Schooling tax credits pass first test

[kayell]

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/politics/8480058.htm

A key piece of Gov. Mark Sanford’s agenda, which would give parents tax credits to send their children to private schools, won its first round Tuesday.

After a four-hour public hearing, members of a House subcommittee voted 2-1 to send the bill to the full Ways and Means Committee.

snip

According to the more than 40 people who testified Tuesday, giving parents tax credits to send their children to private school either will wreck or repair the state’s struggling public schools.

The bill would allow low- and middle-income parents to receive up to $3,680 a year in tax credits to home school their children or send them to private schools.

more

[papau]

1. Pay $3,680 to get minority kids "homeschooled" so NCLB test does not

apply to them.

Bound to help the budget, help make State look better, pays off those "values fundies" so they will vote GOP - seems almost a win-win -

except for the problem of getting kids educated.

[SCDem]

2. This was posted in my local Dem forum - Milwaukee vouchers

We need to call our republican legislators and ask them to vote against
vouchers.

With the South Carolina General Assembly considering a voucher proposal
for the umpteenth time, I thought the cautionary tale from Milwaukee
might be appropriate:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/04/05/voucher.crossroads.ap

Associated Press
April 5, 2004
Scandal rocks Milwaukee school voucher program

<<<MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- One school that received millions of
dollars through the nation's oldest and largest voucher program was
founded by a convicted rapist. Another school reportedly entertained
kids with Monopoly while cashing $330,000 in tuition checks for hundreds
of no-show students.>>>

<<<The troubles have helped lead to passage of a state law requiring
voucher schools to report more financial information to the state.
Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle signed it last month.

But so far, efforts to impose more rigorous academic standards on
voucher schools have failed.

Milwaukee's 14-year-old voucher program has served as a model for others
around the country.>>>

<<<The schools are required to report virtually nothing about their methods
to the state, or to track their students' performance. Proponents say
that frees the schools from onerous bureaucracy. But some say the lack
of oversight makes them a prime target for abuse.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[Moderator]

3. SCDem

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.

DU Moderator

[Corgigal]

4. So sad

like the public schools in this state pay enough to educate children now. This is going to hurt the special education kids and the poor. Of course, Sanford never gave a damn about any of them to begin with.