parents can choose from core-curriculum packages or more extensive plans that have as many electives to choose from as any public high school.
Regardless of the curriculum used, many home-schooling families form associations or co-ops that provide expertise in various fields to home-schooled students and provide yet another layer of support for their parents. These choices instill confidence for beginning home-schooling parents and provide structure for those who desire more of a classroom-like framework.
Good curriculum and materials are available to give home-schooled children a quality education. Parents should realize that they are facilitators; children are the ones who do the observation and the learning.
The only qualification needed for parents to succeed at home schooling is the desire to help their children.
More information, curriculums and correspondence programs are available online at the following Web sites:
www.calvertschool.org/engine/content.do; www.thebackpack.com/homeschool_curriculum_packages.htm; www.oru.edu/university/departments/schools/edu/homeschool/index.html; www.setonhome.org/ and
Florence resident Stephanie Graham, a home-schooling parent, wrote this article.
Teachers unions constantly conjure up lies, myths and misconceptions about school choice.
Some members of these groups have been launching vicious verbal attacks against ABC News “20/20” co-anchor John Stossel, who reported on the antics of some teachers unions during his recent television special “Stupid in America.” The hard-hitting program also showed how a lack of competition and choice in the nation’s schools are holding children back.
In a recent column addressing the issues raised by opponents of educational liberty, Stossel notes that many enemies of choice disperse the flawed notion that competition will destroy, not help, public education. For instance, school-choice critics claim vouchers are unsound policies because the money will end up in private schools that are not properly monitored and have no accountability.
Such claims couldn’t be further from the truth. Vouchers, tax credits and charter schools actually result in more accountability in the education system.
Parents want to get a good return on their investment and thus will demand results from schools – public and private. Schools failing to meet the standards of parents will lose students or be forced to close down.
Competition in the form of school choice – especially when funding follows parents’ decisions – often brings to light schools’ true academic performance. Schools performing exceptionally well receive much-deserved attention; poor-performing ones sometimes close.
Teachers unions want to avoid accountability by promoting myths about school choice across the country. But they cannot refute this truth: Choice is proving to be an effective catalyst at bringing needed reform to America’s schools in many states. It’s only a matter of time before Kentucky families reap such benefits.
Sources:
“More teachers' union myths” by John Stossel, Townhall.com, Mar. 22, 2006.
“Providing school choices key to advancing state” by Gov. Mark Sanford, Bluegrass Institute, Nov. 29, 2005.
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