I"m so proud of my Sen Torres Ray for speaking out. She is an excellent Senator to have and unlike many MN GOP Senators, she holds regular town hall meetings.
I hope our DFL Gov vetos this bill.
There is an article by online MN Independent that explains what Sen Torres Ray was objecting to. As said in the article it is a bill that is similar in other states.
http://minnesotaindependent.com/79883/school-voucher-debate-riles-minnesota-senate( I just posted snips of the article)
School voucher debate riles Minnesota Senate
'That's taxpayer dollars specifically advancing religion,' says Sen. Latz
By Andy Birkey
On Tuesday, Minnesota Senators debated whether taxpayer funds should be used to pay for private religious school tuition as part of an omnibus tax bill. Republicans hope the proposal, which is modeled after one in Arizona and has been dubbed a “backdoor voucher” system by some, will pass constitutional muster. The U.S. Supreme Court released a decision on Arizona’s system on Monday that could boost state Republicans’ hopes, but DFLers say regardless of the measure’s constitutionality it represents the GOP’s ultimate goal of “dismantling” public education altogether.
Sen. Katie Sieben, DFL-Newport, introduced an amendment to the tax bill that would delete a program that allows large tax breaks for low-income families to be used for private school tuition.
“At a time that our school districts are cutting back, we need put our money into our public schools instead of putting taxpayer money into private and religious schools,” she said. (The GOP’s education budget cuts education funding in Minneapolis publich schools by $415 per student, while per-student funds would to decrease by $395 in St. Paul and $132 in Duluth.)
The program would cost $10.7 million in the next biennium. “We should be spending these precious taxpayer dollars on our public schools,” she added.
Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, said, “I would hope that you would give our poorer families an opportunity to climb out
and that you resist voting for the Sieben amendment.”
As Kruse noted, the Minnesota proposal is based on the Arizona system.
** It was Sen. Patricia Torres Ray, DFL-Minneapolis, who took the Republicans to the mat over education funding and the claims — like that of Sen. Kruse — that the tax credit program was to help low-income Minnesotans.
“What the majority members are telling us right now, that this is about low-income children, about minority children, I am just shocked to hear this,” she said. “I want to remind you that we cut all funding for the Indian Child Welfare Act, which is given to the lowest income Indian children in Minnesota.
We also canceled all of the funding for youth summer programs in the lowest income communities in Minnesota.
We cut compensatory funding for the three largest districts in the state of Minnesota where we have the highest concentration of poverty.
We also cut integration which allows predominately low income children to attend school outside Minneapolis and St. Paul districts.
We also cut all the funding for caregiver support that provides funding for grandparents of children who are placed in out of home placement.”
She continued, “All of this funding, members, was for poor children and you just cut this funding, so do not come to us today that you want to provide public funding for private schools to support low income children, children of color because that is just not true.”
Finally, she said, “What you are doing is taking public dollars to go to private schools because you want to dismantle public education. That’s what you want to do. Just don’t lie about it.”
The Senate then passed the omnibus tax bill with the private school tax credit attached, also along party lines.
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