100 private voucher schools suspended (Florida)

[Judi Lynn]

Wednesday, December 17
100 private voucher schools suspended


By Kimberly Miller, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 17, 2003



FORT LAUDERDALE -- One hundred private schools that take taxpayer funded vouchers were put on probation Tuesday after missing a deadline to comply with state laws.

Florida's Voucher Programs
Continuing coverage
from The Palm Beach Post
The schools, which serve about 1,700 students who take corporate tax credit vouchers and McKay vouchers for disabled students, had until Monday to complete "corrective action plans" and fix whatever legal problems they had.

The plans were developed after the state Department of Education made all private schools taking vouchers fill out a form showing whether they were breaking state laws. It became a requirement following several high-profile problems with schools taking state vouchers.

Education Commissioner Jim Horne had already told 21 private schools they no longer could take vouchers after they "snubbed" the state's demands.

Tuesday, Horne said an additional 100 schools had been "cut off."
(snip/...)

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_f3fd0ec9006932260099.html

[arcane1]

1. good

I don't need my hard-earned tax money being used to teach people about Jesus

or Buddha, Allah, Jehova, or Osiris, either

[GainesT1958]

2. I guess now that they've "allowed" them...

They're trying to save money by stopping them from actually being used...

Sounds like Jeb Boy's been taking pages out of Dub's "No Funding for No Child Left Behind" program!:eyes:

B-)

[LizW]

3. Oh, you gotta love this

The corporate vouchers are structured so that a corporation gives a scholarship to a student to attend private or religious school. Then the state gives a direct, dollar for dollar tax rebate to the corporation for the amount of the voucher. That money comes out of the state's general fund which pays for, you guessed it, public education. The kicker is, because the corporation writes the checks to the schools, the state does not have the authority to suspend schools that don't comply with the rules, even if that non-compliance includes private schools taking and cashing voucher checks for kids who are really enrolled in public school!

A recipe for fraud.

[madfloridian]

6. And no one in the public schools may know who the kids are.

And the public schools can not see test scores from the FCAT unless they changed it. What a mess.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. MadFloridian, have you heard

of a follow-up testing on those kids who went to private school with a voucher? Someone I just talked to said that their grades are worse in private school, than they were when they went to public school. I wasn't aware they were already testing them.

[arcane1]

11. isn't that the whole point of the voucher scam?

to use tax money to brainwash kids to vote Repube, and be too stupid to know any better?

[madfloridian]

14. As far as I understand, no one is allowed to know the scores.

I thought they were not being tested, but someone said they were...maybe.

I know in our county public school money goes to 7 private religious schools to tutor unknown children.

[LiberalFighter]

16. How can that be?

They are receiving taxpayer money to run the schools. Their operation should be audited just as any agency that is government funded.

[madfloridian]

18. I agree.

The whole thing is really shameful.

[GregW]

4. 100 schools -- only 1700 students?

What is this, little house on the prairie?

[Robb]

25. LOL! n/t

[Malva Zebrina]

5. a harbinger of things to come

under Bush who disrespects the separation of church and state because some guy named Jefferson was a deist and was responsible for forming policy in post revolution America that said that religion and the state are separate and should not be mixed.

Everybody knows that this nation was meant to be a Christian nation, and, IS a Christian Nation -- LOL what trite and what garbage comes out of the mouths of Christians bent upon forcing people to think within their little "Jesus" box, complete with bracelets and ribbons and little kitten adoptions that are only legitimate if a Christian family adopts it.

Ugh--and the harbinger is that slowly but surely, the Bush conservatives are making headway into taking tax payer money for their own personal, if dubious, religious beliefs-they have seen the promised land, and it is a land that they make a lot of money on by using and playing the "born again" religious card, ad nauseum--sad part is that a good deal of people are so stupid that they actually believe Bush defines thier religion for them-it is present when Bush uses their tax payer money for his campaign luncheons that cost $2000 or more a plate. It is present when a slimy brother approves of special "dorms" in prisons for Christian converts, and it is present when Bush decides that women's bodies are his to jerk around and legislate against. Now it is present when tax payers are paying for the religious education of kids whose parent do not want to pay for it themselves, and who are outragedthat they have to pay twice -- once for the lowely who use the public school system, and one for the elitism of thier own children's "private" school.

I think the message is clear. Without oversight, these things will tend to get away with as much as they can and use tax payer money to do so. Oversight is necessary--and then, folks, all folks, religious folks, you will have the government telling you what you and your religion can do, teach or not do and not teach.

Congratulations=religious schools wanted the money-they got it--used it and now do not want the tax payers or the government to tell them waht to do. Uh uh--not over my dead body will I pay for religious teachings--

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Accountability is the Republican's Achille's heel.

Har, har. Make no mistake, if it weren't for the pressure coming primarily from the Palm Beach Post regarding school vouchers, this deadline would have come and gone with n'ar a second thought.

[napi21]

9. Accountability?

Yeah, I don't think this administration understands what that word means! I hope ALL newspapers, TV News orgs., and Cable news networks take the same road as The Palm Beach Post.

If that happens, a Dem won't have any problem winning in November!

[CarlWoodward]

10. Palm Beach Post

I lived for a while in West Palm Beach, and I must say the Palm Beach Post is an excellent newspaper, and probably the only major daily in Florida that isn't afraid to take on Jebby boy. Not surprisingly, a local right-wing talk radio moron in Palm Beach County rants against the paper on his show every day, calling it the "Palm Beach Pukebag."

[Dudley_DUright]

15. The St. Pete Times is another pretty good paper that

sticks it to Jeb on occassion.

http://www.sptimes.com/

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. Agreed. Both newspapers are tops in Florida

when it comes to journalistic integrity.

[tlcandie]

12. No child left behind? Hello ....

So I want to know what happens to these children? Do they just get tossed..err I mean lost...between the cracks? What nightmare ordeal with they and their families have to go through in order for them to even THINK about graduating on time?

Chaos.. everywhere chaos.. black hole growing bigger...

[0007]

13. Who, I tell'ya would believe this?

" the state's three voucher programs, which now are undergoing five investigations -- some criminal."

Seeing how Texas didn't leave any child behind in the school, Jebb was determined to out do his brother, junior.

I love it!

[Rose Siding]

17. Well this reporter won't have a seat at Jeb's news conferences!

Jeb is as vindictive and small minded as his brother.

[The Zanti Regent]

19. Damn, there went my BFEE moneymaking opportunity!

Hmm, just planning to start one of them Voucher schools, drain the kids away from the gawdless Secular Human schools and then run off with the cash in the name of Jesus.

Guess I'm gonna have to go get a job with Halliburton now...

[FlaGranny]

20. My grandson

is going to a state-funded private school. I guess it could be called a magnet school. They don't teach religion and it seems to be on an ordinary first come, first served basis. They take applications until they are full. The only thing is that you have to find a way to get your kids to school - no school busses. Uniforms are worn. His parents haven't had any problems with the school and my grandson likes it and is on the honor roll. It is fully integrated too. I guess private schools like this CAN work, but must keep vigilant to make sure they are measuring up. I'll have to ask the name of it - I've forgotten.

The school does NOT take vouchers - just sign your kids up and if there is room, they get in.

P.S. The younger grandchild will start the same school next fall.

[DoYouEverWonder]

21. Sounds like he is in a charter school

Which is not a state funded private school. It is a state funded public school. I live in Alachua County where the charter school program has been very popular and successful. However, I do not believe you can get a charter to start a religous school and the charter schools for the most part follow the same rules and regulations that the public schools follow. Most of them even administer the FCAT. Please don't confuse the charter school program with the voucher program, they are two completely different things.

[LiberalFighter]

23. We have magnet schools here in Ft Wayne IN

But they are all public schools. And they still get bussed and no uniforms.

They just took the schools and created more specific courses. The one near here is more computer and technology oriented.

Fort Wayne Community Schools Website Click on School Choices for Info

[bushisanidiot]

24. My Taxpayer $$ Should Not Be Funding School Taught Religion

what a scam!!

I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!!!